Bf 109 in colour, Fritzlar, May 1945 - 'gelbe 11' of 3./NAGr. 13

 

Thanks to Tim Wheeldon for the heads-up on this footage.

The Gustav looks to be a 'hybrid' of standard G-6/G-14 with red legs and 'later' parts - an 'unrefined' cowl, small 'early' tail, small wheels/tyres but with red gear legs and the wider wing bulges.Note too the Erla-haube. ..

" ..'yellow 11' is actually Mtt built Bf 109 G-6/R2 W.Nr. 230785 "Gelbe 11", operated by 3./NAGr. 13. According to our friend Charles Bavarois, W.Nr. 230785 is reported by ULTRA Hw5/686 as being at Fritzlar Werft on 30 March 1945 with 3./NAGr. 13. This is the very day Fl.Pl. Fritzlar was overrun by the US Army with some striking photos made by US Signal Corps during the action.." 

According to another source 'Gelbe 11' was produced in a a very late production run of 200 G-6/R2 machines. All aircraft in this batch were built as tactical reconnaissance fighters during November and December 1944, just three months before German Bf 109 production came to an end. These aircraft were the last G-6 machines built by WNF, and by the time of their construction the supply chain consisted of late model parts. Note the supercharger intake on this aircraft is the type introduced for the later asymmetric cowls, lacking the cutout on the upper flange for the fuselage beule. Additionally the machine has the late style colored lens (red/green) on the wing tip navigation lights and the the large wing bulges. 

I was sent an message recently that asserted that this machine was on the strength of JG 4 - I see no evidence for that at all anywhere. Nearly all JG 4 109s wore the 'Defence of the Reich' fuselage bands

Bf 109 G-6 W.Nr. 15 270, formerly "gelbe 14", 6./JG 53, VX 101 captured Luftwaffe in colour

Bf 109 G-6 W.Nr. 15 270, formerly "gelbe 14", 6./JG 53, captured at Comiso, Sicily, summer 1943. Sent to RAF Collyweston, 4 February 1944 and flown as VX 101. Seen here on a tour of US fighter bases in East Anglia during the spring of 1944. Note finish was the standard RAF temperate day scheme of green and grey.  Lower surfaces were yellow - see colour images below

Flyable enemy aircraft were repainted in standard RAF upper surface colours as seen here on the Bf 109 VX101.

The Ju 88 is either A-5 EE205 or HM509 probably HM509, ex M2+MK. Both VX 101 and HM 509 were written off on 19 May 1944

Fw 190 II./JG 2 in Tunisia (2) "Black 1 + - " Wolf von Bülow, Staffelkapitän of 5./ JG 2

Previously on the Luftwaffe blog I have posted on II./JG 2's departure to North Africa in November 1942 under their new Kommandeur Adolf Dickfeld
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/fw-190-iijg-2-in-tunisia-adolf-dickfeld.html

I've been trawling through the footage made available via the Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive AKH and I've come across some colour footage of II./JG 2 in Tunisia filmed during late 1942-early 1943.

I was initially under the impression that some of these stills showed Rudorffer's 'Yellow 1'. Most probably his FW 190 A-4. The ace himself features in the footage. Only you see the problem. I assumed that the type of of film used must have modified the colour of the yellow and even the white of the Balkenkreuz - although the white of the fuselage band and Hakenkreuz outline remained. But as Andrew Arthy pointed out to me, this is almost certainly "Black 1 + - " of Wolf von Bülow, Staffelkapitän of 5./ JG 2 until he was killed in early 1943. These scenes appear to have been shot at Tindja near Cap Blanc on the northern coast of Tunisia. Von Bülow returned no victories while with JG 2 in North Africa and with good reason.

On 23 February 1943 Kairouan was raided by B-17s of the 301st BG. 'Gruppenführer' * II./JG 2 Erich Rudorffer noted in Erik Mombeek's ' Dans le Ciel de France ' (Vol 4) ;

" ..we were scrambled at 08:38 on the approach of a formation of US bombers. It was my task to keep Wolf von Bülow out of the action as much as I could. This was because Wolf was the son of our former Kommodore, who had already lost his other son, a U-boat commander** . So he only flew so many sorties and on this occasion he did not scramble with us. In the end it proved more dangerous on the ground than in the air - a stick of bombs came down on his 'hole' right were he had sought shelter. Oblt. von Bülow's body was riddled with shrapnel. His death was a terrible blow to morale. In any case the atmosphere within the unit was going downhill fast following Dickfeld's departure. There was far too much bad feeling and competitiveness around aerial victories and the 'scramble' for decorations and promotion had become far too important and such a state of affairs could only harm any 'esprit de corps' ..."

 (*Gruppenführer is an SS-rank and a vet I corresponded with was rather put out that such terms were used in the context of the Luftwaffe. ** His son-in-law in fact, Hans-Hartwig Trojer, U-221)

The solid black appearance of the Balkenkreuze fuselage crosses is interesting. It has been suggested that this is the result of the poor quality paint deteriorating rapidly in the sun - surely paint fades in sunlight? Elsewhere on the same airframe the white of the fuselage band and the Hakenkreuz outline is still 'white'. And from one regular blog reader;

"..I am inclined to think there is nothing wrong with the white paint, but they have simply toned down the Balkenkreuz, and nothing more. If you look at it, the entire Balkenkreuz appears to have the same tone, otherwise if it was just the white paint, than the black part of the cross would be different. Other than that, neat images…"

 BTW I contacted Karl Höffkes who gave me the OK to post stills provided the watermark was present and a link was available..
http://www.archiv-akh.de/

New Luftwaffe books - 'Luftwaffe in Colour - from glory to defeat 1943-45' - published by Casemate

Compiled by two leading writer/researchers at Lela Presse (the leading French publisher of Luftwaffe publications),'Luftwaffe in Colour - from glory to defeat 1943-45' is the keenly awaited second installment of a two-part photographic compilation of the best of Luftwaffe colour photography published by Casemate in this English-language edition. This is a card-covered softback featuring some 160 pages on thick glossy paper.  Volume I was divided into nine chapters covering theatres from 'Poland and the Sitzkrieg', the 'Blitz and the Battle of Britain", 'Barbarossa', the 'Mediterranean and Africa' and Volume II continues with chapter X, 'Facing the Soviet steamroller', through to chapter XIV 'The Eagle Falls' via chapters on the Mediterranean front and the 'invasions' in the West. So while the first half of this volume features the best from the German Propaganda-Kompanie reporters, the second is compiled largely from French and American sources. And while the German PK photo reporters on the ground for the launch of Blitzkrieg and the subsequent campaigns had privileged access to colour film arguably the Americans had access to even more of it and their photos in comparison are rather more 'spontaneous' and generally of excellent quality. In France many colour images originate from newly captured airfields. In among the wrecks and relics there is plenty of interesting material - aircraft featured include machines from the anti-partisan unit Geschwader Bongart and a selection of Ju 88s from the Junkers Frontbetriebreparatur (FBR - advanced maintenance facility) at Villacoublay near Paris.  With Ju 88s operating from no fewer than thirty eight aerodromes throughout France at the height of the Battle of Britain the French had quickly gained a certain amount of expertise on the type which helped the Vichy authorities to preserve employment and some of their aircraft manufacturing base.

There are more airfield scenes from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Denmark (Ju 88 night fighters). The capitulation on 8 May 1945 provided the opportunity to record a host of late-war machines surrendering; SG 10 Fw 190s arriving at Neubiburg and the red-bellied Doras of JV 44 at Munich-Riem are just two of the highlights - it still seems difficult to believe that when the first images of these machines came to light some believed them to have black and white striped lower surfaces. All types of aircraft are presented in colour; from the rockets and jets to the bizarre piggy-back Misteln, from seaplanes and transports to night fighters, trainers and reconnaissance machines. Among my personal favourites are the rare colour images of the Dornier Do 24 T seaplanes of Seenotstaffel 81  deployed to evacuate civilians from the Baltic pockets ahead of the on-rushing Red Army - during these airbridge flights from Nest to Rügen one trimotor is recorded as having loaded over 100 passengers (17 adults and 99 children!). Such flights were flown by unarmed aircraft - to lighten them - at wave-top height. At least one crashed into the lake at Kamp - the four crew and 72 civilians were lost.

Any photo book stands or falls on the quality of photo reproduction and fortunately here not only is the standard very high but the quality of 90% of the images is very good indeed while each picture is informatively and expertly captioned. This is a book to keep close to hand for reference, to dip into constantly.

Below; Me 321 'W6+SW' of the GS-Kdo.2 (Grossraumsegler) seen in the Kuban at Sslawjanskaja just weeks after the fall of Stalingrad in mid-February 1943. He 111 Z-1 'TM+KI' is on the right of the image in the background. The two Bf 109 G-2s are 'white 3' of 4./JG 52 and the 'chevrons + bars' of the Kommodore Major Dietrich Hrabak. Low res image copy courtesy of Jean-Louis Roba and extracted from 'Luftwaffe in Colour -from glory to defeat 1943-45 ".

JG 54 planes of the aces - Bf 109 aces of JG 54

Early Emils of I./ JG 76 during the Polenfeldzug - note the 'Lion of Aspern' emblem  - I./JG 76 became II./JG 54 in July 1940. An early luminary of I./JG 76 was Hans Phillip who returned his first on 5 September 1939. JG 76 flew operations through the Battle of France and claimed some 69 Allied aircraft downed, with Ltn. Roloff von Aspern (8), Ltn. Hans Philipp and Ofw. Max Stotz (both 7) and Oblt. Dietrich Hrabak (6) the top scorers. Offered via Marco at koelsch333 and sold for 100 euros +

Below; successful pilots of I./JG 76 in Poland and France;   unknown, Uffz. Max Stotz, Rudolf Hager, and, below, Ltn Hans Phillip on the accordion..

III./ JG 54 Friedrich

 Below; 8./JG 54, Siwerskaja 1942. Friedrich of the Staffelkapitän Oblt.Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, Bf109 F-4 WNr.13088. Note StaKa aerial pennant just visible ( in red?)

Below; crash-landed "black 5" is the Bf 109 G-2 WNr.13803 of Uffz. Arthur Stern from 8./JG 54 who was forced down following Luftkampf on 27 October 1942 near Losibzy. (note the 2 small intakes just over and in front of the exhaust stacks to identify the variant) The machine was reported as 45% damaged. Also a view of the tail of Stern's 'black 5' which displays 11 claims on the rudder. Stern claimed a P-40, his 11th, on 7 October 1942.

Bf 109 G 2 9./JG 54 (Y3+~) Wilhelm Schilling, Krasnogvardeisk 1943. This image has been widely reproduced (and probably 'improved') in a number of publications from Ritger to Prien's JfV. Another view below the colour image of Bf109 G-2 "Yellow 3" of 9./JG 54 flown by then Fw.Wilhelm Schilling (that is, if the seller's caption is correct), and the photo might have been taken sometime before 16 September 1942. On the aforementioned date he was WIA in the vicinity of Dubrowka. The various emblems are - JG 54 Geschwader emblem, III./JG 54 Gruppe emblem and the 9./JG 54 Staffel emblem, albeit slightly oversized, as sported in summer-autumn 1942 period.

Below;
Guines on the Channel coast, sometime in early October 1940. This is "gelbe 1“ flown by Oblt. Hans-Ekkehard Bob of 9./JG 54, featuring yellow engine cowl covers, the emblem of 9./JG 54 ahead of the cockpit and the 'flying clog' of 7./JG 54 on the cowl. A 250 kg bomb is slung under the fuselage on the ETC 500 IX/b rack

F-4Z of 7./JG 54 'Weisse 6'. DR+YJ. WkNr.7516. Tschudowo-Nowgorod, 30 May 1942.

Below; neat close-up of the 'huntsman' emblem of 3./ JG 54 as seen on 'Yellow 7' sometime during 1940.

Above and below; the "huntsman" emblem of 3./JG 54 originated in a 19th century childrens book, still popular in the III.Reich, entitled "Der Struwelpeter" but here with the addition of Spitfires in the hunter's swag bag. In the rare image below, it appears on the Bf 109 F "Yellow 1" flown by the Staka 3./JG 54, Hans Schmoller Haldy during "Barbarossa" (Barbas)

flying clog emblem of 7./JG 54

Below; Bf 109 E-3 "White 7" 1./JG 54 the regular Emil of Oblt. and Staffelkapitän Reinhard Seiler, the 'Mickey' evidence of his service in Spain

Messerschmitt Me 109 (mit Kennzahl 7) features the Staffelabzeichen of 8./JG 54 and the emblem of III./JG 54 and an interesting Tarnanstrich (camo scheme). Note also the score on the rudder

below; Bf 109 F-2 WNr.8086 Uffz Alfred Döllefeld "Gelbe 7", 9./JG 54, Eastern Front, Winter 1941-1942