FalkeEins - the Luftwaffe blog

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Sting of the Wasp!..Me 110 E ZG 1 - Wespengeschwader Bf 110s Johannes Kaufmann's " Meine Flugberichte "

Me 110 E belonging to 3./ZG 1 in Bjelgorod photographed on 5 June 1942. Sitzbereitschaft or cockpit readiness for the pilot Uffz Lußki and his BF Uffz Karl-Fritz Schröder

M. Meyer's Ebay sales

From Der Adler - article entitled 'the Sting of the Wasp'

“..Feared by the Soviets, the Messerschmitt Zerstörer 110 continues to demonstrate its superb all-round versatility and hard-hitting fire power in virtually all of the hot-spots on the Eastern Front as our forces fight the hard defensive battles of the Russian winter. This is especially true when the Me 110s strike at enemy airfields and heavily defended pin-point targets in the interior. Whether strafing enemy columns moving forward or destroying prepared positions with bombing raids and hitting railway locomotives and supply depots with great destructive effect, our Zerstörergeschwader are deployed with great success..”

New Year's greetings card from the Wespengeschwader on the Eastern Front

and, below, the cover of Johannes Kaufmann's " Meine Flugberichte " (lit. My flight reports..'My flight log..). Kaufmann ended the war flying Bf 109s with JG 4 but during 1942 was a ZG 1 Zerstörer pilot. The jacket photo shows Kaufmann with a wreath to mark his 100th combat sortie being interviewed by a PK reporter. Brief extracts from his book are featured in the Classic Pubs Zerstörer volumes - unfortunately Kaufmann's is one of the dullest Luftwaffe 'memoirs' ever written...note the prominent (cockpit air) intake on the nose, an identifying feature of the 'E'/'F' sub-types..

R4M rocket-toting Fw 190 Dora - Doras and rockets at Schongau

Close-up views of a R4M rocket-toting Fw 190 Dora-9 filmed by a US 101 Div. cameraman in the winter of 1945-6 at Schongau according to the poster on youtube.. Still extracts from this footage were previously exploited in Vol II of the Eagle Editions Fw 190 Dora volume, although were first described in the David Wadman/Brown Experten Decals No.3 book published way back in 1995.

The film was shot on 02 May 1945 according to Crandall. The machine is identified in that publication as Fieseler-built Dora-9 'white 52', possibly 'chevron white 52' of 1./JG 101 and it is suggested that this unit/field served possibly as a satellite field/unit for the aircraft of the Verbandsführerschule General der Jagdflieger based 30 miles away at Bad Wörishofen.. The camouflage and markings infer an aircraft from the 600601-600680 Werknummer series. Note the lower cowling is painted in yellow. There are 13 white-tipped rockets on each wooden underwing rack.

The R4M was the only air-to-air rocket to see service with the Luftwaffe and its effectiveness was successfully demonstrated by the Me 262. Its warhead contained a high-explosive charge weighing some 440 grams (R=Rakete, 4= kg weight, M=Minenkopf). During February 1945 an entire Staffel of Dora-9s had been assigned to test unit JGr. 10 at Parchim to trial the R4M rockets under operational conditions and when this unit was disbanded during April 1945 the surviving aircraft went to at least two other units, JG 26 and possibly JG 301 - although Crandall quotes Cescotti, TO of JG 301, who asserts that no such transfer to JG 301 was realised. Luftwaffe fighters arriving in Norway at the end of the war included a number of Doras belonging to II./JG 26 mounting R4M rockets.

Note too the "52" in small black figures (partly covered by snow) on the wing leading edge. Similar leading-edge markings were seen on aircraft serving with the Verbandsführerschule General der Jagdflieger. The pilots seat is on the ground behind the wing. The aircraft featured a blown canopy - the plexiglas is shattered here..note the absence of a spinner spiral, another feature of Verbandsführerschule aircraft.

Friday, 1 June 2012

Luftwaffe modelling - Junkers Ju 88 'Experten' and 'Bomber' 72nd scale decal sheets from AIMS (John McIllmurray)

Those modellers looking for inspiration and a suitable colour scheme and markings for the new Revell Ju 88 A-4 have John McIllmurray and AIMs to thank for two timely new Ju 88 decal sheets in 1:72 scale. As far as I can tell the colourful Revell box-art scheme is conjecture, while the second option in the kit is a rather bland Sandbraun LG 1 aircraft, so the new AIMs Ju 88 'Bomber' and Ju 88 'Experten' sheets are recommended if you wish to build a rather more 'accurate' & 'named' Ju 88 based on some in-depth research. On the 'Experten' sheet John gives us the option of building loco Experte Lt. Udo Cordes 9.(Eis)/ KG 3 machine- including rudder markings for 81 locos and two aircraft destroyed - and the A-4 of 4./KG 3 Staffelkapitän Oblt. Kohnke, one of the first bomber 'ace in a day' crews after their exploits in May 1940 over France. The Kohnke rudder score also features an additional four Russian fighters. Kohnke was wounded in action on 27 September 1942 while serving as Kommandeur of II./KG 54. You get no fewer than ten individual Ju 88 markings on each sheet - other aces on the 'Experten' sheet include Knud Gmelin of V./KG 40 (and ZG 1) and a trio of G-6 Nachtjagd aces, Samrau, Briegleb and Oblt. Herbert Koch of 1./ NJG 3. The Ju 88 'Bomber' sheets also features some nice subjects - a white Russian Front KG 76 A-4, the A-4 of II./KG 77's Kommandeur Hptm. Heinrich Paepcke who was lost over Malta on 17 October 1942 and a very nice Ju 88 S-3 of KG 66 in a squiggle scheme.

As you can see here all markings options on these sheets are presented via a series of accurate and well-drawn fully referenced colour side view profiles and detailed text. John even provides a critique of the Kagero photos on which a number of these options are based - the photo captions of the Kagero Ju 88 monographs being the weak point of these particular references. Other interesting subjects are drawn from AirDoc, Luftwaffe in Focus and the Stipdonk/Meyer volumes. The painting guide also features a generic upper and lower surface view of the RLM 70/71 splinter pattern so that you don't have go hunting through a pile of references. The decals by 'Fantasy Printshop' are thin, perfectly in register and have minimal carrier film and will of course require a certain amount of care to apply. I fully intend to select one of these options for my own build as it nears completion so stay tuned for more on these superb sheets. These sheets and much more for the Ju 88 fan are available directly from John at http://www.aimsmodels.co.uk/index.html
John is an enthusiast (and very skilled) modeller himself and provides us lesser mortals with a fantastic product at a reasonable price so please do support him!

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Romanian Bf 109 Emil decals from Radu Brinzan & Airfix Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 Emil 1:72 scale

New from Radu Brinzan is this very nice decal sheet in the usual scales featuring seven Messerschmitt Bf 109 E aircraft of the Romanian 7th Fighter Group as deployed during Operation Barbarossa and the Battle of Stalingrad. Each aircraft features a slogan, a victory tally or both. More information about these aircraft can be found in the book "Romanian Fighter Colours 1941 - 1945 by Teodor Liviu Morosanu and Dan Alexandru Melinte published by MMP Books in 2010.

Radu Brinzan Productions

Elsewhere I've started building the new Airfix Bf 109 Emil in 1:72 scale

Saturday, 12 May 2012

Me 110s ZG 76

Me 110 C most probably belonging to 1./ZG 76 seen in Stavanger during the late summer/fall of 1940. In the background, Do 17 "5D+BL" on the strength of 3./F)31.

Below; Me 110 C/D of II./ZG 76 mit Haifischmaulbemalung - with sharksmouth nose art

Above; Me 110 C "M8+ FH" of 1./ZG 76, seen probably in late 1939.
Me 110 C/D being retrieved following a belly-landing in Holland during 1940. Only the letter 'A' is visible from the machine's Verbandskennung.

Michael Meyer's Ebay sales

Friday, 11 May 2012

Focke Wulf 190 units with Panzerschreck - rare pics of 5./ SG 77

I was only discussing the subject of II. Gruppe SG 77 Panzerschreck toting Fw 190s with Jes Touvdal recently - here is his completed model for the recent BM Fw 190 group build. We concluded that there were only a couple of known (poor quality) partial photographic images of these machines, attributed to 5./SG 77 at Pardubice - in the JAPO 'Air War over Czech territory 1945' book.

Now here's a nice selection from the current Ebay sales of Heiko Fuchs ! I've put my bids on but I expect these to go for mega-bucks! ( edit - it was actually 600 euros per photo) Note the arrow motif on the cowling, blown hood of the F-8 and the II.Gruppe Balken.

Comment from John Manhro on TOCH posted on 12 May 2012;

" I did a check in Lfl. 6 documents all the way up to late March 1945. Early February 1945 the following units flew with Panzerschreck;
8./SG 1, 6./SG 2, 4./SG 3, 5./SG 77 (Pz.Schreck) - (indeed there is also one report that says 6./SG 3 had Pz.Schreck but it does not list 4./SG 3 also, maybe a typo?)

The following units had Panzerblitz;
III./SG 4 (all three Staffeln), 13.(Pz)/SG 151, 1.(Pz)/SG 9 (Pz.Blitz). It seems that II./SG 151 had mainly Pz.Blitz but also a few Pz.Schreck Fw 190. Early Feb 1945 also 3.(Pz)/SG 9 was transferring to Pz.Blitz (completed mid March). This was followed in early March 1945 with transferring first 3./SG 1, 9./SG 77 & 6./SG 1 to Pz. Blitz. planned to be followed by 3./SG 77, 3./SG 4, 3./SG 3 & 6./SG 4. Need to check more files if that was completed too. As the pictures show clearly the II. Gruppe bar and the "11" and "2" are black (imho) than I think we can say these are indeed 5./SG 77 a/c. Staffel colour of 6./SG 2 = yellow and 4./SG 3 = probably white. The colour of 5./SG 77 was in my opinion black.."

Jes fabricated his Panzerschreck 1 parts from scratch, using some plastic tubing and plastic card, based on the diagrams in the JAPO Fw 190 A-G book as reference.

Kora models have produced resin detail Panzerschreck II parts (model photos courtesy Jes Touvdal)