Erich Rudoffer's Messerschmitt Me-109E-1/3 Color Scheme - JG2 Battle of France era??

[Mark Copeland]

Hello Everyone!!

I was wondering if anyone had information on the markings for Erich Rudorffer's Me-109E-1/3 that he flew during his tenure with JG 2 in the Battle of France.

I know the general marking data, however I wanted to confirm the individual aircraft number that he commonly flew.

Was it "Rot 2" (Red 2)?

Anyone have any thoughts on this??? Much appreciated!!

Mark Copeland

[Jim P.]

But note that 2./JG 2 also seems to have employed just an outline of the number during 1940 and into, like with his 'black or red 9'.

[ChrisS]

Hello again Mark!

I think it must be Black 9, the 9 being an outline only. Note also the very unorthodox position of his 'scoreboard' and the early position of the Hakenkreutz, see below.

Hope this helps!

Chris

[Chris Goss]

I think Mark's question was about his time in the Battle of France-the photos show him post France as he was not promoted to Lt until 28 Oct. However, the photocopy from his logbook he sent me a number of years ago show that in Nov 40, he preferred '9' but if this was his preferred number in Battle of France, I cannot say

[Franek Grabowski]

Gents
We have here two different aircraft, or at least one of the photos was taken after the aircraft was repainted. I would say 1079 was photographed in September 1940, while the other one could have been taken at the same time as the well known series of Wick's photos. By the way, what were Staffeln colours at the time?

[Mark Copeland]

Thanks Everyone!!

Would everyone agree that we are seeing a RED "9" with a BLACK outline?

The dappling I know was common during the Battle of Britain timeframe.
Perhaps his Battle of France bird could be the same one as we are seeing only without the dappling??

Any thoughts gentlemen???

Thanks is advance!!

Mark Copeland

[ChrisS]

Chris Goss' comment about Rudorffer's rank and the timing of the photo is a very good one, I had completely overlooked that fairly fundamental point!

David Weiss has a I./JG 2 Bf 109 E photo with a Red 9 outlined in black, probably of Battle of France vintage, but he does not attribute it to Rudorffer:

http://www.bf-109.de/display.php?lan...&fotonummer=42

If you're correct about Red 9 then could this be Rudorffer's BoF mount?

Also Mark, where do you get your information about 'Red 9' come from? Plus, you'd mentioned Black 2 earlier, is this another possible machine?

Chris

[robert]

Hi,

According to Jochen Prien W.Nr.1079 "9" was a mount of Rudorffer from April 1940 (there are three photos of this plane in JFV Teil 4/I).
Another set of photos shows his "9" in April of 1941 and this rather another plane, although the set of photos posted in this thread could show the same "1079" after some re-painting works.

Regards

Robert

[ChrisS]

Hi Robert,

Sadly I don't have that volume of Priens, but may I ask do the pictures show a pre-mottled scheme?

Chris

So Red 9 W.Nr. 4859 in my last post was a 'red herring' if you pardon the pun.

[Jim P.]

Rudorffer's '9' had the outline of the number only!! This seems to have been the practice of 2./JG 2 from sometime in 1940 through into 1941.