Late war Bf 109 pictures source

[veltro]

Franck, there are plenty of photos available showing the starboard side of Erla-G-10s (won't say where to avoid self-promotion...).

At any rate the same applied also the few K-4s made by Erla, and this follows pure logic: they had taken so much time and trouble to redesign the frontal part of their G-10s that it would have been sheer nonsense to use a different solution for the K-4... (and nonsense had little room in German brains!)

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by veltro

(and nonsense had little room in German brains!)

Well not in production engineering, at least. They had plenty of room for nonsense in politics, economics and strategy!

[veltro]

Of course, Nick. I took for granted to refer to technical matters...

[David E. Brown]

Gents,

Regarding the camouflage colours of Erla Bf 109 G-10/R6s, perhaps it might be of value to know the dates of production for aircraft in the respective 15XXXX and 49XXXX werknummer series. Does such information exist?

I ask this as I believe that two colour photos exist of an Erla-built G-10, this being the kite "ge.2" of KG(J) 27 with the large green and white karoband that was discovered at Kaufbeuren. These were first published by the late Jeff Ethell in his book "Fighter Command". My images are prints made from Kodachrome copies of the originals sent to me by Jeff.

The first photo is an enlargement from a larger scene of the aircraft dump. Salient features include the Type 110 cowling, and twin-tabbed rudder. The KG(J) 27 karoband and yellow '2' are clearly visible, as a white '52' on the fin, likely an Überführungflugnummer.

The second image allows a clearer view of the rear cowling area and tip of the rudder. There appears to be a modest amount of mottling on the fuselage side in RLM 75 and possibly RLM 83 under the cockpit. Along the fuselage spine 75 is clearly evident, as is a far lighter grey that I interpret as RLM 77 above the balkenkreuz. Indeed, on the right side of the larger original image for the first photo is a similarly 75/77/76 camouflaged Bf 109 K-4 "sw.<1+I" of Stab./III./JG 53 (335XXX series?).

Exactly when this aircraft was built can only be guessed at as the werknummer is unknown and other determining features such as the canopy, radio mast, wheel size, wing bumps, etc. are not visible. I suspect that it might be a very early production example since the rudder's camouflage colours match the rest of the aircraft. Later aircraft appear to have had a greater propensity of being fitted with subcontracted components that were painted in different patterns and colours.

Combined with the aircraft physical attributes, the temporal relationship with werknummern might offer clues to determining the respective camouflage colours and schemes, and assist in identifying other aircraft in those situations were photos reveal only portions of a subject aircraft. I welcome further thoughts on the comments presented here.

Cheers,

David

[ouidjat]

Originally Posted by veltro

Franck, there are plenty of photos available showing the starboard side of Erla-G-10s (won't say where to avoid self-promotion...).

At any rate the same applied also the few K-4s made by Erla, and this follows pure logic: they had taken so much time and trouble to redesign the frontal part of their G-10s that it would have been sheer nonsense to use a different solution for the K-4... (and nonsense had little room in German brains!)

Bondì Ferdinando, it saluto!

I didn't say the contrary; just said I've never seen and may be I got some of these but without the right explanation...
Whatever, I'm still ouidjat-without-books-home, you know that; just internet loadings...

Thanks again.

Arvëdse! Franck.

[Oberst]

As far as I know, there was only the Type 100 & 110 cowls, and the Ultra rare cowl which was used on some G-5/6 AS's.

[ChristianK]

Sorry for another Off Topic, but can someone point me to the reference photo for the Bf 109 in post #76 please? I just cannot find it anywhere..

Also, I cannot access a single of your links, Marc. Have you had any copyright complaints in the meantime?

Regards,
Christian

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Christian,

Sorry for your first request: I don't know the picture source for "Schwarze 17"... Srecko might provide this information.

As for accessing the pics, people from Germany obviously do have an issue: you're the third to ask me about this access problem. On my side, all pics are free to view. Falcon managed to access at last my photo stream. He managed it by creating a new Flickr ID. Hopefully, it works for you too...

And so far, no complaints received. In the contrary, some very encouraging help for improving this database. Looking forward to have yours too;-))

Cheers
Marc

[ChristianK]

I would love to Marc, but also a new account didn't work out Guess it is not meant to be..

[Oberst]

did you try logging in with facebook for the flikr picyure album?