Stumbling across the Emperor’s Mustang, 72 years ago today
Official U.S. Marine Corps Photograph 127-GW-1627-135889, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Marine Private First Class Lisle E. Mell, Jr. inspects a recaptured Army P-51 Mustang in a hangar at the former Japanese Navy Air Base at Omura in Kyushu.
The battered plane was discovered by occupation echelons of Marine Air Group 22. Photographed at Omura, Japan, by Lieutenant Battersby, September 29, 1945.