Starting a series of posts looking at some of the K-4s featured on the superb new AIMS Bf 109 K-4 decal sheet. Artwork courtesy of John MacIllmurray. And if you don't want the decals John's artwork for this decal sheet can be purchased separately for a small sum from John directly - aimsmodels1 at gmail.com
'Chevron 1+I' was the regular machine flown by Lt. Ernst-Dieter Bernhard, Adjutant of III./JG 53 during the first few months of 1945. He described his K-4 as 'well polished' and as 'quite a hot ship' -
ein ganz heißes Schiff- until it was lost on 19 April 1945. As an Oberfähnrich Bernhard was posted to 12./JG 53 on 3 December 1944 (under Hptm. Siegfried Luckenbach) and flew the Bodenplatte attack on 01/01/45 when JG 53 “Pik As” dispatched 80 machines and lost 33 Messerschmitts for eight pilots KIA, five WIA, and another five taken prisoner. Promoted to Leutnant on 20 January 1945 (back-dated to 01 November 1944) he had volunteered for the ramming-fighter unit “Sonderkommando Elbe”, but was declared unsuitable and became Adjutant on 17 February after the loss of Lt. Westphal. On 19 April, a small number of machines from his III Gruppe were scrambled at around 17:30 from Otterfing to intercept a formation of some 50 or so B-26 medium bombers which they quickly ran into and attacked with all guns blazing. The JG 53 pilots claimed one B-26 and two P-47s. After the fight Lt. Bernhard´s K-4 was low on fuel, so he planned an intermediate stop at Kaufbeuren before returning home. Whether his machine had been damaged in the combat is not known but he was unable to properly lower his undercarriage with one gear leg staying up. A series of wild manoeuvres on his last drops of fuel - steep dives and sharp pull-ups, described as '
ausgedehnte Toberei'- failed to dislodge it and Bernhard was forced to belly-land his nicely polished 109 right outside the maintenance hangar on the airfield at around 18:45. Bernhard survived the last few weeks of the war, managed to 'avoid' American captivity by going 'underground' in Munich before resuming a 'normal' life. He later rose to high rank in the post-war Bundeswehr. He had claimed one enemy aircraft, a P-51 Mustang shot down on 19 March 1945.
(text adapted from Jochen Prien's correspondence in Flugzeug magazine issue 4/87)
Well-known Kaufbeuren
Schrottplatz (dump) shot with Bernhard's K-4 top right with the broad black fuselage band of JG 53. (WNr unknown)
