Hobby Master 1/48 HA7741 P-51K Mustang "Nooky Booky IV" 44-11622 flown by Major Leonard "Kit" Carson 362nd FS 357th FG 1945

Later in WWII the Allied bombers were flying deep into Germany but suffered tremendous losses because of the lack of range the fighter escorts had. German fighters would wait beyond the range of the Allied fighters and then attack the vulnerable bombers. Once the P-51, called Mustang by the British, had the Allison engine replaced with a British Merlin it possessed the high performance that had been lacking. With drop tanks the P-51 had the range to escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back.

Leonard “Kit” Carson was the highest scoring ace of the 357th FG with 18.5 aerial victories and 3.5 ground strafing victories. His first victory came on April 8, 1944 flying one of his four “Nooky Booky” P-51’s. Most of Carson’s victories came late in WWII flying “Nooky Booky IV”. Beginning in April 1944 until the end of WWII the 357th accumulated a total of 595.5 aerial victories and 106.5 aircraft destroyed on the ground. Leonard Carson was selected to teach combat techniques at the combat training school dubbed “Clobber College”.