I am building a diorama in 1/35 scale of a German Panther tank crossing a bridge, and there is a plane bombing it. would the U.S. and its Aliies capture planes re-paint them and use them or not, because I have a BF-109 in 1/32 scale lying around. or should I just use that and entitle it "Friendly Fire'?

For Evaluation and maybe OSS missions(on OSS missions they even retained the "enemy" Markings), but not for Combat -- only read of the Germans and Italians doing that.

Hi William

I'm afraid I'll have to agree with Chuck on that - I've never come across examples of the Western Allies using captured Axis aircraft in combat as you describe.

Sorry...

Rowan

They took anything of ours that would fly and painted it in they're colors...P-51s, C-46s, P-38, B-24s, P-47s...but that's not what you have to work with. Does your dio have to be bombing the tank...could it be "defending the tank"?!

Hi all!

Rowan, the French used Junkers Ju 88 in combat towards the end of the war. But the pilots were FFI and not regular troops I think...
I never heard of a Bf 109 used in combat by allies except those of the Rumanians wich fought against the German's Bf 109s... Bf 109 against Bf 109, that would be a nice idea for the "Duel" Campaign!
For the situation you described William, as Rowan said, it is very unrealistic I'm afraid...

Jean-Luc

I heard of instances where the Germans canibalized crashed bombers to restore flight-worthy B17s and B24s aircraft. Then they would sneak them into inbound US bomber formations as a stray to chart course, speed, numbers, etc. and relay the info to fighters and AA units.

Hi Jean-Luc

You're quite right - I was forgetting the French... and the Co-Beligerent Air Force in Italy with its ex- Regia Aeronautica aircraft (not '109s - I hasten to add).

I still can't think of a Western scenario for William's scene, but did the Finnish Airforce use its Bf 109s against its former ally towards the end of WW2?

All the best

Rowan

you could completely do that. 4 hours ago i read in a book about a whole british unit made up of captured german aircraft. it was a bf 109 with markings like a marine spitfire. i think it was flown by the leader of the unit, which crashed the thing in october 1944. it was the book from osprey publishing "modeling the spitfire and bf109" the title went something like that.
the book said there was a whole ..regiment? im not sure what the word for air is, im an armor modeler lol...

Hi Corey

I think you're referring the RAF's use of captured aircraft for testing and evaluation. We flew a number of Bf 109s, but they didn't go into combat. "War Prizes" is a great book giving plenty of information on the enemy aircraft that were tested in the UK, the US and elsewhere.

All the best

Rowan

Guys, thanks for all the help and info, I think I'm going o still do the original plan and keep the german markings, have a bunch of yelling and pointing soldiers. like a friendly fire incident

William, it' early in the morning and I'm still partially sleeping, but something in my mind remembers a US division on the Western front ("Hell on Wheels" ???--not sure) that took every piece of German equipment that they found. And they were said to have a Bf109 repainted in olive drab with white stars and someone to fly it. But it was used for recon only.

Cheers

Frank