Question to Mr. Prien

[Denpasaro]

Mr. Prien, I read in Teil 5 of your Jagdverbände series that 7./JG 26 Bf 109E-7/Ns wore a black heart when in Sicily.
Can you confirm this fact?
Do you know the reason why they changed their red hearts into black hearts? This seems rather odd.
Thanks in advance.

Den

[Fairlop]

Hi Den,

One of my colleague from Revi magazine wrote an article about 7th Staffel over Malta. See http://www.revi.cz/en/revi/53_en.html and http://www.revi.cz/en/revi/54_en.html . If I remember right (I am out of my home and the printed versions) there was mentioned there it was a longtime mistake when the hearts were interpreted as red instead of black. A colour photograph confirmed this (?).

Regards,
Michal

[steve sheridan]

May i just pop in on this thread, to ask if anybody knows where you might be able to order this superb magazine from in the UK?
I used to be able to get these from The Aviation Bookshop in London, or Motor Books , also in the capital.

Best regs,
Steve.

[Fairlop]

Hi Steve,

Try to contact chief editor Petr Stachura on redakceATrevi.cz. I am sure he will find a solution.

Regards,
Michal

[steve sheridan]

Michal, thanks very much for the lead. I will try.

Best regs,
Steve.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by steve sheridan

I used to be able to get these from The Aviation Bookshop in London, or Motor Books , also in the capital.

Best regs,
Steve.

Just in case anyone goes looking for them, the Aviation Bookshop has now moved out of London to Tunbridge Wells in Kent. They are also on the web at http://www.aviation-bookshop.com/hub.htm

[steve sheridan]

Thanks Nick i am aware of this.
A bit to far now for me to travel to now!
Thanks all the same.
Steve.

[Jochen Prien]

Gentlemen,

back to the question Den raised - what colour was the Staffelzeichen of 7./JG 26 during the Staffel's service from Sicily in 1941 ?

We have shown a colour photo of a line up of 7./JG 26 a/c at Gela in February 1941 in JFV Vol. 9/I, p. 381, where the colour of the Staffel badge appears to be black rather than red, whereas on another photo from the same neagtive-film - Vol. 9/I, page 382 - the victory bars on the rudder are shown in a bright red. This together with the very dark appearance of the Heart-emblem on many of the numerous b/w photos of 7./JG 26 from this period led to the conclusion, that the colour of the heart was black rather than red.

As we made absolutely clear, this is an assumption, a more or less educated guess, based on the interpretation of contemporary colour photos.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Jochen Prien

[Denpasaro]

Dear Mr. Prien,

Thanks for your explanation and I can see that you understandably remain very cautious. However there is one thing I cannot figure out: how does it come to someone's mind to paint a heart in black?
May I suggest it could have been Weinrot (RLM 28), a colour that would appear very dark on a b&w film?
Thanks again.

Den

[Jan Bobek]

Concerning artical in REVI magazine let me clarify that author was Mr. Milan Krajči and research for color artwork was done by me. I consulted colors of heart emblem with Mr. Prien and Don Caldwell.

Color photos in books of Prien team helped to clarify camouflage colors of some 7./JG 26 aircraft being 71/02 rather than 74/75. Also serial numbers helped to clarify the age of 7./JG 26 aircraft during operations in MTO. I do not think that there were many brand new E-7s in 7. Staffel when they arrived to MTO.

The most surprising feature was color of heart emblem that really looks black on color photos.

In general - the emblem shall be red. Even when Müncheberg took over JG 77, he introduced the heart emblem ... in red color.

Because of some reason some 7./JG 26 aircraft in early 1941 apparently had this emblem in black color. I have no explanation for this issue. It seems that Staffel ground crew did not have shortage of red color, because victory bars are partly painted in red.