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Increasingly frustrated by night attacks from RAF bombers on the German airfield at Aalborg in northern Denmark, Hauptmann Wolfgang Falck, who was stationed there, wrote a comprehensive report evaluating the possibility of combating those raids, arguing that his Gruppe of Bf 110s would be better suited as night fighters. With the British directing their attacks against Cologne and the industrialized Ruhr, his recommendations were approved and two months later, in June 1940, the first night-fighter unit was established, Nachtjagdgeschwader 1, and Falck promoted to Kommodore of its first Gruppe, I./NJG 1. The Englandblitz badge so prominently displayed in this photograph of the plane on a snowy runway in Düsseldorf derived from his family coat of arms, falke meaning "falcon" in German.

 

Coded G9+GA, it belonged to Stab NJG 1 and was the first to be painted overall in a permanent black nitro-cellulose lacquer, the smooth surface adding several miles per hour in speed but also imparting a light sheen to the aircraft. The green letter "G" was a carryover from Falck's earlier combat flying and against regulation. As Kommodore of NJG 1, it properly should be "A," Falck explaining that "G" was the seventh letter of the alphabet and seven was his lucky number. Later, he would fly in a plane coded G9+AA but only in a non-operational role (the "A" in the blue of the Geschwaderstab).

There is some uncertainty as to whether Falck tallied seven victories or eight, depending upon whether a RAF kill was confirmed. But Weal does show eight bars in a photograph taken at the time, and this is how the plane has been depicted: three won in Poland, four in Britain, and one in Denmark. In October 1940, Falck was awarded the Knight's Cross, as much in recognition of his administrative and organizational abilities as his victories in the air—all of which, ironically, were won flying in the daytime.

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The coding system used to identify German aircraft (other than day fighters such as the Me 109) consisted of two sets of characters, one in front of the national marking, the Balkenkreuz ("bar cross"), and another after it. The first alphanumeric pair (seemingly assigned at random) was the identification code of the Geschwader (Group in British parlance), the main operational unit of the Luftwaffe. It was comprised of three, and later four or five Gruppen (Wings), each designated by a Roman numeral preceding the abbreviated name of the Geschwader to which it belonged. The Gruppe, in turn, usually comprised three (or four) Staffeln (Squadrons) that were designated by Arabic numerals. Finally, each Geschwader and Gruppe were commanded by a Stab or Staff unit.

The first letter after the cross identified the individual aircraft in the Staffel and usually was painted or outlined in its identifying color. The last letter signified the Staffel (or Stab) itself. The Geschwader Stab, for example, was designated by "A" and the individual aircraft letter colored blue. The letters B, C, D, F, and G designated Gruppen Stab I-V respectively, with the individual aircraft letter in green. Letters H through Z (with the omission of I and J, O and Q, which might be confused with one another) identified Staffeln 1-15, the colors of which rotated through a sequence of white, red, and yellow, 1 Staffel being white; 2 Staffel, red; and 3 Staffel, yellow—which then repeated itself.

This at least was the nominal notation, which changed as the war progressed. Eventually, the number of Staffeln increased from 15 to 20, and the omitted letters Q, J, O, E, and I, respectively, utilized to identify them.

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