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Old 30th August 2006, 16:51
lritger lritger is offline
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Re: Markings + codes of Bf 109 + Legion Condor

Just a couple of corrections to Many's helpful post:

- There was never a "Bf 109B-2"... no period documentation refers to any variant except the B-1.
- The wooden props were produced by Schwarz (sp?), and were used because the variable pitch props were not ready in time. Photos of Polenz' captured 6-15 show that the instrument panel was set up to have the pitch change mechanism, but it was of course not fitted as the aircraft still carried the wooden prop when captured.
- The first batch of aircraft to arrive were Bf 109As... they *may* have been coded as high as 6-18, there is still some confusion on the 6-17 and 6-18. (If we could find delivery confirmations in Spanish archives, that would be fantastic...)
- Presuming 6-17 and 6-18 were A models, there were 26 B-1s delivered to Spain, coded 6-19 through 6-45; five C's, from 6-46 to 6-50; and 35 D-1s, coded 6-51 through 6-86.


Lastly, this is somewhat tenuous, but it appears that the only 109s to carry the early insignia [O 6-##] were Bf 109As... this is still just a theory, but it seems to fit. Of course, if someone has info from the Spanish archives which contradicts and corrects the above, I would be very glad to hear it... there's still an awful lot of "grey areas" with the Spanish 109s!

Cheers,

Lynn

(Edit @ Kormoran: All of the Bf 109B-1s were originally delivered in a standard Luftwaffe 70/71/65 scheme, and later repainted in 63/65, although I cannot establish when this happened... all of the Cs and Ds appear to have entered service in 63/65. That scheme was applied over the factory splinter scheme [ref photo of 6-74 in Laureau's book with the forward fin fairing off].)
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