[Larry Hickey]

Ian,

I'm deep into the unit insignias trying to lay out hundreds of color profile packages right now for the EoE Project, so this kind of problem ties right into what I'm dealing with every day. I have indisputable photo evidence that Stab II./StG77 Ju87Bs during the Phoney War and Western Campaign, and probably on into the BoB, carried the rampant lion insignia that is the traditionally accepted insignia for that unit (see Ries and Ketley/Rolfe). Your reference photo has a white rear fuselage band so is presumably in the Balkans or Russia, and thus is after the 1939-40 focus period of the EoE Project and my period of expertise. However, my research to date indicates that this insignia anomaly apparently arrises after 1940 and thus is not related to the II./KG76 issue (I now think that I'm wrong about this: see my subsequent comment below).

There is a well-known photo of Hptm Helmuth Bode, who was GrKdr of III./StG77 from its formation on 07.09.40 until 25.08.42, sitting in the cockpit of a Stab III./StG77 Ju87B, presumably S2+AD (see my post below that corrects this information). This carries the same knight insignia below the cockpit as your reference photo. According to de Zeng & Stankey's excellent "Dive Bomber and Ground Attack Units of the Luftwaffe, Vol I" (P. 145) this knight insignia was the family coat of arms of the Bode family. So, there is an obviously problem as to why this photo shows a Stab II./StG77 Ju87B, S2+AC, carrying what is certainly the Stab III./StG77 insignia. This, of course, is the point of your post in the first place.

This doesn't solve the problem, but I hope that it clarifies the issues a bit.

I still owe you a reply to your email of several days ago, but I will get to it.

Regards,