To All:
Got the attached photo from my friends in the UK. I have found this information on "Daddy Rabbit":
P-47D-28RA 42-29262 Daddy RABBIT. This machine was flown by Captain Neil D. Stanley of 391st Fighter Squadron, 366th Fighter Group 9th Air Force in the European Theatre of Operations during the closing chapters of WWII. Looking at the mission markings, I can come up with this listing:
2 – air combat kills
20 – A/C destroyed strafing
4 – tanks destroyed
5 – locomotives destroyed
8 – fighter sweeps
50 – bombing missions
What I cannot figure out are the "missions" indicated by the top hats and rabbits. Does any one know what these symbols were used for on a P-47?
Regards to all.
Just a wag, rabbit is a recon mission/bomb damage assessment. A quick look, no chasing fighters or targets of opportunity.
The top hat is bomber escort, flying top cover.
Nice picture, nice scoreboard. I'm with Ryan on the tophats: Those are probably top-cover missions, either for bombers or for fellow fighter-bombers. I can't say I'm familiar with the rabbits, though. Maybe Ryan's right on that one, too. Or perhaps, given the spirit of the nose art and the nickname, the rabbits represent personal victories of another sort: Unofficial personal score, if you will. Just a thought. Or maybe he hunts rabbits.
I'll look into it a little more.
Lee G.