I was looking through a book at the local hobbystore that contained the cruise photos from one of the crew on the Scharnhorst. There was a photo of the Scharnhorst cruising along the Kiel cannal, and right on top of turret Anton, there was a circular bullseye painted on the top of the turret, quite large - looked like a dark rim with a white inner circle. You know what that is all about? Not seen that before...they said it was for Airial Recognition. Thomas
This particular scheme dates from the winter of 1939-1940. It was an uncommonly bitter winter, and several capital ships were iced-in at their moorings in Kiel. The Kriegsmarine had evidently been experimenting with aerial recognition markings, and since the ships were stuck there, it was an excellent opportunity to do some testing. The issue was that in congested and narrow waters (which many in Europe are), the Luftwaffe needed visual aids to keep from dropping bombs on German ships, and to instead quickly identify enemy ships by the lack of such markings. This was made even more critical by the fact that the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine barely communicated at all. (Hermann Göring had complete control of all German military aircraft, even to the extent of the crews assigned to operate and maintain the scout planes carried by heavy units of the Kriegsmarine. Göring did not want the Kriegsmarine to have as much power as it did in German affairs, and he was quoted as saying in response to criticism of this philiosophy, "If it flies, it belongs to the Luftwaffe." This contributed in a big way to the failure of the Kriegsmarine to develop aircraft carriers, which in turn, made capital raiders such as the Bismarck sitting ducks for even obsolete Allied aircraft.) After this winter, the Kriegsmarine settled on a simpler approach: all one color on the top of the turrets. These stood out better against a lighter background (the "silver" shade of holystoned teak, specifically), and were easier to apply and maintain. These were, depending upon the ship and the locale, sometimes dark gray, sometimes red, and sometimes yellow. Rob
It's a good book with lots of pictures and plans. Although most can be seen on other websites. Skippy
