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pysonya · 7 February 2005, 01:42 PM

Hi,

In another post on this forum I came across Dan-San's quote, "By the Iron Cross form we can date the photo. The white cross field was eliminated and Idflieg ordered the Iron Cross was to be displayed with a 50 mm white border. This order was issued on 29 October 1916."

I'd love to know how many different technical specs there were about the cross markings, their official names, and the dates of their inception. How many times and when did the cross design change? Did the orders require immediate overpainting, or allow a transitional period, or just require new a/c to be so marked?

And, that got me to thinking: does anybody know the "why" behind the changes (presumably all ordered by Idflieg) in the various forms of the German aircraft markings? During WWII the red dot in the center of the early US insignia (and the British roundel) was apparantly confused with the red Japanese hinomaru insignia, which possibly led to some fratricide incidents. So I can see a logical reason for that change in insignia design. But any of the variations of the black cross that I've seen are so different from any variety of roundel as used by the Western forces that I can't imagine confusion was the motivation for the changes.

Dan

7 February 2005, 01:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
pysonya Observer Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Prescott AZ Posts: 20	all those Black Crosses Hi, In another post on this forum I came across Dan-San's quote, "By the Iron Cross form we can date the photo. The white cross field was eliminated and Idflieg ordered the Iron Cross was to be displayed with a 50 mm white border. This order was issued on 29 October 1916." I'd love to know how many different technical specs there were about the cross markings, their official names, and the dates of their inception. How many times and when did the cross design change? Did the orders require immediate overpainting, or allow a transitional period, or just require new a/c to be so marked? And, that got me to thinking: does anybody know the "why" behind the changes (presumably all ordered by Idflieg) in the various forms of the German aircraft markings? During WWII the red dot in the center of the early US insignia (and the British roundel) was apparantly confused with the red Japanese hinomaru insignia, which possibly led to some fratricide incidents. So I can see a logical reason for that change in insignia design. But any of the variations of the black cross that I've seen are so different from any variety of roundel as used by the Western forces that I can't imagine confusion was the motivation for the changes. Dan