Aircraft Markings and CamouflageDiscuss Slovakian Aircraft Camouflage and Markings in the Technical forums; This thread will be for the discussion of Slovakian aircraft markings and camouflage in World War Two....
National Markings Used on Slovakian Military and Civil Aircraft in 1939-1945
During their short six year existence Slovak Air Arms changed national and tactical markings on their aircraft several times. On the other hand markings of civilian aircraft remained fairly consistent during this period.
Picture 1. First roundel of Slovak Air Arms, in use from 23rd June 1939 until 10th September 1939. The roundel was placed on wings and tail covering original roundel of former Czechoslovak Air Force.
Picture 2. With participation of Slovak Air Arms in German invasion of Poland as of 10th September roundel was changed by addition of 15cm wide white circle. As of 15th September German crosses were added on Slovak military aircraft in standard positions on wings and fuselage. This doubled marking was was kept on some aircraft for as long as March 1941.
Picture 3. New and definitive insignia of Slovak Air Arms, derived from German Balkenkreuz. In use from 15th October 1940 up until outbreak of Slovak National Uprising in fall of 1944. In accordance with common practice the crosses were placed on wings and tail of all Slovak military aircraft except Bf 109Es which wore crosses on wings and fuselage.
Picture 4. National insignia used on all Slovak civil aircraft and gliders starting with May 1940. It was placed on vertical tail surfaces always in combination with code letters - starting with country code "OK", then a dash sign and finishing with three letter code of each individual aircraft. Letter codes were placed on both sides of the fuselage and on wings.
Picture 5. So called "propaganda insignia" (propagačný znak) used only for a short time in period April-June 1941 on vertical tail surfaces of three aircraft Beneš-Mráz Be-555 Superbibi
Picture 6. Markings of insurgent Combined squadron ("Kombinovaná Letka") used on several aircraft during Slovak National Uprising in fall of 1944.
Source of info and color profiles from book "Slovenske letectvo 1939-1944" Volume 1 written by Juraj Rajninec. Artists: Jaroslav Múčka, Eva Rajnincová and Ing. František Válek
Color profile of Bf 109G-6 from HT model Special No. 909 "Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6", Artist: Jozef Anďal
Last edited by imalko; 01-09-2010 at 06:46 PM.
Reason: spelling and resizing the pictures
Piet, it's AVIA B-534 biplane fighter, build prewar by Czechoslovak industry. Although obsolescent it remained in service with Slovak Air Arms as late as 1944 for the lack of greater number of more modern fighters. One B.534 was credited for shooting down an Hungarian Ju 52 during Slovak National Uprising in September 1944 which was I believe the last kill achieved by biplane fighter in aviation history.
Types of aircraft shown on pictures: Picture 1. Avia Ba.33 (served as trainer), Picture 2. Letov Š.328, Picture 3. Avia B.534, Picture 4. Airspeed AS-6E "Envoy", Picture 5. Beneš-Mráz Be-555 Superbibi
Letov Š.328 was somewhat a workhorse of Slovak Air Arms (SVZ) serving as light bomber, reconaissance, communication (courier) and training aircraft.
Camouflage And Markings of Slovak Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6s
Germany delivered a total of 15 fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 to Slovakia in 1944. In contrast with Bf 109Es delivered earlier in the war, which were all service weary machines employed previously by the Luftwaffe in BoB and N. Africa, these 15 Gustavs were all newly build machines. They were build by Messerschmitt factory at Regensburg and flown to Piešťany by German pilots on 26th January 1944. (Fourteen Gustavs reached their destination, while one force landed on Reich’s territory due to the engine trouble and was later delivered to Slovakia by rail.) As such, Slovakian G-6s wore standard German fighter camouflage of the time consisting of RLM74/75/76 color scheme. It is believed that RLM02 color was also used in fuselage mottling. Spinner was painted with RLM70-Schwarzgrün with 1/3 white segment, while propeller blades were in RLM70.
Aircraft were delivered to Slovakia wearing German national insignia, but curiously without fuselage code letters. Upon their arrival swastikas and fuselage crosses were painted over probably with RLM74 or RLM 75 and Gustavs received Slovak national insignia - Slovak crosses applied on the tail and wings. Crosses painted on the wings were placed in such manner to cover German crosses (Slovakian crosses on the wings were of larger dimensions then the German ones - see detail on picture 1 in the attachment). After some time original German crosses on the upper wings started to show through on some aircraft.
Gustavs were allocated to Letka 13 (13th Readiness Squadron of Slovak Air Arms) and Cvična letka (Training Squadron). Machines used by Letka 13 were given tactical markings - yellow fuselage band (not to be confused with Eastern front theatre band) and white numbers (1-9). Machines used by Cvična letka received no additional markings.
During Slovak National Uprising only two Gustavs (Wr.Nr. 161725 and Wr.Nr.161742) were used by the insurgents, initially both in their original SVZ markings. Some time after "161725" had been lost, the surviving Gustav received improvised insurgent’s roundel (placement of which is shown on the picture 2 in the attachment).
Source of info and color profiles: HT model Special No. 909 "Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6", Artist: Jozef Anďal
A little more on the camouflage of Slovak Gustavs... I believe this is another proof how hard and inconclusive interpreting a black&white photos can be. Here we have picture of one Slovak Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 and three color profiles based on that picture published in three different books. Differences in profiles are quite evident. Which one is the most accurate? According to the authors its the last one (profile 3). In earlier publications it was assumed that Slovak G-6s had yellow under side wingtips, but it appears this was wrong assumption. Also note that yellow fuselage band didn't refer to the Eastern front theater of operations but was rather a reckognition feature of Letka 13 in home defense role. The manner in which original German fuselage crosses were over painted is still open to different interpretations in my opinion.
Sources:
Profile 1: Slovenske letectvo Volume 3 1944-45
Profile 2:HT model Special No. 902 "Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 slovenskych Vzdušych zbrani 1944"
Profile 3 and the picture:HT model Special No. 909 "Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6", Artist: Jozef Anďal
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Originally Posted by piet
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