Blue or Blue-Gray Camouflage on Bf 109E

[Sylvester Stadler]

In the color-photo section of Ken A. Merrick's German Aircraft Markings 1939-1945 (1977 edition), there appear three photos of the BF 109E-4/N. White 4 + -, of Horst Perez of 4./JG 26, the camouflage of which appear to be two shades of blue on the upper sides. The aircraft lies on its belly in a field next to a blue VW, so a comparison can be made as to its colors. Also, there are green trees in the background, the color of which does not match the blue-gray of the wings.

In the book Full Circle by Johnny Johnson, there is related the story of Adolf Galland flying over Dunkirk in a new camouflage scheme. Johnson claims that his Bf 109 is painted olive-green which replaced the previous blue color scheme. I have never heard of this story before. Galland hears over the R/T that a German fighter pilot is going to dive down on him and he avoids the "friendly fire" when he sees tracers and he realizes he is the target. I don't know the source of the story but since green was the standard color of the Bf 109 at the time of Dunkirk (May-June 1940) and not blue, perhaps Galland in his mind had reversed the color schemes. Perhaps this is additional evidence that some kind of blue or blue-gray scheme was experimented with in Galland's units.

RAF intelligence reports frequently described the colors of captured German aircraft. Are there any reports which mention blue or blue-gray as an upper camouflage on the Bf 109E?