The Checkertail Clan

There was no mistaking the 325th Fighter Group. Their reputation preceded them, the brightly colored checkerboard tails of their P-51 Mustangs signaling a calling card most Luftwaffe pilots hated to see. By May 1944, based in Italy, the 325th were escorting the heavy bombing missions deep into Rumania, France, Germany and Austria.

Escorting B-24s to bomb the airfield at Markersdorf in Austria, August 1944, the 325th tangled with a group of Fw190 fighters, the scene of Nicolas Trudgian's painting. The ensuing dogfight spiraled down below the mountain peaks as Herky Green led the Checkertails in a high-speed, low-level chase through a spectacular Austrian Mountain pass.

Herky nails one Fw190. Behind him his P-51 pilots will take out the two Fw190s off his starboard wing. When all is done this day the 325th will be credited with 15 enemy fighters destroyed.

Each print individually signed by:

Major Robert M. Barkey

Colonel Arthur C. Fielder

Colonel Herschel Green
Commissioned in 1942, 'Herky' Green joined the 57th Fighter Group, but soon transferred to the 79th Fighter Group, and finally the colorful 325th Fighter Group - the 'Checkertails', where he scored his first victory on 19 May 1943 flying a P51 Mustang. On 25 March 1944 he took command of the squadron, and led them until the end of his tour, scoring the last of his 18 victories over an Fw190, on 23 August.