Size: 19 x 25 inches

This original ‘RESTRICTED’ aircraft identification poster was published by the U.S. Naval Aviation Training Division Feb. 1943. This poster was posted as a training tool as well as an in theater ID poster to help U.S. and other Allied pilots, bomber crews and Naval personal to identify Allied and enemy aircraft. W.E.F.T.U.P. or Wing, Engine, Fuselage, Tail, Undercarriage, Peculiarities was a system set up for the purpose of aircraft identification and recognition.

World War II saw some of the first introduction of these aircraft ID poster to prevent friendly fire and more accurate plane recognition in combat. It was believed these posters alone could save countless lives from friendly aircraft-on-aircraft or friendly anit-aircraft fire. These posters also could cut down precious second pilots, bomber gunners, and naval gun crews would have to ID a plane flying towards them intern saving their lives by shooting first.

Each poster provides the silhouettes, dimensions, and relevant information to educate both air and ground personnel in aircraft identification. Immediate identification of aircraft, friendly or not, was essential in order for the observer (whether in the air e.g., pilot, gunner, or patrol observer, or on the ground, e.g., anti-aircraft crew) to determine his next course of action (e.g., acknowledge, attack, evade, or report). Each poster details a large clean sky and background image of the specified aircraft located as the main top imagine on the poster. It also contains important ‘peculiarities’ such as where certain gun emplacements are located, other special aircraft features, as well as wing and length measurements.

Arado Ar 196:

The Arado Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the German firm of Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as the winner of a design contest and became the standard aircraft of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) throughout World War II.

The plane was loved by its pilots, who found that it handled well both in the air and on the water. With the loss of the German surface fleet, the A-1s were added to coastal squadrons and continued to fly reconnaissance missions and submarine hunts into late 1944. Two notable operations were the capture of HMS Seal, and the repeated interception of RAF Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley bombers. Although it was no match for a fighter, it was considerably better than its Allied counterparts, and generally considered the best of its class. Owing to its good handling on water, the Finnish Air Force utilized Ar 196s just for transporting and supplying special forces patrols behind enemy lines, landing on small lakes in remote areas. Several fully equipped soldiers were carried in the fuselage.

Two Arado Ar 196s were brought to Penang in Japanese-occupied Malaya aboard the auxiliary cruisers Thor and Michel in the early 1940s. In March of 1944, along with a Japanese Aichi E13A, these seaplanes formed the newly-created East Asia Naval Special Service to assist both the German Monsun Gruppe and Japanese naval forces in the area. The aircraft were painted in Japanese livery and were operated by Luftwaffe pilots under the command of Oberleutnant Ulrich Horn.