Overall yellow Fw-190A-6 ???

[Vicente Vazquez]

Pierre Clostermann mentions, in his book "The Great Circus", he saw a
dogfight between a Spitfire of his squadron and an FW 190A-6 piloted
by a certain "Major von Graf", nicknamed "Donald Duck" by the Allies.
The Fw was, according to his book, painted in overall bright yellow
scheme and, curiously enough, I couldn't find any other reference to
that specific aircraft, supposedly from JG.2, neither about this
"Major Von Graf". I guess such an exotic aircraft would be mentioned
at least in one or other book, specially considering it was flown by
the CO of the Jg.2. Does anyone have any reference material, picture
or whatever about this plane?

Tks in advance,

Vicente

[robert arndt]

(Vicente Vazquez) wrote in message >...
> Pierre Clostermann mentions, in his book "The Great Circus", he saw a
> dogfight between a Spitfire of his squadron and an FW 190A-6 piloted
> by a certain "Major von Graf", nicknamed "Donald Duck" by the Allies.
> The Fw was, according to his book, painted in overall bright yellow
> scheme and, curiously enough, I couldn't find any other reference to
> that specific aircraft, supposedly from JG.2, neither about this
> "Major Von Graf". I guess such an exotic aircraft would be mentioned
> at least in one or other book, specially considering it was flown by
> the CO of the Jg.2. Does anyone have any reference material, picture
> or whatever about this plane?
>
> Tks in advance,
>
> Vicente


IIRC, Fw 190A-6 G3 + SL flown by Major Von Graf of JG 2. Shot down
7/27/43.

Rob

p.s. A few North American NA57 trainers in Luftwaffe service were also
painted yellow... ???

[Bill McClain]

Well, "Graf" in German is, IIRC, "Count," so if the previous war had a
Red Baron, this time around it had a Yellow Count -- auf Deutsch, ein
gelber Graf.

[ArVa]

"Vicente Vazquez" > a écrit dans le message de
m...
> Pierre Clostermann mentions, in his book "The Great Circus", he saw a
> dogfight between a Spitfire of his squadron and an FW 190A-6 piloted
> by a certain "Major von Graf", nicknamed "Donald Duck" by the Allies.
> The Fw was, according to his book, painted in overall bright yellow
> scheme and, curiously enough, I couldn't find any other reference to
> that specific aircraft, supposedly from JG.2, neither about this
> "Major Von Graf". I guess such an exotic aircraft would be mentioned
> at least in one or other book, specially considering it was flown by
> the CO of the Jg.2. Does anyone have any reference material, picture
> or whatever about this plane?
>
> Tks in advance,
>
> Vicente


About the yellow FW190 :
http://modelarchives.free.fr/photoscopes/Fw190jaunes_P/

It's in French, who needs to know such an outdated language nowadays?... :-)

Basically, the author of the article's conclusion is that there was no plane
*entirely* yellow, as no pictures or documents have ever proved its
existence. Though, a certain Hermann Graf's plane (not "Von Graf" as in
Clostermann's book), based in Cazaux near Bordeaux, had a yellow nose with a
red tulip and a yellow-lined red lightning on the fuselage. According to the
author, the confusion of combat, the use of colorfull german planes, some
white and black pictures of unicolored german high altitude
fighters/prototypes/training planes (actually painted in yellowish green or
blue) and the use of yellow training planes on the Allies' side are a
possible explanation for the myth.


Regards,
ArVa

[robert arndt]

"ArVa" <no.arva.spam_at_no_os.fr> wrote in message >...
> "Vicente Vazquez" > a écrit dans le message de
> m...
> > Pierre Clostermann mentions, in his book "The Great Circus", he saw a
> > dogfight between a Spitfire of his squadron and an FW 190A-6 piloted
> > by a certain "Major von Graf", nicknamed "Donald Duck" by the Allies.
> > The Fw was, according to his book, painted in overall bright yellow
> > scheme and, curiously enough, I couldn't find any other reference to
> > that specific aircraft, supposedly from JG.2, neither about this
> > "Major Von Graf". I guess such an exotic aircraft would be mentioned
> > at least in one or other book, specially considering it was flown by
> > the CO of the Jg.2. Does anyone have any reference material, picture
> > or whatever about this plane?
> >
> > Tks in advance,
> >
> > Vicente
>
> Von Graff's Fw 190 was G3+SL and was overall yellow. Here is a Luftwaffe NAA 64 DR+XD trainer in overall RLM 04 yellow:
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.co.uk/natrainers.html

Go down the page to the photo.

Rob


> About the yellow FW190 :
> http://modelarchives.free.fr/photoscopes/Fw190jaunes_P/
>
> It's in French, who needs to know such an outdated language nowadays?... :-)
>
> Basically, the author of the article's conclusion is that there was no plane
> *entirely* yellow, as no pictures or documents have ever proved its
> existence. Though, a certain Hermann Graf's plane (not "Von Graf" as in
> Clostermann's book), based in Cazaux near Bordeaux, had a yellow nose with a
> red tulip and a yellow-lined red lightning on the fuselage. According to the
> author, the confusion of combat, the use of colorfull german planes, some
> white and black pictures of unicolored german high altitude
> fighters/prototypes/training planes (actually painted in yellowish green or
> blue) and the use of yellow training planes on the Allies' side are a
> possible explanation for the myth.
>
>
> Regards,
> ArVa

[Krztalizer]

>Pierre Clostermann mentions, in his book "The Great Circus", he saw a
>dogfight between a Spitfire of his squadron and an FW 190A-6 piloted
>by a certain "Major von Graf", nicknamed "Donald Duck" by the Allies.

"Big Show" gets better each time Pierre re-writes it. He is the only man I
know that has a better memory at 75 than he did at 25 - his original 1950s book
has many changes in the current version, but I don't think they should all be
considered 'corrections'.

The Germans painted some captured machines overall yellow - no FW 190 was flown
in combat in that coloration. How do I know? Well, Graf never mentioned it
(he survived the war), NO photos have ever come to light of it, although most
of Major Graf's aircraft were photographed - its unlikely that his 'normal'
190s were photographed, but not this "donald duck" (what a joke). Unlike WW1,
when the Germans were confident enough in their fighters that they painted in
bright colors to actually encourage a combat; by 43-44, German fighter pilots
were on the defensive and certainly not flying around in primary colors,
looking to pick a fight. Yellow identification panels are one thing - overall
yellow is not the same.


>The Fw was, according to his book, painted in overall bright yellow
>scheme and, curiously enough, I couldn't find any other reference to
>that specific aircraft,

Occam's razor - if no one else ever heard of it, but Pierre 'saw' it (like he
'saw' a Do 335 in flight, at a location where none ever flew), there is your
answer.

>I guess such an exotic aircraft would be mentioned
>at least in one or other book, specially considering it was flown by
>the CO of the Jg.2.

Yeah, that does raise a red flag, doesn't it? No models or decal sheets are
sold of this odd a/c, no profile drawings exist, etc.

>Does anyone have any reference material, picture
>or whatever about this plane?

Only Pierre. :) Contact him and ask - he answers questions through his
biographer, Mr. Perales.

v/r
Gordon
<====(A+C====>
USN SAR

Its always better to lose AN engine, than THE engine.