Heinkel He 177, Me 210 - ebay photo find #256

here

Ju 88 Staffel auf Flugplatz Pleskau Süd - ebay photo find #255

 " ..As soon as this Staffel of Ju 88s had landed on the airfield at Pleskau Süd they were replenished with fuel and ordnance and airborne for the next combat sortie. Some 5 to 8 missions -sometimes more- were flown daily by each machine. That is the German Luftwaffe! .."   April 1942

BV 138, Arado 96, Dornier Do 217 Nachtjäger --- ebay photo find #254

Bv 138 here 

Fotos stammen aus dem Fotonachlass eines Angehörigen einer Nachtjäger / Nachtjagd-Staffel der in Bad Aibling , Klagenfurt Prenzlau und in Chateauroux in Frankreich stationiert und eingesetzt war.
Photos taken from the album of night fighter Staffel member stationed and deployed in Bad Aibling, Klagenfurt Prenzlau and Chateauroux in France.

on offer here

here

'new' KG 54 photo Me 262 B3(?)+AL, on airfield - sold for €3730 euros!

So this is the photo that apparently got me 'banned' from the LRG. Not that I knew much about it as I rarely visited the LRG.  I joined a lengthy list of 'experts' banned from the LRG, that include Vasco, Beale, Davis and others. Was I bothered ? Not at all. If you want to visit the LRG go ahead. By the way,  I worked hard on the 'precursor' to the LRG with Peter Evans, well before the current regime took over. And to think that I was defending  Lorant.  The problem was the image below, a KG 54 Me 262. The sceptics on that forum got in first with their arguments about manipulation, distortion, perspective etc etc. 

" It is undoubtedly a fake in my opinion..."

" It is obviously a fraud which succeeded to fetch a large amount of money. The buyer should be made aware .."

Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of scepticism but these same 'sceptics' are not usually 'photo specialists'. It struck me that any Photoshop manipulation however professional could be detected under high magnification simply from a close examination - even size comparison - of the pixels ? The 'white arrow' flash on KG 54 training machines is already well known from other sources, although not admittedly in the single-seat variant.

and the response from Lorant, who paid nearly 4,000 euros for this image (yes, he's an idiot as well..)

" I will keep you informed if/when I have the photo in question in my own hands. I was the official responsible for the 9.5 million private and official photographs of the French Air Force held in the archives at Vincennes castle near Paris. I have been manipulating and reproducing original photos for over forty years and I will know very quickly if it is a counterfeit..."

".. I was able to examine yesterday and scan in high definition the original photo of Me262 A coded " AL.."

  
"...The original has many small scratches and imperfections as seen on original German photos of the same period. The picture is not sharp enough to read the Werk Nummer, nor the small 'B3' code of KG 54 that should be painted in front of the fuselage cross. The argentic grain of this print on old paper is perfectly homogeneous. This is obviously a perfectly original print..."


So, yes, a rare and genuine photo of Me 262 A-2 "Anton-Luise" assigned to 3./KG (J) 54 armed with two 30 mm cannon and displaying the letters A (gelb) and L (schwarz) aft of the fuselage Balkenkreuz. It is possible to make out the WNr, but not read it with 100% accuracy.


There are few 'experts' in this field with as much knowledge of the subject as Jean-Yves Lorant - in his professional life he managed the French Armed Forces photo archive (SHD at Vincennes) - some several millions of images. As he wrote on the LRG, " I am not sure that there are on this forum people who can claim an expertise superior to mine in this domain ".

I'm really surprised he didn't get banned from the LRG for that..


To close the discussion.  A spectacular price was paid for this one image - but as someone who has sometimes spent a lot more money on trips to Germany for much less spectacular results put it;

" ..given my age (61), I will certainly never have the opportunity to see others comparable to this one. If anyone knows who is the lucky owner of the other Me 262 photos from the same seller, please send me a message. I thank you in advance..."

Now the internet 'fakers' and 'plunderers' just have to decide what type of Hakenkreuz  - out of the six possibilities - to put on their 'copies'..

Aces magazine from Heimdal - issue no 7

Aces magazine n°7  from Heimdal, latest issue, May-July 2018

Issue no.7 of Heimdal's "Aces" magazine recently arrived - 100 beautifully printed pages on thick glossy stock jam-packed with Bf 109s, Spitfires and ...P-38s...
100-page glossy card covers

 - Richard "Bing" Bong, le héros si discret (D. Breffort)
- Les P-38 Lightning dans le Pacifique (D. Breffort)
- "Marge" le P-38J de Dick Bong (B. Pautigny)
- Les premiers Spitfire à moteur Griffon (P. Listemann)
- Jacques Andrieux, Jaco le Magnifique (M. Souffan)
- Helmut Wick, un As optimiste ? (C. Goss)
- Actualités et bibliographie (J.-Ch Stasi)
- Courrier des lecteurs d'AceS (M. Souffan)
- Nouveautés maquettes, (B. Pautigny)

 Read more about this superb new magazine on this blog here

Messerschmitt Me 262 of KG(J)54

 These great images will interest many who drop in on the Luftwaffe blog. They were recently 'discovered' at https://texashistory.unt.edu and appeared on FB. Since there are many who drop in here who do not use FB we publish them here. It appears that the code in the fuselage is “B3” which could indicate KG(J)54. Note the “skull” emblem there too. The site says little about the photos aside from 'William Giannopoulos collection, April 1945'.

thanks to Fernando. And the following via David E. Brown;

Your latest post on “Messerschmitt Me 262 of KG(J)54” shows images of the machine “B3+HL”, WNr.110943 of 3./I./KG (J) 54. From Dan O’Connell’s “Messerschmitt Me 262 The Production Log" -  Me 262 A-1a. Lt. Bernhard Becker of 3./KG(J) 54 took off from Giebelstadt but was injured on 9 March 1945 in an emergency landing during a strafing attack on Kitzingen. The aircraft suffered 65% damage. A different account states that Becker made a practice flight from Giebelstadt on 9 March, taking off at 09:55 and landed at Kitzingen at 11:05. It was then flown later that day by an unknown pilot of 2./KG(J) 54 who crashed landed it at Kitzingen with 65% damage. The remains were found and photographed by US troops at Kitzingen on 10 April. ‘Yellow H’. 'B3+HL'. "

" die Fw 189 Uhu der 1.(H).Aufkl.Gr.21 NAG 9, 1/21, zurück vom 2000sten Feindflug" - ebay photo find #253

Focke Wulf Fw 189 "Uhu" of 1.(H).Aufkl.Gr.21 on successful return from 2000th combat flight of Nahaufklärungsgruppe 9 seen on the airfield at Kertsch, Krim, 1943.

"Besatzung Oblt. Lüders, Fw. Has, Fw. Eickel, 1./21"

http://stores.ebay.de/crainsmilitaria