Question for history buffs about German plane colors

[SGCSG1 0]

Just watched a pretty bad movie, 'Von Richthoven and Brown'. Aside from being a pretty bad movie (quite amateurish editing, for one thing) it had lots of historical inaccuracies. For example, saying it was Richthoven instead of Erwin Bohme who hit Boelcke's plane, causing his death.

 

One of the German pilots was saying, 'I wish we could change these ridiculous plane colors, the English can see us for miles'.

 

So what is the story on the BRIGHT COLORS the Germans used in WW1? Was it just vanity? Was there some reason for painting your plane with these bright colors and outrageous color schemes?

 

Any comments?

[RAF_Louvert 103]

Personally, I think the Huns just got a great deal on all the mis-mixed paint at Das Haupt Depot.

 

And yes, 'Von Richthoven and Brown' may be one of the worst ever, and in so many ways.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[RAF_Louvert 103]

SGCSG1, I believe the short answer is that they did it for easy identification in the dogfights. Manfred and his crew got the whole idea rolling in the first place and it caught on from there.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Olham 164]

Just recently I have read, what Lothar von Richthofen had stated about this.

He said, that MvR was first searching for a colour, that would be like the sky, to make a fighter almost invisible.

But after a while, he realised, that this could not be achieved - all aircraft where still clearly visible.

If I can't make it invisible, he said to Lothar, I might as well paint it a bright strong colour, that my wingmen will

recognise their flight leader instantly. And so he painted it red.

Later then, someone asked him, if this red wasn't too well visible for all opponents. He replied, he wanted to be

visible and recognisable. He wanted to show the Entente fighters, that he wasn't afraid of them at all.

 

More and more pilots followed that example of having an individually painted craft, with markings or colours, that

would identify the pilot to his wingmates. Lothar chose yellow, as he had been in a Dragoner (kavallery) Regiment,

that had this colour. It seems, that after short time, nobody wanted to "stay behind" the Rittmeister's attitude.

 

And actually, you won't recognise any colour too well from further away - they only appear, when you get closer.

[Dej 17]

Just watched a pretty bad movie, 'Von Richthoven and Brown'.

 

...

 

Any comments?

 

Only, OUCH! I feel your pain.

 

I think, could well be wrong, that Jasta 2 were using colour for unit identification (pale blue tails, maybe) before Richthofen took command of Jasta 11. MvR certainly wasn't the first all red fighter, though. Navarre beat him to that.

[Olham 164]

Here is a quote of Lothar von Richthofen, as I found it in Peter Kilduff's book "The Red Baron".

 

"It had become known that the British had put a price on my brother's head. Every flyer on the other

side knew him, for at the time he alone flew a red-painted aeroplane. For that reason it had long

been our wish to have all aeroplanes of our Staffel painted red and we implored my brother to allow

it so he would not be so especially conspicuous. The request was granted; for we had shown ourselves

to be worthy of the red colour by our many aerial victories.

The red colour signified a certain insolence. Everyone knew that. It attracted attention. Consequently,

one had to really perform. Proudly we finally looked at our red birds. My brother's crate was glaring

red. Each of the rest of us had some additional markings in other colours. As we could not see each

other's face in the air, we chose these colours as recognition symbols. Schaefer, for example, had his

elevator, rudder and most of the back part of the fuselage (painted) black; Allmenroeder used white [on

the nose and spinner], Wolff used green and I had yellow. Each one of us was different.

In the air and from the gound, as well as from the enemy's view, we all looked to be red, as only small

other parts were painted in another colour."