Warbird Information Exchange

Bristol Blenheim IV N6168. Damaged by flak south-east of Louvain during strategic reconnaissance sortie then attacked by a Hawker Hurricane flown by P/O Grassick of No. 615 Squadron over the Foret de Meerdael and belly-landed at Vitry with port engine and hydraulics destroyed 6.25 a.m. Flight Lieutenant G. V. Smithers and Sergeant R. Tull unhurt. AC2 D. J. Pitcher slightly injured. Aircraft TR*A a write-off.


Wehrmacht soldiers near the wrecks of allied and German planes. Photo by Hans-Jochen Asemissen June 1940

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Zero Surprise!!...

Great picture.
That 109 looks like it had a pretty tough day as well.

I was more impressed by the 109's camo pattern. Doesn't look typical for a 109 with the spray squiggles.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Period colour pictures are always of interest, especially this one! That scheme on the 109 is a new one to me, perhaps there are Luftwaffe experts who've seen it a million times before but it strikes me as very unusual. It would appear to have some form of flame damping exhaust that I've never seen before, which coupled with the unusual "Wellenmuster" style camouflage suggests it was a night-fighter. A night-fighter Emil in France during the Battle of France?? Very strange. The Nachtjagd was really in it's infancy around this time and in this period I thought the only variants of 109 used for night-fighting were the earlier models up to the D, and none of those had camouflage like this as far as I'm aware.

Based on the condition of the front end and wings it appears the 109 was involved in a ground collision.

Good spot.......

That camo pattern is definately not the norm for the Fighter Geschwader that operated in the battle of France in the summer of 1940 that I've seen.

I think it is more likely the small hinged panel above the exhaust stacks that is opened and down.



Laurent

On second look, it does appear to be the hinged panel you mention. It's very deceptive! At a glance it looks like a single manifold for the six stubs. False alarm in that regard, but that scheme is still an odd one and looks more like a night than a day finish. Still a very interesting pic.

Some info from the Luftwaffe Resarch Group forum

"Hello,

Regarding Graham Boak's comments about the finish on this Bf109E, almost the entire 1./JG54 was camouflaged with this scheme a few weeks prior to the launching of the Western Campaign of May, 1940. I've got examples of this pattern on about a half dozen different a/c of 1 Staffel during this period. The other units of I./JG54 were camouflaged in similar heavily mottled schemes during this period, but only this Staffel used the "squiggle" style camouflage.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
Eagles Over Europe
Project Coordinator "

Laurent

Poor old Bristol Blenheim. That plane got no respect from anybody, it seems, not even RAF Fighter Command.

Many thanks for the information Laurent, I had a sneaky feeling the Luft experts would already be familiar with this scheme. It's certainly very different, it had me excited for a while.