The Luftwaffe would use two specifications for the Balkenkreuz, one with narrower white "flanks" on upper wing surfaces - before July 1939, it was used in all six regular positions on an airframe - and one with wider white "flanks" surrounding the same width (25% wide as long from end to end for both versions) central black cross beneath the wings and on the fuselage sides of German military aircraft during the war years. It was first adopted in mid-April 1918 by the Luftstreitkräfte of World War I Germany, only about a week before the death of Manfred von Richthofen, and used from that time to the end of World War I, and its use resumed, with new standardized dimensions from the beginning of the Third Reich's Luftwaffe in 1935, to the end of World War II in Europe, always with the central black "core" cross having a stroke width one-quarter as wide as its length from end to end. The Smithsonian's faithfully-restored Fw 190F, showing both forms of Balkenkreuz in "low-visibility" flanks-only form World War II Balkenkreuz used on fuselages and underwing surfaces
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