Gents,
Just a thought: What if the aircraft was indeed associated with KG 76 but originally from KG 51 and thus ‘prepared’ for KG 76 by them prior to handover?
“F1+DA” certainly was painted by someone associated with KG 51. This unit from its inception liked to ‘brighten-up’ their aircraft with colours associated their respective staffeln and gruppen painted on various component extremities. One can easily recognize it in photos of its aircraft from 1939 to the end of the war.
This particular machine’s markings are exactly what is seen on Me 262s from KG 51:
- The tips of the nose and fin are painted in the staffel colour and a contrasting bounding line of white or black.
- The style of the einheitkennzeichen of small (~20 cm high) geschwader and staffel characters.
- The aircraft kennung letter is large and outlined in a contrasting colour.
- The last two characters of the einheitkennzeichen “DA” are painted on the nose wheel door.
- The position of all these characters on the fuselage and nose wheel door.
Furthermore, KG 51’s Stab and I. Gruppe were stationed at Giebelstadt over the 20-30 March 1945 period. Per Dan O’Connell’s opus: “It was found damaged by the USA 12 Armored Division, 7th Army and extensively photographed by the 798th Signal Corps at Giebelstadt on 4 April 1945.” So there is an association with KG 51 and the location of “F1+DA”.
I should note that the alpha-numeric Einheitkennzeichen for other units like KG 76 (Ar 234s) and KG(J) 54 are completely different from KG 51. While their geschwader code was similarly small in size, the aircraft kennung was in a plain colour (Staffel) or black, and the kennung and staffel letters the same large size but smaller than KG 51 used. For KG(J) 54 (and KG(J) 6) their Me 262s renerally (but not always) had their nose tips painted in the gruppe and/or staffel colours, and sometimes the aircraft kennung letter painted on the nose wheel door. In mid-March 1945 KG(J) 54 and 6 switched to the single numeric kennung which is a different story.
BTW Nick, the “F1” marking is documented in the caption of a photograph that I think I posted some time ago. I find it improbable that the correspondent saw “9K” and wrote “F1”.
Nick and Jim, I can send you both the photo via email and one of you can post if you wish.
Best,
David