Fw 190 D-9, W.Nr. 210xxx, "Brown 9 + -", 7./JG 26

[PhilippeDM]

Dear Marc and Eric, Ahoy Tomas,

Firstly, I wish to thank you all again for the attention you send me, a few months ago...
Actually I have the intense pleasure and joy to discover your marvelous book covering the Fw 190 (actually, I can't wait for volume II, as your findings concerning the Mimetallplant will take more than my attention)
I'm try to read your book in a very thorough way: including listings of pictures I'm compiling.This make that I'm progressing very slowly. I'm trying to find pictures of every aircraft you discuss and that's the reason of my asking. On page 120 you present Fw 190 D-9, W.Nr. 210xxx, "Brown 9 + -", 7./JG 26, but without pctures. Browsing through my dcumentation I found the picture of a "Brown 9 + -" in Axel Urbanke "Green Hearts, Eagle Editions Ltd., 1998, p 211 under.
My first question is simple; is that the plane you discuss there?
Of course, I browsed through quite a lot of books to find it. Doing so, I came acrross another picture different times. I speak of the picture on p. 180, in Urbanke's book or yours on page 13 upper (JaPo). Reading the caption, location and date seem correct. What strikes me is the soldier on front of both pictures (Ofw. Hansen, referring to the caption of Urbanke on p. 180. His outfit seems to be the same, the scene is also quite the same (birch trees in the background). Unfortunately, but due to the granular quality of the pic, on p. 180 (or p. 13 in your (JaPo) book) it seems impossible to determine the left side camouflage on the cowling).
Is there more evidence concerning the plane's yellow rudder and under cowling? I miss something here perhaps, as I do not remember the order issuing the prescriptions used on the Western Theater of Operations at this stage of the war.
If I'm correct with the picture identification, I can completely agree with the tapering of the fuselage bands, as this is clearly shown on Urbanke's book.
What do you think? I'm very interested in your findings about this plane...
PS any hint when volume II will be published???

[Eric Larger]

Hello Philippe

First of al many thanks to you for your kind words .

yes you are right "Brown 9 + -" is the one in Axel Urbanke "Green Hearts, Eagle Editions Ltd., p 211 . We did not have this photo for the publication, but we decided to describe this machine as it was important for us .

Concerning the tonal différence between the under and side engine cowling panels , two options can be retained

Either the underside panel is reapinted in yellow , possible as in summer 1944 a lot of german aircrafts on Western front had this panel painted like that

Etiher the aircraft was delivered with this panel in another undersides camouflage paint (one of the several variants of RLm76 or Green-blue)

This second option is confirmed by Marc's observation on wrecks of W.Nr 210102 found in Waasmunster and also by seval photos . Now on black and white photos is is difficult to determine which is which .

Concerning the machine in n Axel Urbanke "Green Hearts, Eagle Editions Ltd., p 180 this not the same than the one shown on page 211 .

The simpliest check is to look at the fin , on "brown 9" the leading hedge is not painted , but it is on the one page 180 . The limit between the upper and lower camouflage paints on the engine cowling of the machine depicted page 180 is more or less straigth without black area around the exhaust pipes .

This will then point at 2 hypothesis :

Either a machine built by Mimetal , an example is Fw 190D-9 , W.nr 500042 ,"JG26 Photographic history of the Luftwaffe top Guns", Airlife, p 147 knwon as having been a training machine of II./JG26 in late 1944. But we should find a blown canopy , and the machine on page 180 seems to have a flat canopy .

or a machine built by Fieseler , an early one, like the one in "Green Hearts", Eagle Editions Ltd., p 258

This is what I can say about this machine .

All the best

Eric