Last modified: 2001-11-03 by ivan sache
Keywords: air force | roundel | fin flash | star (red) |
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During the Communist era the Yugoslav Air Force used a fin flash which was a full fin width streched national flag (but without vertical deformation of the star, of course).
However as part of the RAF's Balkan Air Force (June 1944 - July
1945) the Yugoslav Air Force while using the same roundel as in the
later Communist era used a square fin flash combined of
vertical blue-white-red stripes with a red star in the center
of the white stripe.
I guess that it was done in order to provide a better identification
by looking like the fin flash to the British RAF
Dov Gutterman , 20 January 2000
A colour illustration in [rob67]
shows it as red-white-blue (red being the colour nearest the front of
the fin) vertical stripes with a red star.
In [rob56] there is a black and white
photograph of a Balkan Air Force Spitfire in which the front stripe
of the fin flash appears to be red. The top front corner of the white
stripe is close to the leading edge of the fin, with the result that,
due to the shape of the tail, the red "stripe" is triangular not
rectangular.
The fuselage roundel at first glance looks (colours guessed) like a
red star painted over an RAF roundel. However it was probably a
completely re-painted insignia, as the white is too wide to be part
of a C1 roundel and the yellow is too narrow to be part of an A1
roundel. The wing roundel appears to be a red star on a blue
circle.
The roundel illustrated in [rob67]
with the fin flash described, has a red star superimposed on a light
blue circle surrounded by a white ring, outside which is a red ring
joining the points of the star. This, and the fin flash is labelled,
"National Army of Liberation 1944-6."
David Prothero , 22 January 2000
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