Bulgarian B.71 markings

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi all,
I'm close to upload a page on Bulgarian B.71s.
About the history of alliances of Bulgaria, it is more or less so:
in 1939 Bulgaria received the B.71 and was allied with Germany. He employed them against a rebellion in Greece. Tri-color rudders are likely referred to this time.
In June 1941, Bulgaria was allied with Germany but didn't declared war to SSSR, also because these countries hadn't borders in common. So, the use of yellow on rudders is possible but debatable.
In September 1944, SSSR declared war to Bulgaria and invaded it; three days later, a coup led filo-communist party to the government, and they started to fight against retreating Germans until the war front moved too far from Bulgarian borders. In this phase, the use of yellow is unlikely. I suppose that red or red-green is more likely in this time.

Looking at bw photos, one can argue that the color of the front of the rings is not the same of the rudders. If we assume that rudders were yellow in some time, the rings were darker.
Unfortunately none of the photos I have is dated, so this obstacles an attempt to reconstruct a chronology for color changes.
I think that some historian could know a sure answer about the chronology of distinctive colors, but I don't know anyone to ask to.

The provisional page is here:
B.71 in Bulgarian service
Please, let me know your considerations on this.

Regards
Massimo

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice looking page and the colour profiles look very high quality.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I agree, well done.

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Very kind of you.

 

[GrauGeist]

Truth be told, all the European Axis allies (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia) used yellow identification markings on their aircraft at on point or another. The placement and location of the yellow depended largely on the time period and area of operation.

With the Royal Bulgarian Air Force, it appears that they used a red marking on the cowling of their fighters and bombers prior to September 1939 along with the national tri-colors on the rudder and following the outbreak of war, they changed to various yellow markings in keeping with the Luftwaffe policy.

Also of note, the red markings on Bulgarian aircraft seems to be very close to the red that appears on the Royal Cross of Saint Alexander roundel that was in use between 1937 and 1941.
Bulgaria changed their aircraft's national insignia to the black cross of St. Andrew in 1941, this seems to be the time period that yellow markings replaced the red on their aircraft.

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Interesting. Bulgaria received its B.71 in September 1939, but none photos shows other national insignia than S.Andrew crosses; so all available photos are taken after the change in 1941.
Despite this, about half of the photos show tricolor rudder. Besides, on the photos that seem to show uniformly painted rudders, the front rings of the engine cowlings don't seem the same color of the rudder, apart one photo. I wonder if the red front ring was preserved for some time aside tricolor rudder and S. Andrew's crosses.
I would take into account that Bulgarians were not in war against the SSSR.
Bulgarian B.71 saw the most part of their action against Germans in late 1944, after the Soviet invasion and the instauration of a filo-Soviet regime. I suppose that the markings and the distinctive colors changed in that time. Do you know in what way?
Regards
Massimo

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi All,
the page is online and finished.

It includes a recostruction of the look of a prewar plane too

Thank you to all those that gave suggestions for this work.

Regards
Massimo