North American “Mustang III”

North American “Mustang III” Royal Air Force Spring 1944

North American Aircraft Company designers assembled the prototype of the Mustang, the NA-73, in a four-month period in 1940, but it wasn’t until the aircraft was fitted with the excellent Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that it became arguably the best fighter aircraft of the Second World War. The B Model P-51 was know as the Mustang III in British service, and is shown here in the markings of RAF’s 315 Squadron, an all-Polish unit also known as the ‘City of Lublin’ Squadron.