[WWI] Yellow or Red Cowl?

[Jan Vihonen]

Bob Pearson wrote:

> Red if Jasta 15, yellow if Jasta 19. I originally saw it attributesd to 
> the former in an issue of Aerodrome Modeler, and did it as red myself. 
> Perhaps it has since been found to be at J19
> 
That's indeed the case. In his "Jagdgeschwader II" (Osprey Aviation 
Elite Units 19) Greg VanWyngarden says in the colour profile caption of 
this plane:

"Fokker D.VII (serial unknown) of Ltn d R Max Kliefoth, Jasta 19, 
Stenay, October 1918. This attractive, but cotroversial, D.VII was 
photographed in American hands, and was formerly assumed by the author 
to have borne the markings of Hugo Schäfer of Jasta 15, who certainly 
did use a serpent emblem. However, new information provided by historian 
Manfred Thiemeyer indicates that this was the aircraft being flown by 
Kliefoth of Jasta 19 when he was shot down by Rickenbacker on 26 
October. Kliefoth's interrogation report confirms that his machine had 
yellow nose and blue fuselage (and not a red nose as stated in the 
exaggerated account in "Fighting the Flying Circus"). Since Kliefoth had 
just crashed a D.VII two days before, and this machine exhibits 
considerable wear, it is the author's theory that this D.VII was a 
former Jasta 15 machine handed down to Jasta 19, and the markings may 
indeed be an altered version of Schäfer's emblem. No doubt this 
interpretation will stir more debate."

Jan