'Avions' magazine Bf 109 Emil 'special' issues from Lela Presse, new Airfix Bf 109 Emil boxing

Issues 189 and 190 of 'Avions' magazine published by Lela Presse feature a two-part Bf 109 Emil special compiled by noted Luftwaffe author Jean-Louis Roba and illustrated by Thierry Dekker. In total this excellent resource for modellers and Bf 109 fans amounts to some 60 pages of superlative Thierry Dekker artwork and rare archive photos over the two issues covering all variants and theatres and featuring an extensive colour section. I have shown a few highlights here with permission of the profile artist and 'Avions' editor Michel Ledet. The Bf 109 E-7 Jabo 'Black 4' of JG 51 in its winter scheme would make a super model subject! Highly recommended! Order your copies via Sylvie at the Avions mail order web page

Elsewhere Airfix have re-boxed their superb new 1:72 Emil kit in an 'El Alamein' gift set featuring a Bf 109 E-4 Trop. Pictures via Ian 'Hewman 100' at the Airfix Tribute forum

Lela Presse on Facebook - new Luftwaffe books, JG 53 history Vol III

Catch up with all the latest news and publications from Lela Presse on their new Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/AvionsLelapresse

Please note your blog author will be taking time out over the next few months to work on various new publications for Lela Presse, VDM Heinz Nickel and Erik Mombeek. Lela Presse currently have Luftwaffe Seaplanes Vol III and a history of the Focke Wulf 190 in French service (with English captions) in preparation.  Part III of Jean-Louis Roba's excellent history of JG 53 is due on 20 July. (French language only); A-4 softback, 96 pages, 200 photos, Thierry Dekker artwork. Order your copy here, highly recommended at only 12 Euros..

 http://www.avions-bateaux.com/produit/batailles-aeriennes/1879

Summary of contents:

-  II. and III./JG 53 over Malta (1 – 20 May 1942)
-  III./JG 53 in north Africa (June – October 1942)
-  Stab and II./JG 53 alone against Malta (May - June 1942)
-  Stab and II./JG 53 over Malta (July – October 1942)
-  Final assault against Malta
-  I. and II./JG 53 (October 1942)
-  The 'Pik As' in Tunisia (November 1942 – May 1943)
-  The 'Pik As' on Sicily (13 May – 9 July 1943)

Read my extensive review of part 2 of this series elsewhere on this blog
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/history-of-jagdgeschwader-53-pik-as.html

Elsewhere I am currently proofing my contribution to Part 5 of the hugely impressive Stipdonk/Meyer  "Die Deutsche Luftwaffe - Zerstörer- und Nachtjagdverbände" series published through VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrücken, Germany. No news on publication yet though.

As the title suggests this series is primarily concerned with Luftwaffe Zerstörer (‘destroyer’ or heavy fighters) and Nachtjagd (nightfighting) operations. The books are essentially photo journals with extensive German and English captions. The authors have released one book per year over the past four years with each volume featuring around 400-500 images over 200 pages in an A4 soft-back format. Most of the photos in each volume are previously unpublished and well printed. They are captioned in German and English except for Volume 4, which is German-language only.

More info here
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/die-deutsche-luftwaffe-zerstorer-und.html

A review of Colin Heaton's new 'Me 262 Stormbird' title 

from the publisher's blurb;

" The Me 262 was the first of its kind, the first jet-powered aircraft. Although conceived before the war, with the initial plans being drawn in April 1939, the Stormbird was beset with technological (particularly the revolutionary engines) and political difficulties, resulting in it not entering combat until August 1944, with claims of nineteen downed Allied aircraft. The performance of the Me 262 so far exceeded that of Allied aircraft that on 1 Sepember 1944, USAAF General Carl Spaatz remarked that if greater numbers of German jets appeared, they could inflict losses heavy enough to force cancellation of the Allied daylight bombing offensive. The story of how the Stormbird came to be is fascinating history, and it comes to life in the hands noted historian Colin Heaton. Told largely in the words of the German aces who flew it, The Me 262 Stormbird provides the complete history of this remarkable airplane from the drawing boards to combat in the skies over the Third Reich..."


I had fairly low expectations for this book when I ordered it, certainly Amazon's blurb is not a good start: "The Me 262 was the first of its kind, the first jet-powered aircraft." Joe Peterburs assessment, 'an interesting and informative account of the significance and development of the Me 262' features on the front cover blurb. The dust-jacket and the general design though is first class - the jacket has a marvellous velvety feel to it as well. As for the contents, it is mostly of interest for the numerous first-person accounts furnished via author interviews or quoted directly from articles and books - " from the pilots who flew, fought and survived it..". A number of Heaton's interviewees especially Galland, Steinhoff, Herrmann etc have of course published their own memoirs, usually good translations from the original German. Here they are 'interviewed' in English so don't offer much more than " ..and there I was at 20,000 ft.." or Georg-Peter Eder's " my first kill in the Me 262 was fantastic!" or Herrmann's " the Me 262 was not a great night fighter as high speeds made accuracy an issue.."  . It is easy to come away with the impression that Heaton is somewhat in awe of these high-ranking and highly decorated veteran Luftwaffe pilots - he may have shot down lots of (mostly) poor quality Russian pilots on the Eastern Front, but to describe Nowotny as a tactical innovator is well wide of the mark - see Manfred Boehme's benchmark history of JG 7 (Schiffer Publishing) for Messerschmitt's own deep concerns about Nowotny's 'qualities' to be entrusted with the Me 262 trials unit. The relative unknowns, pilots like Georg Czypionka (10./ NJG 11) unfortunately get only brief - and not terribly insightful - passages.

" I remember my introduction to the Me 262 fondly. I had arrived at Burg airfield on a March afternoon...after my first two flights at dusk I flew my first Me 262 combat sortie that night. I was returning from my sortie, ten or fifteen minutes from the airfield, when all of a sudden a Mosquito crossed my way (sic). It was pure coincidence, I just decided to fire a burst into him as he came into the Revi. With a very strong armament of four cannons (sic) he went down..."

The author also fills his text with cringe-worthy 'colloquialisms' too - sentences such as "the Me 262 was a potential game-changer for the Germans" make me wince every time. These criticisms aside, while the Me 262 was technologically very impressive, its shortcomings and teething problems rendered much of its impact more psychological than anything else, so the human aspects - the focus of Heaton's take on the story - make for an interesting read. If a little repetitive - the high speeds, the poor low speed performance, engine flame outs, the difficulties in juggling the throttle controls - all these aspects of flying the Me 262 were a given for every Me 262 pilot. A proportion of the interview material originally appeared in magazine interviews such as 'Aviation History' - there is for example a lengthy description of Nowotny's last moments which is well recounted over three pages from the observers on the ground and the successful P-51 pilots. The extensive bibliography and chapter notes are notable for some curious omissions but do indicate though that a fair amount of research went into the book - Heaton has spent time in the archives and put together an organisational framework on which to build a supporting structure for his personal accounts - while the collection of personal letters, data, information, and documents was accumulated from an impressively lengthy list of (not exclusively) German participants. Rather mysteriously though the Classic Smith/Creek/Forsyth four-volume history of the Me 262 isn't listed. Neither is Manfred Boehme's benchmark JG 7 opus. Of the cited 336 pages, at least 100 of these comprise the usual lists of aces, 8th AF jet claims, Me 262 losses and technical appendices.Overall Heaton's work is a decent enough angle on a well-trodden story and while this title won't replace any of the standard texts we have for the 262, you may find that it complements them quite nicely.

Visit author Colin Heaton's website for news of his forthcoming Luftwaffe books

http://www.lewisheatonbooks.com/

A history of Jagdgeschwader 53 'Pik As' part 2 Batailles Aériennes 59

Part two of Jean-Louis Roba's planned four-part series on JG 53 is just published by Lela Presse in their Batailles aériennes series of quarterly monographs. This is a very nice 108-page A-4 format softback with over 200 nicely reproduced photos (including 10-15 colour images) and twenty of Thierry Dekker's superlative artworks - all for less than the price of an Osprey. Recommended, even if you don't read French.

Covering the period March 1941 to December 1942 Roba describes and analyses the performance of a Jagdgeschwader that some saw as an ace 'nursery'. Roba in his usual trenchant, even provocative, style begs to differ. During early 1941 the entire Geschwader converted onto the latest variant of the Bf 109, the Friedrich, and returned to northern France to counter the RAF's attempts to 'lean into Europe'. Early April saw Fw. Josef Wurmheller (5./JG 53) claim a Spitfire and a Blenheim in his first combat sorties since coming down in the Channel during November 1940. On 26 April Lt. Wolfgang Tonne (3./JG 53) became an ace, downing a Spitfire south of Boulogne-sur-Mer (the RAF reported this as a 242 Sq. Hurricane). The combats over the Channel up to June 1941 were very much an interlude for JG 53 prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union which nonetheless resulted in the loss of six pilots killed in action. With the launch of Barbarossa I./JG 53 began its run of colossal victory scores - through June, July and August 1941, over 200 for the Stab and I./JG 53, " a figure which is patently inflated ".  The Kommodore von Maltzahn picked up his Oakleaves in July taking his score from 16 to 49 in a six week period although he was nonetheless forced to make three crash landings during the same period. Oblt Hans-Joachim Heinecke went from 0 to 16 and was appointed Staffelkapitän of I./JG 53. It was a similar story for II./JG 53 (minus its 6. Staffel)  Despite the early loss of Kommandeur Bretnuetz, over fourteen weeks and for the loss of six pilots the Gruppe returned some 194 victories " a largely exaggerated figure for just two Staffeln ". The exploits of III./JG 53 over this fourteen week period to the end of September are also detailed. Operating over Heeresgruppe Mitte, this latter organisation seems to have largely abdicated its authority to 'adjudicate' in the claims confirmation process. By the end of the first summer in the East, III./JG 53 had submitted claims for some 373 victories! While its defenders claim Wilcke's Gruppe - established by Mölders - was a nursery for Draufgänger, as evidenced by the three Ritterkreuze awarded in this short space of time, " it is nonetheless a fact that many of these pilots' victory claims were no more than flights of fancy and that they were encouraged to file these claims by a benevolent hierarchy and propaganda media looking for new heroes ".  These 373 claims were made for the loss 31 Friedrich either seriously damaged or destroyed and just three pilots killed, including Ritterkreuz holder Lt. Erich Schmidt, ( RK awarded 23 July for 31 victories) who was downed by Soviet anti-aircraft fire near Dubno.

Erich Schmidt III./JG 53, RK 23 July 1941. Note, above forty seven Abschussbalken, his final tally.

Profile courtesy of artist Thierry Dekker for this blog. Click on the image for a larger view.
Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2 (WNr. 6702) assigned to Ofw. Hermann Neuhoff, 7./JG 53, Lepel, early July 1941. Neuhoff was shot down over Malta on 10 April 1942 by a "Hurricane" and taken captive.  He was awarded the RK on the same day for his 40 victories. Neuhoff was most probably shot down by a JG 53 Bf 109.

There followed a period of rest in Holland and conversion onto the F-4 variant, that nonetheless saw the loss of the Kommandeur I./JG 53 Franz von Werra. He was replaced by Zerstörer ace Hptm Herbert Kaminski who was awarded the RK on 6 August 1941. Late 1941 and early 1942 saw JG 53 active in a new theatre of operations - deployed to Sicily. The Mediterranean meant the time of 'easy' victories was over  - the hazards of the Med - long over-sea flights, RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes and the British exploitation of Ultra all saw to that. Some 45 victory claims were filed for combats over Malta during the first two months in the Med - for some 25 actual RAF losses. During the spring of 1942 operations over Malta continued relentlessly. A Jabo Staffel was established under Oblt. Werner Langemann. JG 53 filed over 100 victory claims for this period for 25 pilots lost - the successful pilots, Oblt. Helmut Belser (8./JG 53), Zellot, von Maltzahn, Rollwage had all run up scores in the Soviet Union - few if any 'new' aces appeared.  A claim of note was 6./JG 53 Ofw. Rudolf Ehrenberger's 20th on 31 March - for a Hampden over Luqa. In some listings this has even been registered as a Mosquito ! Roba suggests that it was a Hudson flying in from Gibraltar. On 14 April von Maltzahn was credited with a P-40, another extremely rare type over Malta.

I./JG 53 returned to Russia for the offensives of 1942 and received its first Bf 109 G-2 fighters later that summer. " From the outset the huge victory list accumulated by I./JG 53 simply staggers - 913 victory claims in a 19-week period for only 15 pilots lost at an average of 7 victories/day. "  One of these losses was Kommandeur Kaminski, shot down and wounded on 24 July 1942. (On his return from convalescence during late 1943 Kaminski was appointed CO of Zerstörer Gruppe II./ZG 76) Oblt. Tonne opened this second campaign in the East with 19 victories and finished it with 101 ! A youthful Uffz. Wilhelm Crinius had yet to open his score on his arrival in the unit in February 1942 - on 22 September he had 'achieved' his 100th! By now 'Stalin's Falcons' had learnt the lessons of 1941. Moreover, new, more modern types had made their appearance in addition to Allied equipment supplied under Lend-Lease. " The pilots exaggerated claims were probably not the result of deliberate falsification, but it was self-evident that there was no rigour in the claims validation process whatsoever ". One is tempted to add  - as is so often claimed for the Jagdwaffe !  The author argues that these huge victory totals should be divided by two, three, four or even five to arrive at claims approaching the reality of Soviet losses. I./JG 53 went back to Sicily prior to Stalingrad, while of those JG 53 aces who had run up such huge scores in just a short three-month period, very few would see the end of the war - Uffz. Franz Hagedorn (25 or 37 vics), Uffz. Helmut Peissert (38) and Ritterkreuz holder Walter Zellot (86) would all perish soon afterwards in Russia.

Profile courtesy of artist Thierry Dekker for this blog. Click on the image for a larger view
Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 of 10.(Jabo)/JG 53, Gela, Sicily April 1942. The men of the Jabo Staffel referred to themselves as the "Bomben-Export Langemann u Co. GmbH"




JG 53 Friedrichs at Comiso, Sicily during 1942,  courtesy of Michael Meyer and a recent Ebay auction  - these are not images taken from this installment of Roba's JG 53 history.
Michael Meyer's Ebay auctions can be found here
For more on JG 53 on Sicily on this blog, again courtesy of Michael Meyer, go here

new Lela Presse web site, Avions magazine no. 185, Fw 190/NC 900 book Couderchon

Lela Presse based in Outreau, Boulogne-sur-Mer have launched their new web site ahead of a major revamp and overhaul of 'Avions' magazine due in February 2012. Issue 185, the first issue of 2012, will be the last of  the current-look 'Avions' with the next and subsequent issues featuring a new page layout and design and an additional 24 pages per issue. There is invariably something of interest in each issue; No. 185 devotes 13 pages to the history of the Luftwaffe pilot training school FFS (Flugzeugführerschule) A/B 123 established for Croatian pilots in Zagreb following its transfer from Elbing during September 1941 and a further ten pages continuing the history of Polish fighter group III/3 vs. the Luftwaffe during September 1939.

Mechanics working on the BMW VI of this Dornier Do 17 E of 5./KG 77 (with kind permission of Avions editor Michel Ledet)

5. Staffel KG 77 crews go out to their Do 17s prior to a sortie

Visit the new-look Lela Presse web site now (via the magazine cover image link above) and get a free download of the new Lela Presse catalogue for 2012. The catalogue features a number of books of interest to Luftwaffe enthusiasts including the recent J-L Roba title devoted to the Me 323 which I looked at in June  - one of my books of the year 2011  - and a number of new publications for 2012 including Philippe Couderchon's history of the French-built Fw 190s (price and release date not yet known). Exclusive cover image preview below. Designated NC 900, French Fw 190s were 'constructed' from huge stocks of spares in the underground factory at Cravant. The type was flown by the Normandie Niemen although proved extremely unpopular with the pilots who disliked having to fly a type that they had spent the war flying against. Around thirty NC 900s were flown at the CEV (Centre d'essais en vol) flight test centre. (below NC 900, image via Jean-Yves Lorant)

Wekusta 2 - 'cloud chasers' of the Luftwaffe

Just ahead of the release of the huge new Revell Heinkel He 111 in 1/32 scale, part 1 of a small article on a little-known He 111 unit, the 'cloud-chasers' of the Luftwaffe, weather recce Staffel Wekusta 2.

Below; He 111 D7 + LH and a Do 17 Z of Westa 2 Ob.d.L. in front of the hangars and the tower at Brest-Lanvéoc, autumn 1940.

Wettererkungdungstaffel 2 Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (weather reconnaissance squadron) was established during July 1940 in Oldenburg, north-west Germany and located at the German-designated 'Brest Süd' (Lanvéoc) from the summer of 1940. The primary mission of the Staffel was long-range Atlantic weather observation for the preparation of accurate forecasting both for the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine, particularly the U-boot arm. During the course of its activities the Staffel not unnaturally fulfilled the secondary but equally important of role of spotting Allied Atlantic convoys. The Staffel operated under the auspices of, and drew its personnel and equipment from, Aufklärungsgruppe 123, whose Stab was located in Tossus-le-Noble and Buc in the Paris region from July 1940 until mid-1944. 3.(F)/123 was located in Rennes from August 1942. The Staffel was one of the rare Luftwaffe units to fly sorties with 'semi-civilians' on-board - each flight carried a meteorologist who was also trained to fire the on-board armament of the He 111s and Ju 88 Ds with which the unit flew its sorties out over the Atlantic and around the western coasts of Ireland. Note there were several grades/ranks of meteorologists from Regierungsrat and Wetterdienst Assessor. The full story of Wekusta 2 in Brittany is told by Pierre Babin in 'Avions' magazine issues 162 and 163. The images reproduced here are currently offered for sale in Michael Meyer's Ebay shop and some of them are featured in Pierre's articles....

He 111 H-3 coded 'D7 + CH' of  Wekusta 2 Ob.d.L. in Brest-Lanvéoc during August/September 1940.

The first Staffelführer of Wekusta 2 was Oblt. Rudolf Prasse and the first of the unit's daily sorties out over the Atlantic were flown from mid-August 1940 and followed the same routine - an early, often pre-dawn, takeoff maintaining altitudes of between 500 and 3,000 metres according to the height of the cloud deck and following a pre-determined flight plan, with a weather information 'bulletin' broadcast back to Brittany every 90 minutes during the flight. A sortie could last anything up to six hours. The Staffel sustained its first loss that same month, an He 111 H-3 crashing on takeoff from Brest on 23 August 1940. On 23 September 1940 Prasse and his crew were shot down over the Atlantic by RAF Blenheims while flying a 'rescue' sortie for the He 111 H-3 flown by Lt. Horst-Max Dümcke. Dümcke and his crew had ditched safely in the Atlantic after technical problems but his 'SOS' messages had also been picked up by listening stations in the UK. Dümcke and his crew put their He 111 down near a small group of French fishing boats and were quickly rescued  and subsequently picked up by a Do 24 of  Seenotstaffel 1. Prasse meanwhile also ditched in the Atlantic after coming under attack by RAF twins sent out to the area and he and his crew spent the best part of two days and two nights in their dinghy before being rescued by another fishing boat, finally arriving back in Brest on 28 September 1940. One of Prasse's crew died of his wounds. 

 

During 1941 the unit received its first Junkers Ju 88s. Above, a Ju 88 of Wekusta 2 Ob.d.L. in Brest-Lanvéoc suitably decorated on the occasion of the unit's 500th Feindflug (combat sortie) on 31 December 1941 (Meyer incorrectly states 'early 1941' on his 'caption'). The crew for this sortie comprised Reg.Rat Richard Not, Oblt. Horst Dümke, BF Wilde, BM Gajewski and Staffelkapitän Rudolf Prasse. Below; gound crews assemble in front of the aircraft decorated for the occasion.

On 6 January 1942 an RAF bombing raid on Brest Lanvéoc caused considerable damage to installations and aircraft and saw Wekusta 2 eventaully move to Nantes- Château Bougon during July 1942 where the picture below was taken.

Jabos over England - Batailles Aériennes No. 56

New from Lela Presse (publishers of 'Avions' magazine) is this nice edition of  Chris Goss' "Tip and Run...", the story of the 15-month Luftwaffe fighter-bomber campaign against southern UK towns during 1942-3. A-4 format 82 pages softback, French text. The pictures are as large and clear as I've ever seen them and there is some neat Dekker artwork to complete the package. Recommended at just 12 Euros.  Contents illustrated here courtesy of Michel Ledet. Available from http://www.avions-bateaux.com/

The illustrations below depict Fw 190s flown by IV./SKG 10 based at Caen during May 1943 responsible for the 'notorious' raid on the English seaside resort of Bournemouth on 23 May 1943. Each Fw 190 carried  two 250kg bombs under the wings or more usually one 500kg slung under the fuselage.

One of the RAF units tasked with defending the south coast during the first half of 1943 was 91 Squadron based at Hawkinge under Sq. Leader Raymond Harries. This unit was one of the first to receive the new Griffon-engined Mark XII Spitfire in April 1943 designed to combat the low flying Fw 190s. On 25 May 1943, Harries, flying Spitfire XII DL-K (EN 625), intercepted Fw 190s from SKG 10 heading for Folkestone;

" I was leading Blue Section on a defensive patrol. I had just returned to base, with my No 2, had just landed when the scramble signal was given from the watch office. We both immediately took off again, and saw enemy aircraft approaching Folkestone. I sighted one lone Fw 190 at sea level returning to France. I came in from his starboard side, delivering a three-second burst at 250 yards. The enemy aircraft hit the sea tail first, split in two, and sank immediately.."

The Fw 190 was thought to be Fw 190A-5 Wrk Nr 2511 of 6./SKG 10, flown by Oberleutnant Josef Keller, the only loss apparently recorded by the attackers.

"..I then spotted another Fw 190 to starboard. I flew straight over the top of it in order to identify it in the failing light. The enemy aircraft pulled his nose up and gave me a quick squirt. I pulled straight up to about 1000ft, and turning to port, dived right onto his tail, opening fire from 300 yards and closing to 150 yards. I fired a four-second burst, seeing strikes and flames all over the enemy aircraft. The enemy aircraft gradually lost height, with smoke and flames coming from it, skimmed for some distance along the surface of the water and then sank. I orbited around taking cine gun snaps of the oil patch and pieces of wreckage that were visible..."

The Jabo attack on Folkestone on 25 May 1943 showed up the limitations of this type of raid when defended effectively by RAF fighters - in fact the Fw 190s failed to reach the target and similar daylight raids were abruptly curtailed shortly thereafter. Author Goss continues to maintain that the campaign was a success for the Luftwaffe, while pointing out that there were only ever a maximum of 28 Jabos for some 1,300 kms of coastline (!). In the end, when elements of SKG 10 were committed that summer to the Mediterranean and what was left was switched to an equally disastrous night campaign, the Luftwaffe simply ran out of French-based Jabos. The last victory over an SKG 10 Jabo by day was on 6 June 1943. Harries was ultimately the most successful pilot to fly a Rolls-Royce Griffon powered Spitfire, scoring 11 kills.

Below; my model of Harries Spitfire XII from the new Airfix kit. More on my modelling blog here

Last victims of the Focke Wulf 190 ! spectacular accident of an NC 900 at Le Bourget November 1945

..an IL 2 over Courland or perhaps a Yak 3 over Berlin during May 1945. What/who were the last aircraft to fall victim to the Fw 190?  Perhaps the spectacular accident of a French Fw 190 (NC 900) in November 1945 at Le Bourget provides the answer. French NC 900 photo courtesy Jean-Yves Lorant. Click on the image for a closer view

Saturday 10 November 1945, Le Bourget, Paris. Capitaine Rebierre taxied out, turned onto runway 21, released the brakes of his Fw 190/NC 900 No. 13 and powered off down the concrete strip. He had barely got airborne when his fighter's BMW engine stuttered, coughed and froze. A splattering of oil on the windscreen immediately reduced forward visibility. The hapless pilot managed to turn south and attempted to put back down on the airfield. However the nose of his stricken machine was now pointing at an oblique trajectory from the runway and heading directly for the dispersal assigned to aircraft of the RLAF or réseau des lignes aériennes françaises. No fewer than eight aircraft were parked up on the apron at that moment, including Goéland F-BACX, Siebel 204 F-BOAP, two Bloch 220s and no less than four AAC1 Toucans, the French Junkers Ju 52.

View of runway 21 at Le Bourget with the parking area for RLAF aircraft in the top left of the picture

The pilot just had time to jettison his canopy as his NC 900 hit the ground at speed. The first aircraft that the careening Fw 190 ploughed into was the Goéland, which lost most of its starboard wing torn off. Narrowly missing Bloch 220 F-AOHD, NC 900 No. 13 continued its spectacular run-out by smashing into Ju 52 F-BALI before finally coming to a stand under Ju 52 F-BALI. The damage to the last Ju 52 was catastrophic - hit broadside on, the Toucan was literally sawn in two. Amazingly the NC 900 pilot Rebierre somehow survived unscathed and no injuries were sustained on the ground.

The wreck of Ju 52 F-BANO. Note the impact on the port wing, virtually torn off. To the left of the picture are more AAC1's and two Morane 500 'Criquet' - or Fieseler Storch light aircraft. Pictures of the accident reproduced courtesy of the editor of 'Avions' magazine, Michel Ledet

More on French use of Luftwaffe types on this blog

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/11/junkers-ju-88-and-ju-188-in-french.html

Atlantic ditching! An account of a disastrous Kampfgruppe 126 He 111 H-4 torpedo bomber sortie

8 November 1940 - a small formation of three Heinkel He 111 H-4 torpedo bombers under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Lorenz came into land on the airfield at Brest- Guipavas, or Brest Nord as it was known in the Luftwaffe. This small detachment of aircraft and crews belonged to 1./KGr. 126, the Staffel selected to perform operational testing of the He 111 in the role of torpedo launching bomber, a mission previously carried out solely by Heinkel He115 floatplanes. Kampfgruppe 126 was established from III./KG26 in February 1940, then based in Nantes -Château Bougon with around thirty He 111s on strength which were deployed for mine-laying and anti-shipping bombing sorties.

The following day, 9 November, at around 13h00, Oblt. Lorenz (left) was ordered to fly a sortie against a Royal Navy convoy that had been spotted in the Irish Sea. Weather conditions were poor, with low cloud and visibility from three to five kilometres. Two of the recently arrived He 111 H-4s were hurriedly readied, loaded with fuel, bombs and two torpedoes were slung under the fuselage of each aircraft. At 14h00 the two Heinkels were airborne with Lorenz commanding the formation in the aircraft piloted by Feldwebel Walther von Livonius "1T+FH" (WNr. 6951). The other members of the crew were radio operator Feldwebel Peter Hermsen and flight engineer Flieger Otto Skusa. As the aircraft climbed for height the flight engineer busied himself loading the magazines and running his checks. Shortly after taking off the radio equipment in this machine failed but was working again as the aircraft headed out over the coastline and out into the Atlantic. Weather conditions improved with the ceiling now at 1,000 metres. Suddenly Fw. Hermsen shouted out a warning over the intercom; " an aircraft closing from astern at high speed - a heavy fighter, type unidentified.." It was 14h16. The unidentified fighter was in fact a Blenheim Mk IVF coded FA-Q of 236 Sqn. Coastal Command, a long-range fighter variant of the Blenheim bomber touting 6 Browning machine guns, four in a dorsal fuselage pack. At the controls was twenty year old Pilot Officer Dugald Lumsden - the two remaining crew were navigator Sergeant Gibbons and radio operator/gunner Sgt. Miles. They had taken off at 13h30 (12h30 UKT) from St. Eval in Cornwall for a reconnaissance sortie over Brest.


In an instant all hell broke loose. Oblt. Lorenz gave the order to open fire ...just as the first rounds from the RAF Blenheim hit the Heinkel tearing off the engine cowling panels. More rounds slammed into the pilots armoured seat back. Although they didn't realise it at the time this first salvo from the Blenheim had proved fatal for the radio operator Peter Hermsen who was lying at the back of the cockpit in a pool of blood, a round through his forehead. Wrestling with the controls the pilot jettisoned his bomb load and the two torpedos. More impacts rocked the aircraft, disabling the controls and shattering the instrument panel. Through the intercom Feldwebel von Livonius shouted at the flight engineer to switch off the automatic pilot. Suffering from serious leg injuries flight engineer Skusa dragged himself forward to the pilot still fighting the controls. " ..the intercom is out and Peter is dead! ", to which von Livonius replied insistently .." the autopilot is blocked" ...Despite his wounds the courageous flight engineer managed to haul himself back to the rear of the cabin to disable the automatic flight controls - just in time since the aircraft was now in a dive. The Blenheim was lining up for another firing pass - the aircraft commander and the pilot agreed that when the Blenheim dived on them they too would point the nose of the Heinkel down, letting the Blenheim overrun them before pulling up as brutally as the state of their engines would allow and then trying to head for the cloud banks at full throttle. Suddenly the Heinkel's port engine stopped dead - rendering the wallowing Heinkel even more vulnerable! The German crew braced themselves for the impending assault - before watching in amazement as the Blenheim turned away. In his report later Pilot Officer Lumsden referred only to an 'onboard incident' that forced him to break off the combat. Whatever the reasons for this unexpected turn of events, the Heinkel was to endure only a brief respite. The twin engine bomber had been seriously damaged - with one engine out and most of the instruments including the compass no longer functioning. The pilot had managed to turn back in the direction of Brest but the machine was barely controllable and was losing height all the time. Von Livonius shouted at the crew to fasten their seat belts - he was going to have to ditch the aircraft! At that moment the starboard engine coughed and spluttered - and finally gave up the ghost! Working the ailerons and rudder the pilot struggled to put the aircraft into the wind. At a height of forty metres the elevators refused to respond to the pilot's inputs - winding hard on the wheel, the pilot managed to move the stabiliser back and point the Heinkel nose up just as it came down into the heavy swell. It skidded across the tops of the huge waves briefly before sliding down one crest and disappearing under the surface...

Having already ditched one KGr 126 Heinkel He 111 von Livonius knew what would happen next " Don't worry .;" he shouted to his comrades, ".. the aircraft will float back up ..". Which is exactly what it did. Once on the surface the crew scrambled for the cockpit door and jumped out onto the wing. With blood streaming from his wounds Fliger Skusa shouted from the radio operator's position that he was unable to release the dinghy. Walther von Livonius climbed back into the fuselage, struggled to the rear of the aircraft and pulled the life raft from its station still in its cover. He passed it outside the aircraft to Oblt. Lorenz who had torn off its protective sheet and pulled the toggle on the gas cannister used to inflate it. It took twenty seconds to inflate the raft. The pilot was meanwhile helping the flight engineer out of the ditched machine before the two men wrestled him into the dinghy. Von Livonius went back into the sinking aircraft one last time to pay his final respects to his dead radio operator, Peter Hemsen..


As he climbed back out of the airframe Feldwebel von Livonius lost his footing and slid off the wing into the sea. It was then that the three men noticed the air bubbling away out of the raft - holed by the Blenheim's salvos. Attempting to inflate their life vests, their fingers numbed by the cold, the men found it almost impossible to unscrew the small compressed air bottles designed for this purpose. They finally managed it after several attempts. Before the dinghy sank Lorenz retrieved the flare gun and the small container of flares and attached it around his neck. Supporting the head of his wounded comrade out of the water he also managed to retrieve the canister of coloured dye designed to be released into the water to help search aircraft locate them. By now the Heinkel had slid under the waves and had disappeared for good. It was 14h45.

The three men were more than 15 kilometres from the Brittany coast line - which they could vaguely make out in the far distance when at the top of a wave. The swell was running high and gradually the three men drifted further and further away from each other. While Flieger Skusa and von Livonius clung onto each other Lorenz was soon forty or fifty metres away from them and could catch only brief glimpes of the two men inbetween the waves. More than an hour passed. Half drowned, paralysed with cold and their life jackets slowly deflating, von Livonius and Skusa were in desperate straits. And when the pilot had to let go of his wounded comrade in order to re-inflate his life jacket, Otto Skusa - unable to swim, half-dead through loss of blood and the cold - slipped under the waves and disappeared.

The two survivors had by no means given up hope of rescue. And while they had been unable to use the radio which had been shot up during the Blenheim's attack, they still has the signal flares which Oblt. Lorenz fired off at regular intervals. Von Livonius had already emptied out the yellow dye canister into the sea. What they didn't realise during these dreadful moments was that their encounter with the Blenheim had been witnessed by men of the Wehrmacht based on the coast. Reports had been rapidly passed to the local Luftwaffe units in order to identify the aircraft and a trawler had been commandeered and had already put to sea heading in the general direction of where the Heinkel had been seen to come down. Rescue was possibly closer at hand than they could have imagined. At 14h27 KGr.126 Staff had contacted 1./Seenotflugkommando based at Lanévoc-Poulmic (south of Brest) to advise of a probable ditching in square 59521 north of the Ile d'Ouessant some fifteen kilometres offshore. Thirty five minutes later a Breguet 521 Bizerte seaplane coded KD+BC and piloted by Leutnant Paul Metges took off for the area - with at least 90 minutes of loiter time according to the pilot- in order to pinpoint any potential survivors. It was obvious though that even if he located anyone in the sea the pilot would find it impossible to land given the heavy swell and that he could only hope to 'guide' the trawler to the zone.

Meanwhile at around 17h00, after some two hours in the water the two airmen spotted two Bf 109s flying a recce along the coast. Von Livonius later reported, ".. with the energy of desperation we shouted and screamed even though we knew all too well that they couldn't hear us. We waved our arms like mad men - all to no avail.." The Messerschmitts droned past and disappeared from view....

He 111 H-4 '1T+AA of the Stab/KG26, the regular aircraft of Kommodore Oberst Ernst-August Roth

(to be continued.. ...adapted and translated from an article entitled "He 111 vs. Blenhein IV" by Pierre Babin and published in Avions magazine no. 178 with permission. "Avions" is the leading French aviation bi-monthly magazine published by Lela Presse. More on Lela Presse's publications at http://www.avions-bateaux.com/)

Gruppenkommandeur II./ JG 52 Bf 109 G-6 of Hptm Gerhard Barkhorn "Schwarzer Winkel Dreieck kleine weisse 5" -last edit October 2015

Some confusion on a couple of forums recently as to the identity of Gerd Barkhorn's Bf 109 G-6s. This post is probably not about to change that unfortunately. 'Avions' magazine recently devoted a splendid 14 pages to Barkhorn's aircraft and career with profile artwork from Thierry Dekker and a full victory list in issue No. 176 (July-August 2010). First thing to note is that the machine depicted in the lower profile (above) may not be a G-6 as captioned, but a G-5. Note in particular the lack of a windshield air intake correctly illustrated. Other pictures from a Bundesarchiv sequence clearly show the WNr. for this machine as 15909 - assigned to a G-5 batch. However other sources have 15909 as a 'stock' G-6 pointing out that WNr. 15919, one of Hermann Graf's white-tailed machines from JGr.50 and only ten later off the line was also a 'G-6'. Just to confuse the issue as pointed out by Mansur Mustafin all G-5s were constructed by Erla and they were spread among their G-6 production.

Note that this aircraft is lacking the canopy air intake/silica pellets that would also help to identity this as a G-5 variant. The figure '5' appears in-between (and not inside or on) the chevron. We do know that all Erla built G-6s are virtually identical to the G-5's coming off the same lines, except for the silica gel pellets, and head armour which apparently differed on the G-5.


To conclude ...

"This aircraft has been very often mistakenly labeled as a G-5 but this machine is obviously not lacking the pressure bulkhead and silica tablets. Plus the fresh air door on the side. The G-5s were often issued to home defence units when the high altitude pressurized aircraft was needed. Most Eastern front air battles were flown at low and medium altitude."






The more commonly seen 'double chevron 5' with the '5' on the inner chevron is illustrated by 'Avions' on the following article page view with photographs of the machine on the right hand page view. This aircraft is a G-6, the 'Tropical' variant featuring the cockpit fuselage side umbrella holders as here.



Avions 176 is available at the Lela Presse website

The Bundesarchiv picture search facility is
here

Two views of the 'double chevron small white 5'  W.Nr. 162 198

Bf 109 G-6 W.Nr. 162 198 "Schwarzer Winkel Dreieck kleine weisse 5", Maj. Gerhard Barkhorn, Gruppenkommandeur II./JG 52, Khersones, May 1944.

Click on any of the the images to see a larger view.