Late-war JG 52 Bf 109 Markings

[John Beaman]

Originally Posted by torqueofthedevil

Hi John and Don,

Thanks for your replies. I was aware that there is no proof of exactly how Hartmann's 109K would have appeared due to lack of photo evidence, but I trust Claes Sundin and Christer Bergstrom to make educated guesses in their profiles when some of the facts are missing. You are quite right that any profile showing all 352 kills is almost certainly wrong - I think Hartmann and his groundcrew would have had more important things to worry about after he landed on May 8th 1945 than add another victory marking to his aircraft.

As far as the yellow lower cowling and tail band go, I knew that they had been discontinued toward the end of the war (though I didn't realize it was as early as summer '44), but many aircraft (eg those from JG52 which were photographed after the surrender at Neubiberg) display yellow bands around the cowl and yellow rudders instead, whereas those at Deutsch Brod - according to the authors of the book, at least - have no yellow markings at all.

Once again, many thanks for your thoughts.

The aircraft at Neubiberg were a part of Luft. 6 wherein they were directed to display the yellow cowling band and rudder. Other machines on the Eastern front had no such directives.