Sunday, 15 June 2025
Lt. Georg-Peter Eder JG 2
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Eagle Days - Life and death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain - Victoria Taylor
No 'white-washing'.
I was initially rather sceptical of the publisher's claims for this work. But Chapter 18 entitled 'Better liars than flyers' (incidentally, not in quotation marks...) might indeed be described as 'revelatory' or 'ground-breaking'.
The book creates an 'atmosphere' that reminds me of the movie 'The Battle of Britain' actually - which Taylor spends a couple of pages psycho-analysing. Briefly put, it would appear that nowadays we all think of the men of the Luftwaffe as being mostly 'honourable opponents' and 'worthy foes' - who suffered and died as did our own brave RAF heroes. This is largely the influence of people like Galland and movies like 'The Battle of Britain'.
Saturday, 31 May 2025
'Assi' Hahn's Friedrich -archive photo scan #37
#37 in this on-going scan series - this one from the Voss JG 2 'archive' ..
The Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 2, Hptm. Hans Hahn returned his 40th, 41st and 42nd victories on 12 August 1941 - two Spitfires shortly before 13h00 over Cap Gris-Nez, just south of Calais, apparently followed by a third six hours later near Ramsgate. These Abschüsse earned him the Eichenlaub. On 27 September 1941, Hahn claimed his 46th victory (Rudorffer in charge of 6. Staffel got his 40th). Here Hahn's erster Wart has just added the additional victory marking on the rudder. Hahn achieved his 50th on 13 October 1941. He was not the leading scorer in the Geschwader as Schnell had 54 at the time..
Wednesday, 28 May 2025
more Fw 190s - archive photo scan #36
more Fw 190s scanned - #36 in a series of photos scanned for this blog..
Another JG 11 Kanonenboot with the underwing Gondelwaffen
..and from the ongoing Petrick archive ebay sell off. Oskar Romm's Dora seen in Prenzlau, March 1945. I don't recall this image from Jochen Prien's history of IV./JG 3. A nice find...
Werfer rocket launcher-toting A-7/8s of I./JG 26 getting airborne from a field strip in western France during the summer of 1944. These aircraft were used with limited success on ground attack sorties against Allied armour and road convoys..
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Hans-Martin Markhoff JG 52, JG 4
Fw 190 A seen in early 1945 in Welzow. Attributed by Peter Petrick to Oblt. Hans-Martin Markhoff, Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 4. Previously published by Peter Rodeike in 'Jagdflugzeug 190' ...note in the lower image the new (and short-lived) 'rigid' steel drop tank and mount installation developed for 'rough field' operations. See Rodeike p300.
Monday, 26 May 2025
Junkers Ju 188 A-3, III./KG 26, Gardemoen/Norway, May 1945
This III./KG 26 Junkers Ju 188 A-3 was photographed in Gardemoen/Norway, May 1945, following German surrender to British forces. Note the WNr. 0326 under the cockpit and what looks to be the variant designation. This Ju 188 was equipped with the FuG 200 Hohentwiel airborne naval search radar. III./KG 26 converted to the Ju 188 A-3 in December 1944 and in early January 1945, with 37 Ju 188s on charge, the unit was transferred to Bardufoss in northern Norway. From here the Gruppe flew a number of attacks against Allied shipping up until late February. Returning to Gardemoen, 30 kms north of Oslo, the unit did not see much action due to fuel shortages. Their final mission of the war was to help evacuate wounded soldiers from the Kurland pocket, after which most aircraft returned to Norway. Reposted from the ongoing Petrick archive ebay sell-off....
Saturday, 24 May 2025
Fw 190 D-9 in JG 300
from an article compiled by this blog writer for Scale Aircraft Modelling back in 2003. Artwork by Mark Rolfe.
Stab./JG 300 D-9 seen in Prague post-war. The last Kommodore of JG 300 was Günther Rall - his Geschwaderstab may have taken on charge some D-9s in April 1945 but it is not known if Rall himself ever flew a combat sortie in the D-9.
Click on the images to read the captions
Note 'RLM 83' is now considered by some experts to have been a 'maritime blue' - that '83' was a 'green' is/was a widely held assumption possibly originating in the 1980s in the work of Thomas Hitchcock. According to Kiroff there are different 'distinct 'recipes' for Farbton 81 and 82 - and only one for '83' - others consider blue '83' to have been a 'test' colour for over-water ops, with only limited 'documentary evidence' restricted to a handful of Ju 88 units operating in the Med. More on this shortly....
Also on this blog;
Last sorties of JG 300, April 1945