Luftwaffe in colour - camouflage and markings, Bf 110, Fw 190 and Bf 109 -this page last updated March 2019

F-4 trop Friedrich 'white 1' 4./JG 3 Lt. Alfred Helms

above;
Color Farb Dia 18.5.1940 Fieseler Storch in Le Doyen Nivelles Belgien

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7, III./JG 77, Belgrad Semlin airfield, Yugoslavia, May, 1941

A selection of the best colour shots of the Luftwaffe, featuring all genuine dias - no fake colorised images.

Above, Ju 52 and Ju 86 A from FFS B34, Kastrup, Copenhagen Airport. Part of a series of pictures taken by the German flying instructor Josef Rotty. From the collections of the Danish Freedom Museum (part of the Danish National Museum)

Staka Oblt Böhner, 6./JG 53 on "Yellow 9" at Westerland AF at Sylt in July 1941. Here is Böhner again.

..a nice series of colour images currently offered for sale on Ebay. These may or may not be genuine historically accurate reproductions but are useful for an idea of colours and markings.. (as usual here click on the pic for a larger image..)

Servicing a ZG 26 Messerschmitt Bf 110D-3 fitted with the wing-mounted drop tanks on a Sicilian airfield, likely Palermo.

Arados in hellblau - Ar 196

Arado 196 in overall hellblau (light blue) as seen while serving on the German raider (Hilfskreuzer) 'Orion' during 1941

Maj. Helmut Wick JG 2 & his Me 109 E WNr. 5344 - last update 29 October 2015

Having worked closely with Erik Mombeeck on his JG 2 history we've managed to pull together quite a few pics of leading JG 2 ace Helmut Wick and his WNr 5344 over the past few years... click on the pics for a larger view.

Wick went from the rank of Leutnant to the post of Kommodore in the space of just one summer based on little more than his ability to 'shoot down' RAF fighters. He was the embodiment of the Jagdflieger obssession with  the Abschussliste - the system of points and then decorations awarded for a certain number of  'victories'- a flawed 'system' which pandered ultimately to no more than personal ambition and the need for status and recognition.

First up, Wick's machine following his 18th victory on 16 Aug 1940. As an Oberleutnant he had been appointed Staffelkapitän 3./JG 2 on 22 June 1940 - note no tactical markings on the wingtips. Just forward of the Staffel number is Wick's 'humming bird' emblem. Wick was likely flying this machine on 24 August when he returned his 19th and 20th victories which 'qualified' him for the award of the Ritterkreuz. The following day he returned two more victories.



It is likely that this photo was taken on 29 October, as it shows 43 kills... Wick scored his 43rd and 44th kills on the 29th. Me 109 E coded " << " of the Stab I./JG 2 flown by Hptm. later Major Helmut Wick RK+EL mit ca. 42 Luftsiegen am Seitenruder October 1940 in Brest-Poulmic.

The 44th bar has been added... this is between 29 Oct and 5 November, again note no tactical markings on the wingtips:





Close-up of the nose... note the worn finish on the spinner, and the very irregular camo demarcation along the leading edges of the wings... note also that what you can see of the leading edge of the port wing appears to not display any wingtip tactical markings at all, just a continuation of the camo:



Here's his aircraft on 6 November 1940, following his 48th through 52nd victories achieved earlier that day:





26 November 1940. Major Wick preparing to take off on his penultimate combat flight, no contact with the enemy. Score up to that point, 54 victories. He was shot down and killed less than 48 hours later.





Here 5344 is sporting Geschwaderkommodore markings, dating the photo between 20 October and 28 November.

Focke Wulf 190 nightfighters - Kurt Welter 5./JG 302

Seen here in Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg) during January 1944 Ofw. Kurt Welter of 5./JG 302 poses for a snapshot in front of his Neptun radar equipped Fw 190 A-5/U2 'Porcupine' with his mechanics. Note the rod antennae of the FuG 217 radar protruding from the upper forward fuselage and the flame damping shields over the exhaust slats.

From Jean-Yves Lorant's interview with Fritz Gniffke (6./ JG 302) in the late 1970s

" ..Welter had downed two Lancasters during the night of 2-3 December 1943, bringing his total to 11, all returned on wilde Sausorties. On the night of 21-22 January he had run into a Mosquito north of Magdeburg, but the English pilot had managed to get away..Welter was our role model - we certainly didn't have any others - there were very few if any other wilde Sau pilots who had managed more than two victories at that time.."






Seen during the spring of 1944 at Werneuchen a FuG 218 radar equipped Fw 190 A-6 of Nachtjagdgruppe 10. (Classic Colours Nachtjäger volume captions this as a FuG 217) Both photos are extracted from Jean-Yves Lorant's Fw 190 Docavia book with the author's permission. On P235 of this volume there is picture of a line-up of Nachtjagdgruppe 10 machines. Most of the pilots and machines seving with NJGr. 10 during early 1944 were seconded from I./JG 300 including Hptm. Friedrich-Karl Müller.  Click on the pics for a better view..



More Fw 190 nightfighters on this blog here, including Klaus Bretschneider's FuG 217 Neptun radar equipped Fw 190 A-7 seen at Rheine during early 1944

Ein Oberbürgermeister fliegt an die Front.

Oberbürgermeister, Kreisleiter Dr. Rickel pays a visit to Lehrgeschwader 1 in September 1941. LG 1 was then operating over Greece and north Africa but had been based in peacetime in Greifswald. In this shot, taken during his trip home, the camera-ship is flying in close formation with the Ju 88 flown by the Geschwaderkommodore Major Friedrich Karl Knust.

Walter Wagner's 'white 11' II.(Sturm)/JG4 - January 1945

Technicians of the 404th FG examine Gef. Walter Wagner's 'white 11', a Fw 190A8/R2 belonging to II.(Sturm)/JG4 seen here shortly after the hapless German pilot force-landed on the airfield at St. Trond on 1.1.1945 during the Bodenplatte operation. These are screen 'grabs' from rare US footage that was aired on a German TV programme. Click on the images for a slightly larger view.