Color for Death's Head Insignia for KG54

[Larry Hickey]

Jim,

There is a possibility that that might have been the case back in 1939 during the PC period. But all subsequent photos through the beginning of the Russian Campaign in mid-1941 show a medium-toned color to the insignia, with none of them being white, including many I Group a/c from all three Squadrons. I'm pretty sure that it was either a light to medium gray or a metallic silver color, which could appear as gray in B & W photos. Another possibility is yellow, which has been used in some color profiles, but this is not supported by the very limited color photography that exists. Gray seems a lot more logical to me because keeping a supply of metallic silver paint on hand would have been a real pain under operational conditions, but maybe they did. With the very large number of images of this insignia available in photography, you would think that this would have been settled long ago, but apparently it has never been correctly published, at least for the late-1939 through mid-1941 period. Somebody probably has a photo album cover originating with some veteran out there with artwork on it that may give us the correct information.

Regards,