Battle of Britain Bf109E found in India a few years ago?

[PeterA]

Originally Posted by Larry Hickey

Peter,

Great photo Peter! Simply the best!!

This aircraft is listed as down on November 2nd as "Black 6," which is obviously one of the numbers that were on there. Is it possible to interpret the "Black 6" layer (or two layers of the same number as Ruy suggests) as being on top, rather than second under the "5"? I haven't studied this that carefully, but that looks like a possible interpretation. Whoever sanded down through the layers would know best what this was (and maybe is the source of your listed interpretation). I note that both the German report of the loss (Prien JFV 4/II, P. 273, lists this as Black 6), and the British crash (G) report ("markings black 6+1 all in black outlined white") indicates that the final marking should be a "Black 6" with a thin white outline. Although I have photos of two previous forced-landed "Black 6s" of 8./JG53 during 1940 in my DB, I don't have any photos of this particular a/c down "in situ," or during the transfer or at the time of its arrival in India. However, I'm sure that some were made at the time by the local press of this "gift" from Britain, or shortly thereafter if the aircraft was subsequently put on public display. Is anyone aware of the existence of any contemporary photos of this bird? That would probably immediately settle this issue.

Thanks to all for your comments and information. Most informative and helpful.

Regards,

Hello Larry,

Whilst I know very little about Luftwaffe camouflage and markings I have considerable knowledge on recovered Indian Spitfires whose paint has been subjected to the same climatic degradation and erosion as the 109.

To perhaps understand what happens it might help if you drew yourself a diagram of a cross section through the paint at an area of interest say 18 inches wide. Allow each element of paint to be say 1/4 inch thick. First layer, primer, undercoat, top coat etc, number 8, number 6 in white with number in black to form border and so on up to number 5. Allow also for additional local top coat to cover previous numbers. You now have a sandwich of some 10 plus elements stepped down to the original top coat.

Depending on the thickness and the durability of the paint , Indian climatic conditions will start to erode the exposed surface of that 'sandwich'. The last paint on, the 5, will erode first until after a number of years it will be almost gone, but in the process it will have protected the immediate layers beneath. This is why there appears to be both black and white versions of the same numerals.

What appears to be a yellow 8 may well have been any colour 8. The numeral has protected the top coat as it has eroded, leaving a witness mark in the top coat.

To help, here is a shot of the other side - starboard.



And here is a shot showing the red spot that Andy mentioned. In this shot you can see a sloping tidemark line...the Indian Heritage line, the line that the water came up to every year.



...and the 'come and get me message and phone number' on the rear port.


There is a British way of doing business and the there is an Asian way of doing business and some sometimes they are in conflict. I would not underestimate the strength of the owner's legal team in pursuing claims of malpractice. The Indian press have already had to print a retraction on some of their wild speculation.

PeterA