Geschwader "Bongart" Re.2002 camo question

[Herb]

The subject is a fairly well documented Luftwaffe unit assembled for anti-partisan operations in the south of France.  From at least one photo (and profile), it appears at least some Re.2002 assigned may have had yellow undersurfaces. Can anyone confirm this scheme? (Both photo and profile were found on line, and their origin is unknown to me.)

 

 

Cheers

Herb

 

 

[Graham Boak]

Fairly common Luftwaffe scheme for "captured" fighters.

[Ed Russell]

Could it be just the fuselage band and the underside of the wings that are yellow? Although the nearest one seems to be all yellow undersides, it may have green under the fuselage. in the absence of other photos, I would probably go with Graham's comment.

[Massimo Tessitori]

I can see yellow only under the wings and on the band. The lower part of fuselage and tail looks grey. Perhaps the air intake of the far plane is yellow, the one of the closer plane is grey. 

[Giorgio N]

Not all Re.2002 were captured aircraft as the company built a number for the Luftwaffe. There are a couple of pictures of these aircraft on the production line and some seem to have a yellow band. A couple of sets of wings are visible from below, with German crosses and these seem to have the standard green over grey of the previous Regia Aeronautica scheme.

Now in general the presence of a yellow band is unusual in a Luftwaffe combat aircraft in France, the use of yellow undersurfaces would be even more unusual. I wonder if the picture above shows an aircraft used by a test unit rather than one used in operation ?

[Giorgio N]

Forgot to add, there are actually quite a good number of pictures of Luftwaffe 2002s, however mostly B/W. These are interesting anyway as they show that the crosses were applied in a number of different styles. One picture even shows an aircraft with what look like a 2-color splinter on the uppersurfaces. .

It should be said however that not all Re.2002s built for the Luftwaffe entered service, a number were taken in charge but never left the factories

[brewerjerry]

Hi

    I vote all yellow undersurfaces 

 

      it would look to much like a P-47 to the german ground A/A gunners otherwise 

 

    cheers

      jerry 

[Graham Boak]

I would agree that the photographs can be said to show something different to the profile.  On the underside of the nearest one, the yellow appears to stop at the undercarriage.  On the more distant one the yellow appear to be above the wings as well as below.  Whether the green continues under the rear fuselage and the engine cowling, I reserve judgement for now.  It is possible that this yellow was a local identity marking for this operation.

[cdk]

Hi,

do a google search with re2002 limognes romanet. Under pictures you will find some from the restored fuselge of red5 from Geschwader Bongart. An article in the old german modell magazine Jet & Prop No. 5/1992 give for this plane a top colour of dark green and for the underside a light blue with a yellow touch. There is unfortunaly no mention about the origin of the colours, german or italien or a mix. A colour pic of the restored fuselage in the Jet&Prop article looks to me like a colour close to Colore 2 Verde Oliva Scuro.

A screenshot from an VHS on my PC from the same film as the pic of BN+YB show this aircraft from the front and give me the impression that the yellow underwing colour goes only up to the landing gear covers. The rest of the wing and the fuselage are a light colour.

Hope it helps

Claus

[Herb]

Thank you Claus, can you post that screenshot from the front?

[Herb]

Claus passed these screen captures to me to share. They do add more evidence for the use of some kind of purposeful yellow undersurface scheme for this unit. 

 

 

 

 

Finally, here's a concurrent B&W image of the two aircraft in question ("2BN+YB" and white "7")

 

 

thanks to all for helping to sort this out...

 

Cheers

Herb

[Ed Russell]

There is a potted history of Geschwader Bongart here which includes a small amount of camouflage and markings notes.

http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/geschwaderbongart.doc

[Herb]

Thanks Ed,

 

I had seen that, and it does have some very useful info regarding the Re.2002 use in the unit. (Nothing on those mysterious yellow undersurfaces, though...)

 

Cheers

Herb

[Super Aereo]

Personally I don't find anything strange in the LW having the lower wing surfaces of those aircraft painted yellow: the wing shape of the Reggiane fighters was very similar to that of the P-47, and the last thing they wanted would have been their own Flak shooting down their machines in error...

[Giorgio N]

Very nice pictures, I had seen them in B/W but not in colour, thanks for sharing.

The yellow is clearly visible, so no doubt about its use. To me it looks like only the outer section of the wings was in this colour, with the rest of the wing and the fuselage in grey.

Rest of the scheme seems to be the standard Italian "continental" scheme, even down to the custom of wrapping the top surfaces colour under the leading edge

[Blimpyboy]

On 10/19/2020 at 6:12 AM, Super Aereo said:

the last thing they wanted would have been their own Flak shooting down their machines in error...

Or the friendly infantry/military police diving for cover in fear every five minutes...