Lt. Herbert Ludwig was an instructor and one of the leading aces in II./NJG 101 and flew the Bf 110, Do 217 J/N as well as the Ju 88 G. This Bf 110 is coded '9W+BO' and has 10 Abschussbalken on the tail fin - 9 British roundels and 1 Soviet star - and was likely one of Ludwig's machines. Ludwig claimed two RAF Halifax bombers during Allied resupply ops flown over Warsaw in support of the Polish uprising in late August 1944. Ludwig was officially credited with around 13 kills although in a March 1945 letter to his wife he mentions that he was getting close to 20. On the night of 16-17 March, 1945, he downed two Lancasters over Nuremberg before his Ju 88 G-6 was set alight (also coded '9W+BO'). He and his crew bailed out with slight injuries. This colourful machine is Profile no. 109 in Claes Sundin's "Luftwaffe Night fighters Profile Book No. 5 ". The 81 'meander' squiggle over the standard greys would be a challenge for any modeller. Screen grabs from the Fritzlar colour footage.
As a result of his injuries sustained that night over Nuremburg, Ludwig was unable to fly for several weeks. On 4 April 1945, II./NJG 101, which was based in Unterschlauersbach, was disbanded. The three best crews of II./NJG 101 were Ludwig with 13, Rasper with 11 and Dörscheln with 8 kills. These three crews were transferred to IV./NJG 6 (under Kommandeur Hptm. Martin Becker) in Ingolstadt. The remaining personnel of NJG 101 were transferred to ground combat units. From Ingolstadt and Schleissheim, Becker's Gruppe flew night ground-attack sorties against US columns. Ludwig and his crew failed to return from one of these dangerous low-level missions.
Adrian Matthes has researched and written about Ludwig and his crew and their last weeks and published his in-depth research in a book Fliegerschicksale im Landkreis Nürnberger Land 1918-1949 and on the net. Please visit his web-page at the following link.
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