Arado Ar 96 gunnery training variant

While it often mounted a cowl MG 17 firing through the prop, the famed Luftwaffe Arado Ar 96 trainer typically had no provision for a rear gunner or a lateral or rearward firing MG. However at least three prototypes, the V7, V8 and V9 featured a rear cockpit and canopy modified for gunnery training. Here is a rare view of the Arado Ar 96 V8 D-IXWP (WNr. 2074) with its cut away rear gunner's compartment. Below is the V9 WNr. 2075. It is believed that these variants were built for export and that the V9 may have gone to Bulgaria although its ultimate fate is unknown. (via Michel Ledet and Avions magazine)

more on Gefr. Walter Wagner's "white 11" 5. (Sturm)/ JG 4 Bodenplatte victim - PHOTO EDIT 28 OCTOBER 2011

Lovely model build by 'Brad' on britmodeller of the DML kit (ex-Trimaster). Brad writes " the cowling fought me hard and I couldn't live with the incorrect stance of the landing gear so I cut the retraction struts and added about 1mm of plastic to get the right angle on the main gear. The prop was scavenged from a Tamiya 190A-3 as the prop fitted when repaired was a metal one. Decals came from a variety of sources (now also featured on the new Karaya 'Captured Butcher Birds' decal sheet) and gunze gloss red was used.."

Wagner forced landed this aircraft on 1.1.45 close to St. Trond (home to the 404th FG) during the Bodenplatte raids when Allied airfields across Western Europe were hit in the Luftwaffe's so-called grosser Schlag (big blow). Wagner's Focke Wulf 190 A8-R2 was recovered and repaired to running condition.

The 404th's CO Colonel Leo Moon wrote re this machine;

" the aircraft was painted red by a crew who had overheard me saying that I had always wanted to own a red airplane ..the OO*L code was placed on it because we had created an 'imaginary' fourth Squadron in the Group, and as in the 508th, we used the first initial of the pilot's name as the last of the three code letters. Since I agreed that we should try and get the 190 into flying condition everyone considered it my aircraft and added the 'L' accordingly..when it was ready I taxied it at all speeds up to near takeoff speed but we had no clearance to fly it from the Anti-Aircraft. After taxiing in I found the tires soaked in hydraulic fluid and they were so deteriorated I felt that they were unsafe..we spent considerable time looking for new tires without success. Then we had to move on and left the Fw 190 at St. Trond. I regret that I wasn't able to get that 190 in the air - I had even learnt the 'offs' and 'ons' of the switch labels in German but I don't feel too bad about not flying it. I did get to fly the Bearcat which I believe was more or less a copy of the 190 -although no-one ever admits it..."
 

Click on the images to expand. Note the yellow fan and prop tips and the red gear legs. The Sturm armour plate on the cockpit sides had been removed for the mission has had the upper cowl MGs.

Below; a rare view of the machine prior to the application of the OO-L codes

and some nice stills from rare film footage of the 404th inspecting Wagner's "white 11" elsewhere on this blog;
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2009/10/walter-wagners-white-11-iisturmjg4.html

colour shot of JG 51 Fw 190

This nice colour photo was offered as a wall poster in the centre pages of the November 2010 issue of the leading German aviation magazine "Flugzeug Classic" and depicts an early JG 51 Fw 190 A-3 'black 2'  with what appears to be a red lower engine cowl. Click on the image to see the full view. Since there is plenty of yellow in the image it would appear to be rather hard to argue that the 'red' cowl was as a result of some sort of colour shift... wouldn't it ?

a/c is Fw 190 A-3,  W.Nr 2278,  2./JG51 "Black 2", St. Peterburg Russia

Recently completed Revell 1:72 scale A-8 as Bretschneider's Sturmbock with the addition of armoured cockpit side panels and faired-in upper cowl MGs

Eastern Front Ju 88 night fighters of NJG 100 - August Fischer memoir "Bis der wind umsprang " (Wittgenstein, Fransci NJG 100)

If you are familiar with the Gebhard Aders Wittgenstein feature covered earlier on this blog then you may have noticed a reference to the memoirs of NJG 100 Staffelkapitän and later Kommandeur August Fischer - entitled " Bis der Wind umsprang " published in 1961 by Engelbert Verlag of Balve. This is not a particularly rare book as Luftwaffe memoirs go - but remains almost entirely unexploited eg Claire Rose Knott in her 'Princes of Darkness' makes no mention of it although Fischer flew with Wittgenstein in NJG 100 and mentions him through out the text. I have read suggestions that it is a fictitious or 'novelised' account, as a number of well-known Luftwaffe memoirs indeed are. But there is in my view quite simply far too much detail in the flying accounts for it to have been written by anybody other than a seasoned aviator. Take for example the following extract from the book which I have translated here - the following is my translation of  pages 108-110 of Fischer's book. In this extract Fischer relates an account of shooting down an ancient Polikarpov Po-2 (U-2) biplane flying a night harassment sortie over the front lines in the East. The modest performance of the Po-2, allied to their manoeuvrability and small size meant that they were difficult targets for the comparatively fast and much larger twin-engine Ju 88 night fighters.

Firstly what is known of Hauptmann August Fischer, Staffelkapitän of 3./NJG 100 from the Kracker archive which like most of these sites probably contains some errors of omission. Thanks to EB for the pointer and the photos. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who may have a photo/portrait of Fischer himself (falkeeins at aol.com) ;

V/NJG-1, 12/NJG-5, 1/NJG-100, Kdr Stab I/NJG-100 (4/44 to end). Bf 110; Bf 109, Bf 110, Do 217, Ju 87 & Ju 88 in NJG-100. Awards : EP, EK 1 & 2, Night Fighter Operational Clasp.
A brief synopsis : his first known victory, a Soviet Il-4 on the night of 12-13 May, 1944. An Il-2 on the night of 17-18 June, 1944. Another Il-4 on the night of 7-8 July, 1944. Three Il-4's shared with Fw Düding the night of  8-9 July, 1944. Another Il-4 shared with de Vries the night of 9-10 July, 1944. Two known western bomber victories - a Halifax over Upper Siliesia on 5 August 1944 and a Lancaster with I. Gruppe in April of 1945 in a Ju 88G-6.


“ the front was starting to crumble in the central sector. The airfield at Orscha, where we had been based for so long and where we felt at home was now directly threatened. Some of our ground echleon had already fallen back to Dokoudovo. That night we flew our first sortie in the zone controlled by radar station Borneo – a mobile station mounted on a railway wagon. My radio operator Rôhrs transmitted our altitude; 4 000 m. “ Borneo, do you have any targets for us ? “

"Slow moving targets – descend to 3,000 m."

" You hear that Hauptmann, ‘crabs’ in the vicinity" ; said Rôhrs. Tautor made a gesture as the radar picked up a trace at that moment in the middle of the screen. I veered to port and started down in a slow spiral towards 3,000 metres. “Altitude, three zero.. . I was full of foreboding. During the many missions that I had flown I had not once managed to bring down a ‘crab’ - which is what we called the U-2 or R-5 biplanes. They were small targets, spotted fleetingly and then lost just as quickly, swallowed up by the darkness so that you had no time even to manoeuvre the aircraft to bring the nose-mounted armament to bear. And even if you could, you ran the risk of ramming the small Soviet machine before being able to open fire given that it would be likely travelling at less than 100 km/h - much much slower than our own kite. We had our slanting cannon of course, the so-called 'Schräge Musik', two 20 mm weapons mounted obliquely in the rear fuselage that we could unleash if we passed beneath the target. But I wasn’t optimistic - I had already experienced too many disappointments.

I tried to erase these unpleasant thoughts from my mind. Below us, tracers zipped across the night sky like ghosts flitting from one location to another – the war did not know sleep.

“ Heading one-one-zero towards the target “. We were giving chase. I throttled back and wound in 45° of flap. I felt the thrill of the chase and my heart was already beating faster.

“ Turn onto heading two-eight-zero”

" Affirmative. Altitude ?"

" Altitude two, eight. "

" Understood ". I cut the throttle as I turned into a downwards spiral. My machine “W7 + AL” dropped its nose and went down. At 2,750 m altitude I opened the throttles again – indicated air speed was almost 200 km/h. With flaps down, the Ju 88 was heavy on the controls and responded sluggishly to the rudder. I requested ‘distance from the target’.

"Distance seven."

I glanced at my watch in order to work out my firing range. The 88 had started almost imperceptibly climbing again. Hein had his special glasses on and was staring hard into the darkness. ‘ Distance three’. It had taken us two minutes to cover 4 km, but we were still some 120 km/h faster than our prey. Now I let down the flaps to their maximum and throttled back the engines so that the aircraft, now tail-heavy, wallowed almost on the edge of the stall.

"Target in sight Kapitän. You are coming in behind him ! It’s a U-2 ! Do you see it as well ?"

‘No, nothing, I can’t see a thing’

"Straight ahead, about fifty feet above us".

"Yes, okay, got it now".

"Borneo, visual on enemy aircraft."

" Understood, enemy aircraft sighted."

I gently eased the Ju 88 to port and turned the dimmer switch, located on the ceiling of the canopy in order  to avoid being blinded by the gun-sight. The silhouette of the U-2 danced in the graticule of the sight. Making careful adjustments I calculated the distance and opened fire. The two cannon deep in the fuselage emitted a low rumbling sound. Small flashes of light spat upwards and disappeared into the silhouette of the Russian aircraft. The U-2 dipped its port wing and plummeted vertically down, passing just a short distance in front of us. Flaps retracted, I stood 'W7+AL' on its wing and pulled into a turn to port. All three of us were staring down in the direction of the U-2 – but there was nothing there. Had we hit him – had the pilot -sitting in his open cockpit with no protection whatsoever- been killed? Had our explosive shells torn off a limb causing him to lose control of his aircraft? Had he dived away solely to escape our fire? Who could tell? There was no fire on the ground. Borneo asked us if we had mounted an attack.

" Affirmative. We attacked – no luck "

" Understood. Heading seven zero. Another one for you ".

" Klar "

. We turned onto seven zero. Several minutes later we mounted a similar attack. This time I opened fire sooner – I assumed that I had miscalculated the range the first time. On this occasion the Soviet pilot pulled his biplane into a tight turn to port, was quickly on a reciprocal heading to mine and in a flash had disappeared into the darkness.

" Another attack – nothing observed "

Tautor said in a knowledgeable tone : " Herr Hauptmann, your salvo was too long. " He had observed my burst and evidently knew what he was talking about.

" You’re wrong Hein, I think I saw the wing of that one catch alight " added Rôhrs. He had a better view, being seated facing backwards to the direction of travel and therefore able to observe what was happening behind us..

" Do you think, Christian? Surely we would have seen it."

" Herr Haputmann, you can not expect a U-2 or R-5 to burn like a bigger type ".

" yes, that’s logical, Herr Hauptmann", replied Tautor as he belted himself back in to his seat. We arrived back over the airfield ten minutes later. A few days later the fighter controller at station Borneo called us : an officer at the front had witnessed a biplane plummet to the ground in flames in the no man’s land between the trenches. It had exploded on impact...."

III./ JG 2 Emils on Ebay

A nice selection of III./ JG 2 Emils on Ebay

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Orig-Foto-Flugzeug-Me-109-Richthofen-Jagdgeschwader-2-Staffelzeichen-/130579534946

Thanks to 'ouidijat' for the pointer

latest Luftwaffe/Axis titles, JAPO Me 262s of KG and KG(J) units, JG 4 Vol II off to the printers, Vol V of Stipdonk/Meyer, work on the latest Luftwaffe Gallery...

Only a handful of updates so far this month  - and with good reason as I've been incredibly busy helping M. Erik Mombeeck prepare volume II of the Jagdgeschwader 4 history for the printers - we should meet our deadline of 30 September ! This volume covers the period from Market-Garden to the final air battles over Berlin and I hope you'll forgive me if I state that this is probably one of the most riveting late-war Jagdgeschwader histories to yet appear in English - a must for all Jagdwaffe fans. With the dissolution of I./JG 4 during March 1945 and the remustering of pilots as infantry there are even personal accounts of the ground fighting as well as plenty of perilous ground-strafing missions and Mistel and "Kamikaze" escort sorties.
The first volume of Erik Mombeeck's two part history of JG 4 cover the unit’s establishment, deployments and combat actions through to Autumn 1944 and is 'reviewed' with a lengthy text extract on this blog at the following link.

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2011/09/latest-luftwaffeaxis-titles-jg-4-vol-ii.html



Elsewhere I have also completed my work on Band V of the Stipdonk/Meyer photographic series - some 500 captions into English. However I believe this volume is only appearing in conjunction with the first volume of a new photo series devoted to the Jagdgeschwader so is not exactly imminent. In fact Band V was almost not going to appear at all since VDM declined to pay for the translation of the captions - I stepped in to produce them 'unpaid' to 'unblock' the situation. In addition I have been hard at work on the personal accounts that will feature in the next issue of 'Luftwaffe Gallery' - which will be a 'special' . Now as I've mentioned this translation effort is - for want of a better word - 'unpaid' and very time-comsuming, which makes it difficult to keep up with blog matters....oh and I have a three-page feature on French Desert Storm Jaguars in the current issue of Airfix Model World (personal account by capitaine Alain Mahagne) !

I have managed to read a couple of new books though;

First up the new Pen and Sword title on the "Vichy Air Force at war" by Sutherland and Canwell.
These two authors have produced a huge body of work - some 200 books published - but sheer volume means that quality and quality control don't really get a look-in. Firstly the authors do not appear to have consulted any French-language sources (just one in the bibliography) nor speak French. No serious author would write " the l'Etat..." or even " a single raid did for all of the aircraft of GAO2/551.." There are no personal accounts whatsoever here - it would have been easy enough to source some exciting accounts from Jean Gisclon's "Chasseurs au groupe la Fayette" - Gisclon saw combat over Mers-el-Kebir in 1940 and Casablanca in 1942 with GC 2/5 and wrote about it in detail. Lela Presse in France have produced a range of exciting monographs on the period, including a 400-page history of the Curtiss Hawk in French service, none of which have been consulted. Nor does the Sutherland and Canwell work feature an index or any footnotes whatsoever. Chapter 1 deals adequately enough with the Battle of France but 'historians' and amateurs have generally made such a mess of this period that statements like "The French faced the invasion with 4,360 combat aircraft" need referencing and qualifying. The venerable Potez 25 biplane might have been an extremely potent aircraft in 1925 but it certainly wasn't in 1940 when dropping bombs on Gibraltar (not that the authors even mention this..)
Ehrengardt's two volume 'L'aviation de Vichy au combat' covering fighting in North Africa, Syria, Iraq and Madagascar should at the very least have been consulted. Rather, chapters such as those devoted to operations over Syria are largely based on English-language sources such as Heringtons "Australia in the war of 39-45" - entire page-long quotes in fact. Shores ' Dust Clouds in the Middle East .." must have been used, but doesn't appear in the bibilography. Finally it is worth pointing out that this book is also a pretty slim volume. Chapter 9 - the 'throwaway' last chapter of the book which features potted bios of French pilots who achieved various feats outside of the Vichy Air Force ie Normandie Niemen veterans etc - starts on page 139 and runs to P150. Total page count is 172. Chapter 8 is six-page long 'focus' on those Frenchmen who may or may not have flown with the Luftwaffe including Rene Darbois who flew Bf 109 fighters with JG 4 in Italy - nothing to do with the Vichy air force. As mentioned the photo insert pages are dark and murky. There are some appendices featuring two pages of victory credits and a quick 2-page treatment of the Vichy air Force in Indochina, the subject of new 400-page hardback book from Lela Presse - which just about sums up this rather poor Pen and Sword volume.
 
Next up is the latest Osprey Duel title entitled " La-7 vs Fw 190" ...Neat idea to get a Russian viewpoint on the two types but be aware that Khazanov is the author responsible for the " Erich Hartmann -352 victories or 80 " revisionist approach to the Eastern Front air war. Usual highly competent computer artwork from Hector & Laurier and yet another re-telling of the development history and chronology of the Fw 190 - including photos of early variants in the factory - which along with the more interesting La-7 chronology takes up some 33 pages of this 80 page work. Some curious translation as expected - first time I've seen the Fw 190 described as a "cavalier's horse" - the phrase in German used to describe the Fw 190 is "Arbeitspferd" or 'workhorse' ! The account of the air war on the Eastern Front itself occupies only some 10 pages before we arrive at May 1945! The authors then write, "  the heavier armed, and armoured, versions of the Fw 190A-6, A-7 and A-8 were used almost exclusively by Defence of the Reich units in the west (although IV./JG 3 used its anti-bomber Fw 190A-8/R8s in strafing attacks on Soviet troops as the latter advanced on Berlin), and are therefore not detailed in this volume.." Of course not, there simply isn't the space! But by late January 1945, when the Soviets arrival at the Oder meant that there were more pressing concerns than shooting down USAF bombers, ALL three of the Sturmgruppen were deployed to the Eastern Front along with the Fw 190s of JG 11..and as a result of works by Mombeeck and Lorant there is now plenty of info out there on the deployment and activities of these late-war Fw 190s on the Eastern Front. The chapter devoted to training and conversion from the Bf 109 to the Fw 190 was frankly not of interest. Photographic content is best described as indifferent. Some personal accounts -previously seen- and also a look at the introduction of the Dora on the Eastern Front including the usual picture of  " a smart, newly built Fw 190D-9 Wk-Nr. 210051 with a straight-topped cockpit cover ". I think that's a reference to the Dora's flat canopy. The 'meat' of this small book - if you can call it that - is the chapter entitled "Combat" (P58-72 but including full page profiles of Kozedub and Nowotny along with the two-page battle scene 'painting'). The bibliography ("Further Reading") again features mostly Osprey titles (from the Aces series) and always strikes me as being particularly pointless in these Osprey works. As it is, lots of text seems to me to have been drawn from these very books by the authors of this volume! As usual difficult to sum up - recommended with reservations, especially if your library is devoid of works on the La-7 or Fw 190.

 
Just time to mention here the latest JAPO 'Luftwaffe over Czech territory' title devoted to the Me 262 jets of KG and KG(J) units ahead of a more comprehensive review. A much heftier work of some 180 pages (A-4 softback) than previous titles in this series and featuring as co-author the talents of David E. Brown, the leading researcher on Luftwaffe camouflage and markings, this work should prove absolutely indispensable for late-war Luftwaffe and Me 262 enthusiasts. Needless to say I have been poring over it daily since it arrived and am very much enjoying what is a fine work. Among other subjects, it features a 20-page colour 'walkaround' section, a detailed history of IX Fliegerkorps jet deployment and combat operations over Bohemia, with a day-by-day reconstruction of events from mid-April 1945 to war's end over 55 pages, along with detailed features on all eleven identified KG and KG(J) jets with sumptuous artworks and a decal sheet covering the featured aircraft for scale modellers. Superb!

The German aces speak - Colin Heaton (forthcoming from Zenith Press)

Due in November from Zenith Press

Walter Krupinski: 197 victories; Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves; German Cross in Gold; Wound Badge in Gold
Adolf Galland: 104 victories; Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds; Spanish Cross in Gold with Diamonds; German Cross in Gold
Eduard Neumann: 13 victories; Iron Cross Second and First Class; Spanish Cross; German Cross in Gold
Wolfgang Falck: 8 victories; Knight’s Cross

These four prominent and influential Luftwaffe fighter pilots reminisce candidly about their service in World War II in The German Aces Speak. Although all were decorated by the Third Reich for their exemplary performance, this is not to say they followed the Nazi Party without question—indeed, none of them were card-carrying National Socialists. Between their duty to serve their country in war and the erratic and immoral leadership of Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, these men elected to follow their own code of honor in combat. Although true to their oaths as German warriors, in the end they felt they and their countrymen had been betrayed by Hitler and the Nazis.

Colin Heaton personally interviewed these air combat leaders, aces all, gathering their unique perspective on World War II and the Nazi leadership. From thrilling air battles to battles on the ground with their own commanders, these stories bring the past to life in the aces’ own words.

An excerpt from the Falck interview by Colin Heaton on this blog
http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2010/09/interview-with-wolfgang-falck-colin.html

Colin Heaton's website is HeatonLewis Books