General der Jagdflieger Galland visiting Kurt Tank in Berlin

A Wochenschau newsreel sequence showing Galland, Streib and Trautloft as they inspect the latest Focke Wulf 190 developments as guests of the designer and his team. Alongside Prof. Tank can be seen his assistant Obering. Willi Kaether as well as chief test pilot Hans Sander and test pilot Alfred Thomas, who was later killed during the testing of the Ta 152 H.



According to Dietmar Hermann the time and location of this footage can be determined from the flight test reports of the Ta 154 A-0, Werknummer 0014, TQ+XD glimpsed briefly in the footage and the Fw 190 V17/U1, an airframe that served as a Fw 190 D-9 prototype – Galland made flights in both these aircraft on 2 June 1944 in Berlin-Staaken.

First aircraft to be seen in the footage is Fw 190 A-8, Werknummer 174 014, BH+RN. The camera pans to Galland pulling on his parachute pack in front of Fw 190 V17/U1, CF+OX – the ‘O’ of the code can be made out –and reveals for the first time elements of the changes made to the airframe in modifying it into Fw 190 D-9 configuration.






There then follows a short clip of the V17/U1 in the air. Galland´s flight appears in the flight testing log of the V17/U1. There are the briefest views of the Ta 154 in the clip showing the forward fuselage and the open canopy. Streib also flew the Ta 154 in Staaken.



Watch the clip here at criticalpast.com

General der Jagdflieger visiting Staaken

Aces of JG 26 - Schöpfel, Mietusch, Priller, Dortenmann, Sprick - last edit November 2018

10-victory ace Lt. Josef Bürschgens 7./JG 26. Note the 7 Staffel 'red heart' emblem. Some Czech authors apparently believe this to be black....Bürschgens was shot down and taken into captivity after crash-landing near Folkestone on 1 September 1940. Below his 'White 7' after a crash-landing at Caffiers, northern France after returning from a sortie over England.

Above; Staffelkapitän Sprick at the controls of his 8./JG 26 'Adamson Staffel' Bf 109 F during June 1941. He pulled the wings off his Friedrich on 28 June 1941 in combat with Spitfires and crashed to his death at Holque. He was buried in Abbeville on 30 June 1941.



Oblt. Gerhard Schöpfel seen strapping into the cockpit of his Emil for another sortie over England, August 1940. He was appointed Kommandeur III./JG 26 on 21 August 1940 when Galland became Kommdore. Note the Stab four-leaf clover emblem on the cowl. Click on the image for a larger view. Note that more of Lorant's BoB photo collection (along with some nice Mombeeck images) were published in a three part Battle of Britain special in the 'Batailles Aériennes' series published by Lela Presse.
A poor quality repro of this image was previously published in the Jet & Prop Foto Archiv No.11 - the Stab emblem cropped out ! And talking of poor quality Jet & Prop Foto Archiv images, here's a much better view (below) of Galland's Emil seen prior to the Kommandeur's award of the RK during August 1940, 22 victory Balken on the rudder.







Staffelkapitän 14./JG 26 Oblt Hans Dortenmann seen here in the cockpit of ‘Black 1’, Wnr 210003 a very early production Dora-9. He flew this aircraft –despite it being plagued with engine problems- through to 5 May 1945. Although the Staffel number was ‘1’, it’s colour changed through red, black and yellow as III./JG 54 converted to IV./JG 26. Dortenmann -as Staffelkapitän 3./JG 26- finally blew his aircraft up to prevent it falling into British hands. He had achieved some eighteen victories on the type and was one of the leading aces on the D-9. Note the fuselage strengthening strips visible in this shot and the primer fuel fill aperture (3 litres) under the cockpit sill.





No caption necessary ! Lovely clear shot of Priller at the controls of 'Black 13'. Thanks to Jean-Yves Lorant for the beautiful photo print!





Above; a very nice shot of Klaus Mietusch, Gruppenkommandeur III./JG 26 - click on the image to view at full size. His victory over a USAAF B-17 four-engine heavy bomber on 25 July 1943 was the first of 16 four-engine bombers that he was to claim. His 50th victory was a B-17 shot down over Cambrai on 20 October 1943. During the course of the 8 March 1944 raid on Berlin Mietusch claimed a B-17 Herausschuss for his 60th victory. Mietusch was KIA on 17 September 1944 over Arnhem (72 victories)

Focke Wulf Fw 190 Dora 9 in Military Aircraft Monthly

To presumably 'tie in' with the release of the new Eduard Dora kit the latest (May 2010) issue of 'Military Aircraft Monthly' includes a rather poorly done piece on the Fw 190 D-9. Quite why any editor could imagine that he could usefully contribute anything of interest on the 'operational' history of the D-9 (the stated aim of the piece) in only three pages is beyond me, but when combined with Peter Scott's error-strewn artwork then impressions are rather less than positive. Also illustrated in the article are two Ta 152's -although not mentioned in the text- but no D-11s or the usual D-13. Here's an example at random, but frankly I could have picked any of the illustrations ..this is one of several 'unit unknown' (including the Ta 152 !!) Where did the yellow fuselage band come from ?



Here's the reference photo from my collection (ie does not appear in the article) and 'my' caption by way of comparison..

On May 5, 1945, Czech Radio called on the citizens of Prague to rise up against the Nazi occupying force and for five days Czechs took up arms against German troops until the Red Army arrived in the capital on May 9. Elements of JG 300 - attempting to fall back to Prague from southern Germany - were caught up in the fighting during the uprising. This particular Dora was on strength with Stab./JG 300 and photographed in Prague in June 1945. Kommodore Günther Rall's Geschwaderstab had re-equipped with the Dora in late April 1945. It is unlikely that the former JG 52 ace ever flew a combat sortie in a D-9 during his brief tenure of JG 300. Given the shortages of fuel in the last weeks of the war, sorties flown by JG 300 Doras comprised a handful of training circuits and strafing missions against US spearheads pressing into southern Germany. 'Black <4' displays a representative 211xxx series camouflage finish with a solid RLM 83 dark green engine cowling and an over-painted area of RLM 75 on the rear fuselage, with wing upper-surfaces finished in the standard 75/83 Focke Wulf scheme.

Luftwaffe in colour - camouflage and markings, Bf 110, Fw 190 and Bf 109 -this page last updated March 2019

F-4 trop Friedrich 'white 1' 4./JG 3 Lt. Alfred Helms

above;
Color Farb Dia 18.5.1940 Fieseler Storch in Le Doyen Nivelles Belgien

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7, III./JG 77, Belgrad Semlin airfield, Yugoslavia, May, 1941

A selection of the best colour shots of the Luftwaffe, featuring all genuine dias - no fake colorised images.

Above, Ju 52 and Ju 86 A from FFS B34, Kastrup, Copenhagen Airport. Part of a series of pictures taken by the German flying instructor Josef Rotty. From the collections of the Danish Freedom Museum (part of the Danish National Museum)

Staka Oblt Böhner, 6./JG 53 on "Yellow 9" at Westerland AF at Sylt in July 1941. Here is Böhner again.

..a nice series of colour images currently offered for sale on Ebay. These may or may not be genuine historically accurate reproductions but are useful for an idea of colours and markings.. (as usual here click on the pic for a larger image..)

Servicing a ZG 26 Messerschmitt Bf 110D-3 fitted with the wing-mounted drop tanks on a Sicilian airfield, likely Palermo.