This aircraft was photographed in October 1943 showing the White tail and the large white chevron outlined in a black and most likely yellow. Later on, in November or December of 1943 the aircraft was photographed again, this time showing the "White 20" and everything forward of that.
It's obvious from details in the camo and the overpainted chevron that it's the same aircraft. It's known that when the new JG1 emblem was painted on to the noses of JG1 aircraft, the red tailbands were added too, as was the gruppe bar for III gruppe. So while the markings aft of the balkenkreuz are speculative in the second profile, they are likely correct.
On January 31, 1944, Eberles machine was caught on film agan, this time by the guncamera of an allied fighter. While the photage is grainy it clearly shows a nonstandard wing camoflage pattern and light grey tape over the wingtipjoints.
Great scheme... the Barracuda notes say the Erla canopy was a retro fit... Does your research indicate when this upgrade was made or how the plane looked like prior to changing to the Erla canopy? Would it be reasonable to use a standard canopy instead of the Erla on the chevron version at the top of this page? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure, the photo showing the aircraft with Chevrons and Erla canopy was reportedly taken in October and Eberle was made Gruppenkommandeur on October 9:th. So if it was his old aircraft it most likely already had the Erla canopy fitted when the Chevrons were added.
ReplyDeleteIf the aircraft had been flown by the earlier Gruppenkommandeur then there's a possibilty that it had the standard canopy and chevrons earlier.