more Henschel Hs 123, Fw 189, Arado Ar 96 - ebay photo finds #223

Move down the page for a super selection of HS 123 images currently on offer

Some current ebay sales from reliable sellers. Courtesy Manuel and Darius....

Below; Hs 123 in action during the Polish campaign 

Below, Bf 110 C/D displaying ZG 52 emblem

Bf 110 C/D Kommandeur I./ZG 76 II./JG 77 Emil in Norwegen - ebay photo find #222

Kommandeur I./ZG 76 until his death in combat on 30 April 1940 was Hptm. Günther Reinecke who flew Bf 110 C 'Doppelwinkel M8+AB'. Reinecke was brought down off the coast of Norway by the defensive fire of the Blenheim he was attacking (on 24 April according to Geirr Haarr). Note so-called 'Dackelbauch' belly fuel tank..presumably this airfield scene was taken at Stavanger-Sola..

Interim Kommandeur was Hptm. Werner Hansen until replaced by Hptm. Werner Restemeyer who was lost in Bf 110 D "M8+AB" over the North Sea off Newcastle on 15 August 1940.

On offer here

decals for this machine are available on John MacIllmurray's AIMS "Stab Bf 110s" sheet which is reviewed on this blog here. Go to John's site

One of Hptm. Karl Hentschel's II./JG 77 Emils in Norway also via Marco at koelsch333 Ebay sales

Galland Emil Caffiers am Kanal 1940 Friedrich - #ebay photo find 221

Above, 22 victory markings on the Gkr. III./JG 26 Bf 109 E-1 seen in Caffiers on the Channel coast, summer 1940

Below; the machine in the background is presumably one of Galland's Friedrich 'specials' with the cowl MG 17s replaced with two 13mm MG 131 machine guns - the 'bulge' aft of the cowl gun trough  accomodated the breech of the up-gunned MGs with the cartridges being ejected sideways through improvised ejector chutes. The image presumably dates from late summer 1941, note absence of yellow cowl and/or 'Schlageter badge'. Heavily mottled finish.

on offer here

forthcoming AIMS Bf 110 F/G conversion set for the Dragon 1/32 kits from John McIllmurray

" ..Hello everyone, I am pleased to let you know progress on my AIMS Bf 110 F/G conversion set for the Dragon 1/32 kits. Gun pack and spinner have been 3D designed and await printing, rudder and upper engine cowl and upper and lower nose finished, rear canopy and exhausts under way, MG 81Z already done, cockpit ammo boxes still to do and revised exhaust stubs done. Still have to do straight late exhaust damper. All going very well. Just got all the decals finished and they will go off to printers any day now. Hope you like the selection. I am doing two boxings - 200 units each and both will be available at the same time - perhaps as soon as Christmas depending on how long it takes to get decals printed. One boxing is the F-4/G-2 day fighter / bomber and includes 2x F-4 options and 2x G-2 options plus 1x national insignia and full stencil set plus and everything needed to make what can be seen in the profiles. Other boxing is for the G-4 night fighter and includes 5 options plus 1x set of insignia and stencils and all what is needed to do the options As I do everything by email naturally I can tailor make orders so if you are using E-2 Trop kit and have some of the parts or if you are set on doing the F and do not need the G parts in the day fighter boxing I will remove them and lower the cost. £ TBC. Lower cowls will be split so they can hang open - still have to do the interior detail. Likewise the nose gun bay will be open. Hope you like the profiles......"

John's AIMS site is here

more Eastern Front Junkers Ju 52s - Wintertarnung - ebay photo find #220

Junkers Ju 52 possibly of KGrzbV 9 (4V+ ?U) seen unloading supplies possibly in the Demyansk pocket, Russia during early 1942. However the emblem on the nose closely resembles that of 4./KGrzbV 172. Click to view in close-up and large

Superb new Ju 52 reference photo book - " Le Junkers Ju 52, de la Lufthansa à la Luftwaffe" by Grégory Alméras and published by  LeLa Presse - book review here

Approaching 1,000 posts and 3.5 million page views for the Luftwaffe blog

Back in March 2013 this blog passed one million page views in 420 posts, after three years of existence. See this post at this link. Today this Google blog "FalkeEins -The Luftwaffe Blog" is fast approaching 1,000 posts. Page views are now well over 3 million with daily views anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000. Below, a little screen-shot of my stats in the run up to Christmas 2016. As Nick would say, 'it's not a job, I do this for fun'. I think of it primarily as a vehicle to support the projects that warrant it, whether that be books, kits, decals, ebay shops etc etc. Thanks as ever to all supporters and correspondents, including Del, Jean-Louis, Michel, Laurent, Robert, Jochen, Kurt, Claes, David, Simon, Paul, Alex, John, Nick, Markus,  Eddie, Andy, Tara, Sylvie and many others including the ebay sellers who enable us to repost their images here with links to their sales, Marco, Michael, Oliver, Darius and Manuel.

The 'strange' death of Staffelkapitän 11./JG 7 Lt. Erwin Stahlberg, April 1945

The new Avions magazine "Hors Série" 'special' published by Lela Presse, "Les pertes des Messerschmitt 262" by Philippe Saintes (Me 262 losses) is a neat 100-page monograph packed with pics and profiles. 

However the report of the destruction in combat of the Messerschmitt 262 flown by Oberleutnant Erwin Stahlberg, Staffelkapitän of 11./JG 7 on 14 April 1945, attributed by the author -as in numerous previous works - to a Mustang pilot, Captain Clayton K. Gross of the 354th FG is erroneous. At least two Osprey monographs ('Aces of JG 3' -extract below - and 'JG 7 Nowotny') repeat this 'account'- Stahlberg crashed to his death at the controls of his jet, shot down by the P-51 of Clayton Gross..

Colin Heaton in his 'Me 262 Stormbird' refers to him as Lt. Erich Stahlberg of 9./JG 7, shot down in combat of course.

The truth is that Lt. Erwin Stahlberg did not even fly a sortie on 14 April 1945 far less meet an untimely end in combat. The reality is much more mundane albeit a little bizarre...

15 April 1945 -the closing weeks of the war in Europe. III. Gruppe of JG 7 are completing preparations for one of their final moves, eastwards, via Bavaria, into the Protectorate of Bohemia, part of the one-time Czechoslovakia. This was virtually all that was left of the once-powerful jet command IX. Fliegerkorps (J). Transferring to Prag-Rusin the Gruppe had put down in Plattling the previous day, 14 April, according to one account. However on the morning of the 15th Erwin Stahlberg is still very much alive. But his Me 262 jet is unserviceable. Stahlberg elects to hitch a ride with a convoy of ground crews, jumping up into the cab of a truck with Luftwaffe mechanic Uffz. Theodor Becker and Uffz. Walter Wetzer, previously of 3./JG 300. Stahlberg's truck is towing a trailer loaded with heavy oxygen bottles. The road convoy sets out in the early afternoon on the route that links lower Bavaria with Czechoslovakia. On a section known as the Ruselberg-Strecke between Deggendorf and Regen the road is hilly, steep in places and notorious for accidents. Stahlberg's truck slows as its approaches a bend on a descent on this section. Suddenly it starts to pick up speed. The driver lets out an exclamation - " Scheiße, die Bremsen - the brakes!" By now Stahlberg's truck is speeding downhill. Turning into the bend, the driver fights with the wheel. Tyres squealing, the truck skids side on, sliding into the turn. The momentum of the heavy load pulls both truck and trailer over the edge. Stahlberg is thrown from the cab into the fast-flowing river below. He disappears under the surface. Seconds later the trailer plunges into the water. On top of him. Stahlberg never comes back up. At the crash site the bodies of the three men are retrieved and taken to the church in Deggendorf..

Stahlberg's friend and Staffel comrade Leutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Schenk, who had followed him to III./JG 7 after the dissolution of I./JG 300 in March 1945 described the accident which cost Stahlberg his life in a letter written during 1983 ;

" ...Stahlberg was unable to make the transfer by air as his machine was not serviceable. The road convoy travelled on the route that links lower Bavaria with Czechoslovakia known as the Ruselberg-Strecke. (Deggendorf-Regen). He was travelling with ground crews in a truck hauling a trailer full of heavy oxygen bottles . The road descends steeply down into Deggendorf. At a sharp bend the brakes gave way and the truck and trailer went off the road straight into the fast-flowing river. Stahlberg was thrown from the cab into the water and the trailer plunged down on top of him. He drowned. I attended his funeral in the cemetery at Deggendorf. His body was later transferred and interred at the graveyard of Hofkirchen-Leithen an der Donau where I took this photo of the headstone.…"

This account by "Timo" Schenk is confirmed by the register of deaths that can be read at the catholic chuch in Deggendorf where the names of those who died in the crash of the truck on the Ruselberg-Strecke are listed;

Stahlberg, Erwin, Oberleutnant, Jagdgeschwader 3 (his unit prior to postings with 1./ JG 300 and 11./JG 7 ). Born 1 March 1917, died 15 April 1945 at 15:00 on the Ruselbergstraße.
Becker, Theodor, Unteroffizier, mechanic, born 25 October 1919 at Daseburg, fractured skull 15:00 15 April 1945 on the Ruselbergstraße.
Wetzer Walter, Unteroffizier with 3./JG 300 (disbanded mid-March 1945) Born 10 September 1921, hospitalised in the Res. Lazarett IA at Deggendorf, died 29 April from complications of lockjaw.

Details of the circumstances of the death of Erwin Stahlberg are related in the history of JG 300 by Lorant and Goyat 'Batailles dans le Ciel d'Allemagne' (Docavia, 2005).

Note that Robert Dorr in his "Fighting Hitler's Jets' publishes Clayton Kelly Gross's account of his jet victory on 14 April - " I sighted the jet ..sporting a large 'Red 1' on its fuselage....I subsequently met the pilot I had shot down that day  - a certain Kurt Lobgensang.."

William Hess in his "German Jets versus the USAAF" writes;

Henschel Hs 123 LG 2 auf Feldflugplatz Polen, Frankreich

a neat selection currently on offer from dw-auction here depicting Hs 123 of LG 2 and other types on various field strips in Poland and France. Above;  " for your 4 o'clock tea-time "