Why This Kill Marking Is Extremely Rare

Are you familiar with the various markings on combat aircraft of WWII? In this post, we’ll walk you through the different types of victory markings including some of the rarest seen on Allied aircraft.

Bomber Tally

Let’s start with the bombers and the most basic type of marking- the bomb tally. These are generally added to the sides of heavy and medium bombers for successful missions. A bomb was typically recognizable, carrying the same meaning. However, some additional symbols can be seen added to a bomb tally. The most prominent example is a star.

Sometimes, this would be added to a bomb or above it. This meant that the aircraft completed the bombing mission as a lead ship for that mission. Likewise, another variation that can be rarely seen is putting the name of the city inside the bomb itself. Lastly, for the bomb, a heart represents a crew member wounded in action.

One more interesting bombing raid symbol that could be added is an ice cream cone which was exclusively done by the Royal Air Force bombers. This meant a mission to Italy, since ice cream, or gelato, was instantly associated with the Italians.

Unorthodox markings were also used for atypical missions. First, there are cargo or troop drops, which are commonly found on transport planes like the C-47. Another symbol one might find in a bomber or transport could be a duck, which represents a decoy mission.

Next is a symbol that’s commonly found on dive or torpedo bombers—the enemy ship. This could be either sinking or floating and represented a claim of a ship destroyed. In reality, this is one of the most difficult tallies to claim.

Fighter Tallys

The most basic symbols that we see on fighter aircraft are air-to-air kills, commonly denoted by flags. While they had different variations among fighter groups, they all meant the same thing, the destruction of an enemy aircraft. Sometimes, this could be a cross, a swastika, a full flag (or even a half-flag for a half-kill.) However, there are more rarer variations such as red crosses for ground kills and white ones for air-to-air victories.

Other variations can also be seen with a few pilots simply painting a silhouette for an aircraft destroyed with a single engine for fighters or a double engine for bombers.

It’s also worth noting that the Navy and Marines generally didn’t allow painting of their aircraft, especially for nose art. However, there were exceptions to the rule- the most common was kill tallies, especially for Navy and Marine fighter aces.

Fighter Ground Scores

Usually, tallies for fighter ground score were difficult to give individual credit for and harder to confirm. Nonetheless, some units, most likely low-level support groups did paint them with some even distinguishing between tanks, cars, locomotives, or even flat cars.

Another rare symbol found on a fighter or even a dive bomber would be a bridge, but individual crediting is a bit difficult to establish.

Mission Identifiers

These symbols are used exclusively by American fighters specifically those in Europe. While their meanings are fairly unknown, these are quite common. For instance, a broom was a symbol painted on fighters as a representation of a successful fighter sweep mission.

Another symbol is an umbrella, which was used for top cover missions where fighters would fly above other fighter flights below while they attacked targets. A bomb would also be added underneath the umbrella if the top cover was flown for a bombing raid. This shouldn’t be confused with an escort mission which had a symbol of a top hat with a cane and could be seen with several American fighters.