Finnish Bf109 ace Ilmari Juutilainen

A selection of video grabs depicting Finnish ace Ilmari Juutilainen preparing for a sortie. Juutilainen was the top scoring Finnish fighter pilot of WWII. Flying Fokker D.XXI, Brewster Buffalo and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, he was twice awarded the highest Finnish military decoration, the Mannerheim Cross, and is considered the highest scoring non-German ace of all time.

Bf109 cockpit video

RAF pilot Paul Day discusses the cockpit of the Bf 109 - his comments are based essentially around a comparison with the Spitfire. Chief weaknesses appear to be the canopy framing and opening and the generally cramped working room and consequent lack of leverage obtainable on the stick..

Captured Fw 190- Fw 190 walkaround

The following images are taken from the Life magazine archive. This machine is likely FE-125 /T2-125 Fw190G-3 WNr.160016 ex DN+FP. This particular ex III./SKG 10 Fw190G-3 was on display with other German and Japanese aircraft as well as experimental US aircraft at the Army's Technical Command Center at Akron, Ohio - Wright Field from October 13 - 21, 1945. Approximately 200,000 Americans viewed the show on Saturday and 300,000 on Sunday. In addition, high ranking personnel from 26 other countries visited the display including Soviet Lieutenant General Rudenko, Colonel Sir Vivian Gabriel from the British Command and several American Aces. German magazine Jet & Prop Issue published a report on the exhibition entitled 'Vor 46 Jahren in Ohio: Kriegsbeute-Schau und amerikanishe Exoten' in their 3/91 issue (see colour image).

'Red 19' Uffz Ernst Schröder Sturmgruppe 5./JG 300

Questions about this machine regularly crop up on modelling forums. Here's a couple of photos I posted on aeroscale.co.uk in response to just one such query regarding the camouflage finish of Schröder's Fw 190. 'Red 19' ( WNr. 172733 ) was the regular aircraft of Uffz Ernst Schröder of 5./JG 300 from about August through to November 1944 which was pretty unusual for that time frame. Produced by Focke Wulf in Cottbus during May or June 1944 this machine was produced as a six MG gun Jägerausführung or fighter variant Schröder's Staffel generally flew top-cover for the Sturmgruppe and the pilot would also have preferred to remove the outer MG 151/20 cannon, " but this was strictly prohibited .."  This machine was not equipped with the Mk 108 3-cm cannon. A red Rotbraun 45 Reichsverteidigung fuselage band was applied to this machine during its 25-hour Check or Kontrolle. Rotbraun 45 red oxide primer paint was also applied to the bolts which attached the armoured ring to the front of the cowl. The Kölle alaaf (Kölnisch dialect for 'Cologne is Alive') inscription on the fuselage side is here missing its exclamation mark. The canopy is missing the Antenneumlenkrolle antenna tensioning device so that the aerial wire hung slack along the fuselage with the canopy open. Note a photo of the starboard side of the aircraft taken in November 1944 has the inscription Edelgard under the cockpit, Schröder's girlfriend at the time.


This is my translation of Schröder's own account of his first combat sortie, 8 August 1944

"...Takeoff from Holzkirchen at 10:45. As I was untested in combat, I had been designated to fly as number two, or wingman to Fahnenjunker-Oberfeldwebel Richard Löfgen, who was leading our Sturmgruppe on this sortie. I therefore found myself at the controls of “Red 12” flying in the lead Schwarm. The Gruppe had been able to put a good twenty or so Fw 190s in the air. The weather was fine, the sky virtually cloudless.I recall that we were airborne for quite some time, reaching a height of more than 6,000 meters, which meant that we had to clip on our oxygen masks. Changes of track relayed by Jagddivision (Döberitz?) came loud and clear over the frequency. Finally, after flying for an hour and a half, we were informed that the “fat cars” would soon be in sight. I kept a constant look out, in so far as I was able while maintaining position as the number 2 to the Verbandsführer. We were flying the typical close-knit — and quite restrictive — formation characteristic of the Sturmgruppen. It was imperative to keep station. For an instant I caught sight of a contrail at much higher altitude. It was impossible to know if this was a friendly aircraft or not. It wasn’t long before the information and the orders being transmitted over the radio became more insistent: “You should be able to see the fat cars!” Suddenly I saw our prize: 25 or 30 B 17 bombers, a little off to the right in an oblique line that was as straight as a die, five hundred meters below us. Most of them had a bare-metal aluminium finish, others were camouflaged. On their current track they would cut across our path. It was like watching a gigantic aerial flypast. I instinctively made myself small in the cockpit, imagining, in my fervor as an unfledged fighter pilot, that they had seen us and that hundreds of machine guns were about to open up on us! But nothing of the sort happened and the Americans plowed on below us, unperturbed by our presence. What a majestic sight these enormous aircraft were as they streamed their mostly long trails of condensation behind them.For a moment I wondered why Löfgen had not wheeled down and around to the right to attack them in a dive. And then I realized… bloody hell! Another “Mahalla” was heading towards us, at a slightly higher altitude than the previous formation. Once again we let these bombers pass by below us. I immediately caught sight of a third box, flying more or less at our own altitude. Stretching way back into the distance were yet more boxes of bombers one behind the other, specks that took on the appearance of a swarm of gnats…Suddenly all hell broke loose. The terse order “jettison drop tanks!” came through the earphones, and in the second that followed, numerous pale blue auxiliary tanks went tumbling down into the void. Löfgen had just peeled away, bunting over to the right and was diving between the box of Flying Fortresses that had just gone past below us and the following box which was looming — menacingly — ever larger. I tightened my turn a little to keep close to our number one. I now kept my eyes fixed on him, which meant that I couldn’t watch what was happening around us. Then, exactly 1,500 meters ahead of us, I counted 25 B 17s. Despite being well out of range at this enormous distance, their gunners opened up. The sky was suddenly streaked with thousands of sparkling pearls. Or at least this is how the tracers appeared in the dazzling blue sky. I was instantly reminded of the games that we played as children in our garden and how my brother Helmut would love to try and turn the water hose on me! Thousands of bright, sparkling drops just seconds from sluicing down on me. But I could only throw the briefest of glances forward, forced to keep station on Löfgen’s wing, and anxious, above anything else, not to collide with him.Another order came over the radio: “Pauke, Pauke, auf sieee, Rabazanella!” I had to pick out a bomber immediately. I quickly switched on the gunsight and flicked off the armament safety switch. I almost forgot in my excitement! It was then that I felt intense fear, expecting to be hit at any moment. My bomber was still a respectable distance away, his wings not yet filling the graticule of my Revi. I shot a glance to my left. Löfgen had already opened up, all guns blazing. The Boeing rapidly loomed large in my sight and I opened fire. I saw several flashes up ahead. Were these the impacts of my shells or the gunners returning fire? It was impossible to tell. There were more flashes in the tail gunner’s position and on the rudder. This time my bursts had clearly raked him. The great bulk of the “thing” had assumed imposing proportions, it was time to break off. But how, above or underneath? I unleashed a final salvo, and for a fraction of a second, thought I glimpsed the fuselage ablaze. The tail gunner’s compartment appeared enormous. I rammed the stick forward, flashing past underneath the bomber, pulling negative Gs as I rolled several times while diving headlong before taking stock of what was happening around me. A short while prior to the attack I had seen a very large city off on my starboard side, which from a height of 8,000 meters was laid out like the pattern on an antique ornamental carpet. This could only have been the capital of the Reich — Berlin. Consequently there would be numerous airfields in the area.The constant craning back and forth, to and fro, as I surveyed the sky all around me, had started to make my neck hurt. There was not a single aircraft, either friendly or enemy, in my field of vision. It was time to ease my 190 out of its crazy plunge earthwards. By the time I had leveled out, my altimeter was indicating around 800 meters..."

Schröder had a number of victories over P-51 Mustangs before the events of the 27 September 1944, the so-called 'Kassel catatrophe', the decimation of the 37 B-24 Liberators of the 445th BG, the highest one day loss of any bombardment group in the 8th Air Force. Flying in the third wave of attacking Sturm machines he shot down two 445th BG B-24 Liberators. These were his only Viermot victories.

This machine was 'lost' on 27 November 1944 when Schröder was forced to belly land after a dogfight at low altitude with a P-51. The aircraft was eventually repaired and returned to service with JG 301.

Luftwaffe Gallery - new photo book series from the Mombeek stable

Erik Mombeeck is of course well known for his detailed Jagdwaffe unit histories. Now Erik has decided to open up his huge photo archive to the rest of us in the form of a monograph series. Each issue will be a large format A-4 landscape booklet of some 50-60 pages of photos supported by text and profile artworks by Thierry Dekker. Issue 1 due end April.

I've spent the best part of the past two months putting all the captions and other text pages into English. The publication is now at the printers.There are now some page views available on Erik's site at http://www.luftwaffe.be./ Go to "What's New". As you can see there are some exciting subjects including a period colour Ju88 gallery & lots of Emils in rare Battle of Britain schemes to name just two..

Incidentally one of the ideas behind this new photo book series was that it should serve as a shop window for what the Mombeeck 'team' are doing with their bigger unit histories, so there will be pages on JG1, JG2, JG 26 etc etc - showing what is to come and including new images that didn't make the first editions last time around. But it's not all fighters I hasten to add.

Lt. Wolfgang Fischer I./JG2

Grub Street are publishing Wolfgang Fischer's memoir (translated by John Weal). A few years ago I translated an extract from Fischer's memoir which appeared in the Kagero monograph series on the Fw 190. Fischer was a pilot in I./JG2 at the time of the Normandy landings in June 1944 but he had in fact volunteered for service within weeks of war being declared. Over the course of the following years leading up to D-Day he was given a succession of postings; long-range recce unit, a decoder in a met office in occupied France; bomber Geschwader, flying instructor before being posted to the Richthofen Geschwader in Italy, from where he was shot down in his FW 190 by Mustangs en route to Normandy. By now a Leutnant, he survived to fly offensive rocket attacks over Gold Beach on D-Day, only to be shot down again on D + 1. He was taken captive and sent first to a hospital in the UK, then into captivity in the USA. He was finally repatriated in April 1946. His description of all these events is entertaining and well-written, ranging from comic to tragic.

On 6 June the Allied air forces flew 14,674 combat sorties in support of the D-day landings, while the Luftwaffe managed just 319.

I./JG 2 was nearest fighter Gruppe to the Allied beachheads based in Cormeilles-en-Vexin sixty km from the coast.

Lt Wolfgang Fischer of 3./JG 2 described the sortie he flew;

" we were woken at 04h30 and taken to the airfield from the hotels in the town (Nancy) where we were quartered. We were airborne a short while later and flew to Creil (north of Paris) at around 05h00 to have our Fw 190s fitted with underwing rocket launchers. We took off again at 09h30 to strafe shipping off 'Gold' beach. There was 7/10 cloud cover as we overflew the Seine estuary, which allowed us to close on our targets and launch our rockets. We could see a huge number of enemy fighters orbiting over the landing beaches. My rockets probably scored a direct hit on a "Victory" class troop landing vessel...we fled the scene and returned to Chamant near Senlis (south of Creil )after this sortie.."


JG 2 clashed with Allied aircraft towards middday. At 11.57 Kommodore JG 2 Major Bühligen shot down a P-47 near the Orne estuary. A major battle took place in the afternoon, when ground attack Typhoons were encountered near Caen. Four of them fell in a few minutes' fight. Two more Typhoons were brought down by evening. Lt. Fischer continued;


"..there were no further sorties that afternoon and the pilots of I./JG 2 spent the afternoon bathing at the swimming pool in Senlis.. a joint sortie with III./JG 2 was organised for the early evening against gliders on the ground near the Orne estuary under Gruppenkommandeur III./JG2 Hptm. Huppertz who landed at our field with five machines at 19h30..as we aproached Bernay we spotted a formation of a least twelve (335th FS/4th FG ) Mustangs strafing German infantry near a bridge over the Risle...using the evening mist and setting sun for cover we climbed to 1200m to take up a position for a classic bounce..the ensuing combat lasted just minutes as we were each able to select a target before diving down on them… 8 P-51s were shot down with no losses on our side !.."..


JG 2 was the principal Luftwaffe unit in action against overwhelming Allied air power on June 6. Overall, the unit shot down eighteen Allied aircraft (the entire Luftwaffe claiming 24 on that day), JG 2's most successful day in the entire campaign in Normandy. Kommandeur Hptm. Huppertz reported five claims before crashing to his death south of Caen just two days later shot down by a P-47. His replacement was another veteran, Hptm. Josef "Sepp" Wurmheller. He was shot down and killed barely two weeks later. Lt Fischer himself was shot down by flak the following morning over the beaches, bailed out unharmed and was taken prisoner

Me 262 'Karoband' checker fuselage band - KG (J) units Gefechtsverband Hogeback - edit 11 January 2019

This Me 261 A-1a Jabo is reportedly "gelbe 3" of 3./KG(J) 54 and was found at a small airfield across the river from the town of Moosburg (NE of Munich on the Isar River). Other extant photos reveal that the lighter portions of the Karoband were originally white. They were lightly but deliberately oversprayed with 81 Braunviolet to mute to contrast with the dark blue cheques and not compromise the aircraft's overall camouflage that was also oversprayed with denser Wellen of 81. There is also evidence of the KG 54 "Totenkopfwappen" ahead of the windscreen. It too was overpainted with 81 but in this instance with a brush.

The overpainting of unit markings may well reflect the time when the remnants of Me 262 units operating in the Protectorate (KG(J) 6, KG(J) 54 and JG 7) were combined and folded into the ad hoc unit Gefechtsverband Hogeback in late April 1945.
(credit: David E. brown).

Brown and Wadman were the first researchers to indicate that the Karobands were linked to the Kampfgeschwader (Jagd) units. This was based on photos of an Me 262 A-1a “Yellow 3+I” dispalying a large style blue and white checker fuselage band ( originally interpreted as green/white) and most importantly, the famous KG 54 “Totenkopf” Geschwaderwappen.

An article by Jan Horn on KG(J) 6 indicated via pilot testimony that red and black were the colours for KG(J) 6 and blue and white for KG(J) 54 respectively. Recent photographic and crash report documents published by Jerry Crandall (Proulx, 2005) has linked an Fw 190 A-9 with KG(J) 27. The colour photo of the Bf 109 G-10 at Kaufbeuren shows it wearing a green/white band.
It is generally supposed that the various KG(J) units adopted fighter-style tactical markings, ie fuselage bands, sometime during March 1945. Since early 1944 and the deployment of Sturmstaffel 1 several units on the Western Front had been wearing colour fuselage bands for recognition purposes and it is thought that similar tail bands were adopted for Me 262 Kampfgeschwader units now operating as fighters. Interestingly - as pointed out by David E. Brown - the colours selected for the KG(J) unit’s bands shared the same dominant colour used by those fighter units that used the similar numerical designations;

Red – JG 6 & KG(J) 6
Green – JG 27 & KG(J) 27

(article credit David E. Brown)

posted by David on TOCH 11 Jan 2019


" Those are great photos and assist with research on this machine that I believe it comes from the late 1105xx to 1106xx(ish) werknummer series.

I base this on its original underlying camouflage of RLM 81/82 uppersurfaces with a light overspray of RLM 76 over the lower half of the fuselage to create a reverse mottle effect. This is characteristic of machines from the 1105xx to 1106xx series. Over this was oversprayed a Wellen pattern of a dark colour, my guess a green shade. These machines also have the faired-in tail light that disappeared after this group to be replaced by the small bulb type. The national markings styles fit with the series too. The blue and white KG(J) 54 small style Karoband is definitive to its I. Gruppe, and is the painted over “Totenkopfwappen” on the nose exhibiting the same dimensions and position visible on other aircraft. Based on the available photographs, it is possible to see how its V-kenn. changed through time:

• February(?) to mid-March 1945: “B3+??” - I./KG(J)54
• Mid-March to late April 1945: “ge.10+” – 3./KG(J) 54 (addition of dark green wellen and muting / overpainting of unit markings)
• Late April to early May 1945: “3+” – I./KG(J) 54? (addition of '3' over existing number '10')

Who the pilot was is a mystery but definitely someone who did not want to partake in Russian hospitality when they arrived in Prague on 8/9 May.