VVS fighter IAP and GIAP identification

[dog1]

hello
i am in the midst of skinning VVS fighters for the IL2 Battle Of Stalingrad sim . Some off the aircraft that i am preparing have no codes , numbers or any form of marking to identify in flight .So if you have a squadron of 12 in the air how does the leader and others identify each other to pass messages ?
second question is many pilots and specially the aces had slogans on their fuselage below the canopy hatch , usually on both sides , did the rest off the squadron carry these slogans ? arrows ?

 

[fubar57]

I'm not sure but I think radios were a luxury only for the squadron leaders in a lot of cases. Can't help with the codes etc. but a lot of slogans were paid for by donations of individuals and groups. I remember one slogan was paid for by a musical group called "The Happy Chaps".

 

[gumbyk]

I'm not sure but I think radios were a luxury only for the squadron leaders in a lot of cases.

I remember reading that as well, somewhere. VVS seems to have had more of an 'every man (and woman) for himself' attitude.

 

[Wurger]

As far as the radios are concerned.. at the beginning of the German's invasion on the USSR the stuff was really quite rare in a VVS squadron. However not only the squadron leaders had the full radio sets but also the flight commanders. Other pilots had only the receivers that let them to hear commanders' orders. Later the number of the full radio sets in a squadron was still increasing with coming of new types of planes. Regarding the identification.. all pilots used a so-called indexes ( numbers ) while using the radio. The markings of planes is a different matter. Most of planes had painted numbers but these might be unnoticed because of the colour these were of. Often the digits were quite small what made finding of them more difficult. But pilots knew them and there was no problem with ID. Initially these numbers were applied on a rudder. Later these were painted larger on the fuselage , in front or behind the read star or at cockpit area. Sometimes the large numbers were on the tail. I mean the fin and rudder. The colours for them were: white , red with or without the white outline and yellow usually.

These slogans , as Fubar57 mentioned, were because of individual founders or group of these.. In the case a such inscription was applied on the one founded plane. It happened the one donator or group founded more than one plane. Then the proper inscription was applied on all of them.The example can be the "Eskadrilya Valeriy Chkalov" . The another kind of slogans were these for Country, Stalin and the Bolshevik Party or against the German invaders, The next kind of the inscriptions were for commemoration of killed friends or heroes. These could appear either on a single aircraft or on a couple of the planes.But mostly these were quite personal's matter and appeared on single airplane. Of course there were more reasons for applying of the slogans but there was no rule on how many planes these were. Also it could happen the entire squadron or flight had them applied but these were of different content often .
The arrows could be applied as the personal markings rather then the unit markings. For unit markings were used colours eg.white red, yellow or blue. Usually there were painted tail tips, rudders, prop spinners or engine cowlings. The number of victories was also an individual case. and most of pilots applied them on planes. Of course if a guy didn't score any there wasn't a such marking while other his mates could have. The Guards ( GIAP ) squadrons had painted the emblem of the Guardia often along with coloured spinners, engine cowling , rudders entirely or slanted strips on the tail.
I would suggest visiting the site with the link below

Soviet aerial tactical markings of WWII.

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
you can find useful documents here too:
index
Profiles, photos, and notes on painting.
For questions, here is the link of the relative forum:
Sovietwarplanes - Index
Regards
Massimo

 

[fubar57]

Hello M Massimo Tessitori . I tried to register on your site but this happened...

 

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Fubar,
yes, we received a lot of false subscriptions and spam years ago, so we decided to accept and make the subscription manually. Please send me a PM on my personal mail (you can find it on the forum or the site).
Regards
Massimo