# Stuka markings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141 "2005-03-12T03:05:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/1 "2005-03-12T03:05:27Z")
On the History Channel, a clip of Stukas. Instead of an iron cross or swatztika, they had a shield with a cross inside it. Finland? Spanish civil war? ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/2 "2005-03-12T03:20:06Z")
[This site](http://www.vectorsite.net/avstuka.html) lists all the countries that used the Stuka, so it could have been an Italian, Hungarian, Rumanian or Bulgarian Stuka (sorry no Finnish Stuka, anyway the WWII Finnish airplane marking was a blue straight svastika on a field of white). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/3 "2005-03-12T03:40:20Z")
Surprisingly, I don’t have a book on Stukas; but I do have _Messerschmitt Bf 109 in action_ (Parts 1 & 2). Page 8 of Part 1 has a B&W photo of a Bf 109B-1 of _Legion Condor_, which was a Luftwaffe squadron taking part in the Spanish Civil War. The photo does not show the side of the aircraft, but insignias on the lower right wing panel and the rudder can be seen. The wing insignia is a white cross on a dark circular background. The rudder is white with a cross whose bars stretch diagonally. Of course, I can’t tell the colour of the cross, but my ‘best guess’ would be red. A side view of a _Legion Condor_ Bf 109D on page 13 shows the same diagonally-crossed rudder, and the diagonal cross on a dark circle on the top of the right wing. There is a dark circle on the fuselage that looks for all the world like the Japanese ‘meatball’. No idea of the colour of the circle. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/4 "2005-03-12T04:02:33Z")
[Here](http://www.finn.it/regia/html/seconda_guerra_mondiale05.htm) are pictures of Italian Stukas, they don’t seem to have any kind of crests on them. [Here](http://www.wwii1939-1941.com/images/he112/he112-right.jpg) is a picture of a Rumanian Heinkel 112, where you can see the marking clearly. [Could](http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/images/avia_7.jpg) it be this marking ? (Bulgarian Avia B-534). Finally, [here](http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/images/falco_hungary_3.jpg) is a picture of an Hungarian Fiat CR. 42. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/5 "2005-03-12T04:26:00Z")
It was a shield-rectangular with a round pointed bottom; the sort you see in illustrations of the infantry “shield wall”. The cross was the Christian symbol, the cross piece high up on the vertical member, like a crucifix. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/6 "2005-03-12T04:26:45Z")
Was the marking on the wings and fuselage just forward of the tail? Or was it forward of the cockpit on the side of the fuselage just behind the engine? If it was the latter, I would guess it was a unit marking rather than a national roundel. I’ve never seen the described marking used as a _national_ emblem. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/7 "2005-03-12T04:30:56Z")
It was on the fuselage, a third of the way from the tail to the cockpit. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/8 "2005-03-12T04:38:01Z")
Here’s a page for Eastern front unit markings…sheilds. [http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/\_data/divemblems/lwshields.htm](http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/_data/divemblems/lwshields.htm) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuka-markings/294141/9 "2005-03-12T04:45:14Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Here’s a page for Eastern front unit markings…sheilds. > > [Site Disabled - 50megs](http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/_data/divemblems/lwshields.htm) St.G.2 2./ K.G.2 1939/1940 Thanks!