The Bf 110 in the background, coded M8+AP, is from 6./ZG 76 stationed in Argos, Greece. It was from there that the Haifischgruppe of II./ZG 76 flew in the Balkans campaign against Yugoslavia and Greece, and then Crete in April and May 1941. The camouflage pattern is a standard splinter scheme of RLM 71 (Dunkelgrün) and RLM 02 (Grau) heavily mottled over RLM 65 (Hellblau). In addition to the shark's mouth, there was a flourish of markings in yellow/orange (RLM 04, Gelb) to aid in identification, both on the machine gun cowling, engine nacelles, and rudders—and, in the invasion of Greece and Crete, even on the underside of the wing tips. The individual aircraft letter (A) was yellow as well, the color of the Staffel to which the plane belonged. The color of the spinner hubs is difficult to discern from the grainy black-and-white photograph, but they, too, should be yellow, although here there is a white ring around the propeller back plate—which is how M8+AP has been profiled below.
The plane usually is described as a D-3, on the presumption that it is the same subvariant as M8+SP in the foreground. But it can be seen not to have the extended fuselage of that model nor the drop tanks that usually were attached for long-range shipping escort. More likely, it is a C type—or, given the similarity in color and code to the plane below, an E series.
In the summer of 1941, the Bf 110s of II./ZG 76 returned to Germany. This color photograph of M8+A? was taken at Magdeburg-Ost, a grass airfield west of Berlin. As with M8+AP, the black spinners have a yellow hub and white ring around the back plate. Beneath the fuselage, one can see a central bomb rack for two ETC 500 kg (1,102 lb) bombs and, barely discernable, fittings for two ETC 50 kg (110 lb) bomb racks beneath the wings.
This plane is a Bf 110E, which can be readily identified by the small air intake introduced in this variant. Located between the central machine guns in the nose, it allowed air to be fed by a complicated maze of piping around the port engine and then circulated back into the cockpit to provide heating for the pilot. The gunner was warmed by another intake port on the right side of the fuselage that directed heated air from the starboard engine.
Another grainy picture said to have been taken at Magdeburg-Ost at about the same time, showing M8+A[P] from the rear, where the upper wing ailerons and rear elevators, as well as the tips of the propellers, are yellow as well—and this is how the plane as been imagined in the reconstruction below.
Not all units of II./ZG 76 returned to the Reich, however. A military coup d'etat in Iraq on April 1, 1941 ousted the country's pro-British regent and precipitated a short-lived Anglo-Iraqi War. On May 11, 1941, German Bf 110s, including twelve from 4./ZG 76 and two from III./ZG 26 that had participated in the invasion of Greece and Crete just the month before, began to arrive in Mosul, Iraq to offer air support for the rebels. Commanded by Oberst Werner Junck, they were part of a small contingent known as Sonderkommando Junck (Special Force Junck) or Fliegerführer Irak (Flyer Command Iraq). By May 18, only eight planes remained; by the 26th, none of them were operational, all having been damaged, destroyed, or abandoned.
(One Bf 110E was captured after making a belly landing near Mosul. Repaired with salvaged parts and repainted with British national insignia, the "Belle of Berlin" was used as a unit "hack" or communications aircraft in Egypt and then was to be deployed to South Africa to familiarize RAF pilots with the plane. In March 1942, it crashed a second time in the Sudan when the undercarriage either collapsed or failed to deploy.)
The Iraqis laid siege to the RAF airbase at Habbaniya, but it was successfully defended even before the Germans arrived and, in spite of belated Luftwaffe support for Fallujah on May 23, that city too was secured before British forces then advanced on Baghdad, where an armistice was signed on May 31, just two months after the war had begun. With no serviceable aircraft nor any spare parts, Luftwaffe personnel were obliged to leave the country.
This photograph (which sometimes is colorized) shows a Bf 110 at Athens on May 14, preparatory to departing on its long flight to Mosul via Rhodes and Vichy-held Syria. Given the two massive 900-liter drop tanks beneath the wings, the plane usually is identified as a D-3. But just visible on the nose there is the air intake introduced in the E type—which also could be fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks. That series, too, was the first to utilize a thick armored wind screen and larger hubs for the main wheels, the dimpled rims of which are visible both in this picture and the color photograph of M8+A? above. Beneath the wing, the plane's identifying code has been painted over.
The planes of II./ZG 76 (Haifischgruppe) were characterized by their shark (Haifisch) mouth, which reduced the white tactical marking on the noise that had been used by the Gruppe in combat over England in September 1940 to just the machine gun cowling. Indeed, so hasty was the transfer of planes to Iraq that they often retained their European camouflage pattern of RLM 74/75/76. This heavy mottle of dark green and gray extended down the sides of the fuselage to tone down the lighter blue on the sides, the overspray along the flanks of the aircraft obscuring the original German insignia.
The yellow tactical markings of the Balkans campaign on the fin flashes were replaced by the colors of the Iraqi national flag, with the insignia of the Iraqi air force on the fuselage and wings: a roundel (a green triangle bordering a stylized letter in red and white representing the Arabic word for "army"). In this reconstruction, the spinner hubs are in the color of 4.Staffel, II.Gruppe (white), as is the machine gun cowling. The engine nacelles are painted RLM 04, although it is not certain from black-and-white photographs whether the color extended completed around them (as illustrated here) or terminated just below the engine exhausts.
Whereas 4./ZG 76 had intervened in Iraq for only a few weeks, III./ZG 26, the first Luftwaffe unit to be transferred to North Africa, remained in the Mediterranean for two-and-a-half years, providing long-range shipping escort and air support for the plodding Ju 52s supply planes. Eventually, it was forced to transfer back to Germany in July 1943.
A note on terminology: A Geschwader (Wing) was identified by an Arabic numeral and its Gruppen (Groups) by Roman ones. Within the Gruppe, the Staffeln (Squadrons) that comprised it were numbered consecutively: Staffeln 1–3 belonged to Gruppe I, 4–6 to Gruppe II, 7–9 to Gruppe III (and, later in the war, 10–12 to Gruppe IV and 13–15 to Gruppe V).
All this is conveyed by the plane's four-letter alphanumeric code that flanked the black cross on either side of the fuselage. In this example, M8 signifies that the plane was assigned to ZG 76 (Zerstörergeschwader 76, "destroyer wing"). The second pair indicates the letter of the individual plane (A), usually painted in the color of its Staffel (yellow), and the identifying letter of the Staffel (P) in the Gruppe.
The Bf 110 coded M8+AP designates the first plane in the sixth Staffel of the second Gruppe (Haifisch) of Zerstörergeschwader 76. Because the sixth Staffel already belongs to Gruppe II, it is identified simply as 6./ZG 76, rather than II./ZG 76, the Gruppe number being redundant. Finally, in first-line aircraft, "A" usually was assigned to the Staffelkapitän, Gruppenkommandeur, or Geschwaderkommodore. In this case, M8+AP was flown by Hauptmann Heinz Nacke, kapitän of his Staffel and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for its successes. In November 1941, II./ZG 76 was renamed III./NJG 3 (Nachtjagdgeschwader) a night-fighter wing.
A note, too, on the development of Bf 110 variants—but limited to the most obvious external changes: the C-4 (Jabo, fighter-bomber) introduced center-line racks for two ETC 250 bombs beneath the fuselage, which in the C-7 were strengthened to hold two ETC 500 bombs. These racks could be fitted to the D-3, which carried two 300 or 900-liter drop tanks beneath its wings, although the option of a heavier bomb load was not possible with the larger fuel tanks. Most distinctively, the D-3 had an extended rear fuselage that housed an inflatable two-seat dinghy and emergency equipment for rescue at sea. The E series had an armored windscreen, which could be retrofitted to earlier models—and the subtle but telling addition of a small rectangular air intake situated in the nose. There were additional racks for two ETC 50 bombs under each wing, which raised the bomb load to 2,645 lbs. With ETC 1000 racks, the weight could be increased to 4,410 lbs (as much as that of the He 111), although that almost was too heavy for the undercarriage. Early E production models also had an extended fuselage for survival gear. (ETC abbreviates Elektrischer Träger für cylindrische Außenlasten, "electric trigger for cylindrical external loads.")
References for M8+AP: Messerschmitt's Twin-Engined Fighters from 1939 to 1945 (2009) by Dominique Breffort and André Jouineau (Planes and Pilots, No. 11) (p. 31); The War Planes of the Third Reich (1972) by William Green (pp. 584-585); Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1935-1945: Volume Two: Code Systems & Markings, Night Fighters, Ground-Attack, Reconnaissance, Bombers, Maritime, Transports, Trainers (2005) by K. A. Merrick and Jürgen Kiroff (pp. 271-275); The Messerschmitt Bf 110 in Color Profile 1939-1945 (2005) by John Vasco and Fernando Estanislau (pp. 92-93); Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1935-1945: Photo Archive 1 (2007) by K. A. Merrick, Eddie J. Creek, and Brett Green (pp. 16-18, 53); Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer Aces of World War 2 (1999) by John Weal (p. 58); Luftwaffe Codes, Markings & Units 1939-1945 (1995) by Barry C. Rosch (pp. 11, 13, 42, 381-382); The Messerschmitt Bf 110 (1965) by Martin C. Windrow (p. 12); Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer in Action (1977) by Jerry L. Campbell (pp. 33-35, 40); Messerschmitt Bf 110/Me 210/Me 410: An Illustrated History (2003) by Heinz Mankau and Peter Petrick (pp. 176-192); Messerschmitt Bf 110 C, D and E: An Illustrated Study (2008) by John Vasco and Fernando Estanislau (pp. 84-146).
References for Iraq: The Messerschmitt Bf 110 in Color Profile 1939-1945 (2005) by John Vasco and Fernando Estanislau (p. 75); Messerschmitt's Twin-Engined Fighters from 1939 to 1945 (2009) by Dominique Breffort and André Jouineau (pp. 16, 31); Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer Aces of World War 2 (1999) by John Weal (pp. 58, 66-70, 102); Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1935-1945: Volume One: Pre-War Development, Paint Systems, Composition, Patterns, Applications, Day Fighters (2004) by K. A. Merrick and Jürgen Kiroff (pp. 154-155); Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1935-1945: Volume Two: Code Systems & Markings, Night Fighters, Ground-Attack, Reconnaissance, Bombers, Maritime, Transports, Trainers (2005) by K. A. Merrick and Jürgen Kiroff (pp. 271-272); "Zerstörer destroyers," Luftwaffe im Focus (2003) No. 1 Special (p. 16); Messerschmitt Bf 110 Units in the Battle of Britain–Part Two (2019) by John Vasco (pp. 7, 98-99, 101); The War Planes of the Third Reich (1972) by William Green (p. 584); Messerschmitt Bf 110 C, D and E: An Illustrated Study (2008) by John Vasco and Fernando Estanislau (pp. 104, 126); Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer Aces of World War 2 (1999) by John Weal (pp. 57, 67); The Messerschmitt Bf 110 (1965) by Martin C. Windrow (p. 2); Zerstörer, Volume Two: Luftwaffe Fighter Bombers and Destroyers, 1941–1945 (2007) by John J. Vasco (pp. 113-119); The Messerschmitt Bf 110: A Complete Guide to the Luftwaffe's Famous Zerstörer (2021) by Richard A. Franks (pp. 87-89).
