The mysterious ‘swoosh’ - late-war Fw 190 colours by Giampiero Piva

 The mysterious ‘swoosh’   by Giampiero Piva

In the second half of 1944, the use of the new RLM 81 and 82 colours began to become widespread in production, alongside the practice of leaving the undersides of the wings partially in bare metal. On a number of Fw 190s - both short and long-noses - a section of the fuselage also appears to be painted in a darker shade than RLM 76, perhaps RLM 75, which generally extends beneath the fuselage itself. There is no certainty regarding the purpose of this ‘swoosh’, as British and American experts and researchers call it; there are only many hypotheses. Finally, it should be noted that it is present on both the FW 190 A/F/G (photo 1) and the FW 190 D (photo 2).

Fw 190 D-9 in JG 300 (1)

from an article compiled by this blog writer for Scale Aircraft Modelling back in 2003. Artwork by Mark Rolfe.

Stab./JG 300 D-9 seen in Prague post-war. The last Kommodore of JG 300 was Günther Rall - his Geschwaderstab may have taken on charge some D-9s in April 1945 but it is not known if Rall himself ever flew a combat sortie in the D-9.

Click on the images to read the captions

Note 'RLM 83' is now considered by some experts to have been a 'maritime blue' - that '83' was a 'green' is/was a widely held assumption possibly originating in the 1980s in the work of Thomas Hitchcock. According to Kiroff there are different 'distinct 'recipes' for Farbton 81 and 82 - and only one for '83'  - others consider blue '83' to have been a 'test' colour for over-water ops, with only limited 'documentary evidence' restricted to a handful of Ju 88 units operating in the Med. More on this shortly....

Also on this blog;

Last sorties of JG 300, April 1945

New Luftwaffe books - 296 Verlag, Luftwaffe Gallery, Luftwaffe in Colour

Compiled by two leading writer/researchers at Lela Presse (the leading French publisher of Luftwaffe publications)  'Luftwaffe in Colour - the Victory years' is part one of a two-part photographic compilation of the best of Luftwaffe colour photography published by Casemate in this English-language edition. This is a card-covered softback featuring some 160 pages on thick glossy paper and divided into nine chapters covering all theatres such as 'Poland and the Sitzkrieg', the 'Blitz and the Battle of Britain", 'Barbarossa', the 'Mediterranean and Africa'. The PK photo reporters on the ground for the launch of Blitzkrieg and the subsequent campaigns had privileged access to colour film for official wartime German outlets but there are a good number of images here from private collections- at least one JG 53 pilot regularly 'raided' local shops in search of colour film. Luftwaffe camouflage schemes have long been a subject of deep debate among modellers and enthusiasts. Here the reader can trace the evolution of Luftwaffe finishes directly from the 1939 dark greens of the Stukas and Heinkels - suitable for low-level attacks over Eastern European conifer forests and fields - to the high altitude blues and light greys introduced for fighter combat in the West and the Battle of Britain during 1940. Bf 109 Friedrichs and Bf 110 Zerstörer appear in winter camouflage schemes in Russia and the Sandgelb yellow and browns of the desert. Aircraft types covered include seaplanes and transports to night fighters, trainers and reconnaissance machines. Among my personal favourites are photos of the Bf 109 Emils of JG 26 and JG 53 in northern France - want to know exactly what the Grau Grün Hellblau 02 /71/65 combination looked like? Then check out pages 57-60. And then follow the attempts of the Jagdgeschwader 54 and 77 to darken these 'bright' colours and tone down the fuselages of their machines for, say, the Balkans campaign - the photos on pages 83-87 are exceptional. It is probably true to state that any photo book stands or falls on the quality of photo reproduction and fortunately here not only is the standard very high but the quality of 90% of the images is very good indeed while each picture is informatively and expertly captioned. This is a book to keep close to hand for reference, to dip into constantly. I look forward to volume II, the 'Years of Defeat 1943-1945'.

The latest Luftwaffe Gallery, edition No. 5, has arrived.  Once again I have worked on the English text

Erik's latest Luftwaffe Gallery includes the first accounts in English from pilots and crews of a little-known weather reconnaissance unit Wekusta 2. Wekusta 2 deployed the He 177 in the long-range weather recce role. The full story of Wekusta 2 is told by Pierre Babin in his French-language book from Heimdal devoted to the unit reviewed in a previous 'new Luftwaffe books' blog piece, see link below..
Page samples of the latest 'Luftwaffe Gallery' and ordering on Erik's site here

More on Wekusta 2 on this blog
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/wekusta-2-cloud-chasers-of-luftwaffe.html

message from Kurt Braatz of 296 Verlag; ".. I managed to publish Vol. I of a new biography of Robert von Greim. It covers v. Greim's career as a fighter pilot in WW I - he returned some 30 victories and was awarded the Pour le Mérite - and the immediate postwar period with Ernst Udet as stunt flyers until v. Greim's first strange encounter with a yet completely unknown wannabe revolutionist named Adolf Hitler in March, 1920. 288 pages, 179 mostly unpublished photographs..order here"

" ...Sie haben lange auf eine Neuerscheinung des NeunundzwanzigSechs Verlags warten müssen, aber hier ist sie nun, rechtzeitig vor Weihnachten. Sie beschreibt das Leben und Überleben des Jagdfliegers Robert von Greim im Ersten Weltkrieg. Am Ende dieses Krieges stehen für Greim nach hunderten von Luftkämpfen und 30 Abschüssen die Verleihung des Ordens Pour le Mérite und die Erhebung in den Adelsstand – aber auch ein ungewisses Schicksal. Eine Weile schlägt er sich noch mit seinem engen Freund Ernst Udet als Stuntpilot durch, ehe das Fliegen in Deutschland völlig verboten wird... Robert v. Greim hat seinen Weg durch den Ersten Weltkrieg und die Zeit danach genau dokumentiert und fotografiert. So ist ein äußerst packendes Buch entstanden, das die Reihe unserer Biographien auf jenem hohen Niveau fortführt, mit dem wir uns über viele Jahre Ihre Anerkennung erwerben konnten. Sie können Robert von Greim. Jagdflieger im Ersten Weltkrieg ab sofort unter www.neunundzwanzigsechs.de bestellen. Dort finden Sie auch weitere ausführliche Informationen und Leseproben..."

 a quick mention for the latest issue of After The Battle - issue no 174 covers the battle of the Vercors - on July 21 the Germans launched the largest operation ever conducted against the Resistance in Western Europe, attacking with airborne and mountain troops to destroy these French insurgent groups in the Vercors. Also in issue no. 174 an article entitled The Dissolution of the Luftwaffe — Following the final defeat of Germany the Allied governments decided that she must not be allowed to rise again as a military power, the thinking being that despite the efforts of the victors after the First World War, Germany had been able to recover so completely that in a relatively short period she was able to unleash another world war within 25 years. This article is the story of the complete disarming of the Luftwaffe.

A quick link to all Luftwaffe book reviews on this blog, click here

Late-war variant Fw 190 Dora with Ta 152 tail (Eduard kit Fw 190 D-9 Late ProfiPACK)

Eduard's latest release features another boxing of their very nice 1/48 scale Dora kit - a late-war variant fitted with the wider broad chord Ta 152 empennage. The kit itself is nicely reviewed on britmodeller here. The article excerpt below neatly illustrates the two types of Dora tail alongside each other (Fw 190/Ta 152 Aircraft in Detail by Neil Page in SAM 27/12) and the lower photo depicts the Eduard tails as published on their Facebook page.

 Like other German late-war fighter aircraft, production of the Fw 190 Dora variants was largely dispersed with major aircraft components being brought together and mated up at a final assembly location. The majority of these components were painted to varying degrees prior to delivery resulting in the 'pieced together' appearance of many Fw 190 Dora camouflage schemes. Various attempts were made to 'standardise' the production effort - one such was the planned introduction on the later Dora variants of the broad chord tail built for the Ta 152. And while these airframes may appear to be 'hybrids' the so-called Einheitsheck or 'uniform tail' ( see Rodeike) was designed, firstly, to be constructed from non-strategic materials (wood) and, secondly, to fit all the later planned Doras (D-12, D-13, D-14 up to the D-15). However the fascination with the variant resides in the fact that only two examples have been documented photographically, whether as new or replacement items is unknown. From Jim Crow's collection, the first photograph to appear ( in Monogram Close-up No. 10, but subsequently in multiple sources, including Hildebrandt 'Broken Eagles', Aero Detail Fw 190 D, German Aircraft Interiors by Merrick, 'Greenhearts'  by Urbanke and so on and so forth.. )  showed the wrecked and burnt-out tail fin of WNr. 500645 (clearly visible). According to authors Smith and Creek the photo appeared to depict     "... the remains of what might be a Fw 190 D-15. WNr. 500645 would suggest the type is a Fw 190 D-9 but the revised fin seems incompatible with this series. However the new fin was to be standard on the Fw 190 D-15.."  German authors Griehl and Dressel also agree in their Fw 190/Ta 152 book published in 1997 that this is   "... the wreck of a Fw 190 D-15 discovered close to the Czech border. Despite the Werknummer the empennage differs considerably from that of a Dora-9 ". Dietmar Herrmann in his 'Focke Wulf Ta 152' volume identifies the broad chord tail fin of WNr. 500645 as belonging to " Ta 152 C WNr 500645 "  - with no further commentary. Peter Rodeike - author of the Focke Wulf 190 'bible' - goes further in his Jagdflugzeug 190 book (P.404); " the so-called Einheitsheck or 'uniform tail' was planned for the Dora from the spring of 1945 and designed for series production of the Ta 152..it can be seen that the yellow/white/yellow fuselage tail bands of JG 2 are also visible .." W.Nr. 500645 was most recently illustrated as 'black 6' from III./JG 2  (Crandall Fw 190 Dora, Vol I) although this profile is speculative and apparently not based on any documentary evidence- although now featured on a least one after-market decal sheet and as an option in this Eduard boxing. The single 'known' photograph was allegedly published in a Dutch monograph in the 1970's but surprisingly not a single example has yet surfaced anywhere (?)

 

Urbanke's 'Greenhearts' volume was perhaps the first to publish pictures of what was identified as 'brown 4' of 7./JG 26, WNr. 500647 and photographed by a Canadian soldier at Hustedt airfield near Celle. Again the photographs appear to show a Dora-9 fitted with the wide tail and given that the two Werknummern are so close together, this according to author and publisher " demonstrates that a small number of of Fw 190 Doras were constructed with the Ta 152 tail ".

This aircraft is the box-top subject of the new Eduard Dora - 'brown 4' WNr. 500647 of JG 26. A third photograph of this machine was published in Hideki Noro's 'LO+ST' photo album of captured and abandoned Luftwaffe aircraft - interestingly this 'new' photo, along with the previously published pics of this aircraft, again fails to show a complete view of the tail unit, leading some to suggest in a debate on one forum that 500647 does " not have a Ta 152 tail..." (see P282 Crandall Vol II -while the broader tail fin appears to be present the top of the fin itself is nonetheless cropped out so it is not possible to confirm absolutely the absence of the typical pointed Dora aerial mast ). However it is now generally assumed that other Doras in the WNr. 500600 range were fitted with the same broad Ta 152 tail and are mostly covered here on Eduard's decal options.

There are a number of 'blanks' in the history of the Dora - such as the 'operations' of Kampfgeschwader units re-organised and re-equipped with fighters in the last months of the war. These so-called Kampfgeschwader (Jagd) or KG (J) units - the designation reflecting their conversion to the fighter or Jagd role - presumably did only relatively limited flying due to difficulties in obaining fuel. In SAM 27/12 Dora/Ta 152 'Aircraft in Profile' (February 2006) article a third candidate Dora with Ta 152 tail was illustrated speculatively - a 9./KG(J) 27 machine 'yellow 6' featuring green/white rear fuselage band checks. Noted Luftwaffe colours researcher David E. Brown first wrote about KG(J) Doras, specifically "ge.6 + I" of 9./KG(J) 27, way back in July 2000 - 11 years ago. His commentary and a profile by Claes Sundin were posted on Claes' website at that time. As recently as 2008 the existence of these Doras was being questioned by one prominent Dora Experte - however with the passage of time more KG(J) 27 aircraft have surfaced, the majority wearing the green/white Karobands, which rather vindicates David E. Brown's research. Interestingly - giving previously expressed doubts - a KG(J) 27 green/white tailband on a Dora fuselage is shown on page 337 / Vol. 2 of the Crandall Dora book. Also worth pointing out that the white/green fuselage checks have been seen photographically on this unit's Antons, which presumably accounts for this shift - although no artwork. Some 'speculative' machines are more valid than others it would appear.
  
'Yellow 6' was identified from loss reports as WNr. 500641, subsequently revised as WNr. 500648, just one number above the JG 26 machine. III./KG 27(J) lost two Doras in action on 1 April 1945, one of which was the aforementioned 'yellow 6'. And although the profile is speculative, this aircraft was likely finished in the typical Mimetall scheme - fuselage sides in the green-blue variation of 76, fuselage spine and engine cowling in 81 Braunviolett, fuselage underside natural metal from the wheel well back to the fuselage insert, wing leading edges and the front underwing panel probably 75 Mittelgrau with the control surfaces in 76. Note that these later Doras were more often than not fitted with the re-designed centreline weapons rack - the ETC 504 was a simplified carrier featuring a much smaller mounting and fairing.

Richard Goyat on Fw 190 colours 74/75/76

The classic Luftwaffe fighter colours, Farbton 74 Graugrün, Farbton 75 Grauviolett and Farbton 76 Lichtblau.. Courtesy of Richard Goyat, herewith some photos of wreckage belonging to a Fw 190 retrieved from a 'dig' that took place a few years ago at Semallé, (Orne, Basse Normandie) France. The location suggests that this was an aircraft possibly of JG 1 dating from August 1944. Click on the images for a closer view.

View of the lower wing surface -  no surprises here, RLM 76

Below; a view of the horizontal stabiliser. Note the bright red of the dotted stencil markings - an indication that the colours on this piece appear not to have undergone any sort of 'shift' and therefore must be pretty close to the colours as applied during the operational career of this machine. The 'darker' colour is either a 'grey-green' or 'green-grey' 74, almost certainly the Graugrün variation of '74'. The shade appears overwhelmingly 'green'. Richard makes the point that this '74' as applied to the Fw 190 differs from the typical '74' seen on a Bf 109 cowling part which has a distinctive 'grey-blue' cast.

The lighter grey colour corresponds to the typical '75', although very thinly sprayed and revealing an undercoat of  RLM 02 which appears to have given the part a tint of what is described as 'violet' - the classic Grauviolett perhaps. Again this tint is more marked on the Fw 190 than that seen on the Bf 109.

Note that these parts have been wiped over with a dampish rag to achieve a certain 'lustre' and that when dry the colours appear much more 'matt' and 'dull' in tone and that the differences in 'shade' and 'tint' are much less marked.

Luftwaffe im Focus decals - Döbrich, Grabmann

Available from Startverlag, publishers of 'Luftwaffe im Focus' are new decal sheets covering machines featured in their magazine issues. The 1/72 scale sheet features no less than seven interesting subjects for Bf 109 E, F and G variants and two markings for Fw 190 A. As mentioned they have all been illustrated in “Luftwaffe im Focus” magazine issues 2, 3 and 4.


Article-No. LIF- 72005

Bf 109 G-2 "yellow 10" of 6./JG 5, aircraft flown by Ritterkreuzträger Fw. Döbrich,  Finland, spring 1943
This sheet also features a second Bf 109 G-2 "yellow 10" assigned to JG 5 ace Döbrich.
Bf 109 G-14 "blue 8" of 16./JG 5, aircraft from Ofw. Halstrick with unknown "Kölle alaaf" - emblem, Stavanger/Norway, Autumn 1944
Bf 109 E-4 "yellow 6" from 9./JG 3, France, September 1940
Bf 109 F-2 "black 9" from 8./JG 54, Russia, Winter 1941/42
Bf 109 G-6 “brown 12” from the fighter pilot Uffz. Rudolf Dreesmann, 12./JG 51 “Mölders”, Russia, March 1944
Bf 109 G-14/AS, “white 13” from Uffz. Maxis, 13./JG 53, Germany, January 1945
Fw 190 A-5 "red X”, personal aircraft of Oberstleutnant Grabmann, 3. Jagddivision and Jagdführer Holland, Reich 1942/43

Fw 190 A-4 "black 6”, Fw. Bremer, of 5./JG 1, with unusual camouflage, Woensdrecht/Netherlands, Spring 1943

Price in Germany: 12,00 Euro 19% VAT and postage included
Price in Europe: 15,00 Euro postage included
Price outside Europe: 15.00 Euro postage included

LiF are at http://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/

Bf 109 Late versions- camouflage and markings (MMP books) - Krzysztof Wotowski

Now this was a nice surprise from MMP books (Mushroom). 'Bf 109 Late versions' is a large A-4 format, card-covered 112-page volume of Krzysztof Wotowski's superb artworks covering the later versions of the Bf109. If you have Banyl-Reipl's Warpaint 'book' then this is similar - although minus all the appalling errors in the B-R Warpaint booklet! Wolowski's new volume is much more carefully compiled and exploits the latest research and picture 'finds'. Starting with Günther Specht's G-5/AS, each late variant is given a page or so of text, scale side-views, three or four pages of photographs and up to eleven pages of very nicely rendered profile artwork (in the case of the K-4). Captions are lengthy and include full discussion of the likely colours. The artworks are reproduced mostly at around 1/32 scale (ie large !) at a guess, including top views, lower surface views and 'offical' camouflage schemes. The text introducing each variant details developmental differences and some operational highlights while providing information on manufacturers and Werknummer blocks and includes decent photographic coverage including some colour images. Are there errors in his artwork - well of course there are! I have yet to come across a 'profile artist' who doesn't fill his artwork with 'errors'. Perhaps it is fairer to say that interpreting colour information from black and white photos is a pretty subjective 'science' so some of the artist's choices will inevitably come under discussion (see below).

Unfortunately the odd photograph is not very well reproduced, being rather too dark and I would say that a majority of the pictures portray abandoned and wrecked aircraft. This certainly doesn't detract from the conviction of the overall presentation since this book is primarily about Krzysztof's artwork. As I mentioned, one or two of his colour choices will raise eyebrows, for example the well-known 'Green 7' of JG 300 (P73) has here become a III./JG 6 machine - 'because JG 300 were never based in Prague' - when we know that the rump of this unit was indeed in Prague, thanks to the accounts in Lorant and Goyat's JG 300 history quoted in this volume's bibliography. However this is pretty minor league criticism. To conclude the profile artist presents a wide range of reasonably convincing profile artworks that will be indispensable viewing/reading for late-war Bf109 enthusiasts and modellers.Certainly one of the better profile artwork books I've come across and an excellent incentive to check out some of MMP's other recent Luftwaffe titles. More info at http://www.mmpbooks.biz/

Sadly author/illustrator Krzysztof Wotowski passed away shortly after the publication of this book.

SG 2 Fw190 camouflage and markings - Luftwaffe colour, new-tool Revell Fw 190 F-8 in 32nd

According to their 'About' page Critical Past.com is one of the "largest online collections of historic, royalty-free film footage and still images in the world" - here are some stills from footage in their archive taken at Ansbach or Herzogenaurach of two SG 2 Fw 190s being examined by eager GIs.
The stills appear to show a FW 190 F-8 (note the underwing racks on 'chevron green 2') and a Fw 190 A-8 (MG151 in outboard wing stations) - "Green 2" is Wnr. 588453 and the machine is finished in Darkgreen (82), Grauviolett (75) and Light blue (76). The second machine "yellow 8" appears to be finished in dark green (82) and braunviolett (81). The yellow nose band identifies these aircraft as being from I./SG 2 under Luftflotte 4 command, possibly the only Fw190 units with the yellow nose band. The other Gruppen of SG 2 were under Luftflotte 6 and thus had no yellow nose band. Even so these machines appear to be displaying a II. Gruppe bar aft of the fuselage Balkenkreuz.

Pre-war Bf 109 Emil- prewar colour footage RLM 70/71

Film screen shots from a German documentary featuring Hannes Trautloft in this PK film.   This footage tends to reinforce the notion that 109 Ds and Es were not painted in a single uppersurface green as sometimes stated and which appears to be IMHO merely an effect of lighting conditions - double click on the image for a larger view...