Ciao Javier, Matthias and all,
well I have been to Narvik, I saw the wonderful museum dedicated to Narvik invasion during 1940 were those events are very well showed with many remains and evidences, .. I saw some wrecks still there of those German destroyers.
Now we are coming from Narvik,... to the air recognition marking, ..... talking Tirpitz, ... on the Bismarck website were top turrets colours have just been analyzed, ... so Baron Mullenheim-Rechberg, ... the destroyers, .. the Scharnhorst,... Norway invasion, ...again top turrets colours lets see ......
February 1940, Operation Wikinger,.... German lost 2
destroyers on the Helgoland area due to friendly fire ( HE 111 bombs ) they were the Z1 Leeberecht Maas and the Z3 Max Schultz,..probably air bombed because the Luftwaffe airplane did not recognized the 2 ships been German (incident commission conducted on board Adm Hipper), .. so 2
destroyers and the
air recognition problem .... starts here.
German ships started using top turrets full colours, for Norway invasion was decided to be the YELLOW. l
Operation Weserubung, Norway invasion on April 1940, .. the 10
destroyers sunk in Narvik Fjords, .. among them the Z12 Erich Giese with on board the
Baron Von Mullenheim-Rechberg,.... it seems that Royal Navy ships copied the YELLOW colour to avoid been attacked by Luftwaffe airplanes,...immediately KM ordered the colour to be changed in RED for
Air recognition,... see my
Scharnhorst colour scheme's change on April 1940.
Baron Mullenheim-Rechberg will be transferred to Scharnhorst as artillery officer.
Of course now KM was very carefully evaluating all kind of Air recognition marking improvements,.. so top turrets colours ( see recent
Bismarck new releases ), .... their protection from been spotted before been used ( see the
Tirpitz canvas trick above ),.. and the utilization of swastika's and red banners to show it better than those were German ships, assuming on the freindly water air ( Luftwaffe ) superiority.
Different story when you sailed OUT of Luftwaffe range,..as than you need to cover ( paint over with grey ) your markings, .. to re-paint them when you were re-approaching Luftwaffe range,.. and properly synchronize KM with Luftwaffe on the correct colour to be
air recognized.
I hope my little story will not confuse but help to understand the logic of the events and how they correlate each other on the evolution of what has been probably done thru the story of those ships, .. due to the events and the needs.
Now you should realize better why Bismarck painted the YELLOW turrets approaching France,.. on May 26th morning,...and also how come the British immediately noticed it and used it on their favour to tell the airplanes how to correctly spot Bismarck and avoid to attack with torpedo again the Sheffield,..
Now you realize why,..instead of paint ON and OFF,..on Tirpitz somebody thought that is was better,.. to lay down Flags on the deck when needed instead of paint ON and OFF, .... and to cover the TOP of the turrets painted with canvas when coloured before sailing out in mission,.. and not paint them while sailing ( as they did on September 1941 )... it looks like Italian creativity and not a German way to follow procedures,... maybe that is why I love the Tirpitz,... and like Rommel as one of my favourite subjects too on military strategy ...
Ciao Antonio