The Arado Ar.196 was a good two-seat recon airplane that was used by most of Kriegsmarine's surface ships, among them the famous auxiliary cruisers that were also known as commerce raiders.
One of them was embarked on board the Widder (HSK 3) and wore fake French markings over bare metal. Another similar two of them, this time camouflaged in German RLM colours but also wearing false French markings, was used on board of the Komet (HSK 7) auxiliary cruiser that operated on waters of the South Pacific. Her airplanes however, were inoperative due to some hard landing that were forced to do.
It was also used, painted overall in Hellblau colour, by another unknown auxiliary cruiser. This is something exceptional as it was trully a pirate airplane because it didn't wear any markings whatsoever.
It served also, under Japanese markings in the Fliegerkommando beim Marinesonderdienst Ostasien Penang (East Asia Navy Special Service Air Command) operating mainly from the Malayan port of Penang but also from Yokohama, Kobe, Singapur, Batavia and Surabaya. This was a special German unit that operated in the Indian Ocean and Asian Oceans and their task was to support the German Type IXc submarines that were operating in those waters by performing reconnaissance and harassment missions. It's said that they also flew the Japanese Aichi E13A.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_196
2. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinesonderdienst (translated)
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