P-51D Mustang 1st Lt. William G Ebersole 462nd FS 506th FG 7th AF 1945 Hobby Master HA7744b 1:48

P-51D Mustang 1st Lt. William G Ebersole 462nd FS 506th FG 7th AF 1945 Hobby Master HA7744b 1:48 Highly detailed Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series (No signature model) Hobby Master item: HA7744b 1:48 Scale model Later in WWII the Allied bombers were flying deep into Germany but suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of range the fighter escorts had. German fighters would wait beyond the range of the Allied fighters and then attack the vulnerable bombers. Once the P-51, called Mustang by the British, had the Allison engine replaced with a British Merlin it possessed the high performance that had been lacking. With drop tanks the P-51 had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back. In the summer of 1945 P-51D Mustang 44-72587 number 619 was assigned to the 462nd FS/ 506th FG stationed at Airfield 3 on Iwo Jima. The aircraft was shared by 1st Lt. William G. Ebersole and 2nd Lt. James R. Bercaw. Ebersole was the youngest member of the 462nd FS and flew twelve missions with ten of them being VLR missions. Lt. Ebersole was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Rumor has it P-51 “Hon Mistake” received the name after shooting up an outhouse while a Japanese soldier was using the facility. Specifications for the North American Aviation P-51D MustangThe main difference between the D variant and the K variant was the use of the Aeroproducts propeller on the K instead of the Hamilton Standard propeller that was unavailable around the time of these P-51s being produced. However some K’s will be seen with Hamilton Standard because of field changes.