As the result of correspondence between two armourers of No. 4 Servicing Unit at Ondonga, on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, and a pen-friend who was a tuberculosis patient at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand named Gloria Lyons, it was decided to adopt her as a unit mascot.  At that time 4 (SU) aircraft carried code letters, so one P-40N-1, NZ3148 coded 'G', was duly christened 'Gloria Lyons', and this name was painted on the lower engine cowls.

 

Gloria1 (0006) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

Gloria1 (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

Gloria1 (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

After this aircraft was written off due to a crash landing on February 9th, 1944, another candidate was found in NZ3167 ( This a/c has often been listed as having been NZ3188), a P-40N-5 that was also sign written with the name. 
This aircraft was also to be written off (two weeks later) after being hit by enemy ground fire while on a strafing mission to northern Bougainville on May 17th, 1944.  The pilot, F.O. Charlie Woods, who co-incidentally was involved in the loss of the first 'Gloria Lyons', was forced to bail out into the sea.

A third P-40 (an N-20), NZ3220, was selected as the next candidate, and was duly marked. The cumulative scores and missions of the three 'Gloria Lyons' P-40s were painted on the fuselage of NZ3220. These were 55 Yellow bomb symbols representing strike missions, and two and a half Japanese flags representing victories over enemy aircraft. 

Gloria 3 (0003) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

Gloria 3 (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

Gloria 3 (0002) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

When it returned to New Zealand in late 1944, it was repainted in the Foliage Green/(NZ) Sky Gray scheme, but the markings were retained. Somehow it escaped being scrapped and was sold to John Smith, a collector, who stored on his farm in Mapua. After his death last year, it was discovered as a barn find, together with a Tiger Moth,  P-51, a Mosquito and another P-40. She is currently undergoing restoration.

As a footnote, the fourth and last 'Gloria Lyons' was an F4U-1A, NZ5233, which was written off after a landing accident at Torokina on June 15th, 1944.

Edited December 17, 20223 yr by jankees

One paint, four planes and a lot of carefully-researched history. Great post!

Two paints actually...

Amazing what stories you are able to dig up, Jan !!

4 hours ago, bernd1151 said:

Amazing what stories you are able to dig up, Jan !!

That's part of the fun for me, finding the stories worth telling with a repaint.

Turns out there was a fourth Gloria Lyons, a F4U Corsair, NZ5233. No pictures exist of this aircraft as far as I know, so I improvised::

F4U Gloria (0006) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

F4U Gloria (0004) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

F4U Gloria (0002) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

 

 

Wonderful pictures, Jan, do recall reading about 3 Gloria Lyons, but never knew about the 4th....great bit of detective work and an interesting finding...!!