Monday 1 August 2016
late-war 9./JG 52 film footage, Hartmann's Bf 109 G-6 'Yellow 1' 9. Staffel 300th victory celebrations, August 1944 via the Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive AKH Luftwaffe aces
The following stills were captured from footage made available via the Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive AKH and are reproduced here with the kind permission of Karl Höffkes.
They show 9. Staffel JG 52 celebrations for Erich Hartmann's 300th and feature excellent close-ups of "Yellow 1" a G-6 with a tall tail and Erla Haube - a 'White 1' is featured later in the video - also a G-6 but with the "short" tail.
Below; JG 52 Kommodore Hrabak and the victorious Erich Hartmann celebrate his '300th' on or around 24 August 1944
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According to 'Wings of the Black Cross 7' (Eagle Editions) Hartmann was flying this "Yellow 1" in Romania when he achieved his 250th victory with 9./JG 52 on 4 June 1944. His '300th' was claimed at the end of August 1944 -Hartmann filed 11 claims on 24 August 1944 at the height of 'Bagration' to go past '300'. In the consecutive days of combat on 23 and 24 August 1944 JG 52 claimed to to have shot down 33 aircraft: Erich Hartmann claimed some 19 of these, his comrades 14 more. However according to some sources, most notably Soviet, losses in the region of Sandomierz in those two days totalled just 11 aircraft of which only 2 were shot down (Po-2 + P-39), with a single machine reported missing while the rest were brought down by anti-aircraft fire.
Note the heavily 'nachbehandelte' (oversprayed) camouflage scheme. Traces of original stencils show - you have to wonder what colour(s) the extensive over-spray was, greens or browns? It certainly appears to be a defensive scheme.
Of special interest is the small number ‘2’ inside the “Yellow 1” which some believe indicates that this is his back-up machine- it doesn't. It merely recalls his first 'white 2' (similar to the small '5' in Barkhorn's double chevron). Note the tall tail and Erla Haube ..
The Tullis (?) profile and decals in "Wings of the Black Cross" No.7 were apparently produced based on stills taken from the original period film and yet the artwork misses the tall tail and shows a non-existent G-14 battery bump. Thanks to Nick and the guys over at the 12 o'clock high forum!
Also on this blog;
Hartmann's JG 53 G-6 'Doppelwinkel'
Hartmann's last Bf 109 G-10
Hartmann's 352 victories - or 80 ?