"..I've been looking at building Rommel's personal He-111 VG+ES from the Kurierstaffel in North Africa in 1942. My question is was it a bomber/transport? Or was it converted to a pure transport role, and the bomb racks removed, and the area taken up with tables and chairs?.."
Fliegerführer Afrika was part of Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2), one of the primary divisions of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. It acted in the Mediterranean and Libya in North African areas during 1941-1942. The commanders were Generalmajor Stefan Fröhlich and Generalleutnant Otto Hoffmann von Waldau, who led the German air support to the German Afrika Korps campaign during the winter of 1941-1942. The specific aircraft in use by these commanders was one Heinkel He 111 H-4 (VG+ES) WNr. 4085, fully equipped - armed with five MG 15 and one MG 17, the capacity to load 1,000 kg of bombs internally and another 1,000 kg under the wings, also exterior fuel tanks...probably. Sub-type and WNr are contentious..
'Unknown' type/design/project presumably based on Junkers high-speed bomber research. Note the nose/fuselage profile similarity to the Ju 188/288 fuselage model. According to Ransom/Korrell/Evans in 'Junkers Ju 287-Germany's forward swept wing bomber' (Classic 2008), Junkers had started wind tunnel testing on swept wing configurations in early 1943 but had concluded on balance that the application of the forward swept wing offered less risk than the use of swept-back wings. The little-known EF 116 project compared both wing profile characteristics leading to the selection of forward sweep. Note that this was to be a smaller aircraft than its successor the EF 122, later to be given the RLM designation Ju 287. With the handover of Dessau and other Junkers factories to Soviet control, construction of the Ju 287 - in particular the Ju 287 V-3 - was continued, with the project being re-designated EF 131. Both the EF 131 and the later EF 140 featured swept forward wings. The last of the EF 140 variants was the Type 140 b high speed bomber, an aircraft which was to be powered by two jet engines only. A further development was the Type 150 proposed in 1947 with either forward or sweptback wings.
Me 109 E of 2./JG 1 seen in early 1942 in Jever. Uffz. Hans-Gerd Wenneckers in front of the machine, survived the war with around 20 victories.
Me 109 E belonging to 2./JG 1, Husum, May/June 1942. Seen from the left are Ofw. Erich Dobrick, Lt. Gerhard Staiger, Ofw. Helmut Maul and Uffz. Hans-Gerd Wenneckers.
Me 109 E belonging to 2./JG 1 seen in early 1942 in Jever. Pilot photographed in front of this Emil is Uffz. Albin Wolf, RK on 22 November 1943 as Oberfeldwebel, Eichenlaub on 25 April 1944 as Leutnant. Killed in action after being hit by flak on 2 April 1944 south of Pleskau at the controls of a 6./JG 54 Fw 190. Returned 144 Luftsiege on the Ostfront. Posthumously promoted to Oberleutnant.
Me 109 E of 2./JG 1 Jever early 1942. Uffz. Johnen poses for a snapshot. Note the Peil GIV antenna under the fuselage, here minus its plexiglas fairing.
Currently on sale at Michael Meyer's Ebay shop here
Pierre Clostermann filmed at Hendon in 1975/76 with a Tempest painted as his 3. Squadron machine JF*E for a French TV documentary. The aircraft is in fact NV 778, a machine built post-war. In this video extract Clostermann tells us how good the best Luftwaffe pilots were, especially those veterans of Spain and the early campaigns, and relates an account of the combat in which he was shot down on 21 April 1945. He introduces his remarks by stating that the Luftwaffe made its pilots fly until they got shot down, without any rest and thus they acquired hugely superior levels of competence and experience and "had to be avoided in the air like the plague". He was himself shot down twice, 12 May 1943 and 21 April 1945. Towards the end of the clip Clostermann relates what it was to suddenly realise that one of these superior pilots was in front of you as on April, 21st, 1945 - sheer terror and fear and the realisation that you had no hope of escaping. The German ace they came up against that day fought alone against Clostermann and the 7 pilots of his squadron, the German pilot according to Clostermann downing three of them, including Clostermann himself. Unfortunately not identified by Donald Caldwell in his JG 26 War Diary - only two 3. Sqd Tempests being lost that day- this German pilot - had he existed - would almost certainly have been a JG 26 Fw 190 Dora pilot...The interviewer asks Clostermann who the German pilot was... (my translation);
".. I never knew. He could have killed me because, just as my engine stopped, I saw the shell exploding, zipping past the canopy just above where the crosses are ..[Clostermann turns back and points out the victory markings in front of the canopy.]. But that day, I wasn't flying my own aircraft, because every time I had to fly a plane that was not mine, usually because of technical problems, I got into a bit of a mess. I saw the shell, I felt the impact and when the engine stopped, I thought "That's it, I'm finished." And I was too low to bail out. I curved into a turn and the German passed above me, I saw the pilot very well because he rolled onto his back above me, very slowly, I saw him 10 metres above me while he was looking at me. I saw he trying desperately to slow down. He was perhaps wary that I could get a shot at him because he was faster than me. He swept away, I put the aircraft down... It was near Dümmer Lake, it was marshy and the aircraft was covered in mud and I scrambled out of the cockpit as fast as possible. I unbuckled my parachute, I slid out onto the wing, I fell, I saw him coming back and thought "He's gonna open up at me! It's unbelievable, he won't do it." I'd never do that. And as luck would have it, he didn't.."
Note the inscription under the Tempest cockpit, 'Le Grand Charles' - this inscription, Clostermann's hommage to Charles de Gaulle, was in fact only painted on SN 222. None of Clostermann's other Tempests were photographed with this inscription despite what you can read just about anywhere on the internet, includng the Hawker Tempest site!
However - according to the most authoritative recent account (Avions No. 151 special issue to commemorate Clostermann's passing) Clostermann had bellied in on the 20th after combat with two Fw 190 Doras and flak damage. After downing one Dora north of Bremen, JF*E had been hit by heavy ground fire and the pilot had taken some splinters in his calf but managed to put down at Hopsten. In the ensuing crash landing Clostermann dislocated his shoulder and hit his head on the gunsight and did not return to his squadron until early May. According to 122 Tempest Wing's war diary for the 20th, " a good day, the 'mad Frenchie' got another two Fw 190s.."
Well-known photo (see Merrick) of Ju 88 G-1 WNr.714053 burnt out on an airfield near Braunschweig. Click on the B&W thumbnail below to go to a full-size black and white photo of this machine on footnote.com. Visible under the wing separated by about 150 cm are the transmitting and receiving antennae of the FuG101a Feinhöhenmesser radio altimeter.
These pictures - and more specifically the apertures visible on the wing upper surfaces - were the subject of an interesting discussion on Flugzeugforum.de. Thanks to Peter Achs, Christoph Vernaleken and Friedarr for assistance with the following on the work of Dr. Alfred Kärcher. The name is more usually associated with high-pressure cleaning hoses, but during WWII Kärcher build and designed cockpit heating and wing de-icing systems mounted internally as well as much larger mobile hot-air blowers for de-icing aircraft.
The Ju 88 G-1 was equipped in many instances with at least three Kärcher-Heizgeräte. These were essentially petrol heaters, more colloquially known as Kärcher "ovens" and could be mounted in the rear fuselage or more likely one in each wing close to the wing leading edge between the engines and fuselage. A supply of air via the intakes located close to the wing root was heated and then re-distributed around the airframe for heating and de-icing (see schematic drawing below). Not every G-1 had Kärcher fittings in both wings - some G-1s have only one wing-root intake or even none where there were no wing heaters present. A good indicator that the 'ovens' could be fitted in a Ju 88 G wing was the presence or otherwise of the rounded 'exit' in the top of the wing in the vicinity of the engine as clearly seen in the colour image above. The Kärcher heater was powered by the aircraft's own fuel supply. A certain number of earlier 'G' machines did not feature the Kärcher heaters, for example the well-known 2Z+EH assigned to the Gkr. I./NJG 6 Hptm. Gerhard Friedrich and illustrated on Pages 79-82 of Stipdonk/Meyer 'die Deutsche Luftwaffe' Teil 3. Aircraft such as these - with no provision for fitting Kärcher heaters - would necessarily have featured BMW 801 engines with Lufterhitzer or air heaters - along with their characteristic cowl bulges- since these would be the only source of heated air for de-icing on the aircraft. G-1s with Kärcher wing heaters are likely to have the 'smooth'-cowled BMW 801s not fitted with engine air heaters.
Below; Kärcher heaters of the type mounted inside the wings of the Ju 88 G-1 and a schematic view of the associated plumbing.
Reference is made to the Kärcher heater in the Air Intelligence report of the 7./NJG 2 G-1 that landed at Woodbridge, Suffolk on 13 July 1944.
"...De-icing of the main and tailplanes is by hot air. This is normally supplied through a muff fitted around the exhaust stubs, but in this aircraft it could not be traced. There was, however, provision for a petrol-fired heater (Kärcher Ofen) and a switch in the cockpit indicated that air could be supplied from this heater to either wings or fuselage. In this particular case the heater was not installed but there was an air intake in the leading-edge of the port mainplane between the engine nacelle and fuselage, with an exit slightly further outboard on the wing upper surface. The piping has not yet been traced out, but presumably it will lead to the heater position.."
Currently on sale at Thomas Zeh's ebay shop here are a nice selection of Henschel Hs 126 and Bf 109 G short-range recce Nahaufklärer on the airfields of Uman, Zilistea and Jassy in Rumania during March-May 1944. Time and location noted on the original negative reel. Click on the pics for a larger image.
Selection of images currently on sale from ebay.de seller lasiodora2010 depicting machines of operational training units 1./Ergänzungsgruppe West and JG 101 during 1943 in south western France close to the Pyrenees (Pau, Lourdes, Ossun, Carbes). Jagdgruppe West and JG 101 were in action against a raid by 8th Air Force B-24s on Bergerac, Cognac, and other airfields in south-western France on 5 March 1944. Lt. Chuck Yeager of the 357th FG was shot down by a Fw 190 on this raid near one of these airfields, evaded capture and reached Spain. Yeager's victor was attacked by "Obie" O'Brien, shortly after Yeager went down (Obie claimed a damaged, later upgraded to probably destroyed). Merle Olmsted identified the pilot as Uffz. Irmfried Klotz, who bailed out but was killed when his parachute failed to deploy.
Below; a Fw. Vogt at the controls of an Ar 96 over Pau during 1943
