Eastern Front Jabo - Bf 109 Emil of Schlachtgeschwader 1

 Rowan Gough recently posted his latest stunning Bf 109 model on Britmodeller. Built from the Tamiya kit and beautifully airbrushed and mottled, Rowan selected a subject from the 48th Bf109s Sky decal sheet,  basing his model on a photo that was first published in 'Stukas-Jagdbomber-Schlachtflieger' by Aders/Held. In their caption Aders states that the aircraft is a Bf109 E-7 from 11. (Schlacht)/LG 2 in 1941. Rowan had a few queries with regard to the book caption, the machine and its colours and as usual the members of britmodeller were quick to supply some answers ..

Dave Wadman posited that the photo was likely taken on the Eastern Front sometime between June 1941 and mid to late 1942 and the aircraft was probably on the strength of Schlachtgeschwader 1 (Sch.G.1) and was thus not a machine from LG 2. In particular the fuselage markings identify it as belonging to Sch.G.1, which consistently used the black Schlacht triangle and coloured letter on its Bf 109Es. The red letter 'E' on the yellow fuselage band indicates a machine of 2. Staffel.

As far as the colours and markings are concerned, 02/71 became the standard factory finish for 109Es with the introduction of the E-4 in May 1940 and the aircraft was thus most likely to have been finished in these colours with the fuselage mottle in varying densities of any combination of 70, 71 or 02. The lower wingtip surfaces were most likely yellow but not the upper surfaces. The spinner cap was either white or yellow.  The variant was most probably an E-7 as 2. Staffel had considerably more E-7s on strength between December 1941 and late 1943 than it did E-4/Bs. However in theory the Bf 109 in the Aders/Held photo could be anything from an E-1 to an E-7 - the later canopy and spinner cap is no indication of sub-type as they could easily be retro-fitted to earlier models. It is not possible to determine from the image if the aircraft is fitted with wing cannon (which would definitely rule out its being an E-1). However, as the Geschwader strength returns for the period list only a few -3s with the balance made up of -4s and -7s, the odds are against it being an E-1. Note the shield beneath the cockpit, which probably features the infantry assault badge,  frequently worn by the Hs 123s, Bf 109Es and Hs 129s of the Schlachtgeschwader on the Eastern Front. The aircraft has the large belly bomb rack for four SC50 bombs.

2./Sch.G.1 was briefly formed from 5./LG 2 in December 1941 but was redesignated again as 5./LG 2 in January 1942! At this same time, a new 2./Sch.G.1 came into being but, as with 3.Staffel, official documentation on this formation is sketchy. This new 2.Staffel remained in service until October 1943 when it became 5./SG 77.


Two images of a crash-landed LG 2 Schlacht 109 came up on eBay recently below (thanks Chris!) - note the rather rare 'bear-wielding-axe' emblem of 5.(Schlacht)/LG 2 on the cowling plus the Schlacht triangle. The 'bear' is actually depicted on the emblem chopping up an umbrella (presumably Chamberlain's?), a throw-back to LG 2's Jabo Battle of Britain campaign...

More Eastern Front Jabos on this blog here

unknown Sturmjäger pilot IV.(Sturm)/JG3

Another photographic gem (and low-res copy) from the collection of French researcher, author, archivist Jean-Yves Lorant. Lovely view of an unfortunately unidentified Sturm pilot of IV./JG3 seen at cockpit readiness in December 1944 or January 1945 at Gütersloh. This Sturmbock is still fitted with the armoured canopy glass known as Scheuklappen or 'blinkers' and may be a  machine from Oskar Bösch's 14. Staffel although any other indications/guesses would be most welcome. Feldwebel Josef Brandt of 13./JG3 is another candidate but the only photo of this pilot published hitherto in Jochen Prien's Chronik is too over-exposed and indistinct to allow a positive identification.

latest Kagero 'Topcolors' - Messerschmitt Bf 109 F

Kagero's latest title is a 'Topcolors' devoted to the 'Messerschmitt Bf 109 F'. Thanks to kamilS on aeroscale. Kagero titles are distributed in the UK by Casemate




This book comes with two big decal sheets with individual markings in 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32 for 16 various Bf 109 Fs, each depicted on beautifully drawn 4-view colour profiles and thoroughly described in the booklet included with the decals. The selection contains the following aircraft:

Bf 109 F-2; 'White 1', flown by Oblt. Kurt Sochatzy, Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 3, France, May-June 1941,

Bf 109 F-4; W.Nr. 8334, 'White 1', flown by Oblt. Wolfdieter Huy, Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 77, Jassy, 5 July 1941,

Bf 109 F-2; 'White 9', flown by Oblt. Hans Phillip, Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 54, Mal. Owsischtschi, 10 August 1941,

Bf 109 F-4/Z; W.Nr. 7308, 'Black 1', flown by Oblt. Günther Rall, Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 52, Stschastliwaja, 30 August 1941,

Bf 109 F-2; W.Nr. 8165, 'Black chevron 4', flown by Uffz. Fritz Geissler of Stab I./JG 52, Katwijk, September 1941,

Bf 109 F-2; W.Nr. 9588, 'Yellow 3', flown by Hptm. Franz Eckerle, Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 54, Staraja Russa, October 1941,

Bf 109 F-4; W.Nr. 7194, 'Yellow 6', flown by Uffz. Karl Willius of 3./JG 26, St. Omer, Autumn 1941,

Bf 109 F-2; 'Black 8', flown by Fw. Herbert Brönnle of 2./JG 54, Krasnogvardeisk, 16 March 1942,

Bf 109 F-2; 'Black chevron', flown by Hptm. Hans Phillip, Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 54, Krasnogvardeisk, 22 March 1942,

Bf 109 F-4/Z; W.Nr. 7391, 'Black 5', flown by Fw. Gerhard Köppen of 8./JG 52, Kharkov, Spring 1942,

Bf 109 F-4; 'White 1', flown by Oblt. Werner Pichon-Kalau vom Hofe, Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 54, Utti, 23 or 24 June 1942,

Bf 109 F-4; 'Black 5', flown by Oblt. Anton Hackl, Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 77, Kastornoje, 26 July 1942,

Bf 109 F-4/Z; W.Nr. 10132, flown by Hptm. Horst Carganico, Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 5, Petsamo, July-August 1942,

Bf 109 F-2; flown by Obfw. Franz-Josef Beerenbrock of Stab IV./JG 51, Dugino, 1 August 1942,

Bf 109 F-2; W.Nr. 6661, ‘Black 12’, flown by Obfw. Heinz Klöpper of 11./JG 51, Dugino, late August 1942,

Bf 109 F-4; flown by Hptm. Franz Hahn, Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 4, Mizil, Autumn 1942.

late-war Focke Wulf 190s of JG 2 in defence of the Reich -Reichsverteidigung

Ebay seller skorzeny123 is currently offering a nice selection of what are apparently late-war Fw 190's (note the bulged upper engine cowl) seen in service with I. and/or III. Gruppe of JG 2. Thanks again to the search effort undertaken by Peter at the Luftwaffe Experten board. Click on the images for a closer view. Note that image 3 has the remark 'Rollschaden' or 'taxying damage' written on the reverse of the photo. The bulged cowl and the mid-wing position of the pitot tube point to A-7 models and a time frame of early 1944...

image below of JG1 Fw 190 - see emblem just below cockpit

Arado Ar 199 seaplane - Rainer Kockers

The following photos are from a private album owned by Rainer Kockers whose uncle who flew seaplanes during WWII.  I managed to put Rainer in touch with Lela Presse and his uncle's photo collection has featured in this publisher's huge two volume opus devoted to  'Luftwaffe Seaplanes'. A third volume is in the planning stages. Rainer's uncle was Herbert Knieling, pictured here in the grey uniform in front of an Arado Ar199. He described having to fly to Paris to collect this factory fresh Arado and ferry it back to Germany. Note the letters ONS from the French word AVIONS on the hangar. Stammkennzeichen is probably RD+W... or HD+W. Rainer was curious to locate the factory producing Arado seaplanes for the Luftwaffe in Paris and after a little digging I came up with the following.

 The Ar 199 in the photo was constructed by a manufacturer of aircraft parts called SIPA (Société Industrielle Pour l'Aéronautique). This company wa founded in Neuilly in 1938 as a subcontractor to the French aviation industry. The SIPA workshops were located on the Ile de Jatte which is a large two kilometre long island in the Seine river between Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois-Perret on one side and Courbevoie on the other (north-western suburbs of Paris). SIPA produced (and delivered ?) at least 20 Ar 199A models and was later also involved in production work on the Arado 234 jet. SIPA's relationship with Arado apparently pre-dated the outbreak of war. The subject of French production of Luftwaffe aircraft is a fascinating one and as we know, for example from the history of the Fw 190 and the Ju 88, the French were very good at building German aircraft ..It wasn't a question either of the French having to 'cooperate' - the Vichy French authorities had very quickly opened negociations with their new German masters in an attempt to preserve employment and some of their manufacturing base in France by offering to produce spares and even complete airframes for German aircraft manufacturers.
     SIPA evidently continued to work with the Germans and liaise with Arado in particular. In 1942 Arado specifically assigned SIPA the task of development work on an advanced training aircraft which led to the post-war French training type, the SIPA S-10 which first flew in 1944.
Luftwaffe Seaplanes from Lela Presse Vol II (400 pages, 600 photos)

Dujin resin Weserflug Bf 163 - model and text by CliffB

Weser Flugzeugbau GmbH, known as Weserflug, was one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in Germany during WWII. The company was founded in 1934 as a subsidiary of the shipping and manufacturing company Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG (DeSchiMaG). It began production that year at Berlin Tempelhof and completed the purchase of Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau GmbH, Berlin. In 1935 Dr. Adolf Rohrbach became technical director of a new Weserflug factory at Lemwerder, near Bremen, which opened in 1936. He had been working on ideas for STOL and VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing) aircraft since 1933, and now developed them further. The planned P1003/1 was projected to fly with 4 metre diameter propellors that swivelled between horizontal and vertical and could fly up to 650 km/h. The Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft uses essentially the same concept. It requires very complex gearing to tilt the wings without varying the power to the propellers. During World War II Weserflug had another factory in Poland, at Liegnitz where Ju 188 and Ju 388 types were constructed. During the period  Weserflug constructed well over 5,000 Junkers Ju 87 Stukas at Tempelhof. This plant also constructed Fw 190 fighters. Forced labour and KZ or concentration camp labour was used extensively;  on 20 April 1944 some 2,103 of the 4,151 Tempelhof workers were foreign forced labourers.

The Weserflug Bf 163 project was started by Messerschmitt (hence the Bf designation), but due to other priorities was given over to Weserflug for development as a rival to the Fieseler Storch short-take-off and-landing spotter and liaision aircraft. The finished prototype offered a very similar performance to the Storch, was powered by the same Argus engine, but was a significantly more complex design due to its variable-incidence wing. The Bf 163 project was subsequently abandoned in favour of the Storch but interestingly, the 163 RLM designator was one of only a few to be subsequently re-allocated to another Lutwaffe aircraft design (the Me163 Komet).

The Dujin resin kit of the Bf 163 (above) dates from the late 1990's and can fairly be described as 'high quality, old school'. The parts are crisply moulded, with fine engraved surface detail and only a few small air bubbles. Where the kit does show its age is in the treatment of the cockpit which is represented by a crudely shaped, under-sized opening. The resulting fuselage walls are way too thick which, due to their prominence require thinning. Only two seats and instrument panels are provided as interior detail and no instructions are given as to how they should be configured. The final concern is the vac-formed canopy which is dire due to heavy creasing. Four canopies are provided, but as they are all as bad as each other this doesn't help much! All in all though an interesting build, particularly the mounting of that wing onto its precarious struts
 

model and text by CliffB

Flight Journal Luftwaffe fighters special

Flight Journal’s latest special issue, German Fighters, is certainly worth taking a look at if you're interested in Luftwaffe subjects.. or as the publisher puts it;

 ".. If you are driven to learn all you can about Luftwaffe aircraft, then you don’t want to miss out on this truly exceptional special issue. Not only do in-cockpit evaluations tell how the legendary Fw 190 and Bf 109 actually flew, but German Fighters also showcases the words of pilots who flew those aircraft into combat against Allied forces. You’ll ride along as German pilots dive into battle in Stukas and skate around treetops to avoid marauding Allied fighters while flying the Storch. All of this is supported by some of the best vintage German color photos ever presented, as well as the eye-watering modern color photography for which Flight Journal has become renowned...."

What particularly caught my eye - aside from the usual 'flying the Fw 190'-style article from legendary test pilot Eric Brown - were a number of articles written by Eddie Creek and in particuclar the 'combat diary' style piece on his uncle Rudolf  'Rex' Nielinger, a veteran of Russia and Africa who had flown with II./JG51 (photo below of  Nielinger and his 'white 4' of 6./JG51 seen during 1941 on the Channel coast). Nielinger  achived some twenty victories over the course of some 450 sorties and ended the war with Galland's JV 44 after a spell as a training instructor with JG 103. Nielinger flew some 508 combat flights in total.

Flight Journal Luftwaffe fighters special