Crash info request - He 111 B3+FN of KG 54

[ChristianK]

A big thanks to all of you for your help! I knew some of you would come up with something.

Rudi, what is your source for the grey/silver color of the unit insignias after the Polish campaign? I am pretty sure that I have seen images of KG 54 Heinkels from after 1939 that showed insignias in other colors than grey or silver, but I might be wrong.

Larry, sent you a PM!

Regards and thanks again,
Christian

[RudiS]

Christian,

colour pictures of He 111 of B3+BL which forced-landed in the Epinoy area on May 19th 1940 are published in:
- Luftwaffe in focus N° 8
- Bomber units of the Luftwaffe 1933-1945 Vol 1 by Henry de Zeng & Douglas Stankey.

These coloured pictures and the many black & white onces that are around from the same aircraft show clearly (at least to me) that the aircraft has a white diagonal fuselage band and a grey skull-and-bones emblem.

Pictures of B3+KK shot down during the Polish campaign shows the aircraft with a white diagonal fuselage band and a white, although smaller, skull-and-bones emblem.

So as far as I'm concerned, somewhere between the Polish campaign & the campaign in the west, the KG 54 emblem changed from small to large and from white (or in the respective Gruppe colour?) to grey.

Regards,
Rudi.