Bf 109 with wide yellow wingtips

[Yves Marino]

Recently I found a photo of a Bulgarian Bf 109 G6, probably U2 or U4, with the big wooden tail, with hastily overpainted german insignia and very wide yellow wingtips (almost the half top side of the wing is yellow). The Balkenkreuze seem to be from the late type - with no black cross, so the middle area wasn't overpainted. The photo was made probably in 1943/44.
Which Luftwaffe units are known to have such wide yellow wingtips?

[George Hopp]

For what it's worth, the large tail and outline Balken crosses would indicate a time frame of 1944/45 rather than 1943/44.

[Yves Marino]

George, on the photo you can see the diagonal St.Andrew’s crosses on the wings of the plane - national insignias used by the Royal Bulgarian Air Force until September 1944. So the year is for sure not 1945. With a great possibility it's the spring or summer of 1944.
The wide yellow wing ends are obviously some kind of high visibility marking – for some particular Luftwaffe-campaign at that time maybe?

[George Hopp]

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the German Balkan cross. The tall tail, if that is what you are saying, didn't come into service until the creation of the 109AS machines. Then later it started being produced by some Mtt factories. So, that a/c photo would probably have been taken in mid-1944.

[Yves Marino]

George, the information I received after some research is, that 28 Me 109 G2 and G6 were "donated" by Luftwaffe to the Royal Bulgarian Air Force and the planes were delivered from Bucharest on January 09, 1944. Some of them (it's not proven how many) have had the big wooden tail.