World War II over Czech Territory books
Messerschmitt Me 262 production & Arado Ar 234’s final operations
David E. Brown, Tomáš Poruba, Jan Vladař
This publication extends our previous study “Messerschmitt Me 262s of KG & KG(J) units” by new information about Messerschmitt Me 262 and generally about German jets over Czech area. All typical features of the line, i.e. historical part with detailed study of separate aircraft are kept.The text is accompanied by nearly 220 photos, number of data tables and original documents as it is usual in our publications.
| publish date | pages | photos | colour profiles | language | cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 150 | 220 | 15 a/c | English | Softbound |
Chapter correction:
“Errata and addenda to Messerschmitt Me 262s of KG and KG(J) units, II. Fighter umbrella over Me 262 airfields in Bohemia”, pages 146–156
Subsection:
“Bf 109K-4, “Red 7”, W.Nr. 331???; 10./JG 27, Prague-Kbely”, page 152
The subsection described a Bf 109K-4 of JG 27 left at Prague Kbely/Prag-Gbell (not at Prague Letnany/Prag-Letnian as incorrectly stated in the text). The following text is a corrected description of the aircraft based on additional information provided by our readers.
Based on personal talks with history fans interested in Prague-Kbely airbase who were fortunate to interview contemporary witnesses we can say that the actual marking of the aircraft was “Blue 7”. The blue colour of marking was characteristic of 12./JG 27. Therefore the correct title of the subsection is: “Bf 109K-4, “Blue 7”, W.Nr. 331???; 12./JG 27, Prague-Kbely”.
The contemporary witnesses were sure about only two more or less preserved “one-o-nines” at Kbely airfield in May 1945 – “Yellow 7” and “Blue 7”. “Yellow 7” was positively a Bf 109G-10/R6 of III./JG 300 (see “Messerschmitt Bf 109s of JG 52 in Deutsch Brod”, JaPo, page 52) – the drawing is attached.
“Blue 7” was abandoned at the southern edge of the airfield opposite to hangars and a water tower. Based on our current knowledge of camouflage of early Bf 109Ks we presume upper surfaces were covered with RLM 74/75. As RLM 83 was a dark blue paint applied on navy aircraft it couldn’t be used for day fighters. RLM 83 “Dunkelgrün” did not exist; the actual paint was most likely earlier RLM 74 “Grün-Grau”.
The changes above are captured in a new drawing of the aircraft.
We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Miloslav Hrabáň from Kbely for providing recollections of the witnesses and for bringing discrepancies in our text to our attention.
