German Roundels

[lonestarson]

In his book Fighting the Flying Circus; Eddie Rickenbacker describes encountering a German plane with black-and-white roundels instead of crosses. Any info/other reports of this type of marking?

[Romani]

Maybe he saw a british night bomber and being unfamiliar with the type thought it was german

This is from the board on national markings at the entrance to Hendon RAF museum



But that book and Rickenbacker in general, are not very reliable sources

[lonestarson]

Many thanks for your reply. I think you may be right. That British roundel is exactly like what Rickenbacker described.

[Colin A Owers]

In many combat reports the national markings are misidentified. In combat it was probably the last thing that one worried about and any such reports must be viewed with skepticism.

There was an article in the American Aviation historical Society's journal many years ago that described why the bars were added to the US insigina as under some conditions it looked just like the German ccross and Japanese insigina.

If it is not documented in aphoto, it probably was the perception of the pilot and did not really exist.

Colin A Owers

[Vin]

Further to Colin's points, there was a doco of the Battle of Britain on the idiot box recently in which one old spitfire pilot spoke of banking to show a friendly fire attacker the elliptical wings, national markings less of an indicator than aircraft type. conversely, Commonwealth aircraft in the pacific theatre omitted the red from the roundel to avoid confusion with the Japanese red spot.

[rammjaeger]

Another opportunity:

He misunderstood individual markings of a German pilot as national roundel.

[lonestarson]

Many thanks to all for your replies.