page_title: Invasion stripes
section_title: Hawker Typhoon
hierarchical_section_title: Invasion stripes / Hawker Typhoon
caption_attribution_description: A Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB (EK183, "US-A") of No. 56 Squadron RAF at RAF Matlaske, Norfolk (UK), on 21 April 1943. This aircraft was flown by Squadron Leader T.H.V Pheloung (Oamaru, New Zealand).
context_page_description: Invasion stripes were alternating black and white bands painted on the fuselages and wings of Allied aircraft during World War II to reduce the chance that they would be attacked by friendly forces during and after the Normandy Landings. Three white and two black bands were wrapped around the rear of a fuselage just in front of the empennage and from front to back around the upper and lower wing surfaces.
  After a study concluded that the thousands of aircraft involved in the invasion would saturate and break down the IFF system, the marking scheme was approved on May 17, 1944, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, commanding the Allied Expeditionary Air Force. A small-scale test exercise was flown over the OVERLORD invasion fleet on June 1, to familiarise the ships' crews with the markings, but for security reasons, orders to paint the stripes were not issued to the troop carrier units until June 3 and to the fighter and bomber units until June 4.
  Stripes were applied to fighters, photo-reconnaissance aircraft, troop carriers, twin-engined medium and light bombers, and some special duty aircraft. They were not painted on four-engined heavy bombers of the U.S.
context_section_description: An earlier use of black and white bands was on the Hawker Typhoon and early production Hawker Tempest Mark Vs. The aircraft had a similar outline when seen from above and below to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and the bands were added to aid identification in combat. The order was promulgated on 5 December 1942. At first they were applied by unit ground crews, but they were soon being painted on at the factory. Four 12-inch-wide (300 mm) black stripes separated by three 24-inch (610 mm) white, underwing from the wingroots. From early 1943 the Typhoons also had a yellow, 18-inch-wide (460 mm) stripe on each of the upper wings, centred on the inner cannon. All of these markings were officially abandoned 7 February 1944.
caption: A Hawker Typhoon of No. 56 Squadron RAF, painted with recognition stripes under the wings (April 1943)
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