Klaus Deumling and the sinking of the Roma (KG 100 Wiking, Dornier Do 217 and Fritz X in Flugzeug Classic magazine January 2011 issue)

Dornier Do 217 K of III./KG 100 seen at Istres, summer 1943 (collection Dabrowski, Griehl, Flugzeug Classic)

In early September 1943 the Italians proclaimed an armistice with the western Allies. One of the armistice clauses called for "the immediate transfer of the Italian fleet and the Italian airplanes to those places that will be designated by the Allied Command ". On 9 September 1943 - the same day as the Allied landings at Salerno - an Italian Navy battlegroup, under the command of Admiral Carlo Bergamini, heading for Malta to 'surrender' was attacked in the waters of the Gulf of Asinara by Luftwaffe bombers of KG 100. During the attack, the Roma, one of the most powerful warships then at sea in the Mediterranean was struck, split in two and sunk. The Admiral, along with a great number of officers, petty officers and sailors perished – more than 1,250 men.


Nineteen years old Leutnant Klaus Deumling of 7./KG 100 was flying his first combat sortie that day at the controls of a Dornier Do 217 K and participated in the sinking of the Roma, launching a radio-guided Fritz X flying bomb. His story is related by Peter Cronauer in the current issue of Flugzeug Classic magazine (January 2011) - although unfortunately not entirely in his own words.  According to Cronauer it  was not until Deumling related his account of the attack on the Roma in his memoir '41 Sekunden bis zum Einschlag' (41 seconds to impact - the 'flight' time of the Fritz X) that his participation in the action against the Italian fleet and indeed the full facts of this attack became more widely known. Postwar Deumling had little contact with flying or former members of KG 100. At the end of that day - an Italian battleship sunk and over 1,200 Italian lives lost, just days before hand allies of the Germans - there would be no decorations for Deumling or his fellow KG 100 crews. Ulf Balke in his history of KG 100 credits Kommandeur Jope and Ofw. Kurt Steinborn as being the successful crews in the sinking of the Roma. Deumling's view of this action differs somewhat.

Klaus Deumling (right, below) had been posted to 7./KG 100 in Schwäbisch-Hall Hessenthal after achieving his instrument rating at the Luftwaffe's blind flying school in Belgrade during the early summer of 1943. Here he not only met his new crew for the first time - all of whom were older than Deumling- but encountered a new aircraft type, the Dornier Do 217 K-2 and one of the Luftwaffe's first 'Wunderwaffen', the Fritz X ‘stand-off ’ bomb.

The Fritz X or FX-1400 bomb (or more accurately after its manaufacturer, the Ruhrstahl X-1) had been designed in 1939 by Dr. Max Kramer and was a high penetration 1400 kg bomb, a development of the PC 1400 bomb, now equipped with four small wings or ‘spoilers’ and tail controls for stabilising and modifying its trajectory in flight. It was a weapon that was remotely controlled from the launch aircraft by the FuG 203/230 Kehl-Strassburg very short-wave radio system comprising four frequencies which relayed commands to dive, pull up and manoeuvre left and right via a small control stick operated by the Dornier’s observer. These ‘commands’ translated into movements of the ‘spoilers’ via small servo motors. The radio-commands could be sent up to 15 seconds from the point of launch which partly accounts for the very high launch altitudes of the bomb. Unlike the Hs 293 it did not have any means of propulsion. It was however extremely precise and could thus be launched well out of the range of enemy anti-aircraft fire, taking 41 seconds to reach and penetrate a pinpoint target of only some 5 square metres at its terminal velocity approaching 1,000 km/h from a launch altitude of 7,000 metres. It was both its speed and its armoured casing that enabled it to penetrate the steel plate of some of the biggest capital ships then afloat. It did however require a stable launch platform and clear conditions in order for the observer to guide the weapon onto its target.

Preparing a Fritz X bomb for loading onto the carrier aircraft

While in northern Germany Deumling and his crew trained hard over a period of two months on launching the Fritz X against a 5,000 ton target ship anchored off Peenemünde. They then moved to Istres, near Marseille on the Côte d’Azur for the attack on the Roma. With the major elements of the Italian Navy in La Spezia awaiting confirmation of orders to sail for Malta, Kommandeur Jope had already received top secret instructions from Luftflotte 2 chiefs in Rome to prepare for an attack should the Italians set sail. Shortly before 14:00 on 9 September 1943 individual Do 217s in a first ‘wave’ rolled out to the runway at Istres.

Ofw. Kurt Steinborn in Ulf Balke’s Kampfgeschwader 100 Wiking history reported;

“ it was Gruppenkommandeur Jope himself who briefed us on the details of the attack. Our targets were some 300 kilometres distant. Strict radio silence was ordered. A reconnaissance machine maintained visual contact at all times with the targets and relayed their position to us. Visibility was excellent as we climbed to an altitude of 7,000 metres. From far off we could see the enormous wakes the ships were trailing, indicating that they were steaming at full speed ahead. We were met by heavy anti-aircraft fire but at that height there was no risk of us being hit and we looked on as their shells exploded beneath us..I sought out the biggest vessel and throttled back to 180 km/h. The air was calm and still, our trusty Do 217 perfectly stable. My observer Uffz. Degan launched the Fritz X with his right hand, switched the automatic camera on and guided the bomb into the target. It took just 42 seconds from launch to impact directly amidships...it wasn’t until later that evening that we knew that we had hit the Roma and that she had sunk..”

Deumling and his crew had also arrived over the target area after one hour’s flying time and were at the optimum altitude for launching the Fritz X, some 7,000 metres. With no interference from enemy fighters and cloudless skies launch conditions were ideal – the Italian battle group below must have presented an imposing picture;

Deumling; "..We weren't thinking of the sailors on board those ships. From 7,000 metres they looked like toy boats in the bath. We couldn't make out any details of the individual ships. Having practised launching our 'Fritz X' relentlessly we were under a certain pressure to get this right and it was with some anxiety that we were able to position ourselves right over the fleet out of the range of the anti-aircraft shells exploding below us... "

The fact that the Fritz X were launched with the aircraft more or less straight and level had probably created confusion among the Italians, lulling them into believing that German intentions were not offensive. This mistake was fatal, considering that the Italians were under orders to fight back only if attacked. At 15.45 the Roma was hit on the starboard side. The bomb burst into the sea after having passed through the Roma's 33 metre wide hull and the ship’s speed was reduced to just 10 knots. At 15.50 the Roma was struck again by a second bomb fatally wounding the huge battleship. A column of flames and smoke spiralled upwards one thousand metres high. Turret n. 2 (1.500 tons) along with all of its occupants and the command tower were projected aloft and tilted to the right side. It was the end for Bergamini and his staff. The ship began to tilt to starboard. It was a horrendous show of death and destruction. The majority of the men were burned alive. At 16.12 the Roma turned upside-down, broke into two parts, and sank. With her, no less than two Admirals, 86 Officers and 1264 sailors were lost.

Deumling ; " as we made our way home we realised that we had achieved a good hit and had come away without a scratch. At the time we had no thoughts for the victims - that is why sixty years later I find the pictures taken that day so disturbing..that myself and my crew had not launched the second and fatal bomb to hit the ship was of little consolation...." ( jacket cover photo of Deumling's book below depicts the Roma after the first Fritz X hit..)

For information on the latest issue and a chance to view the contents visit the Flugzeug Classic website here

Storming the bombers - a chronicle of Jagdgeschwader 4 - the Luftwaffe's fourth fighter wing by Erik Mombeek

The fourth fighter wing of the Luftwaffe was initially established during 1942 and committed to operations in defence of the Rumanian oil fields during 1943. I./JG 4 first saw action in combat against a strike force of B-24 Liberators dispatched on the celebrated low level attack against Ploesti on 1 August 1943, Operation “Tidal Wave”. JG 4 was subsequently deployed in the bitterly fought German defensive campaign on the Italian penin­sula during the first half of 1944, prior to being shifted to the Normandy invasion front and then falling back to the frontiers of the Reich in September that year. It was during the summer of 1944 that JG 4 underwent considerable reinforcement with two new Gruppen swelling its ranks. The most effective of these was II. (Sturm)/JG 4, a so-called “Storm” or "assault" wing, built up around a hard core of former Sturmstaffel 1 pilots and an intake of young daredevil volunteers. Committed against the massive USAF bomber fleets pounding the Reich, the Sturm fighters were deployed to bring down the American bombers by any means, including ramming if necessary.



An extract from Chapter 5 - The creation of II.(Sturm)/ JG 4   (my translation from the original German text..)


Uffz. Herbert Chlond -formerly of 2./ZG 1- was now a 5.(Sturm)/JG 4 pilot, as he explained ;
“The pilots transferred from Hohensalza to Salzwedel by train or road. I was soon sent to Giessen to take on charge my aircraft and ferry it to Salzwedel – I touched down there for the first time on 14 August 1944. It wasn’t long afterwards that we welcomed our new Staffelkapitän – Hptm. Erich Jugel. He was a replacement for Hptm. Fulda who we only knew for a few days. We encountered Obstlt. von Kornatzki from time to time as he came out onto the field to check our progress during our period of settling in and training. He seemed to be an officer concerned for the well-being of his men – almost like a father figure, paternalistic and well-liked by all ranks. I do not recall ever having to sign any document pledging to bring home a victory on every sortie – or even undertaking to ram enemy bombers.”

While the new Staffelkapitäne were all experienced pilots, only Zehart – aged 25 years and posted to 7. (Sturm)/JG 4 – had any real experience of fighter combat tactics. The Kapitän of 5. Staffel, Hptm. Wilhelm Fulda – aged thirty-five years old – was a decorated glider pilot and Knights Cross recipient. He was quickly replaced by the thirty year old Hptm. Erich Jugel. Jugel was a former observer with III. (Kampf-)/Lehrgeschwader 1 prior to training as a pilot and subsequently serving as Staffelkapitän of 11./ LG 1.

The Kapitän of 8. Staffel, Major Gerhard Schröder was thirty two years old and also a former observer, prior to serving as Staffelführer with II./KG 55 ‘Greif’ before he shifted to KG 51 ‘Edelweiß’.

Hptm. Manfred Köpke was twenty seven years old and appointed Kapitän of 6. (Sturm)/JG 4. Athough he had initially trained as a fighter pilot at Werneuchen, he had opted for the bomber arm and it was not until the summer of 1944 that he was passed out on single-engine fighters. One of his pilots, Uffz. Josef Weichmann, recalled:

“My Staffelkapitän had suffered a head injury in Russia and since that time had occasional difficulties with his balance. When flying on instruments – for example through layers of cloud – he always required one of us to tuck in closely alongside him to maintain some sort of visual reference, otherwise he quickly became disorientated. He would order us to lead the Staffel under such circumstances and hung on to our tails until such time as visibility cleared.”

Among the more notable pilots of 5. (Sturm)/JG 4 was Hptm. Werner Vorberg – not just on account of his age- although he was thirty-four years old! He had initially been turned down for flying training school and it was only as a result of a mix-up in his march orders – which should have sent him to a paratroops unit – that he had ended up at flying school. By the time the mistake was noticed he had already received his pilot’s qualification. He was subsequently to fly twin-engine glider tugs and saw action in the Balkans, Russia and Italy, prior to volunteering as a Sturm pilot. One of his Staffel comrades was Oblt. Emil Lübenau, who had previously been a fighter instructor at Toul in late 1943 and early 1944.

In 6. (Sturm)/JG 4 – aside from Lt. Rudolf Metz, a former JG 5 and Sturmstaffel 1 pilot who spent a few days with 8. (Sturm)/JG 4 – the pilot complement included Ogfr. Gerhard Kott. Kott had been posted on 27 April 1944 to 10./JG 3 at Salzwedel and his claimed his first victory – shooting down a B-17 – on 19 May. However he had been blamed for the take-off accident that had resulted in the death of Ofhr. Eberhard Nolting on 16 July at Holzkirchen and was subsequently transferred to II. (Sturm)/JG 4 on 26 July 44.

The Staffel also counted Lt. Hans-Heinrich Lehmann (a transport unit veteran) and Günther Kunst on its pilot strength. According to his family, Kunst had undergone his baptism of fire on 14 January 1944, downing a bomber during this same action. Uffz. Josef Weichmann recalled his arrival in the Staffel;

“I graduated from fighter training school in February 1944 and was posted to the Oschersleben Focke-Wulf factory in the Harz as a ferry pilot. As we were not front line aviators I had always imagined that I and my comrades were likely to be the first to be remustered as foot soldiers should the need ever arise. As my duties involved ferrying new aircraft out to front line airfields that were under almost constant aerial attack, I felt a sense of hopelessness and was powerless to intervene. When the calls went out at the highest levels of the Luftwaffe, I therefore resolved to volunteer for duty as a Sturm pilot. I arrived at Salzwedel in June 1944 and thus became one of the first intake of pilots of the Sturmgruppe JG 4. Von Kornatzki was an outstanding man – a real father figure to us. He did his best to prepare us for the forthcoming battles, instructing us in all sorts of techniques for attacking the bombers.”

Gefreiter Heinz Papenberg also arrived at 6. (Sturm)/JG 4:

“As a pilot of Jagdgeschwader 5 since 1943, I was “dismissed” for damaging an aircraft while making a belly landing and was transferred to an Überführungs-Geschwader in Germany."Geschwader" is a big word for a “club” which was barely at Staffel strength. I met quite a few pilots there who had the same bad luck story. Our job was to transfer brand new aircraft from the factories to front-line airfields. After hearing of a call for volunteers to report to a Sturmstaffel, I volunteered with two or three comrades. We were ordered to Werneuchen near Berlin, where Oberstleutnant von Kornatzki personally received us. He was of medium height and very congenial. During our first conversation, he asked me: “Why do you want to join the Reichsverteidigung? You must understand that many of us will be killed. Besides, you are married!” I answered him: “I volunteered because I am married!” – “Das ist ein Wort!” he said - “That makes sense!”- He replied with his typical rolling “r” and shook my hand. My comrades had similar motives – while we were prepared to risk our necks in the search for glory and no doubt believed that the war could all but be won by ourselves single-handedly, we nonetheless wanted to protect our country against enemy bombing attacks. So we signed the Sturmjäger oath. The volunteers in Salzwedel soon numbered some seventy-two pilots.”

Two young pilots, Uffz. Fritz Wetzke and Kurt Scherer, arriving fresh from 1./Ergänzung Jagdgruppe Ost, had also signed up for the Sturmgruppe. Scherer recalled:
“I signed up for a Sturmeinheit – an assault or 'Storm' unit – of my own free will as soon as I heard about them – even though at that stage I had never even flown a fighter aircraft. I wanted to combat the Allied bomber streams whatever the cost – they were reducing our homeland to rubble and ruins, destroying our culture and annihilating our people en masse. The pilots of the Sturmgruppen were not criminals, or murderers, potential suicides or demoted officers as has often been portrayed in the post-war years. I was of sound mind and body and a talented young pilot full of the resolve, courage and motivation required by these elite units. After enlisting I was sent to Bürgünd in Hungary to complete a fighter pilot’s training course. On 1 July I was posted to 1./Ergänzung Jagdgruppe Ost at Liegnitz in Silesia. It was here – at the end of the month – that I received my posting to a Sturm unit. Arriving at Salzwedel our new Kommandeur lectured us about the duties and responsibilities of a Sturmjäger- an assault fighter. We were allowed a day to reflect on the consequences and the dangers of our new assignment – either signing the oath or taking the decision to return to a ‘normal’ fighter Geschwader. No pressure was put on anybody to sign the Sturm declaration of intent although Obstlt. von Kornatzki made it quite clear what our new responsibilities entailed; – should it come down to it, we were expected to bring down a four-engine bomber by ramming it with our own machines. As we expected there was not a single one of us who wished to be transferred elsewhere – we swore to fight in defence of the Reich in accordance with the rules and principles of the Sturmgruppen. We knew – as pilots in the Sturmgruppe – that we might have to lay down our lives to defend our homeland and the German people. We promised that on each sortie on which we made contact with the enemy we would pursue our attacks to the closest possible range – and should we be unable to down the bomber with our fixed armament, then we were to destroy it by ramming. Although each of us had signed this declaration individually, the oath was again read out and sworn in front of the General of the Fighter Arm, Adolf Galland, on the occasion of an inspection visit. During his speech to us he declared that our Sturmgruppe was now a fully-fledged operational unit. Every pilot understood the import and seriousness of this moment- our commitment was embodied in the handshake that the General exchanged with each one of us. The entire Gruppe was then airborne for a flypast – it proved to be a superb demonstration. The day was rounded off with a demonstration of captured American aircraft, in particular a P-51 Mustang – it was stressed that our Bf 109s and Fw 190s were generally superior to this type. We soon realised on our first combat sortie that this statement was not entirely accurate.”
 
 
Despite the appalling losses sustained by JG 4 during WW II, author Erik Mombeek managed to locate around one hundred JG 4 and Sturmstaffel 1 veterans and their personal accounts and photographs bring his history of JG 4 vividly to life and imbue it with a human dimension which many will find moving. The first volume of this two part history covers the unit’s establishment, deployments and combat actions through to Autumn 1944, providing for the first time in English a day-by-day, mission-by-mission study of the Luftwaffe’s 4th fighter wing.
 
http://www.luftwaffe.be/

III./JG52 Bf109 G-2 'black chevron 3' undergoing maintenance

Überlebenschance gleich Null - KG 77 torpedo bomber pilot Bodo Diemer memoir (Helios Verlag)

Bodo Diemer was a Luftwaffe torpedo bomber pilot and flew combat sorties against Allied convoys in the Med, against the D-Day invasion fleet in the Channel and against the Murmansk convoys in the Artic Sea. The torpedo bomber Gruppen of the Luftwaffe sustained some of the heaviest losses of any Luftwaffe units – out of 40 crews he knew personally, only 3, including his own, survived, hence the title of the book which roughly translates to ".. Survival chances - nil..."


Since writing down his wartime experiences at the end of the war while a POW, Bodo Diemer has wrestled with the dilemma of whether or not to put them before a wider audience. Finding a publisher was half the battle. Helios Verlag have a track record of publishing interesting Luftwaffe books and a while ago asked Diemer to prepare his account of his experiences for publication and this nice 322-page volume is now available from their site or your favourite online bookseller. What follows here are my impressions of this worthwhile title and a couple of extracts that I have translated from the German-language text.

Diemer arrived at IV./KG 77 then based in the south of France fresh from training school in early 1944 having enlisted in 1940 and participated in the Norwegian campaign as a driver in an engineering unit. IV./KG77 were flying the Ju 88 A-14 and A-17 torpedo bomber variants and his first Staffelkapitän was Knights's Cross holder Oblt. Johannes Geismann (10./KG77). By that stage of the war his elder brother Arno had already been shot down and killed in a 2./KG 6 Ju 88, falling to an RAF nightfighter over the UK. Elsewhere the family business had been taken over by a 'Nazi' armaments concern. Based as he was in France, Diemer was in regular telephone contact with his family in Germany - both Diemers' parents had voted for Hitler’s NSDAP but did not regard themselves as Nazis and as the intensity of the bombing war builds over the homeland disillusionment and despair increasingly sets in.

Diemer’s accounts of flying the Ju 88 are written in a very straight forward 'Fliegersprache' – aviators language. He describes sorties flown against shipping convoys out over the Atlantic and the Med from the point of view of his crew with plenty of interesting details and insights into the daily life of Luftwaffe bomber crews operating in the late–war period – unreliable, malfunctioning torpedos and equipment, poorly trained crews and out-moded aircraft.

" ..Flying at wave-top height in darkness was the bread-and-butter of the torpedo flyer. Too low and you risked a watery grave, too high and you would be easy prey for the nightfighters...those of our comrades who came to us having passed out from the abbreviated C-Schule programme then in place and who had not been trained for this type of flying were as good as dead already.."

The strain of having to fly the brunt of some hair-raising sorties in the teeth of overwhelming defensive firepower from Allied air and sea power is unremitting.

“ .. .Suddenly the BF shouted ‘..nightfighter on our tail..’ I could already hear the radar return as I threw the kite into a bank to port. “ He’s following us, I think it’s a Beaufighter..” called Walter just as a salvo of tracer flashed past overhead and disappeared into the darkness. With our two ‘eels’ our crate was a lame duck. I pushed the stick forward and nosed down closer to the wave-tops, as low as I dare ..but he was still behind us. Another salvo but as we were in the turn the Beaufighter was unable to draw a bead on us. More tracer flashed past the canopy. Our last chance to get away – jettison the ‘eels’. ‘Torpedo left’ followed by ‘torpedo right’. Luckily for us they went in and straight under – had they bounced we could easily have been brought down by our own torpedoes. Now I was faster, could pull into steeper and tighter curves. I hauled the kite around towards the darker western sky line and dropped right down low to the crests of the waves. There was a heavy swell running – no nightfighter would follow us down here. He would probably assume that we’d turn east towards the ships and we’d give him the slip. We flew on in the darkness. Walter reported in - “ Nothing..”. We’d been lucky. We landed back at Cognac at 07:15. Our comrade Essig had already made it back – he’d come under attack from a nightfighter too and likewise had to save himself by jettisoning his ‘eels’. Ordering a sortie as dawn was breaking with the entire RAF probably in the air and expecting us to sink the Royal Navy with our lame, overladen ‘crows’ was utter madness...”



1945 sees Diemer posted to Norway with KG 26 and the chance to fly the Ju 188.

“ ..that day we reported as ordered to the Technical Officer. We were to fly two modified Ju 188s back to Trondheim and ferry them to III. Gruppe. Both machines were standing outside on the taxyway. I told him that we had never flown the Ju 188 and couldn’t be expected to take the aircraft without at least some classroom instruction. His response – we both wore the EK first class so we must be experienced flyers. There were two Bordfunker ready and waiting to make the trip with us. A pilot who had flown the Ju 188 was on hand to show us the ropes – and quickly before the Mustangs put in an appearance and shot the two machines to pieces. Just great! .. with the Russians in front of Berlin and the Western Allies already fighting around Kassel, here we were standing in our entire worldly possessions and now having to make a 1,500 kilometer trip north in a type that we had never flown before. While we had been flying combat sorties we’d dreamt of being able to give up our old lame Ju 88s for the faster more manoeuvrable Ju 188. Now we were getting our wish. The Ju 188 was a machine of 3,500 hp, almost 700 more horses than my faithful old ‘1H+NH’, and a top speed approaching 530 km/h, almost 100 km/h faster than our old crates... the next morning, half asleep, I climbed up into the unfamiliar cockpit, followed by the BF. Much more spacious, not half as cramped as the Ju 88, although the layout of the instruments and throttles was much the same. Run up the engines quickly and then taxy out. The eastern horizon was already getting lighter – time to get going before the P-51s turned up. Essig followed me and we turned onto the runway. Throttles wide open at the same time and we were airborne tucked in alongside each other just like the good old days. Now we were in our element – low level over the Baltic heading north. The biggest danger now was our own flak, and especially the anti-aircraft defences toted by our warships lying off the coast. An intermediate stop was planned in Aalborg, Denmark before undertaking the long flight over the Skagerrak. The Ju 188 was very pleasant to fly. Much easier on the rudder and the aircraft responded quickly to my inputs on the stick. I could sense the much higher speed – this was turning into a pleasure flight so much so that I waggled my wings at Essig in happiness. He waggled his back in reply...”

http://www.helios-verlag.com/

89-year old Bodo Diemer veteran Luftwaffe torpedo bomber pilot at his book launch in November 2010

Most visited pages on the Luftwaffe blog during 2010

A handy guide to the most popular pages on the Luftwaffe blog during 2010. With over 2,000 unique visitors per week, I think that it is fair to say that the majority are modellers looking for info and pictures of the latest kit releases. Which is fine by me. The Airfix new tool 48th Emil and the new tool 72nd scale Bf 110 were built here as quickly as they were anywhere else but unfortunately I've a pile of new kits that I have yet to start including the Zvesda Bf 109F and Eduard Dora!  For info and pics of the new Ta 152 (and the Zvesda Friedrich) I am grateful to my correspondent Manu Pernes since this is one kit I doubt I will attempt unless asked to review it! I am also grateful to master builders such as Rowan Gough for allowing me to post their superlative builds here. I'm looking forward to building the new Revell Arado 196 as soon as possible in the New Year - as are many others from the page stats. This may mean fewer updates during 2011 so that I can build more. I will continue to cover the latest book and reference releases. And as I have a couple of book translations underway currently, there will probably be a little more translation work here, although these types of posts are particularly time consuming to prepare.


1. Airfix Bf110 C in-box first-look review 1/72, kit build and Me 110 reference
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/08/airfix-bf110-c-in-box-first-look-review.html

first posted on 3 Aug 2010 1,855 page views for the year


2. Flugwerk Fw 190 ditches off Hyères (Toulon)
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/06/flugwerk-fw-190-ditches-off-hyeres.html

first posted on 16 Jun 2010 1,552 page views


3. Towards perfection ? the Focke Wulf (Tank) Ta 152 ...
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/04/towards-perfection-tank-ta-152-reschke.html

first posted on 27 Apr 2010 730  page views


4. Airfix Bf109 Emil in-box kit review and build (1/48 scale)
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/06/airfix-bf109-emil-in-box-kit-review-148.html

first posted on 20 Jun 2010, 634 page views


5. Luftwaffe models at Euromilitaire 2010 - Mistel marvel...
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/09/luftwaffe-models-at-euromilitaire-2010.html

first posted on 18 Sep 2010,  635 page views


6. new Revell Arado Ar 196 in 1/32nd scale
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-revell-arado-ar-196-in-132nd-scale.html

first posted on 16 Nov 2010, 631 page views


7. SG2 Fw190 camouflage and markings - Luftwaffe colours...
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/07/sg2-fw190-camouflage-and-markings.html

first posted on 18 Jul 2010, 519 page views


8. 1/32 Focke Wulf Ta 152 H-1 Zoukei-Mura kit
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/10/132-focke-wulf-ta-152-h-1-zoukei-mura.html

first posted 30 Oct 2010, 514  page views


9. Hermann Graf and his JGr. Ost Focke Wulf 190s
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/04/hermann-graf-and-his-jgr-ost-focke-wulf.html

first posted on 8 Apr 2010, 463  page views


10. Arado 234 Blitz, Bf110 G, Do 335 A, He 111 P, Ju 88 photo set walkarounds to download...
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/10/bf110-g-do-335-he-111-p-ju-87-d.html

first posted 23 Oct 2010,  377  page views



He 177 images via Bundesarchiv/WikiCommons available for re-use on the web

Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condor - a selection of images via Wiki commons and Ebay

Images available via Wikicommons/Bundesarchiv cooperation and free for re-use on the web.



The Danish airlines Fw 200 airliner OY-DAM Dania at the opening of the Norwegian airport Fornebu  near Oslo


Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor" with nose-mounted radar FuG Hohentweil .




Albert Speer (third from left) in front of his personal transport




 Focke-Wulf Fw 200 C-3 "Condor" (Kennung F8+GH) seen on a Greek airfield. Bundesarchiv via Wikicommons




A Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Kondor sinking in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland, after being shot down by a Lockheed Hudson Mark V of No. 233 Squadron RAF based at Aldergrove, County Antrim, while trying to attack a convoy. This oblique aerial photograph was taken from the victorious Hudson (AM536) and shows the crew of the Kondor swimming for their liferaft which is inflating to the right of the tailplane. Date: 23 July 1941. Public domain via Wikicommons




KG 40 1,000th sortie commemoration via Ebay auction

Walkaround video of a KG 40 Fw 200 Condor captured by the Russians. Click once to view without leaving this page.

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka Kanonenvogel -last edit March 2016

Flugzeug Junkers Ju 87 G "Stuka" mit 3,7-cm-Kanonen FlaK 18 ("Kanonenvogel") auf einem Feldflugplatz -  images via Wikicommons (cooperation agreement providing Bundesarchiv images free for re-use on the web)

The Panzerknacker or tank 'cracker' was, if we are to believe the history, dreamt up by Stuka 'ace' Rudel as a means of aiding the hard-pressed German ground troops in their defensive struggles against the Red Army and their T-34 tank fleets. It seems to me that this machine has acquired a certain 'aura' that it simply does not warrant -especially with modellers. Indeed the Kanonenvogel bore witness to the appalling penury and deficiencies of Luftwaffe resources on the Eastern Front. Here was a machine conceived for taking out tanks individually - one by one if you will. Rudel in his first day's flying at the controls of his BK 3.7 mm toting Stuka managed to knock out around ten Russian tanks according to Nauroth's German-language Stukageschwader Immelmann history. (Rudel's own account states twelve). Yet just a few hundred miles east of where Rudel would have been operating during July 1943, Soviet factories were churning out hundreds of tanks weekly - well out of the range of  any Luftwaffe bombers. The Luftwaffe did not possess a decent long-range heavy bomber as we know. All the Luftwaffe could come up with at this stage of the war was a Stuka 'D' model expedient with the flying characteristics of a brick - it was impossible for all but the most experienced pilots to fly well, especially in the turn where the massively laden Stuka bucked and wobbled on the edge of the stall.. At the time of course Rudel's efforts and those of his comrades were feted in the Nazi propaganda media. Today they are still 'celebrated' in just about every account you might care to read devoted to combat flying on the Eastern Front. In reality Rudel's 'achievements' were but a drop in the ocean, a mere pinprick in the overall scheme of battle on the Eastern Front..



Sturzkampfbomber Junkers Ju 87 ("Stuka") mit 3,7 cm Panzerabwehrkanonen unter den Flügeln. Anlassen des Motors des Flugzeugs von Hans-Ulrich Rudel ("Kanonenvogel") mit einer Handkurbel

Stuka mounting 3.7 cm anti-tank cannon under the wings. Turning over the engine of Rudel's aircraft with the hand-crank starter.





not a Panzerknacker but a lovely detail view of a Ju 87 on the northern sector of the Estern Front, December 1943 from the same PK photographer Doege