Color of the tongue of the red Tatzelwurm

[Primoz]

What color was the tongue of the red Tatzelwurm of 5./JG 1 ?

The white, yellow and green ones of 4. and 6. Staffel and Stab/II./JG 1 had red tongues while the red one of 5./JG 1 had a lighter tongue - was it yellow or pink?

[Peter D Evans]

Not JG1.... but according to the colour profiles within the ClassicColours series "Jagdwaffe" has the red Tatzelwurm emblems on Bf109's of 2./JG3 as being yellow... so I would imagine that the red Tatzelwurm's used by of 5./JG 1 would be the same.

Cheers,

Peter D Evans
LEMB moderator

[Peter D Evans]

Of course, the place I should have looked was within the pages of ClassicColours "Defenders of the Reich" three volume set on JG1... and the many colour profiles of Fw190's with the red 5./JG1 Staffel emblem shows a red Tatzelwurm with a yellow tongue...

[Primoz]

Thanks a lot. If the tongue was yellow it seems plausible that some Fw 190s of JG 1 had red lower cowls. There are a few photos where the lower cowl appears very dark (as dark as the red Tatzelwurm) while the tongue looks light - so they can't be the same color. Of course, the cowls could have been orange and orange could look much darker than the normal yellow in b&w photos.

The color of the tongue is the most reliable distinguishing feature - the red Tatzelwurm had a light tongue while the green one had a darker (= red) tongue.

[Peter D Evans]

Its funny that you mention the possibility of the lower cowls on these JG1 Fw190's being red. Several of the ClassicColours profiles in volume 1 and volume 2 have, as you can probably guess, been finished with red under cowls. These include in volume 1 alone:

Fw190A-2 "Black 8" Uffz.Josef Kehrle of 5./JG1, Katwijk, Summer 1942
Fw190A-3 "White 10" of 4./JG1, Woonsdrecht, Summer 1942
Fw190A-3, WNr.0427 "Black 2" Uffz.Josef Kehrle of 5./JG1, Katwijk, July 1942
Fw190A-3 "White 12" Uffz.Johannes Rathenow of 10./JG1, Holland 1942
Fw190A-3 "White 8" Uffz.Rudolf Haninger of 4./JG1, Summer 1942
Fw190A-3 (or A-2) "Black 9" Uffz.Robert Stellfeld of 5./JG1, Katwijk, Summer 1942
Fw190A-4 WNr.614 "Yellow 4" of 12./JG1, Munchen-Gladbach, late 1942

...and there are similar profiles in volume 2...

cheers,

Peter D Evans
LEMB moderator

[Primoz]

Well, some people claim there were only yellow lower cowls (for instance there was a long discussion on Air Warfare Forum).