Fairey Firefly Mk I, FAA Squadron 1771, DK-438, No. 277 “Lucy Quipment,” HMS Implacable, Off Japan July 1945

In July 1945, the Fireflies of 1771 Sqdn., based on HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet, became the first Fleet Air Arm aircraft to fly over mainland Japan. The Fireflies rocketed airfields at Matsushima, Sendai, Masuda and Tokyo over a two day period and sought targets of opportunity along the coast. Afterwards they were decorated with a yellow map of Japan on the starboard fuselage near the pilot's cockpit. (See below Squadron personnel photo center left).

No. 277 with rockets

Bell P-63A-10 “Kingcobra,” Unknown Unit, Summer-Autumn, Siberia, 1945

Beginning in September 1944 the USA delivered 2421 lend-lease Bell P-63 Kingcobras (out of a total of 3,362) to the USSR. The aircraft, both P-63A and P-63C models, were flown across the Alaska-Siberian ferry route from Buffalo, NY to Russia; 2400 actually arrived.

USSR bound P-63As at the Bell Aircraft Factory in Buffalo, NY 1944



P-63As en route with a lend lease B-25 doing the navigating

Only a handful of P-63s joined VVS regiments in the West for the final assault on Nazi Germany; six were assigned to the 67th GIAP (Guards Fighter Regiment) in March 1945 and took part in the Battle of Berlin.

P-63Cs assigned to the 821st IAP (Fighter Aircraft Regiment),
which took part in the final battles against Nazi Germany in 1945

Many more P-63s went to the Far East in the buildup for "Operation August Storm," the brief Soviet war against Japan in August 1945. The 12th Air Army of the Transbaikal Front had four P-63A equipped fighter regiments, the 17th, 781st, 821st, and 940th, which participated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. P-63 equipped units also took part in the Soviet occupation of Japan’s Kurile Islands.

"No. 42," the P-63A-10 that is the aircraft modeled, is one of these, from an unknown unit photographed in Siberia in the summer/autumn of 1945.







The sole aerial kill credited to a P-63 occurred on August 15, 1945, the last day of WWII. The 17th IAP was operating out of Mongolia, and two of its pilots, Capt. Viacheslav Sirotin, (left) a Hero of the Soviet Union and 21-victory ace, and his wingman, Jr. Lt. Miroshnichenko, caught two Japanese fighters, either Ki-27 Nates or Ki-43 Oscars, and shot one down. It is unclear who was credited with the kill.

Dewoitine D.520, No. 277, A/C No. 6, GC III/6, Le Luc, France, June 1940

Pierre Le Gloan (second from left below) was the fourth highest scoring French ace of WWII (18 victories). He won fame by downing five aircraft in one sortie -- four Italian CR.42 biplane fighters and a Breda BR.20 bomber -- on June 15, 1940 during the the Battle of France.

Le Gloan's No. 277 with other D.520s of GC III/6, probably taken at the unit's home aerodrome at Lu Luc, France, shortly after the Armistice with Germany in late June 1940.

No. 277 with Le Gloan in the cockpit, on a post-Armistice June 1940 flight from Le Luc with full "armistice livery," i.e. white border to fuselage roundel and white fuselage arrow.



Le Gloan's later combat history was problematic. Flying for Vichy France, he also shot down six RAF Hurricanes and one Gloster Gladiator over Syria during heavy air combat in May-July 1941 between the Vichy French and the Allies.

No. 277 in the markings it carried during the fighting with the RAF and Free French Air Force over Syria in May-June 1941. No. 277 was written off in a crash-landing following one of these combats. Le Gloan is pictured, below right, with the wreck of No. 277.


Le Gloan switched sides again when his unit, GC III/6 joined the Free French Air Force and became GC 3/6 Roussillon in May 1943, at which time they converted to Bell P-39 Airacobras.

Pierre Le Gloan's life ended spectacularly on September 11, 1943, when he attempted to belly land a P-39 with a dead engine on the North African Coast near Algiers. Not realizing that his Airacobra still had its belly tank, he touched down with it attached. The fuel in the tank exploded and the entire aircraft blew up, killing him instantly. Le Gloan was 30 years old when he died.