Peter Petrick repro archive sale - Nachtjagdstaffel Norwegen, JG 300 - ebay photo find #373

 

many of the repros in the on-going Peter Petrick archive sale are  previously published. Here's a few recent examples of PP auction repros that have been seen before. 

From 'Jet & Prop' issue 4/99, a nice Ju 88 G-1 with the Verbandskennung 'B4+DA' flown by an Ofw. Keilig from the Nachtjagdstaffel Finnland/Norwegen in a feature by Petrick on this unit. This small 'independent' Staffel was assigned to Luftflotte 5 before becoming 4./NJG 3 in 1945. Here the crew are carrying out a pre-flight inspection before a flight to Norway on 7 October 1944. Incorrectly labeled as a 'G-6' on p66 of the 'Jet & Prop' article. Note BMW engines, no Bola and vertical antenna aerials. Not published in the recent 'Axis Wings' feature by Carlsen reprising the 'history' of this same unit. 

 Also published by Peter Petrick in a 'reader's letter' in Jet & Prop 4/99 were these images taken by US personnel at Ainring. I've seen a number of comments online from guys not familiar with these. They show examples of 'Personenabwurfbehälter' (lit, 'people dropping containers ') produced for agent drops by KG 200 as featured in Peter Stahl's 'Geheimgeschwader 200' 

Peter Petrick photo previously published depicting a Bf 109 G-14/AS of the 'Kometen' Staffel - 10. (N)./JG 300.

A paragraph from a piece I compiled for the Eduard Saudämmerung boxing of their wilde Sau late Bf 109 kits;

 " By the late summer of 1944 'wilde Sau' operations were a distant memory for the majority of pilots in JG 300. All night-fighter actvities in the Geschwader had been concentrated in a ‘specialised’ Moskito-hunting Staffel designated 10. (N)/ JG 300. This was the so-called ‘Kometen’ or Comet Staffel, established to combat the almost nightly incursions over Berlin by DH Mosquito bombers of the RAF's LNSF (Light Night Striking Force.). Operating out of Jüterbog, south of Berlin, under Staffelkapitän Hptm. Boettcher, 10. Staffel flew a 'modified' wilde Sau system— guided by two vertical searchlight beams and a ground controller, the unit’s high performance G-14/AS fighters loitered at high altitude (10,000 meters) above the 'corridors' used by the Mosquitoes flying into Berlin.."

Me-262 B1/U1 in Johannesburg, SAR, by Alexander Fedoshenko.

 Much more on Alexander's FB page

Also on this blog  - the Jet night fighters, Kurt Welter and 10./NJG 11

Night ground attack Bf 109 K-4 NJG 11

Bf 109 K-4 W.Nr. unknown "Weisse 5", 1./NJG 11, Holzkirchen, summer 1945 (original image in collection of Hideki Noro)

and a nice representation in scale model form via Lukic Dejan...

"Red 2" Bf 109 G-6/AS wilde Sau ace Friedrich-Karl Müller 1./NJGr 10 Moskito hunter, July 1944 - model by Jean Barby

This time last year I was preparing a post on the aircraft flown by wilde Sau ace Friedrich-Karl Müller of 1./NJGr 10. Thanks to the generosity of M. Jean-Yves Lorant in loaning photographs of the actual aircraft, Anders Hjortsberg was able to recreate Müller's G-6/AS "Red 2" Moskito hunter as seen during July 1944.

 That post (link below) has subsequently become one of the most viewed on this blog and has inspired a number of expert modellers one of whom is Jean Barby.

 In France Jean Barby's work has appeared in Wingmasters and Avions magazines and here he shares images of his 1:48th scale model of  Müller's G-6/AS "Red 2" based on the photographs and Ander's profile artwork.  The base kit is the Hasegawa G-10 and Jean has used the MDC resin conversion set to produce a G-6/ AS; as Jean put it " what inspired me to produce this model was simply Anders' superb profile artwork.."

 Click on the images to see a full-screen view,

This 1./NJGr 10 Moskito hunter as flown by Friedrich-Karl Müller during July-August 1944 is a Bf 109 G-6/AS  "Red 2". WNr. is not known.  Given the camouflage and the stencil below the canopy we surmised that this machine was probably built by Mtt. Regensburg. Jean has finished the lower surfaces in black - judging from the other photos that I have been able to study this appears the most likely option. The Kennziffer '2' is confirmed as red from Müller's log book. The aircraft features a red fuselage band (just visible in one image), pointing to this as being an ex-JG 300 aircraft. All of Müller's aircraft can be assumed to have sported a rudder scoreboard, from his Fw 190 'Green 3' to his final K-4 - here he has 22 victories (July 1944)- the 23rd resulted in the award of the Ritterkreuz. Beautiful rendition Jean.. superbe maquette Jean et merci mille fois pour les images..


" ..following two months rest and convalescence I resumed combat flying during July 1944 and was posted to Nachtjagdgruppe 10 in Bonn where I met up again with my old comrade Kurt Welter. By this time he had accumulated 22 victories and in two sorties on 18 and 19 July had even managed to add three Mustangs to his tally.. NJGr. 10 flew the latest model of the Bf 109 - the folding hood no longer featured the heavy metal framework of previous versions. However even better for us was the improved supercharger which enabled higher top speeds and a ceiling of some 14,000 metres - during a check flight on 3 August 1944 I reached a speed of 680 km/h at more than 6,000 metres altitude. I had never flown at these sorts of speeds in a 109! On 13 August 1944 our Staffel moved to Rheine and at 23h27 I was scrambled to intercept a Mosquito. The controller gave me a vector that took me over the Ruhr where I orbited at 9,000 metres. I was given constant changes of heading - our radar posts evidently had their work cut out trying to pinpoint the English pilot. The night sky was exceptionally bright - visibility was at least 5 km. After 60 minutes of fruitless orbiting I returned empty-handed to Rheine. Here I learned that Kurt Welter had just brought down his first Mosquito following a chase that had taken him north of Hanover. This feat was of course celebrated in due fashion as the occasion warranted - certain pilots including our Kommandeur Hptm. Friedrich-Karl Müller were soon very much the worse for wear and took the best part of a day to get over their hangovers. As a rule we tended to drink far too much....."

Fw. Fritz Gniffke  of 1./ NJGr.10

(interview with Fritz Gniffke of 1./ NJGr.10 by Jean-Yves Lorant, translation copyright Neil Page..more from Gniffke on this blog  )

Photo of 'Red 2' and the profile artwork of Anders Hjortsberg

More exceptional work from Jean Barby on this blog

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-10 of 5./NJG 11 Fassberg, May 1945

There exist a number of fairly well-known and invariably poorly reproduced - if not to say incorrectly captioned- photos of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-10s of 5./NJG 11 which were extensively photographed by RAF personnel at Faßberg during May 1945. Below are two such examples ( in this instance saved on Marc-André Haldimann's Flickr pages, highly recommended for Bf 109 images..)

Courtesy of  Luftwaffe author and researcher Jean-Yves Lorant I am able to post two exceptionally good quality images of "White 43" WNr. 130369. Click on the images to enjoy a full-screen view. Finished in an overall light blue-grey 76 Hellblau "White 43" wears a colour scheme that was typical for the 'Mosquito hunters' of 5./NJG 11 during 1945.  Even at distance in the darkness aircraft wearing dark camouflage finishes could be quite easily spotted, especially at high altitude. Note the airframe has been polished for an extra turn of speed. Also of interest is the small sliding ventilation panel on the cockpit glazing. The last anti-Moskito sorties were flown during March 1945 and the handful of machines and pilots of the so-called "Kommando Faßberg" flew night ground attack sorties against Allied road convoys throughout the month of April 1945 right up to the arrival of British forces on the airfield. (Photo credits : Jean-Yves Lorant Collection)

Fritz Gniffke of NJG 11 recalls his first wilde Sau sortie

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/moskito-chasers-of-luftwaffe-1-bf-109.html

Moskito hunting in the Luftwaffe (2) (Bf 109 nightfighters -wilde Sau)

The following is a translation of an article - with some additional material - that appeared in the late 70s in the French magazine 'Le Fana de L'Aviation' written by 'Le Fana' staff writer Jean-Yves Lorant. Translation copyright retained. ..

The De Havilland 98 Mosquito - of wooden construction and aerodynamically pure lines - was the scourge of the Luftwaffe fighter force during the last two years of the war. Powered by two Rolls Royce Merlins, capable of out-running the latest Luftwaffe fighters and hauling a bomb load of 1,800 kg - even a lone Mosquito could send entire city populations to the air raid shelters and proved a real thorn in the night defences of the Reich. From the summer of 1943 special units were formed to combat the Mosquito menace - Hermann Graf's JGr. 50 enjoyed a spectacular lack of success against the fast British twins. The Wilde Sau units, JG 300, 301, and JG 302 claimed no more than a dozen Mosquitos shot down during the first half of 1944 - but then these specialist night-fighters were largely turned over to the day fighter role during May 1944 under the pressure of the US Air force bombing offensive. Luftwaffe commanders were to place their hopes in the formation of a specialist anti-Moskito night fighting unit during the summer of 1944 - NJG 11 flying the latest high-altitude and high speed models of the Bf 109. On paper at least, these G-14/AS and G-10 variants possessed a turn of speed which enabled them to catch a Mosquito - provided they were loitering at high altitude along one of the many 'corridors' through which the Mosquitos penetrated German air space. We recently met and interviewed two former NJG 11 pilots. Their accounts shed new light on this little-known aspect of the night air battles over the Reich ...

Feldwebel Fritz Gniffke  ".. I was born on 28 Decmber 1920 in Danzig and spent a year as an instructor at the A/B 9 flying school in Grottkau where I acquired a little night flying experience. In August 1943 I was posted to the wilde Sau night fighter training school at Altenburg where I achieved the three blind flying Scheine -'licences'- qualifying me for night ops on the Fw 190 and Bf 109. It was while I was undergoing this training that I learnt that new single-engine night fighting Staffeln were being set up and that recruits were being sought from the ranks of flying instructors and other experienced airmen. On 10 September 1943 I received my first operational posting - to 6. Staffel JG 302 stationed in Husum. There we were told that being able to pinpoint English bombers over cities on fire didn't require any super human qualities - their silhouettes were readily visible and in any event the searchlight batteries would assist us. On clear nights lighting conditions were similar to those that might be encountered by day. I'm afraid all this left me rather sceptical. On 23 September 1943 I was airborne at 21:53 for my first combat mission at the controls of Fw 190 A-4 "Yellow 9" - as luck would have it the sortie proved to be a complete fiasco.. The controllers ordered us to orbit for thirty minutes but when the call came through for all 'wilde Sau' to proceed to Mannheim - the actual objective of the British bombers - I was much too far to the south. By the time I arrived over the city I could see several fires blazing on the ground while the searchlights continued to sweep the skies - but there was no sign of any English bombers...in the end I managed to put down at Lippstadt at 23:03 after narrowly avoiding a collision with a Bf 110 in the circuit..my knees were trembling as I climbed down from the cockpit and made my way over to the control room to find a telephone and report that I had landed safely. It was pouring with rain.."  (to be continued)

Below; Fritz Gniffke -seen here on the left- with his 6./ JG 302 Bf 109 G-6 'N Yellow 7' in which he claimed a B-24 on a day sortie, 11 April 1944  (note; not 12 April as I previously captioned this image, apologies!)

This image has appeared in a number of books (eg Brett Green's 'Augsburgs Last Eagles' by Eagle Editions) - but is not always correctly captioned. 'White 11' of I./NJG 11 was regularly flown by Fw. Fritz Gniffke and this scan is via Lorant/Gniffke. The aircraft is a G-10 with Erla canopy and exhaust flame dampers, rare for a G-10. The pilot head armour appears to have been retained which in itself was also unusual for a 109 Moskito hunter. Camouflage was the standard grey scheme. Gniffke flew sorties in this aircraft up until 14 January 1945 - picture was taken on 27 September 1944 at Bonn Hangelar.

Elsewhere on this blog, part 1 of my 'Moskito hunting' pieces  - Kurt Welter's 10./ NJG 11

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/mosquito-hunting-in-luftwaffe-1-me-262s.html

Focke Wulf 190 nightfighters - Kurt Welter 5./JG 302

Seen here in Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg) during January 1944 Ofw. Kurt Welter of 5./JG 302 poses for a snapshot in front of his Neptun radar equipped Fw 190 A-5/U2 'Porcupine' with his mechanics. Note the rod antennae of the FuG 217 radar protruding from the upper forward fuselage and the flame damping shields over the exhaust slats.

From Jean-Yves Lorant's interview with Fritz Gniffke (6./ JG 302) in the late 1970s

" ..Welter had downed two Lancasters during the night of 2-3 December 1943, bringing his total to 11, all returned on wilde Sausorties. On the night of 21-22 January he had run into a Mosquito north of Magdeburg, but the English pilot had managed to get away..Welter was our role model - we certainly didn't have any others - there were very few if any other wilde Sau pilots who had managed more than two victories at that time.."






Seen during the spring of 1944 at Werneuchen a FuG 218 radar equipped Fw 190 A-6 of Nachtjagdgruppe 10. (Classic Colours Nachtjäger volume captions this as a FuG 217) Both photos are extracted from Jean-Yves Lorant's Fw 190 Docavia book with the author's permission. On P235 of this volume there is picture of a line-up of Nachtjagdgruppe 10 machines. Most of the pilots and machines seving with NJGr. 10 during early 1944 were seconded from I./JG 300 including Hptm. Friedrich-Karl Müller.  Click on the pics for a better view..



More Fw 190 nightfighters on this blog here, including Klaus Bretschneider's FuG 217 Neptun radar equipped Fw 190 A-7 seen at Rheine during early 1944