Emblems of TrG 186

[Larry Hickey]

Hello Ian,

The photo in question, Ju87B J9+XK was acquired by the EOE Working Group for our Data Base, as a part of our project to do some 200+ Ju87B profiles for the EOE book series for the 1939-40 period. I've been tracing the use of the Graf Zeppelin insignia on every photo that I can find showing this on of the unit's Ju87s. We have several photos of this on 4./186 aircraft circa the Polish Campaign, and have already completed the profile of the StaKap's a/c (Hptm. Erich Blattner's J9+AM) for the PC displaying this insignia. The question is, what happened to this insignia after the unit was expanded from a single Staffel to a Gruppe around the end of the PC? According to reference sources, 4.(St)/186 became 3.(St)/186 in the expanded unit. This seems to be confirmed by photos of J9+CL and J9+FL with this GZ insignia displaying 1940 fuselage crosses. There are photos of 1.(St)/186 Ju87s from the spring of 1940 with the 1939-style swasticas, but which do not carry the GZ shield (ie J9+BH). The only a/c with this insignia that I know of from 2 Staffel dates to the spring of 1940. This photo is J9+XK, which has an a/c letter that is an anomaly, since the X,Y, Z a/c codes appear to have been reserved for Stab a/c in some units such as LG1. Of the three photos from the same collection in the eBay auction, J9+XK, J9+YK and J9+AK, all of which we acquired, I assess these as being taken late in the Western Campaign (probably June, 1940), or very early in the Battle of Britain (when this unit would have been re-designated 8./StG1). This is because the a/c codes in the three auction photos were thinly outlined in white, which was not the case with examples of 2 Staffel a/c known to have been shot down early in the WC during May, 1940. What I think happened is that 3.(St)/186 a/c continued to carry the old insignia of 4 Staffel after Sept., 1939, until they were all used up. At least one of these old 4 Staffel a/c was transferred, perhaps as a reserve a/c, to 2. Staffel, and this accounts for J9+XK. No other 2 Staffel a/c photos that I know of, including J9+YK, display this insignia. Clearly it wasn't in use by the Western Campaign of 1940 except on a few a/c dating back their service with 4 Staffel in the late-summer of 1939, almost all of which would have been assigned to 3 Staffel. I suspect that replacement aircraft for lost 4 Staffel a/c during the PC did not get the old GZ insignia when the unit expanded to an entire Gruppe.

This raises the question of when the "new" shield with a blue helmut and superimposed on a red anchor began being applied to unit a/c. This appears on a photo of Helmut Mahlke's a/c as Gr Kdr, clearly from the summer of 1940, in his autobiography. This may, in fact, be the first a/c to have gotten this insignia. I find no evidence that this insignia (#532 in Ketley & Rolfe) was in use during the WC, and have concluded that it must have been introduced, probably by Mahlke, when the unit was re-designated III./StG1 during July 1940, at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. However, I don't think that this insignia was immediately applied on all unit a/c, and probably wasn't in wide use until at least Sept. 1940 or later.

One other point relating to the photo of J9+XK. Photos of III./StG1 a/c in late 1940 and early 1941 often show the name of a previous target attacked by the unit painted on the cowling. J9+XK appears to have the word "Herenschlucht" painted on the cowling in the same place and in the same style. This translates from the German as "Men's Gorge" or Men's Ravine." Does anyone recognize this as the name of some target in Poland or during the WC, or know what the meaning of this could be?

Regards,

Larry