Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Hickey
ChrisS,
The problem with 11./KG54 is that there was no such unit operating during the French Campaign of May-June, 1940, which is the very likely date of my photos. Since this appears to have been used on a/c of both a 1. and 3. Staffel, it appears likely to be a Gruppe rather than a Staffel emblem. Sooooo....
Regards,
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Hello Larry,
Sorry, but I did not notice that your post was running here when I posted at LEMB.
The reference to 11./KG 54 pointed out by Chris was in relation to a similar but not identical emblem which you can find in the thread at LEMB.
Studying the photos I have seen, I get the impression that the He 111 discussed at LEMB based on a couple of shots of the same aircraft had the aircraft code painted over in a similar manner as with aircraft used in the night attacks on Britain.
I have browsed "Die Geschichte des Lehrgeschwaders 1 Band 1" by Peter Taghon and "The Battle Over France Then And Now" by Peter D. Cornwell" since reading your post, but not yet found an aircraft with this emblem or a He 111 camouflage with codes painted over. The photo was perhaps taken after the BoF?
Trying to read the text under the photo you've posted but I have not yet been able to deschiffre all of it. There might be both the name of the pilot (First word) and the location at the end of the sentence. If it was during the BoF it might be traceable via Cornwell's book?
Earlier browsing for images of He 111s with this emblem, however, one image caught my attention. Captioned as being from KG 4 it features what can perhaps be the same emblem but a bit difficult to make out.
Source "The Luftwaffe In Camera 1939-1942", Alfred Price, 1997, Sutton Publishing Ltd.
It can be a case of seeing what one would like like to see due to the low resolution, but I have tried to mark where the emblem with wings and the white eye on the bomb might be on one of the scans.
Could be worth looking at KG 4 a bit closer perhaps.
Larry, I would appreciate if you could share the other images leeding to the conclusion that more than one Staffel used this emblem, via PM if you prefer.
Best regards,
Goran