Flugwerk Fw 190 salvaged

The Flugwerk Fw 190 has been salvaged soon after its ditching in the Med. Foad Zahedi, director of Jifmar Offshore Services explained that the aim was to salvage " the aircraft without damaging it further in the expectation that it will be restored to airworthiness one day "

Flugwerk Fw 190 ditches off Hyères (Toulon) -edit January 2013

After thrilling the crowds at last years 'Legends' the French Flugwerk Fw 190 now lies at the bottom of the Med ! The aircraft was rehearsing for the '100 years of the Aéronavale' airshow at Hyères (Toulon) on 12 June 2010 when the engine seized in a slow roll. The pilot ditched safely and was picked out of the water by the jet ski club on the beach. The replica Fw 190 now lies 3 metres down with a fair bit of structural damage sustained after hitting the water at over 200 km/h according to the 63 year old pilot - whose 12th crash-landing this was !
Ironically the airport at Hyères was closed barely 24 hours later by torrential rain which has seen mud slides in some towns in the Var region and 8 deaths reported ! (pics via master194.com)


article in Le Parisien website - translated extracts

"..  Marc Mathis is an aerobatic ace. Fortunately. His experience enabled him to escape unscathed from what could potentially have a been a fatal accident last Saturday as he was practising for the Hyères airshow in the Var region. .. it was around 14h00 that this 62 year old from Mennecy encountered a technical problem whilst rehearsing in Christian Jacquard's Fw 190, a WW II fighter that he was very familiar with having tested it extensively last year. He was planning to display it at several airshows throughout Europe this year. This unique aircraft - the only one of its type in the world - had already encountered several problems after its rebuild. Saturday was different. The engine - with just thirty five hours on the clock - began to vibrate strongly.   " I lost all revs.." said  Marc.  The pilot, with over 1,600 aerobatic hours in his logbook was at that moment over a built-up area some distance from the runway. He elected to put down on the only open area available - the sea. In just twelve seconds the aircraft came down, hitting the waves at 250 km/h Ditching the aircraft  some 100 metres from the shore, the pilot said, " thanks to my experience I was able to take the right decision and carry it out very rapidly..." But Mathis was trapped by his parachute in the cockpit, unable to extricate himself. Fortunately some jet-skiers were on hand to cut the straps, freeing Marc from a watery end. This was not though the first near miss for the former Air Liberté airline pilot - it was the 12th time he has had to carry out an emergency landing..."

Aces of JG 26 - Schöpfel, Mietusch, Priller, Dortenmann, Sprick - last edit November 2018

10-victory ace Lt. Josef Bürschgens 7./JG 26. Note the 7 Staffel 'red heart' emblem. Some Czech authors apparently believe this to be black....Bürschgens was shot down and taken into captivity after crash-landing near Folkestone on 1 September 1940. Below his 'White 7' after a crash-landing at Caffiers, northern France after returning from a sortie over England.

Above; Staffelkapitän Sprick at the controls of his 8./JG 26 'Adamson Staffel' Bf 109 F during June 1941. He pulled the wings off his Friedrich on 28 June 1941 in combat with Spitfires and crashed to his death at Holque. He was buried in Abbeville on 30 June 1941.



Oblt. Gerhard Schöpfel seen strapping into the cockpit of his Emil for another sortie over England, August 1940. He was appointed Kommandeur III./JG 26 on 21 August 1940 when Galland became Kommdore. Note the Stab four-leaf clover emblem on the cowl. Click on the image for a larger view. Note that more of Lorant's BoB photo collection (along with some nice Mombeeck images) were published in a three part Battle of Britain special in the 'Batailles Aériennes' series published by Lela Presse.
A poor quality repro of this image was previously published in the Jet & Prop Foto Archiv No.11 - the Stab emblem cropped out ! And talking of poor quality Jet & Prop Foto Archiv images, here's a much better view (below) of Galland's Emil seen prior to the Kommandeur's award of the RK during August 1940, 22 victory Balken on the rudder.







Staffelkapitän 14./JG 26 Oblt Hans Dortenmann seen here in the cockpit of ‘Black 1’, Wnr 210003 a very early production Dora-9. He flew this aircraft –despite it being plagued with engine problems- through to 5 May 1945. Although the Staffel number was ‘1’, it’s colour changed through red, black and yellow as III./JG 54 converted to IV./JG 26. Dortenmann -as Staffelkapitän 3./JG 26- finally blew his aircraft up to prevent it falling into British hands. He had achieved some eighteen victories on the type and was one of the leading aces on the D-9. Note the fuselage strengthening strips visible in this shot and the primer fuel fill aperture (3 litres) under the cockpit sill.





No caption necessary ! Lovely clear shot of Priller at the controls of 'Black 13'. Thanks to Jean-Yves Lorant for the beautiful photo print!





Above; a very nice shot of Klaus Mietusch, Gruppenkommandeur III./JG 26 - click on the image to view at full size. His victory over a USAAF B-17 four-engine heavy bomber on 25 July 1943 was the first of 16 four-engine bombers that he was to claim. His 50th victory was a B-17 shot down over Cambrai on 20 October 1943. During the course of the 8 March 1944 raid on Berlin Mietusch claimed a B-17 Herausschuss for his 60th victory. Mietusch was KIA on 17 September 1944 over Arnhem (72 victories)

'Wespengeschwader' Bf109 Emil Jabos on the Eastern Front - edit May 2011

Photos of the "Wespengeschwader" Bf-109E-7 Jabo sub-types used in 1942 on the Eastern front are pretty hard to come by. The following images appeared a few years ago on ebay - I have no idea whether they have been published since. They appear to depict two different machines, 'S9+GT' and 'S9+GS'. Decal sheet manufacturers have for ages given us various profile options ( usually 'S9+RS') while the old Hasegawa 1/72nd model Wespen was 'S9+CD'. A few years ago, decal manufacturers MSAP gave us a 'Russian Campaign' sheet in their Bf109 Emil series which also included 'S9+CD', captioned as a "Bf109 E-7B of III./SKG210, central sector, autumn 1941." Not withstanding the confusion surrounding the unit designation - some quoting "8./ZG1" and others "III/SKG210" - this particular offering got it all wrong !

On 4th January 1942 SKG 210 was redesignated ZG 1. The Geschwaderstab/SKG 210 was re-designated Geschwaderstab/ZG 1; I./SKG 210 became I./ZG 1 and II./SKG 210 became II./ZG 1. A III. Gruppe was formed with pilots from training school and an SAGr unit. This new III. Gruppe was equipped with Bf 109 E-7s. All Bf 109 E Wespen aircraft were thus assigned to III./ZG 1 and not SKG 210.

The machines seen here in these rare shots were E-7 variants, identifiable by the pointed nose. The first Emil Jabos had their electrical and mechanical plumbing modified to carry bombs and were E-4/B sub-types. The E-7 came from the factory with the plumbing, and electrical terminals already in place either for ordnance to be loaded on a bomb rack or for a belly tank on a drop-tank rack. Hence their designation as E-7s with either load.







Thanks to Peter Kassak for the following images and artwork of 'S9+FS'. As usual click on the images for a larger view. As to colours; the following courtesy Lynn Ritger on hyperscale;

"...If you're planning on modelling a Schlachtgeschwader aircraft, bear in mind they would often receive "cast-offs" from other units which had transitioned onto the F, and as such were just as likely to be painted in 71/02/65... 2.(S)/LG 2 is a good example of this, they received some old E-4/bs from III./JG 77 in April-May 1941.It's admittedly a judgment call, and I would be the last one to say it's unequivocally wrong should you decide to go with 74/75/76, but given the "chain of custody" of those aircraft (i.e. where they came from) and the timeframe, 02/71 seems more likely....".







Model pic Dave Sherill (via hyperscale.com). My own build of the new Airfix Emil in Kagero Wespen decals is here http://falkeeinsmodel.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-airfix-emil.html

Battle of Britain Emil - Helmut Bennemann I./JG52

Helmut Bennemann served as Adjutant I./JG 52 during the Battle of Britain. He gained his first victory on 26 August 1940 when he shot down an RAF Spitfire near Dover. On 15 September, Bennemann shot down three RAF Hurricanes to record his sixth through eighth victories. This is a build of the Tamiya 1/48th kit in the colours of Bennemann's 'Black 5' as depicted by Thierry Dekker in the recent two part 'Batailles Aériennes' quarterly devoted to the history of JG 52. Bennemann was based at Coquelles just south of Calais on the Channel coast, close to where the Eurotunnel terminal is located today. My model is photographed on the cockpit detail pages published in the superb Emil monographs from Kagero. Click on the images for a larger view.

More on the 'Batailles Aériennes' quarterly magazine special issues on JG52 at http://avions-bateaux.com

Kanalgeschwader JG2 1941 - Bf109 F into service - Circuses over France, Channel Front aces (1)

..II. and III./JG 2 started conversion onto the latest 'F' variant of the celebrated Messerschmitt fighter during March 1941. The 'Friedrich' presented a number of enhancements over the successive improvements introduced to the venerable "Emil" with which the Jagdwaffe had gone to war over Poland. The basic airframe had undergone a redesign with the aim of improving aerodynamic efficiency - especially in the area of the wing and tailplane. Both spinner and wingtips were rounded and more streamlined and the Emil's horizontal stabilizer brace supports had been eliminated. In addition the tailwheel was now fully retractable. However the Friedrich did not feature wing armament and weight of fire was thus reduced in comparison to the older sub-type. There were also some structural issues with early examples, a number of pilots being lost after tearing the wings off in high 'G' manoeuvres. The most notable loss was JG 2 Kommodore Wilhelm Balthasar on 3 July 1941. Despite this, the first Bf 109 F-2s in service on the Channel Front gave the RAF a pretty hard time. On 23 July 1941, two Circuses were mounted for actual losses of 15 Spitfires and a single Hurricane shot down - the "Richthofen" claimed no less than fourteen Spitfires during Circus No. 59 (from 13:14 to 13:30) and fourteen more (plus a Hurricane ) during Circus N ° 60 (from 20:55 to 20:20)! JG 26 filed nine claims. 20 September 1941 was another bad day for the RAF with three Circuses over France - JG 2 claimed 15 Spitfires (7 actual losses) while their training Staffel 4./JFS 5 claimed 11..! On 27 September, two groups of eleven Blenheims were sent to Amiens and Mazingarbe (Circus 103). The RAF lost twelve Spitfires ( from Nos. 72, 129, 308, 403, 603, 609, 611, 615 and 616 Squadrons). With the F-2 in service the RAF over France sustained an almost constant round of blood-letting..

Glossary of Luftwaffe terms, Luftwaffe nomenclature, terminology and a note on German spelling, " Das Deutsche Volk muss ein Volk von Fliegern werden" last edited March 2018

Are you like me and really cringe when people write  staffels or gruppes etc etc? Do you groan when you read English writers writing about Luftwaffe subjects and still treating us to abominations such as 'Geschwaderen' or 'Geschwaders' or other similar 'non-grammatical' forms!

A fighter (or Jagd) Geschwader was comprised usually of 3 Gruppen written I./ II./ or III./JG51. Each individual Gruppe was comprised of 3 Staffeln, written 1./ 2./ or 3./ Staffel in ascending numerical order. So 7./JG 51 is the 7th Staffel of that Geschwader and was in III. Gruppe ..
Staffel numbers were colour coded of course for ID purposes ....a fourth Staffel per Gruppe was added from mid-late 1944 along with a fourth Gruppe to each Geschwader. The number '13' (or '1') would usually be the a/c flown by the Staffelkapitän while the Gruppenkommandeur tended to use the double chevron as an ID marking. The CO of a Geschwader was a Kommodore. The Gruppe can be identified by the symbol (or lack of it ) aft of the fuselage cross..

A note on the written form of these words. The plural form of Geschwader is ..Geschwader - there is no 's' or 'en' or anything else in the plural form, in fact the letter 's' is only very occasionally a plural in German. Most usual plural forms being 'e' or 'en' or just 'n' among others. And as we've just seen some German nouns have NO plural form.

I'm sure you all know that one. Now go and look at the text in your average Osprey title - even though Weal speaks German I reckon his correctors and editors don't, but writing staffels, geschwaders etc etc is incorrect in my view. As I say, feel free to cringe when you see other English writers who should know better coming up with 'Geschwaderen' or 'Geschwaders' or similar 'non-grammatical' forms.

All nouns are written with a capital letter in German, eg the German for 'ace' is 'Experte' which becomes 'Experten' in the plural. The letter 'n' is the plural form here..

Another example;
Abschuss is one kill - " his 150th Abschuss "
Abschüsse is several kills - " he achieved 150 Abschüsse "
Abschuss is used interchangeably with Luftsieg or aerial victory   (pl. is Luftsiege)

Genitive or dative case plural forms ('n' or 'en') do occasionally throw up some 'curiosities' in German. For example;

  Mit 352 bestätigten Abschüssen ist er der erfolgreichste Jagdflieger - "Mit " (with) is one preposition that always takes the dative case in German and the dative plural ending is '..n'  so in this sentence " with 352 confirmed victories.."  you would write Abschüssen in German but since cases do not exist in English I personally see no reason to write these German words 'incorrectly' in English (if you see what I mean..)

another example follows below;

" Das Deutsche Volk muss ein Volk von Fliegern werden" - Note Flieger has no plural in German - it means 'airman' or 'airmen' 'flyer' or 'flyers'. Here though it follows a preposition 'von' which always takes the 'dative' case - dative case plurals end in 'n', hence 'von Fliegern' ( ..lit ..'of flyers'..).

Note below; the 'nominative' and 'accusative' plural of 'der/den Flieger' is 'die Flieger' - only the 'dative' case ending changes

A few operational or flying terms;

Einsatz is an operational mission - the plural form here is Einsätze, in other words the ä+e

Feindflug (lit. enemy flight) denoted a flight over enemy-held territory or a flight in which the enemy was encountered and combat joined if over German-held territory. Also known as a Frontflug. 

The Frontflugspange was the (operational) 'missions clasp'  awarded to frontline pilots with a certain number of sorties under their belts. Contact with the enemy was termed Feindberührung  - the title of Jules Meimberg's autobiography as it happens.