A friend of the blog recently sent through a copy of Hptm. Siegfried Lemke's Flugbuch. Using this document he has built a scale model of the Fw 190 flown by Lemke on the New Year's Day 1945 'Bodenplatte' mission. Siegfried Lemke's Flugbuch details this sortie, see image below (second line from bottom) Tasked with attacking St Trond, Lemke's III. Gruppe of JG 2 flew out of Ettinghausen, north of Wiesbaden. At around 09h00-09h05, JG 2 crossed the front line at Malmedy and was greeted by an enormous volume of Allied ground fire. I./JG 2 lost at least seven fighters to ground fire alone. III./JG 2 lost 10 fighters on the ill-fated mission and fifteen aircraft including at least six Doras were shot down! Lemke records that on 1.1. 1945 he flew a Fw 190 Dora marked with his Kommandeur chevrons and toting Werfer rocket launchers ('Werfereinsatz' as per the logbook entry). Werknummer '210286' almost certainly wore the JG 2 RVT fuselage bands and displayed a III. Gruppe Balken. Note that most -if not all- of the WNr. 210 000 series produced by Focke Wulf were fitted with the standard Fw 190 A canopy. Fw. Werner Hohenberg's well-known belly-landed Dora (I./JG 2) was D-9 WNr. 210194.
