The first fighter of the reborn Luftwaffe was the Heinkel He51, this was an adequate design that was to bridge the gap between the the biplane fighters that were basically developments of the World War One era, and the revolutionary Bf109, that was to dominate Europe's skies for almost a decade.
Eventually there were six Jagdgeschwaders of He51s, each of which was assigned a different 'traditional' colour that served to mark all aircraft of that Jagdgeschwader. These aircraft were further marked with/without bars to show which gruppe it belonged to, circles and stripes showed the staffel and finally and individual number between 1-12 showed its place in the staffel.
As well as equipping the new Jagdgeschwaders, the He51 also served with the Kondor Legion in Spain. In all guises it bore colourful markings as the following feature will attempt to illustrate.
Heinkel He51 Kommandeur JG 131 Jesau Aerodrome
The colour of JG131 was black. The stab flight of a Jagdgeschwader bore chevrons and stripes to depict the various offices held, that shown here is the OC of JG131.
The Jagdgeschwader was broken down into two gruppes. The I. gruppe would have no extra markings, while the II. gruppe carried a bar below the cockpit. Each gruppe was then divided into three staffels. These are distinguished as 1 & 4 staffel no marking, 2 & 5 staffel stripe on nose and rear fuselage; 3 & 6 staffels disc on nose and rear fuselage. Hence an aircraft carrying no bar, but a stripe on the fuselage is from the 2 staffel, of the I.gruppe. Later a third gruppe was added to each jagdgeschwader, but this was afer the He51 was withdrawn from service.
When the Spanish Civil War erupted, the decision was taken to send both men and material to aid the Nationalist cause. Among the aircraft sent were over 100 He51s. Originally in plain gray finish (actually a grey-green), the nationalist markings of a white rudder, with a black cross and black discs on the wings and fuselage were carried. Later white wingtips and white diagonal crosses were also added to the wings to further aid in identification. Each aircraft type in the Nationalist inventory was given an identifying number the He51 was assigned '2'.