Soviet naval aircraft type

[Dénes Bernád]

That's a nice find. Thanks.
Similarity is obvious. The wing bands appear yellow.

[HGabor]

Well, the white border red star became common by the end of 1942, while it co-existed for some months with the thin black border red star. Later the white border became very thick, especially on tail markings it was almost as wide as the small star itself. Silver borders (and occasionally some decorative yellow borders) are known too, but the white was the most common. The victory, or outline star (red star with wide white border and a thin red outline) was the main standard in 1944-45, in the final phase of the war. The fancy 'Kremlin star', ~3D type, shadowed star was also used on special planes, or guards units. But the bottom line is that this white border star on the Pe-2 in the picture was much later than 1941.

...and if we speak of markings... A very common error in Lavochkin La-5 and La-7 decals that they make factory applied white fuselage numbers with red outline! No, those large and white La-5 and La-7 tactical fuselage numbers, painted on still at the factories (as the last 2 digits of the aircraft serial numbers), so these white numbers had DARK BLUE border, or outline, NOT RED! Cheers,

Gabor

[researcher111]

Gabor, indeed, as I suspected earlier on it was this of 40 GvBAP Black Sea Fleet of the famous CO Ivan Korzunov during late 40's presumambly fished by Kriegsmarine sometime late October .
Attached few more photos of 40 GvBAP by mid 40's .Check the star design on upper starboard wing. On the fuselage " Za Borisa Safonova " remembering the famous pilot from the
Northern Naval Air Fleet Boris Safonov.

[HGabor]

Nice match, congrats!

[researcher111]

Thanks Gabor, before departing this topic there's something that popped up in my mind related to the PE-2 which I am not quite clear about namely the twin rocket launchers mounted on the PE-2 aft fuselage section .These rockets seems to have been designed for air to air rather air to ground and I wonder the accuracy , when was it introduced and were they installed the sighting for such bizare armament installation . Beyond any doubt the Russians had the most bizare and ingenious ideas in
WWII eventhough some of their designs didn't really work.

[HGabor]

Looks like just a 'psychological' defence weapon against fighter attacks from the back. Its main purpose could be to scare off the attacking fighters from the blind zone of the gunners. (Never researched weapon statistics though.)

Gabor

[researcher111]

Sounds fair to me , but the shape of this missile looks to me
closer to an air to ground ordnance which may have being tested
for aerodynamics rather used as decoy to scare off the Luftwaffe pilots.

Originally Posted by Dénes Bernád

That's a nice find. Thanks.
Similarity is obvious. The wing bands appear yellow.

I would doubt yellow, as this was the axis identification colour, but the veteran quoted below says the 3rd squadron used yellow spinners, but the 2nd squadron used light blue, so maybe.
Be interesting if the bands were also squadron coded?

in this shot, also on Soviet warplanes

Pe-2 series 205 of 40 GvBAP, Black Sea Fleet, in 1945. The slogan Za velikogo Stalina means for the Great Stalin, and has been seen on other planes of the same unit. Note the Guards emblem on the nose. The camouflage seems compatible with the 1st template, but the light look of the uppersurface of the wing let many doubts.

note the bands maybe even be the underside colour, compare to the undercarriage doors.
The use of Aluminium (silver) paint I think is more widespread than is thought. Note that both the P-39 and Yak-9 tailfin preserved in Finland have
aluminium outlined stars.

Also, the profile above, has the uppersurface a solid green.

This was not standard but has been mentioned here
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pe2/pe2camo/pe2camo.htm

If you scroll down to the Pe-2 GvBAP, Black Sea Fleet, in 1945. there are some more photos, and a mention that this maybe the case.

from this interview
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pilo...v/anisimov.htm
Note, there are many photos at the bottom of the link.

— How your airplanes were painted?

White at winter, but it was not paint, it was something that could be easily washed away by water. At summer — green with yellowish spots. Mostly, one color green.
At the last month of war some planes came from the factories with green-green camouflage.

— Were there Pe-2s painted gray?

There were gray planes, just one color gray. But mostly we had green ones. Some dark green, some – light green. Very few planes had a camouflage.

— How effective was camouflage in the air?

Hard to say how effective it was… I didn’t think about it at the time… Sometimes, especially at foggy or cloudy weather we noticed that on final approach airplane would “melt” in the underlying terrain, but it was not a matter of camouflage. Single color plane was identical in this. At an altitude concealing paint did not work at all – planes were still visible.

— Were there paintings or insignias on the planes?

Yes. At the fuselages of Major Klochkos planes there was an insignia: «Leningrad». On the left side there was a picture of «Brass horseman», on the right — «Lenin on the armored car». It was painted this way because planes for this squadron were paid for by laborers of Leningrad. They came to our regiment and overpainted 9 planes that were ferried to the airbase by this time.

— Were there fast recognition elements on your planes?

Each squadron had special spinner color. At 1st — red, we in 2nd had light blue, 3rd — yellow.

It should also be noted that veteran pilots are not always the best people to ask about colour.

...and if we speak of markings... A very common error in Lavochkin La-5 and La-7 decals that they make factory applied white fuselage numbers with red outline! No, those large and white La-5 and La-7 tactical fuselage numbers, painted on still at the factories (as the last 2 digits of the aircraft serial numbers), so these white numbers had DARK BLUE border, or outline, NOT RED! Cheers,

Gabor

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colo...s/1943-45.html

right at the bottom is the fragment of La-5FN with this painting

Below, a detail of the bort number bears an interesting discovery: its outline was dark blue, and this was probably true for all late-style bort numbers on La5F, FN and La-7.

This seems to be the only fragment of a Lavochkin fighter bort number, I don't know of any other evidence for the outline colour.

But Gabor is right about decals, they have red outlines.

There is a lot of discussion on VVS colours on the Soviet Warplanes site,
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/colors/colors.html
best resource in English on the web AFAIK.

Hope of interest.

[researcher111]

Tony

Your assumptions are right ,regarding the spinners as well , though
I don't see on why people get stuck on details rather the history.

[researcher111]

Comming back to the historical relevance of this topic, would appreciate details regarding the crash site of this PE-2 of the same Polka such as location ( unable to ID the car )