Blue or Blue-Gray Camouflage on Bf 109E

[petewenman]

Gents hi

This is a transcript of the

LOCATIONS OF ENEMY AIRCRAFT BROUGHT DOWN COMPILED FROM INFORMATION RECEIVED DURING THE 24 HOURS ENDED 0600 HOURS …

and the subsequent

CONFIRMATION OF ENEMY AIRCRAFT BROUGHT DOWN

I copied both of these from the actual logs ( Air 22/266) held at the Public Records Office (PRO) in Kew.
The entry for Von Werra, first the location report, and then the follow up crashsite visit report.

21.4
5:9:40
1010
MARDEN (KENT)
(180’ MAIDSTONE 7M)
me109
Pilot Prisoner

21/4
Me.109
Force landed at Love’s Farm, Marden, Kent on 5/9. Markings -+< black outlined in white. Crest: Shield U-shaped, outlined in red, divided into 8 segments coloured black and white. Wing tips and rudder painted white. Camouflage all blue. Fuselage all blue. Spinner divided into alternate black and white sectors. Fitted with DB601A engines made by Mercedes Benz werk nr.10598. Aircraft force landed following fighter action. Condition reported to be very good. Standard armament 2 20mm. cannon and 2 MG17s. No head piece armament for pilot who was taken prisoner. Starboard wing shows many .303 strikes.

There is an interesting article by Paul Lucas in Sept04 issue of Model Aircraft Monthly, in which he looks at this report and others. Suggestions are made that Von Werra's aircraft could have been painted using
Fliegerblaugrau (Airforce Blue-Grey) RAL 840R 7016 (very similar in colour to the Royal Navy's Battleship Grey) which was used for painting Luftwaffe vehicles and equipment, and so likely to have been widely available at that time.
Lucas suggests this paint could have been mixed with white to produce a lighter blue-grey which would enable a splinter scheme to be painted. Also mentioned but stated as unlikley option was RLM 24 Dunkelblau which was normally used for markings.
There is an interesting and attractive set of profiles of Von Werra's aircraft in a blue splinter scheme within the article along with alternative schemes for another 5 Me109s including Perez's which may not have worn the standard schemes of that time.

HTH

Pete

[Cpt_Farrel]

Very interesting! Again though, the colordescription is weird. I mean, even if all the colors were of a blueish tone, when they're three distinctly different colors (as is obvious from the photos) "All Blue" is hardly the best way to describe it.

There's a picture of an Emil in France, in color, that clearly shows a blueish grey camo - the engine cowling has been removed so the engine bearers are visible and the RLM02 there is much greener then the camocolors. In the background there's a trainer aircraft painted all RLM02 and it's also much greener than the 109.

So, grey or blueish grey certainly existed but as I said, these colordescriptions are not really ideal for solving any "mysteries"

Thanks for sharing though!

/Anders

[cproyston]

Just thought I'd add a little bit to this.

Discerning an aircraft's camouflage from an intelligence (or other report) isn't very reliable. I have a copy of the A.I.2(g) report for Theo Nibel's Fw 190D-9 (Wnr 210079), which describes the aircraft as camouflaged "a green, which is brighter than that normally seen", whereas the aircraft actually carried a well-documented (by Eric Larger and others) rather more mundane factory 76/75/83/82 scheme.

I guess it boils down to the "eye of the beholder", in the above case someone who'd presumably not seen Hellgrun before and based his description of the camouflage scheme around that fact.

As I say, just my little bit to add,

Chris

[Graham Boak]

How long has 82/83 been "mundane"? To me, it seems highly reasonable that Hellgrun had not been commonly seen before new year 1945.

[cproyston]

Graham,

Whoa there, the term mundane has been taken out of context.

I posted what I did as an example of a single feature (new to the person observing it), which clouded his description of the aircraft's colour scheme.

It seemed an appropriate example in a thread about a reported "blue" Bf 109 and was not intended to offend anyone, merely cite an alternative angle which may not have been considered,

Chris

[Modeldad]

A very good article on the introduction of the "Grey / Gray".

http://109lair.hobbyvista.com/articl...b/bob_camo.htm

I too believe that just as the LW used French munitions in the BoB, they could have used French paints. Why not? It was there for the taking.

[Graham Boak]

Yes, I see how I missed your point, perhaps because I don't think I've encountered any interpretation of that report suggesting anything more than just a bright green as part of the camouflage. As you have it in your hand, you have a clearer knowledge to what was actually written. This is simply an accurate observation, which I see as an indication of the rarity of such a scheme to British Intelligence at the time, not necessarily reflecting any naivety of the observer.