Quoted Text
George,
I was not aware there was any contraversy over the red the Germans used. In my post I used the word "red" because I was refering to the paint sceme in general, not the exact paint used. My point was that a single red wheel would make sense if it is in the pattern apllied. The few color pictures I have seen of late war 3 tone scemes the wheels all looked yellow, or base color.
So, did spare parts come in the proper base color, or were they still in primer? The US NOS parts that I have purchased all came in the proper base color, OD or black etc. Was it the same way in the German supply chain?
The German chain of production saw many sub-contractor produce various parts per tank.
To focus on the hulls and turrets, these were made by armour forging plants, Ruhrstahl, Krupp etc. The Tiger turrets were manufactured by Wegman and shipped to their next door neighbour Henschel on dollies.
Now, how where these deliverd? All, i repeat ALL major components were strictly ordered to be finished by the armour forging companies in the base-colour. This changed from Dunkel Gelb to Oliv Grün later in the war.
From mid September to mid December, the order was given to no longer deliver the major components in a basecoat, but only primed Rot Oxid. Now, the critical issue here is, do you go along with Jentz or do you belief he mis-interpreted a German directive.
This is what the whole Rot-Oxid as camouflage debate revolves around:
Jentz states that in this timeframe (mid Sept. to mid Dec '44) tanks were painted leaving much Rot Oxid exposed. As he sees it, the directive called for minimal use of the 3-tone camouflage.
Now the oposition to this idea is based on:
- Rot Oxid is a bright vibrant color, it is in not a color one wants on their military vehicle as it just does not help to conceal. In fact, it makes you stand out.
- Do we have any photographic evidence to support this? We would see FOUR-tone camouflage on vehicles. Since these pictures are not around, it weakens the Rot Oxid as camouflage idea.
What it probably, most likely meant, the directive to use 3-tone camo colors sparingly, is that no longer put Dunkel Gelb all over the vehicle, but only there where it will still be visible. So no longer under the Oliv-Grün and Rot Braun areas. Remember, by this time, Panzers were finished in camo at the factory, using a template.
To get back to the any parts in Rot Oxid question. It simply did not happen, it is a thing that one can not combine with the way tanks were being finished.
Once Henschel, Daimler Benz, MAN, MNH, Kraus Maffei, Demag, Hanomag or any other company did final assembly of all the sub-assemblies, the way they approached this was unchanged up until the moment the last Pz-IV, Tiger-B or Panther-G/F left the production line.
No, there were no single roadwheels NOT covered in either Dunkel Gelb or Oliv Grün.
A very, VERY good example is the Octopus Tiger-B. This tank was from the very last batch of 8 Tiger-Bs that left Henschel. It had the new camouflage scheme, which included handpainted circles. Now, if they even did that, would the workpeople really miss a single roadwheel? A barrel? They didn't.
Factory photo's taken after the Tiger factory was overrun, or for that matter, the Panther factory of MNH or DB, all show that business, right up to the last minute was still going on as usual. On the Panther line, even parts that were easily damaged were still being mounted, like the rod-tube on the Panther's hull-side.
Bottom line, the plants finished their tanks as per the instructions, as did the sub-contractors.
No one rushed their product.
