Codes and markings for I./StG. 76 and St.G.3

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

As a follow up to my request for info on the chevron-marked Ju87B below, I'd like to get the community's wisdom about the markings and codes of St.G76 and St.G. 3. It seems that the reference sources on these have not sorted this out completely, at least I haven't seen them.

It seems that St.G.76 used fighter Stab markings with its unit codes during early to mid-1940, at least through the French Campaign, along with the unit code "S1." on all its Stukas. At least I've seen a single chevron on photos and recently obtained one on eBay that is certainly a I./St.G. 76 aircraft. Apparently Chris Goss has another, and the referenced photo that recently sold on eBay to sudek13 was probably another example. Unlike fighter units, however, it appears that the chevron marking preceeds a full unit code, which I'm now certain was "S1." Does anyone know the full, accurate story of what happened to that unit? Some have suggested that it became St.G. 3. But IIRC, in the Hozzel manuscript he refers to that unit as briefly being a composit of two other units early in the Battle of Britain, the first time I've seen a mention of that fact. There also seems to be confusion about the accurate unit insignia of I./St.G76 and a similar but different insignia on aircraft of St.G. 3.

I'm not aware of the fighter-type stab symbols appearing on the aircraft of other Stuka units during the 1939-40 period of my interest. Does anyone else know differently?

I apologise for not being more specific in my citations about this, but I'm kind of winging this query, as I'm up to my eyeballs in other projects at the moment.

Any thoughts and help with this would be appreciated.

Regards,