Alfred Miksch' black 5, 13 and 20

[vinnie]

Originally Posted by John Beaman

Earlier in this thread when listing loss records for these aircraft, I posted that Dr. Prien beleived that 20 had been repainted as 5. This was incorrect. They are not the same aircraft. This was due to a faulty translation.

It is possible that the rudder from 20 made its way onto 5.

Could be true, I don't know... The rudder has to be the same, and I also thought that there were similarities when looking at the wing and tail camouflage patterns of black 5 and 20. However, there are no signs on the fuselage of black 20 that show a previous '5'.
I think that the pictures of the men painting on the rudder (on which you can see the WerkNr. '15429') and the picture Martin just added are both of black 5 Werknummer 15429. The picture of Miksch standing in front of (the rear of) black 20 could be another plane, since there is no Werknummer readable on the tail. This would prove the theory, although I still tend to believe that the camouflage on the tail is exactly the same as on black 5 15429, so that black 5 was indeed repainted as 20.

[mdejong]

For me it is sure that the tail is from Black "20", the same as the picture where Miksch is standing in front of. The camo pattern is identical.

Martin

[vinnie]

I agree, Martin. Here is the picture of black 5. I added the camouflage spots that you highlighted (in the same colours you used). I also marked the similarities I could find in the camouflage of black 5 and 20. For me, 15429 was black 5 and after that repainted as black 20.

[mdejong]

Originally Posted by mdejong

This picture is shown in magazine "Der Adler" dated from 14. September 1943.