page_title: USAAF unit identification aircraft markings
section_title: Other air forces in the Pacific
hierarchical_section_title: USAAF unit identification aircraft markings / Other air forces in the Pacific
caption_attribution_description: English: Emblem of the USAAF 90th Bombardment Group
context_page_description: USAAF unit identification aircraft markings, commonly called "tail markings" after their most frequent location, were numbers, letters, geometric symbols, and colors painted onto the tails, wings, or fuselages of the aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. The purpose of these markings was as call signs in the RAF radio procedures used in the UK and to provide a visual means identify in conjunction with the call procedures, and later assembly and combat visual identification of units and aircraft. to denote a squadron and a third single letter was known as the Radio Call Letter to identify the aircraft within the squadron, used phonetically in radio calls. Other areas continued to use only the RCN or simple numbering and lettering.
  As the buildup of troops continued in the Europe, Africa, Middle East Campaign, the USSTAF bomber formations grew and assembly necessitated better visual unit identification at greater distance.
  To facilitate control among thousands of bombers, the USAAF devised a system of aircraft tail markings in 1943 to identify groups and wings.
context_section_description: Tail markings were used on all combat types: bombers, fighters, even some combat cargo and air commando observation planes. The level of command establishing markings was often at lower echelons yet patterns existed and repetitions avoided. 
  The four heavy bomber groups of the Fifth Air Force employed three different methods. The original two groups, the 43d and 90th Bombardment Groups, bore the red-white-and-blue-striped rudder markings of the pre-war Air Corps, but the other two groups, appearing later, did not. The 43d and 90th were differentiated from each other by their squadron markings; the 43d placed large squadron insignia on the fins, while the 90th painted the tail fins in squadron colors and superimposed a 72-inch Jolly Roger symbol, emblematic of the group's nickname, on the painted fin. The 380th Bombardment Group painted one quarter of its tail fins black for identification, with each squadron having a different quadrant. The 22d Bombardment Group, which converted from B-25 medium bombers in 1944, placed a 40-inch-wide (1,000 mm) rectangle horizontally bisecting the tail fin, with each squadron having a different color.
  All three groups of the Seventh Air Force used black symbols or stripes in various configurations, without any pattern. Identification of groups could be made only by memorization of symbols assigned to squadrons and knowledge of to what groups those squadrons were assigned.
  The two groups of the Thirteenth Air Force used completely different methods. The 5th Bombardment Group used the same black geometric symbols as the Twentieth Air Force, a different symbol for each squadron, placed in the upper third of the tail fin. The 307th Bombardment Group created a group symbol, a large blue circle containing a stylized "LR" (for "Long Rangers", the group nickname) in gold, and placed it on all their aircraft tails. The upper tips of the fins were painted different colors to identify its squadrons.
  The two air forces in Asia, the Tenth Air Force and Fourteenth Air Force, each had only a single bomb group. The Tenth's 7th Bombardment Group used a checkerboard pattern in either black-and-white or black-and-yellow on the rudder or part of the tail fin to identify its squadrons. The 308th Bombardment Group of the Fourteenth Air Force used colored or striped rudders.
  The Air Commando Groups used punctuation marks (!,?) In the CBI  while in the FEAF the patterns were consistent with the Fifth Air Force style.
  Fighter groups, especially of the VII FC,  used colored tails with geometric patterns.  Others used colored nose and tail combinations.
caption: The 90th Bomb Group's "Jolly Roger"-inspired unit insignia
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