Confirmation of insignia of 9./KG76 during the FC

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

A couple of posts regarding this issue have been posted on this board, including one by me. I have just received an important collection of photos relating to III./KG76, which further confirms the following.

1) The insignia in a white shield showing bombs falling on the Eiffel Tower, below which is an upside down rooster in distress, was, without question, the insignia of 9./KG76, notwithstanding reference works to the contrary. I now have photos showing this insignia on 4 different a/c, so it's a pretty safe bet that it appeared on all of the a/c of that Staffel during the Western Campaign of 1940. This collection shows photos of F1+CT, FT, LT and MT, the latter of which has a victory tab on the top of the fin.

2) The 9./KG76 insignia appeared only on the port side. This collection and other photos in our EOE Data Base show no examples of the insignia on the starboard nose, although there are photos showing the stbd nose of unit a/c during the WC period.


3) The special MG for strafing forward located in the lower part of the greenhouse nose reported on a/c of this staffel is present on all photos for which that is visible. I know that the StaKap a/c for 8./KG76 also carried this on his a/c. This may have been present on all a/c of III./KG76 during the period, although photos of 8 Staffel a/c exist when it was not there.

4) We now have one more new name under the 3xDo17 shield insignia for 8./KG76, making a total of at least six different ones that I know of.

This all raises an important question. Was the "Eiffel Tower" insignia removed immediately after the French Campaign on 9 Staffel Do17s? Obviously, it is highly topical to the campaign against France but rather irrelevant to the Battle of Britain, which followed. 9./KG76 participated in a famous low-level attack against Kenley Airfield on 18.8.40, for which many photos exist of F1+DT after being SD near the target, and at least one photo of F1+CT force-landed back in France. Since the front of DT was burned out, and the angle on CT doesn't show the nose, does anyone have any photographic evidence for what, if anything, was carried on the noses of 9 Staffel a/c during the BoB?

I thought this would be of interest to some of you. If anyone else has any photos or info relevant to this issue, I'd sure like to hear from you. I'm particularly interested in acquiring additional photography on aircraft of 7 Staffel, showing the dragon insignia, and photos of 6 Staffel Do17s with its nose insignia, believed to be a sunburst geometric design.

Regards,