[Larry Hickey]

Matti,

Our main Polish Campaign researcher for the "Eagles over Europe" prjeoct has suggested the same incident, which just fits the time frame for this to have been taken at Radom, before StG77 left to return to Breslau late in the PC.

This is a very likely candidate for the event in the photo. Other very poor photos from a German book (title unknown to me) may show two coffins being carried before the assembled members of the unit. They are taken from opposite directions, so maybe it is still only one coffin.

We've now confirmed that this is, in fact, at Radom, and probably on or within a day or two of 22.09.39. Major progress here. The important thing to me for color profiling purposes is that this proves StG77 was beginning to apply unit insignias by late in the PC, as evidenced by the plane in the background. I'm still trying to determine if any unit Ju87s applied the well-known Staffel insignias by the time that the PC began, or were these being applied in some Staffeln during the campaign. I have photos from other collections that show that unit insignias were apparently carried by some II./StG77 aircraft during the PC. I have nine color profiles for StG77 aircraft to create to represent the unit for Sept, 1939. I want to get this right.


I'm almost certain that the Geschwaderstab did not yet carry unit insignia at Radom, as I have good photos of S2+AA and S2+BA at Radom without any insignias on the starboard side. If anyone has further evidence about this issue, I'd appreciate hearing about it. I don't yet have absolute proof that any I./StG77 aircraft carried unit insignias during the PC. My present belief is that they didn't. Obviously interpreting exact dates for photos is a tricky business. Photos of dated crashed aircraft displaying their markings are sometimes the only way to know this for sure.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator