eBay: early 2./JG 3 emblem

[ouidjat]

Hi Guys,

some little comment about this photo:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Jagdflieger-K...item51b14b78c6

- It's not situated "auf beiden Seiten des Rumpfes .." as described in JFV Teil 2, page 115.
- Machine's camouflage is 1940 one.

Regards, Franck.

[ChrisS]

Sinisa Sestanovic thinks it's a very early emblem which would account for the positioning. It's a fantastic find!

[Clint Mitchell]

But it's on a 71/02 camouflaged Bf109E? I'm unsure how it can be earlier than the larger more crude looking version on the 1939 70/71 camouflaged Bf109s?

[ouidjat]

Hi Chris & Clint,

It's not a very recent eBay auction, but I didn't think about the questions it's raising before ... (71/02 camouflage) hence I decided to post it.
As I wrote upper Dr. Prien wrote it was located on fuselage Under canopy lateral windcreen. (Was bigger than on cowling, obviously)

1/ As we can see it's not a rule ... as usual.
2/ But He writes, too, that this emblem was in use from autumn 1939 to spring 1940. (same page) So Clint, yes it's an "earlier" comparing with follower emblems.

So this last point is confirmed... And interesting to get so much details.

Best regards, Franck.

[Clint Mitchell]

Indeed Franck but this is significant in that it is actually applied to a 71/02 aircraft when it was believed to have been discontinued with the introduction of the 1940 scheme. It's appearance, location, and size is quite different also to the variation as seen on Bf109e's in September 1939. Sinisa discovered over on LEMB that this same photo appears on page 309 of Eric Mombeek and others, Jagdwaffe, Volume One Section 4, Attack in the West - May 1940. But the image appears to have been censored so as the only part of the emblem which is visible is the Sudeten German party insignia in the middle. So it's not the earliest incarnation of this emblem as the earlier variant was quite different in appearance in my opinion.

[ouidjat]

"but this is significant in that it is actually applied to a 71/02 aircraft when it was believed to have been discontinued with the introduction of the 1940 scheme"
??

Prien is writing exactely the contrary: "spring 1940" means that the 1940 scheme was already introduced. No?
As for the Mombeeck book photo, I think this has to do with bad printing and too high contrast.

Regards, Franck.

[Clint Mitchell]

Have you seen it applied to any other 71/02 camouflaged Bf109 then? If you check the relevant page on the Jagdwaffe title mentioned it's seems that the photo fooled everyone because they even have an artists rendition of the emblem which shows only the Sudeten German party insignia as being the emblem of 2./JG3. The original photo supplied to the Jagdwaffe team must have been as it appears in the Jagdwaffe book without any evidence of the bell part of the insignia being visible. So clearly some kind of early photo manipulation/censoring has occurred to obliterate the bell element of the insignia for some reason or another.

[ouidjat]

Ask directly Prien why he wrote this.

[sidney]

Chris, your post No.2 refers - I don't think that I said that this is a very early 2./JG3 emblem. In fact, it must be the later version of the 2./JG3 emblem, which must have been introduced sometime after the introduction of the new RLM 71/02/65 aircraft camouflage scheme, in the early spring of 1940.

[ChrisS]

Yes Sinisa please forgive me I intendedly misrepresented you