Kdo. Nowotny markings : STOP THE MYTH !

[O.Menu]

Hi,

I m pretty disturb to see that nowadays many Me262 authors are still publishing wrong captions or wrong profiles, stating that a Me 262 from Kdo. Nowotny had a yellow fuselage band and the well known “snake” camouflage pattern on the tail fin, when both are wrong!

It seems that all this especially began from a well known film showing “white 1” advancing out of a row of Me 262 with “white 19” becoming first on the line. Then “green 3” W.Nr.110813 is saw coming in front of the camera.


First doubts appeared when I saw gun camera shots showing F.Schall “white 7” W.Nr.110404, obviously without any yellow fuselage band.

Then came Mr Manfred Boehme in 1992 with “JG 7”, Schiffer Ed. who told us that W.Nr.110813 was produced in December 44, after Kdo. Nowotny was disbanded on 19th November 44… So we can concluded that the above film shows airplanes from III./EJG2 and not from Kdo. Nowotny as usually stated.

Finally came Mr Axel Urbanke in 1998 with his marvellous “Green Hearts First In Combat With The Dora 9” who was the first definitely showing an airplane from Kdo. Nowotwy which was “white 2” W.Nr. 110389. Her previous yellow fuselage band, from EKdo 262, is clearly over-painted, the camouflage is a very dark one, and there is a white painted quarter on the rudders lower-rear part.


So since 1998, it became easy to suppose that photos from F. Schall “white 1”, Schreiders “white3” W.Nr.110372 and Helmut Baudach “white or yellow 6 or 8” were all 3 showing airplanes under Kdo. Nowotny markings.


Smith & Creek in Me 262 volume2 from Classic Pub. and Dan O’Connell in is recent book “Messerschmitt Me 262 – The Production Log 1941-1945” ended the story explaining that the “snake” tail fins were actually wooden experimental fins, for what I understand produced in December 44, sometimes retrofitted over earlier Me 262 this explaining why some airplanes produced before Kdo. Nowotny was disbanded could be seen with this "snake" tailplane in December44 or later, as the very known W.Nr.170003 V7 pictured in color.

Finally to conclude have a look on this one W.Nr.110371, which except from the missing white or yellow front nose fuselage digits show all the characteristics from a Kdo. Nowotny Me 262: a pretty dark camo without any yellow fuselage band nor any “snake” pattern camo on the tail fin but with a white quarter on the rear and bottom part from the rudder. Note that this white painted quarter is more specific from late 1944 Me 262 production than from Kdo. Nowotny.


And to this last one 110522 with the yellow fuselage band added after it’s transfer to III./EJG2, pictured in colour inside “Messerschmitt Me 262 – Development-Testing-Production” book from W.Radinger & W.Schick, 1993. The info that it was an airplane transferred from Kdo. Nowotny come from Dan O’Connell book.



Cheers,

Olivier Menu.

Note: I know authors dislike when photos are published on the web, that’s why, except one, I made them very small (200 pixels wide and 5ko size). Note also that all of them had been already published at least for two times before. Anyway if asked I will delete them.