Make of this wing in WWII picture?

[stratasfan]

Hi! Am hoping for some opinions on the make of the wing that this Sgt. is wearing. He was the gunner/asst. radio op. on Lady Be Good. I am assuming it is an Air Crew wing.

 

[5thwingmarty]

An aircrew wing would make more sense, but it looks like a navigator wing to me. I know some early bombardiers were only rnade Sergeants on graduation, so it is possible that some early navigators were also only Sergeants.

[stratasfan]

Maybe, but he was flying as gunner/asst. radio. Do you think the wing is Juarez style?

[pfrost]

I was thinking it could be a Juarez wing. But then again, maybe not. Its hard to know for sure.

[5thwingmarty]

I would say definitely NOT a Juarez. The feathers on a Juarez extend under the center device with just a slight gap between the bottom feathers. In this wing the feathers stop quite a ways from the bottom center. I would lean more towards something like a Gaunt wing with how tight to the center device the upper shoulders come, the subtle point at the upper edge of the shoulder feathers in the center of each wing, the pointed and slightly upswept wing tips, and the pronounced bottom edge of the shoulder feathers where they "overlap" the bottom/outer wing feathers. When doesn't look like a Gaunt wing is the bottom edge of the outer feathers that look to me to almost run horizontally for a distance.

 

The bottom edge of the wing looks to me a lot like that on a Smilo wing, but Smilo wings don't look to have as pointed wing tips or as tight a gap between the shoulders and center device.

[COOKIEMAN]

Guess I will weigh in. I'm thinking it is the wing in the attached picture. Wing has a flat back, "C" catch and marked "GEMSCO N.Y.".

 

The center emblem, in this case for Air Crew, is applied to the wing.

 

I know, the picture is not the best. Just threw it on the scanner, and this is what you get. Hope this helps.

[stratasfan]

The straight ends of the feathers looked like Juarez to me, but the center part didn't as much. I'm not familiar with Smilo or Guant enough off the top of my head, so I am off to find some pics! This picture really got me interested!

[5thwingmarty]

As always I recommend Bob's ww2wings.com website for wing comparisons.

 

I swear all the other times I looked at the original photo I saw very pointed wing tips, and now looking at it after Cookieman's post I see the blunt edges like the wing he posted.