This topic, which has virtually nothing to do with Roman history (other than both the Roman empire and Greater German Reich enslaved a continent), was prompted by the introduction in 2017 of IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover—Blitz, a hyper-realistic flight simulation game that recreated the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940. In 2020, an add-on recreated combat over the deserts of North Africa in 1940-1942. The realism of these planes encouraged an attempt to "skin" them with different camouflage patterns, insignia, and markings, especially the Ju 87 and Bf 110.
It should go without saying that doing so is not an endorsement of National Socialism. The Luftwaffe was the youngest of the armed services (having been officially established in 1935) and the most ideologically committed, its pilots of Aryan descent and former members of the Hitler Youth. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, for example, flew more than 2500 combat missions (mostly in a Ju 87) on the Eastern Front and was the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war. The sole recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, which had been created especially for him, he also was a later confidant of the Argentine dictator Juan Perón, a friend there of Josef Mengele, and an unrepentant admirer of Adolf Hitler.
This screenshot shows interior of a Bf-109 cockpit. The hinged canopy was heavy (even more so because of the addition of an armored plate behind the pilot's head) and difficult to open from the side. By pulling the red handle on the port side of the cockpit, the entire structure could be jettisoned.
