St.G 3 unit emblem

[Doolittle81]

Does anyone have any evidence as to when, exactly, St.G 3 began using the griffon emblem, as can be seen in the Profile below? It was definitely in use by the time of Operation Marita in the Balkans in April 1941.

St.G 3 was formed just prior to the BofB. Could the emblem have been adopted prior to or during the BofB...or only later in Spring 1941 in Bulgaria/Greece?

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

The griffin emblem was previously used by the predecessor unit, I./StG76, which I believe goes all the way back to the Polish Campaign or even earlier. Unless you know something that I don't, the shield should be green and not blue. The disc could be in the Staffel color as indicated here.

Regards,

[Doolittle81]

Originally Posted by Larry Hickey

Hello,

The griffin emblem was previously used by the predecessor unit, I./StG76, which I believe goes all the way back to the Polish Campaign or even earlier. Unless you know something that I don't, the shield should be green and not blue. The disc could be in the Staffel color as indicated here.

Regards,

Thanks Larry,

For what it is worth, as shown in this collection of Profiles the shield does show as Green as you said. It would appear that the griffin was used only by I./St.G3 http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/C...affe_StG3.html which would make sense as I./StG3 was the direct successor to I./St.G76. I also found this Modeller (Tango 98)'s opinion/confirmation of the shield being green..."It was also common for Stuka units to carry their respective emblems on both sides of the forward fuselage just beneath the windscreen and in the case of the I./St.G.76 this was a white Steiermark Griffon on a green shield which the unit is known to have still been using on some of its Stukas in August 1940". http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/l...hp/t52525.html

Unfortunately, to perhaps confuse matters, in the photo below Heinz Migeod shows a version which has a black shield. That may have just been some post-war artist interpretation/error. His background Disc color is correct, being Red for 2./St.G3 to which Heinz was assigned throughout his time with St.G3



More unfortunately, Heinz passed away last fall and we can't ask him...as we had done for many other questions while building his website. http://www.heinzmigeod.com/

[Larry Hickey]

Doolittle,

I don't know the specific a/c used on your profile, as it's after the EOE research period, but if you change the shield to green, and look carefully at the detailing of the griffin, which may have had variations over time, you'll probably have it. The major reference works on markings & insignia should show you what the I./StG76 version looked like, which is what the I./St.G.3 insignia was based upon. We have a number of examples of this in the EOE DB, but best you look for the source photos upon which the profile must be based for what it looked like on that a/c. I just did a quick run through of examples of I./StG 76 images in our DB (51 of them)I and this insignia appears to have been universally used during the WC Blitzkrieg of May-June, and there are a few examples of it with the 1939-style fuselage crosses which presumably date back to 1939, and likely to the Polish Campaign.

Regards,



Regards,