Rudels Ju 87 G-2 W.Nr. 494193 markings

[G.R.Morrison]

Originally Posted by Dénes Bernád

AFAIK, the numbers painted on the Stuka's wheel spats denote training machines.

Certainly some training machines carried numbers on the spats (wheel covers) or engine cowling, but the use of numbers with St.G. 2 is quite common on Ju 87Ds of all three Gruppen in Russia.

One of Rudel's Ju 87D-1s while he was Staffelkapitaen of 1./St.G. 2 was T6+HH, with a prominent "8" on the outer part of the wheel cover (8 = H).

You have probably seen Schmid's T6+BN "Baerli" of 5./St.G. 2 with "B2" on the wheel covers/spats. There are many other examples.

Many people are familiar with Rudel's Ju 87G-1 with "B2" on the spats. The use of "17" on this G-2 Kanonenvogel is intriguing, as it is clearly not "Q." My bet would be that this high number is used in this instance because it would avoid duplication with other machines with earlier-in-the-alphabet letters/numbers, reducing confusion. But this is just a guess.

Don't know if this provides light, but it's not intended as heat, GRM