Oblt W.Schroer, 109G, 8/JG27 with a red rudder ?

[Tom Semenza]

Jerry,

The same aircraft is shown in Sundin & Bergström's "More Luftwaffe Fighters in Profile (Schiffer 2002) also with a red rudder. This seems to me unlikely, but I could well be wrong. What seems even more unlikely, and something which has been shown in a number of publications, is Marseille's Bf 109F-4 trop (WNr. 8693) in Feb. 1942 with a red rudder. Certainly in early February the rudder appeared to be the same color as the main upper surface color but by mid-month appears to be a darker shade. How it came to be depicted as red (or possibly brown red per Prien in "Der Jadgfliegerverbände ... Teil 8/I) is not clear to me.

Going back to the subject of Schroer's aircraft, I would like to point out another apparent error which is found frequently, namely the Bf 109E-7 trop "Black 8" of 2./JG 27 in August 1941 which has been identified as the aircraft of Werner Schroer. The problem here is the fact that Schroer tranferred fro 2./JG 27 to 1./JG 27 in March 1941.

I would welcome comments from all forum members on these subejects.

Best wishes,

Tom