O.K Burl,

Here's what I have for you.

You can find this aircraft in "Strangers in a Strange Land" by Squadron/Signal publications, ISBN 0-89747-198-9. In fact it is featured in three different schemes on the back cover. The basic story starts on page 22

The aircraft was flown by Second Lt. William E. Roach, of the 355th fighter group, based out of Steeple Morden. On 7 November 1943 he participated in his third mission. This was a B-17 escort mission to Wesel and Duren. Essentially, the group was supposed to be relieved by the 353rd at Marche. However the 353rd was delayed due to headwinds, and was not in the area. Col. Cummings, elected to keep the 355th with the bombers, rather than leave them on their own. On returning to England, the group began to run out of fuel, and began going down. Lt. Jack Woertz was the only one to make it back to England. He attempted an emergency landing at Hastings, but his engine died just short of the runway. He was able to walk away from the crash, only to be killed in a crash a few weeks later.

Lt. Roach was the capper to the lost planes. He believed he was over England (don't ask me, I have no idea!). Having witnessed his group leader, and others, go down, he elected to perform and emergency landing (again, in what he thought was England). He spotted a field and went in. After touchdown, a "follow me" vehicle escorted him to a parking area. He proceeded to shutdown the engine, and get out of the plane. This is when he noticed the unusual uniforms (german) and drawn guns. He had landed in Caen, France and given the Germans an intact and undamaged fighter (doh!)

Lt. Roach was taken POW, spending the rest of the war at Stalag Luft I in Barth. (Capt. Kossack, who had led yellow flight on Nov 7,was there also). The aircraft went to Rechlin for testing. In 1944 it appeared in a propaganda film in U.S. markings.

The original lettering was YFU and was retaind by the germans. Its original tail number was 222490, which was painted over. The cowl ring was originally a thinner white band. The germans painted it red when they put the german markins on it. When it was repainted in American markings for the propaganda film, the original white band was painted back on, so there was a thin white band followed by a red band. The colors appear to be the later OD (green OD as opposed to the earlier brownish OD) with grey underside. On the port side, towards the front of the cockpit, it was named AGNES in yellow, and below that was the pilots name and crew chiefs name. These markings appear to have been left by the germans through all paintings, as was the nose art.

The particular colors in your drawing, don't correspond to any of the plates I can find, but that doesn't mean it is not one of the variants the germans had on it. It is consistent with several other aircraft color schemes used at Rechlin.

There is an overview, there is better detail in the book.

Hope this helps.