the Battle of Britain - first raids on Channel convoys by KG 2

Adapted and extracted with permission from Ulf Balke's history of KG 2 "Der Luftkreig in Europa 1939- 41 "

Following the rapid end of the Westfeldzug - the campaign in the West - on 22 June 1940, there was a halt in operations that the Luftwaffe would put to use to make good losses in personnel and aircraft. It was widely believed on the German side that 'peace' negociations were on-going with the British. The OKW was at the same time considering how a continuation of the war against the British might be prosecuted - the campaign in the West contained no plans for the invasion of the British Isles, indeed, the Westfeldzug had been widely expected to require a much lengthier time frame than the six weeks actually necessary to over-run France. On 2 July the OKW issued a directive for the continued prosecution of the war against England, the "Kriegführung gegen England"; under certain conditions -of which the most important was "the securing of aerial superiority over England "- the preparation of "possible scenarios for a landing attempt in England may become necessary". The time frame for such considerations "is to remain open".
As a result of such deliberations the air units of Luftflotten 2 and 3 received their first orders for the preparation of attacks against British shipping in the English Channel. The first phase of what would become known as the Battle of Britain would thus comprise attacks on Channel convoys bringing much needed coal, raw materials, machinery and foodstuffs to Britain - the so-called Geleitzugbekämpfung. The bulk of the attacks were in the south in the Straits of Dover and in the outer Thames Estuary. Elsewhere German reconnaissance aircraft were sent out along the east coast while other nuisance raids took place in the north. During this phase, London remained untouched.

The attacks on Channel convoys would it was hoped, draw out the British fighters from their bases. This way the Luftwaffe could analyse the strength of the RAF and determine the speed and the efficiency with which the RAF could deploy its squadrons. A battlegroup consisting of KG 2, II./StG 1, IV(Stuka)./LG 1 and other units such as Rubensdörffer's Erpr.Gr.210 and the fighters of I. -III./ JG51 under Oberst Osterkamp were concentrated into a shipping strike force under the Geschwaderkommodore of KG 2, Oberst Johannes Fink, who was given the title Kanalkampfführer or Leader of the Channel Battle. Fink based his mobile Gefechtsstand in Wissant, a small village on the coast just south of Cap Griz Nez on the Channel coast between Calais and Boulogne opposite Dover and Folkestone. His first act was to order the Gruppen of KG2 to deploy nearer to the coast at the airfields of Signy le Petit, and Epinoy north-west of Cambrai.

The first mission against a Channel convoy off England was flown on the afternoon of Thursday 4 July 1940 by 18 Dornier Do 17s of II./KG2 escorted by some thirty Bf109s. The raid was countered by Hurricanes, apaprently of No. 79 Sq. Four KG 2 crewmen were wounded and two Do 17s damaged in the running battle that developed while a 2,000 GRT cargo ship was claimed 'probably sunk'. Ofw. Wolff of 6./KG 2 reported;

" This is it - we are flying the first sortie against England! Escorted by fighters we are to attack a convoy steaming off Dover close to the British coast. We are airborne at 14:30 after 4. and 5. Staffeln. We crossed the Channel at an altitude of 2,000 metres - the sky is partially covered which will hinder our bomb run and escape. We fly several passes but lose the formation when entering and flying through a cloud bank. I attach myself to the first Kette I sight. Suddenly three Hurricanes hove into view, diving down on us. The clatter of our guns is matched only by the crashing and banging of their shells as they slam into our cockpit and fuselage. I draw my neck into my shoulders and duck instinctively and close up tighter to the lead machine of our formation. The attack goes on relentlessly. Our Beobachter (observer) Oblt. Dörwaldt and Bordfunker (radio operator) Uffz. Krehl are wounded. They bleed heavily from gun shot wounds to the head and thigh. Our starboard engine is hit and oil pressure rapidly falls away. Luckily for us our escort then arrives on the scene, so there are no further attacks on us from the British fighters. I manage to nurse our shot-up Do 17 back to the nearest airfield and attempt a landing - it is St. Omer. The tail wheel has been shot away and it impossible to feather the starboard engine. Once safely down we count over one hundred bullet strikes on the airframe, including four the size of a fist that must have been caused by tracers. The rudder controls have been shot away, the radio operators position has taken four shells and the cockpit is awash with blood ( 'eine Blutlache' ). Although we had fired off red flares as we over-flew the field there was no-one there to meet us as we rolled to a stand at the end of the runway. When help eventually arrived I was in a blind rage, cursing and swearing at anyone in my way. I have never been so livid. Our two badly injured crewmen were taken to hospital and we went with them. In the end Krehl's wounds proved to be skin grazes. Later that evening a truck came for us. According to reports filed by our fighters two ships had been sunk and three enemy fighters shot down by our Me 109s.. "

Bf 109 aces in the West Fritz Karch Gruppenkommandeur II./JG 2 -Channel Front aces (2)

signed ace photo courtesy Lacy Sutton

Fritz Karch was born on 17th January 1920 in Munich.

In Sept 1942 he was a Feldwebel with 6./JG 2 on the Channel Front.

During the Tunisian Campaign he scored his first 3 victories beginning on 28th November 1942 with a Spitfire.

In January 1943 he was promoted Leutnant. He became Staffelführer of 6./JG 2. During July 1943 he claimed at least two B-17s shot down over France including B-17 42-29928 on 4 July 1943 near La Coulonche during a raid on Le Mans (381st BG, 533 BS)

OKL fighter claims
10.7.1943 - Ltn Fritz KARCH - 6 / JG 2 - B-17 -15 km N.W. Evreux - 2500 m. - 08.12 (heure) - Film : C/2027/1 Anek : Nr __"

On 17 August 1943 over Dieppe he achieved his 10th victory and his 15th on 31st December 1943.
In January 1944 he had raised his total to 20 and by August to 30. In March 1944 he was named Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 2. He shot down two P-47s in December 1944 and by January 1945 his total had increased to 40.

On 2 January 1945 he was promoted to Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 2. He achieved his final victory on 28th March 1945, a P-51.

Awarded the Knight's Cross on 20 April 1945, he ended the war with a total of 47 victories, 21 of which were four-engined bombers

This brief biography was taken from Ernst Obermaier's Die Ritterkreuzträger

Below; Karch at the controls of Hs 123 "S13+A46" in Gutenfeld 1940 where he served as a Fluglehrer or instructor Sch/FAR 53...

IV./(N)JG2 - Me 109 nightfighters

Night fighting with Bf109s was not the invention of Hajo Herrmann and JG300 in 1943. One early Bf 109 night fighting unit was IV.(N)/JG2 which was established in February 1940 and had its origins in the Ar68-equipped 10.(N)/JG 131. Its component Staffeln assumed responsibility for the defence of the German Bight coastline under the operational command of the Stab/JG1. Maj. Albert Blumensaat was Gruppenkommandeur of IV.(N)/ JG2 from February to June 1940 when the unit was incorporated into NJG 1. He was previously Staffelkapitän of 10.(N) /JG2 prior to being appointed Gkr. He was replaced in this command by Oblt. Erwin Bacsila who later achieved a degree of notoriety with Sturmstaffel 1. The Staffelkapitän of 11.(N)/ JG2 was a certain Johannes Steinhoff while the StaKa of 12(N)./JG2 was Oblt. Hans Baer. 'N+7' above was probably the a/c of Ofw. Hermann Förster of 11.(N)/JG2 who claimed his first victory on 22 Feb 1940 (a Wellington -note the two tail kill markings). His second victory on 26 April 1940 was a 49 Sq Hampden shot down on a mine-laying sortie near Hörnum. On 23 April 1940 12. and 11.(N)/JG2 Bf109D fighters had moved from Jever via Aalborg to Trondheim (Norway) to support other fighter units in that theatre. 11.(N)/JG2 Bf109 D machines usually display the unit's Eulenwappen (owl emblem) on the forward fuselage just above the exhaust as here..

Airfix Bf109 Emil in-box kit review (1/48 scale)

Aficionados of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 have so far this year enjoyed some great new kits - Eduard, Zvezda and Trumpeter have all produced fantastic 109s in various scales in 2010. Airfix eases into the frame just in time for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the airshow season with this new quarter-scale kit of the iconic Emil. Now given recent Airfix releases, the hard-bitten Luftwaffe enthusiast might be forgiven for thinking that a new Airfix Emil is unlikely to be worth investigating. One thing is sure, Airfix will have to come up with something special to make any sort of impression.



And I think they have. While some of Airfix's recent offerings have attracted the brickbats for their heavy panel lines and somewhat coarse detail, this latest release shows some real finesse among its 107 parts, notwithstanding some of the trade-mark 'clunkiness' here and there. I was keen to start this kit as soon as I got it home as you can see here. Using the Kagero plans published in the excellent 'Top Drawings' series the accuracy of this new Airfix Emil certainly stands up to close scrutiny and shows exceptional promise right out of the box.

Consider whats on offer - separate slats, flaps, rudder and control surfaces, one-piece upper and lower cowl, a neatly moulded engine, a choice of different canopies, separate gun bulges and leading edge inserts, optional bombs and racks, a drop tank, alternative spinners, bulged wheels ... in fact everything you'd need in one box to make any Me 109 E variant from an E-1 right the way through to an E-7. The E-1 carried two 7.92 mm MG 17s above the engine and two more in the wings. The E-1B became the first operational Bf 109 fighter bomber. These were fitted with either one central bomb rack, carrying one 250 kg bomb, or the larger racks carrying four 50 kg bombs. All included. The E-3 was armed with the two MG 17s above the engine and one MG FF cannon in each wing. The E-3 was replaced by the E-4 (with many airframes being upgraded to E-4 standards starting at the beginning of the Battle of Britain) which was different in some small details, most notably by using the modified 20 mm MG-FF/M wing cannon and having improved head armour for the pilot. All these options are possible out of the box. And no special boxings required here if planning a Tropical version - the filter intake is in the box - although there are no 'Trop' options on the decal sheet! Airfix also include an "engine" with some decent detail as part of the fuselage halves. While some will turn their noses up, it has to be said that if that block of plastic wasn't there the fuselage halves would be weak and flexible and very hard to build with the separate top and bottom cowlings. And any representation of an engine looks a lot better than an empty space behind the vents in the upper engine cover. It is very difficult to find anything to get too seriously hot under the collar about in this box - by which I mean the rivet-counters will have meagre pickings. At a push you might comment on the cowl gun troughs which look slightly too pronounced - nothing that can't be sorted with some wet-and-dry. The cockpit detail is a little soft perhaps, the oxygen regulator undersized and the belts moulded on the seat are not particularly convincing. But the throttle quadrant is a separate part as are the rudder pedals and bar. Just about everything else appears spot on. The bulged wheels with their separate hubs will look excellent when painted as will the fabric effect on the control surfaces. Very subtle. All too often that sort of thing is overdone. There are no less than four different windscreens. I haven't worked out yet what they are all for, but one of them is the modified windscreen for Adolf Galland's machine. There is one small problem with the E4/7 canopy - the mid-section has the heavy framing and the 'side' frame associated with the later 'G' variants. Not a problem if doing the earlier E1-3. The ordnance racks come complete with the attachment lugs as separate parts. The weakest parts of the Tamiya kit - the engine exhaust ejector stubs, the prop and the undernourished tailwheel - are much more convincing here.

The small decal sheet enables three subjects to be completed and includes full stencil detail, but while the decals themselves are well printed, they have a matte finish which doesn't bode well and I imagine most Luftwaffe modellers will want to replace them with something else.

The acid test will be in the build of course, but I don't envisage any problems here. The only potential issue I can see is the location of some ejector pin marks on the cockpit walls and one pin mark in the roof of each undercarriage well which will be pretty hard to fill (see photo) Parts break-down almost exactly replicates the Tamiya Emils and those kits virtually build themselves as we know. In fact the fuselage/wing assembly holds together very securely with no tape or glue - or gaps ! (see photo) The more I look at these new Airfix sprues the more I'm inclined to think that this potentially rates up there with the Tamiya Emil E-3 boxing I'm currently finishing off. However Airfix go further and are to be commended for putting literally everything in the box for a bit less ..hopefully I'll get to finish my first one this week.

The build - or at least the final part of it - is here on my modelling blog.
new Airfix 48th scale Emil build
Navigate backwards from this page for the rest

Hartmann's last Bf 109 - was it a K-4, JG 52 Deutsche Brod

According to Michael Ullmann writing in the June 2004 issue of SAM, "there are strong grounds to indicate that Erich Hartmann's last machine was a Bf 109 K-4". This is a somewhat surprising assertion given that there is no credible evidence that Hartmann ever flew a Bf 109 K-4. Toliver and Constable's "The Blond Knight..." can be discounted as an accurate reference since the authors did not have his Flugbücher or the unit KTB for the 1944-45 period.

The much repeated Bf 109 K-4 "profile" was originated by Karl Ries in his "Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings" series from the 1960s and '70s. He had a made-up colour drawing of a Hartman Bf 109 K-4 complete with an oak wreath, and the 352 Abschüsse on the rudder. It simply beggars belief that the ground crew could have taken the time to paint the 352nd Balken on the rudder, then set fire to the machine! Pure fiction. But this was picked up by every subsequent book and decal maker as fact, a myth still pedalled by self-appointed 'experts' on the net (such as Brendan804 on warthunder.com) and the like today..

The last known Hartmann machine we have any evidence for is the well-known photo of him, supposedly taken in mid-April '45, standing by his Erla-built Bf 109 G-10 machine -see below. This was allegedly taken on the occasion of his 350th Abschuß. A more recently discovered image (below) shows a little more than the red heart and part of the Gruppenkommandeur's Doppel-winkel-  this G-10 apparently features the tulip marking.  This variant was also the "hottest" Bf 109 then available, so no surprise Hartmann flew one and that it was in fact most likely to have been Hartmann's last aircraft..

On the other hand - playing devils advocate here - there is photographic evidence ( see JG 52 in Deutsche Brod from Japo) indicating that the Stab JG 52 had Bf 109 K-4s with tulip designs & that as Hartmann's I./JG 52 shared a field with them the chances are he might well have flown one. According to Michael Ullmann then "there are strong grounds to indicate that Hartmann's last machine was a Bf 109 K-4". However the only 'fact' Ullmann cites in support is rather nebulous; high ranking & highly decorated pilots invariably received the latest equipment in an effort to maintain an advantage over their adversaries- rather over-looking the fact that the K-4 was proposed as an up-dated fighter-bomber variant. No matter either that the chaotic conditions in German manufacturing in early 1945 meant that machines were leaving 'factories' with little or no quality control being exercised - there is an account in the JG 300 history from a Bf 109 pilot ferrying K-4's minus instruments, oxygen etc etc. Ullmann 'suggests' Hartmann flew a K-4 (with tulip) in the last WNr batch 334xxx/335xxx which would have been finished in 75/83 with an 82/83 tail unit. Quite why a so-called Luftwaffe colours 'expert' would want to start or perpetuate this myth I've no idea. I've had this discussion with both Barbas & Lorant who both interviewed Hartmann & pored over his surviving log book; the last of Hartmann's machines we actually know anything about was a Bf109 G-10. Incidentally the highest score seen/photographed on any of Hartmann's (known) rudders was 121.

Two nice and rarely seen views of Hartmann's 7./JG52 G-6 "White 1" seen in late 1944 in Hungary

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..."