obriendavid wrote:Gazza, had a look at some of my references,
Blitzkrieg, armour camoflage and markings 39-40
Achtung Panzer, concord publications
SS Verfiigungstruppen 1939
Panzer Division 35-45
They all say that the armour was painted plain grey and the two tone was only used on some tanks before the war, if the armour is for the Polish campaign then the cross should be solid white without the black centre.
Cheers
Dave
Dave - the grey / brown camo for 1939-40 panzers is the latest 'thing' for this period, based on some recent research that shows the official decision to go to all grey didn't happen until
after the fall of France - so (Q.E.D.) all panzers in Poland and France were still adorned in the pre-war grey / brown scheme. Examination of the photographic evidence does lend at least some support to the idea. It's something the team at Flames of War have latched onto and are pushing with their new 'Blitzkrieg' release, and the idea has some backing amongst the big names in WWII AFV writing (although not all). I've done a bit of reading about this and they present a good case, but none the less I'm still a little bit sceptical.
I don't disagree with the basic idea that there were a lot of panzers (if not the majority) rumbling around Poland and France painted in the grey / brown scheme (and therefore there's nothing wrong with Gazza'a excellent paint jobs), but there's no reason why you can't still have all grey machines in your 1940 German armies as well. I've seen colour photographs of German vehicles dating from the 1940 campaign sporting what looks like an ALL grey scheme (at least to my tired old eyes). I have some personal experience of old photograph interpretation in a past job and when people say they can "definitely see" the two tone scheme in many colour (and b&w) pictures I beg to differ. Certainly - some pictures DO show it, but the limitations of 1940's colour film emulsions and the inevitable deterioration in the negatives after the passage of 60 years make this anything but an exact science. Pictures of all grey tanks are explained away with remarks like “too dark to show up the brown” but this is rather convenient reasoning.
There are a few zealots around the forums pressing the grey / brown case hard and (typically for the internet
) those of us who fail to see the light are dismissed as "blinded" by tradition and our own deluded preconceptions! But the bottom line is we can't be certain until more definitive evidence is uncovered. For now, I see no reason why the all grey scheme could not have been in use before May 1940 alongside the grey / brown (indeed what photographic evidence we have suggests it was) and that the official order issued after the French campaign (to "save paint") simply rubber stamped a practice that was already widespread (because of a paint shortage?). This type of 'rubber stamping' was a common phenomenon in many armies across history.
but I'm completely unconvinced but it doesn't detract from Gary's great paint job.
