Where did the German use of Yellow come from?

[Robert Porter]

Just out of curiosity, I have noticed that a lot of German aircraft ended up with yellow bands, fins, etc. Where did the use of yellow in the German Air Force originate from? Its a rather easy to see color so would assume it was not out of any desire to camouflage the aircraft?

 

[GrauGeist]

Yellow was used because it has a higher visibility for ID than most other colors. Although in the MTO, the Germans and Italians both used white for the most part while the U.S. used a yellow band on the outside of the roundel.

Then again, the British and the Japanese also used yellow ID markings on their aircraft.

 

[fubar57]

I have Aug. 18th, '40 as the first date that massed formations carried the yellow rudder

 

[Capt. Vick]

I know as a general rule the Luftwaffe painted the undersides of captured aircraft yellow.

 

[Robert Porter]

I know as a general rule the Luftwaffe painted the undersides of captured aircraft yellow.

I wondered about that, I assume it was so they would not be mistaken and shot down by friendly fire.

 

[Robert Porter]

Yellow was used because it has a higher visibility for ID than most other colors. Although in the MTO, the Germans and Italians both used white for the most part while the U.S. used a yellow band on the outside of the roundel.

Then again, the British and the Japanese also used yellow ID markings on their aircraft.

I remember that the US stopped using the Yellow outer ring, assume in favor of good old red white and blue. And to avoid being mistaken as well. Just seems like lots of German aircraft featured prominent yellow in their color schemes and always wondered. Was yellow perhaps one of the national colors of Germany during the war?

 

[Robert Porter]

I have Aug. 18th, '40 as the first date that massed formations carried the yellow rudder

Thats cool to know! Especially when trying to build a period correct model.

 

[Airframes]

The first use, during the Battle of Britain between early to mid August 1940*, was a yellow segment on the top of the rudder of the Bf109, which, by 18th August, had extended to the complete rudder.
(*The exact dates are not recorded, but examples were seen between around 9th to 12th August, and beyond.)
This was soon followed by the addition of yellow wing tips and tail plane tips, with at least one Jagdgeschwader using white, which later changed to yellow.
By the time of the first massed raid on London, on September 7th, the wing tip paint was mainly removed, and the cowlings painted yellow, although some units retained the wing tip colours too.
From mid-August onwards, a combination of rudders, wing tips and cowling colouring could be seen, in the main, but some aircraft were noted without any of these.
On the BF110 at this period, when I.D. colours were used, this was mainly restricted to the nose area, and mainly white 'paint' was used.
This 'paint' was a distemper type, 'washable' colouring, which could be removed by 'washing' in petrol.

 

[GrauGeist]

I remember that the US stopped using the Yellow outer ring, assume in favor of good old red white and blue. And to avoid being mistaken as well. Just seems like lots of German aircraft featured prominent yellow in their color schemes and always wondered. Was yellow perhaps one of the national colors of Germany during the war?

Up through 6 May 1942, the US (all branches) roundel was the familiar blue field, white star and red center.

From 6 May 1942 through 23 June 1943, the red center was removed to avoid any confusion with the Japanese Hinomaru. This same reason is why the RAAF removed the red center from their roundel in the Pacific theater. The Americans often referred to the red center of the U.S. roundel as the "meatball" as well as the Japanese roundel, too.

The exception to this last change, was the Operation Torch (MTO) modification with the outer yellow band device surrounding the roundel. This was done from July 1942 through November 1942. The reasoning behind this was to make the U.S. roundel comparable to the RAF roundel at a quick glance.

There were several other changes during the war, including a short-lived red outline to the roundel and bars that lasted only from 28 June 1943 until 31 July 1943 and was replaced with the blue outline from July 1943 until 1947.

By the way, the familiar red in the center of the bars was added in January of 1947 and remains current (when not subdued) to this day.

 

[Airframes]

Yellow wasn't a 'national colour' for Germany at that time, it was used purely because of its high visibility in 'high light' conditions as found in the skies, and was designed for quick recognition between Luftwaffe and RAF fighters.

 

[Robert Porter]

Was there a lot of 'friendly fire' incidents in the air war that necessitated this being visible need? Also why the extensive use of camo at all if the goal was to remain visible? Seems to me the yellow bands would be visible from planes in the air while the others were on the ground as well as in the air. It always seemed a little odd to me that various air forces including ours would go with extensive camo efforts only to blazon rondels and other markings in striking primary colors all over them?

By the way, not at all arguing, just truly curious?

 

[vikingBerserker]

I always thought it was odd that they go through the expense and time of painting an aircraft camouflage, then add a large area of yellow to make is visible.

 

[GrauGeist]

The camo, in spite of the Yellow (or white, red, etc.) does break up the ouline of the aircraft, so there is a value to it being used.

However, you'll find that as the war drug on, the Luftwaffe stopped using the yellow (or any other highlights, for that matter) and continued to develop advanced camo schemes (even going as far as to subdue the whites in the Balkan Cross and the Swastika) while at the same time, Allied aircraft started a reduction in camouflage as a means to save weight on the aircraft as they gained air superiority.

By the way, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and the Finns all used yellow on their fighters similar to the Luftwaffe. The Italians did in some cases, but used white to a greater degree.

 

[GrauGeist]

I could also add that yellow was not a new concept to the Germans.

In WWI, they had quite a few aircraft that used yellow, either overall or in combinations with other colors schemes.

I don't have pictures handy, but if you're interested, you can always google they following info:

Roland C.II (4423/15) of Jasta 35, flown by Rudolf Stark - dark green upper with yellow undersides (including both upper and lower wings, horizontal stabs). This pattern would be identical to captured Allied aircraft operated by KG200 during WWII.

Albatros D.III (1996/16) of Jasta 11, flown by Edward Lubbert - yellow upper fuselage, light blue undersides (including upper and lower wings and horizontal stab) with lozenge pattern on both upper mainwing surfaces.

Pfalz D.III (1370/17) of Jasta 10, flown by Hans Klein - overall white (upper surfaces & lower surfaces) with solid yellow cowl, spinner, maingear struts and wing cabane/struts.

Albatros D.V (3210/17) of Jasta 57, flown by Werner Hatner - overall medium blue with yellow cowling, spinner and landing gear struts. Lozenge pattern on both upper mainwing surfaces with light blue underneath.

Albatros D.V of Jasta 28B that was red overall with solid yellow tailplane starting at the aft fuselage. The rest was solid red with lozenge on both upper wing surfaces and light blue mainwing undersides.

These are just a very few of a great many types that used yellow (part or all) on their aircraft during the Great War.

 

[pbehn]

Was there a lot of 'friendly fire' incidents in the air war that necessitated this being visible need? Also why the extensive use of camo at all if the goal was to remain visible? Seems to me the yellow bands would be visible from planes in the air while the others were on the ground as well as in the air. It always seemed a little odd to me that various air forces including ours would go with extensive camo efforts only to blazon rondels and other markings in striking primary colors all over them

From the outbreak of the war identification was a problem, the war was only three days old when the Battle of Barking Creek happened.
Battle of Barking Creek - Wikipedia.

I have read that up to 10% of A/C shot down in the BoB were by friendly fire, it is impossible to prove one way or the other, however I have also read of 3 RAF pilots who have tried to form up with a flight of enemy A/C. Telling planes apart in the sky is obviously much more difficult than on the ground. To my eyes a Typhoon looks nothing like an FW190 but the two were so frequently confused in the air that stripes were painted on the Typhoon.

RAF pilot Geoffrey Wellum was asked by Leigh Mallory what he thought about a change of colour for the spinners on RAF fighters, he said just choose a dark plain colour because most LW fighters were brightly coloured. By the time D Day came around camo paint took a back seat and all allied A/C were painted up with black and white stripes.

Whatever the science behind the yellow for LW fighters it is almost the same yellow used on sub sea structures for the same reason, being surrounded by it all day makes your eyes hurt. The same yellow was also pretty much standard for RAF and other services trainers even before the war started
The Yellow Peril; 75 Years in Canada and the Harvard is still roaring!

colour sub sea structures - Google Search

 

[Elmas]

Regia Aeronautica used white nose and bands in Africa and yellow in Russia.

 

[stona]

Everyone used IFF markings. The Luftwaffe tried several, including pink, before settling predominantly on yellow and white. Late war 'Defence of the Reich' fuselage bands could contain just about every marking colour available.
Incidentally the RLM 04 usually used for these markings was a distinctly reddish/gold yellow.

Because of its high visibility yellow was used by all sides not just for marking captured enemy aircraft but also prototypes, target tugs and various others that needed to be seen.

Camouflage on aircraft was designed initially to hide them on the ground or flying over the ground. Later adaptations were to help hide them in the air, but still against the ground or sea but at higher altitudes.

Undersides were generally designed to hide the aircraft against the sky at operational altitudes, though sometimes the undersides also carried IFF markings, usually to prevent 'friendly' fire from the ground, though the RAF adapted a black/white underside as a general IFF marking. It didn't last long. The Luftwaffe had some aircraft carry a yellow chevron on the underside of a wing for the same reason.

I don't know about others, but the British did a lot of experimentation to develop their camouflage, even flying large models and observing them. Their resulting camouflage schemes, like everyone's, were a compromise of several different factors.

The colours used by all sides throughout the war at various stages reflect the state of the air war remarkably accurately. When the Germans lost control of their own airspace they resorted to the green- olive- brown tones earlier used by themselves (and the British). These were designed to hide on the ground. The Germans even adjusted the factory schemes with various mottles or squiggles in greens and browns and gave it an unofficial name, "Liegeplatz-Tarnung", literally "berth-camouflage", more sensibly "dispersal-camouflage"
In more contested times most fighters carried some mixture of greys or grey/green schemes.
Tropical (sand coloured) schemes and winter (white) schemes are self explanatory as are most maritime schemes.

The USAAF could only abandon camouflage altogether after the Allies had established almost total air superiority, with the defeat of the Luftwaffe in 1944.

Cheers

Steve

 

[confused]

Theatre markings were common in the Luftwaffe.....on the Eastern Front, Luftwaffe and their "Aliied" aircraft..eg Finland, Italy, Hungary, Romania etc all had yellow bands at the fuselage "wrist" and on the wingtips.......in the Med, white wingtips and bands.....Defence of the Reich aircraft had coloured bands specific to the Unti, eg JG52 "Pik As" (Ace of Spades) had a black band etc etc. JG26 "Schlageter" always wore yellow noses, and were famous for it...they were based on the Channel Coast from 1940-1944
Friendly fire incidents happened quite frequently,esp as aircraft speeds increased....Typhoons were occasionally shot at being mistaken for FW 190's and Mustangs mistaken for Me109E's...in the Pacific and SE Asia, the red centre from RAF/RAAF/USN/USMC/USAAF was removed because the eye was automatically drawn to them in a dogfight and they were mistaken for Japanese Hinomaru..........a USN PBY had a narrow escape from an RAAF P40 due to lack of quick recorgnition...and there were other incidents too numerous to mention

 

[stona]

I always thought it was odd that they go through the expense and time of painting an aircraft camouflage, then add a large area of yellow to make is visible.

On the ground any distinctive markings could easily be covered by the simple expedient of throwing a tarpaulin, camouflage net, branches or even straw (all of which I have seen pictures of) over them. Even the early styles of Balkenkreuz, which had very visible areas of white, were sometimes covered in this way on the ground. Sometimes they just used the weather covers that came with every aircraft. These were supposed to be marked with each individual aircraft's werknummer. Messerschmitt ones certainly were. It's probably why instructions covering winter white camouflage in 1942 also included all an aircraft's ancillary equipment.
The highly visible markings served as IFF markings when the aircraft were in the air and were not relevant on the ground.
Cheers
Steve