German aircraft at Eelde airfield

[ChristianK]

Hi Micke,
thanks for checking! My thoughts on the unit? Given the (Dutch) location and the documentary evidence (210037 had definitely belonged to III./JG at the end of 1944) I think it's rather unlikely that this plane had been transferred to a different Geschwader while it was still in service.

- JG 26, the only other D-9 unit in this area, used a black/white fuselage band and did so rather consistently, so this possibility can be discarded.

- The fuselage band on 210037 is mono-colored - this would leave JGs 1, 3, 11, 27, 53 and (early) 300, but none of them either used the Fw 190 D-9 or was operating over northwestern Germany and the Netherlands during the last months of the war. It's also unlikely that a defector or homebound pilot flew 210037 to Eelde around VE-day, as this airfield was captured in April 1945 and the wreck was already present.

- Of course it could be just a simple yellow recognition band but when applied to fighters, they were usually much narrower.

So yes, I think 210037 featured a blue fuselage band, which was just very bleached out when our photo was taken. At least that's my opinion...

Regards,
Christian