Non-standard Lw codes on a CRDA Cant Z.506 in Greece

[Dénes Bernád]

On the enclosed photo of a CRDA Cant Z.506, seen in Greece (taken from eBay), there is a Lw code I have not seen before. I believe it's a combination of the original Italian code with the WL prefix. Interesting, anyhow...

[Seaplanes]

Are you sure this is Greece. Most ex. Italian Z.506's were taken over by Luftwaffe after September 1943 and in Italy. The letters WL is not to be
mixed up with the pre-war Luftwaffe marking for second line aircraft. Aslo the numbers does not correspond with Werk-Nummern, MM-numbers or unit numbers known to me for this type of aircraft. This is really a mystery aircraft.

[Dénes Bernád]

I am relying here on what the seller says: Patras, Greece. Sorry, I cannot give any further details, but saying the large building (factory?) in the background could be identified by someone familiar with that area.

The coding is highly interesting, indeed.

[roncosano]

The location is indeed Patras. Look at the image from Google Earth.

Regards,
Corrado

[byron-]

I know the picture, it is Patras indeed

[veltro]

Turning back to the codes, they're very interesting indeed, especially because there is at least another occurrence of such kind of codes on a Cant Z 1007 bomber seen in Bresso (Milan) in early 1944 and apparently belonging to the RACSA (Reparto Aereo Collegamento Sottosegretariato Aeronautica) of the A.N.R.



If this "WL+23-xx" pattern is coherent (and usually German things are...), it would mean that there is a type of coding that has escaped us so far...

It would be great to find other examples who could help to explain (or confound even more ) such interesting aspect.

[edNorth]

Ferdinando, all these last five are immidiatley PRE WAR or very early War (1939-1940) period. Most of them, if not all are ex-D- registrations.

Maybe (my best two pennies) are these WL+23-xx codes (on two photos) are similar quasi-military (temporary ferry) registrations applied at overhaul or at some unit or Factorys.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Yes Ed is correct here, however I think it is quite plausible that WL still stood for Wehrmacht Luftwaffe.

We can't mix in the 1939-40 civil impressed aircraft with these much later markings. The odd thing about them is that they look like the old Italian unit markings - but they are not....

Any of our Italian or German friends who can locate more such markings?

Cheers
Stig

[Denniss]

I would assume it's a temporary marking after capture from the Italians.
Maybe they kept this markings if used for some kind of civil service or in flight schools.
The central numeral marking is either a block number or a unit designation, the numeral marking at the end is obviously an incremental number to designate the planes in this block/group.

[veltro]

Sorry to revive this thread, but in my "quest" to find more examples of the "WL+23-xx" code, I've found another one...

According to the source of the photo attached, this Fiat Cr.42 coded "WL+23-106" since late 1943 belonged to a Luftwaffe training school apparently based in Salonicco.

The Italian pilot shown in the photo managed to flee to Grottaglie (not sure if with this very aircraft or not) and later operated with the Italian Cobelligerent Air Force.

However, here we have another example and the numeration seems to follow a simple ordinal method, with the first part clearly(?) identifying the number 23 as related to Italian aircraft, or so it seems...

Hope to follow with further examples.