RLM 81/82 – More secrets unveiled

[Graham Boak]

It doesn't matter how good the bar story is: 1+1 does not equal 3 and aircraft paints were specialist products applied when authorised under controlled (and inspected) conditions. There were some pretty poor paints used in WW2: I could mention the RAF's Special Night RDM2, or the Luftwaffe's night distemper, but these were all authorised issues for use according to orders. Aircraft were not painted with tractor paint, sports car paint, or naval wooden deck stain, just on the whim of junior officers or otherwise-unemployed airmen.

[harrison987]

Sure...and the Germans were supposed to have 3 square meal per day while fighting in Stalingrad...and that never happened.

"Textbook" is one thing...real field conditions is another. I guarantee you that if the German government was having issues supplying their troops with food and supplies, I HIGHLY doubt they were making "RLM PAINT"
a priority - the crews would have used whatever paint is on hand (and yes John Deere Paint was used from captured factories). They would not have waited around for that "all important supply of RLM spec summer aircraft paint"...when they had Russian paint on hand - this is a known fact.

I have seen NUMEROUS German types of paint on many wrecks I have been involved with...and I can tell you 100% that REGARDLESS of what is drawn up in "official paperwork", field conditions were quite different. Most of the later-war aircraft paint peeled only after a few months of being applied - as documented in numerous photographs. This was due to low quality and sub-standard paint.

This idea that "all paint used was specifically "aircraft quality" type is nonsense.

In addition...I know of one aircraft wreck that was painte in NINE different shades of paint:

76 (2 shades), 74, 75, 66 (yes, external paint), 81, 74, 80, and 82.

Where is the textbook on that?

Mike