ZG 26 on Sicily

Michael Meyer's current Ebay sales 

Waffen justieren (gun harmonisation) being carried out on 9. Staffel ZG 26 Bf 110s during early 1941 on Sicily. The a/c below is Bf 110 C/D "3U+NT", WNr. 3458. Note the Staffelwappen, a stylised Hahn or cockerel on the Zerstörerdoppelwinkel, the double chevron of the 'destroyer units'. The spinner tips are yellow. The lower picture shows 9. Staffel Warte outside their accomodation on the airfield at Palermo

Lela Presse on Facebook - new Luftwaffe books, JG 53 history Vol III

Catch up with all the latest news and publications from Lela Presse on their new Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/AvionsLelapresse

Please note your blog author will be taking time out over the next few months to work on various new publications for Lela Presse, VDM Heinz Nickel and Erik Mombeek. Lela Presse currently have Luftwaffe Seaplanes Vol III and a history of the Focke Wulf 190 in French service (with English captions) in preparation.  Part III of Jean-Louis Roba's excellent history of JG 53 is due on 20 July. (French language only); A-4 softback, 96 pages, 200 photos, Thierry Dekker artwork. Order your copy here, highly recommended at only 12 Euros..

 http://www.avions-bateaux.com/produit/batailles-aeriennes/1879

Summary of contents:

-  II. and III./JG 53 over Malta (1 – 20 May 1942)
-  III./JG 53 in north Africa (June – October 1942)
-  Stab and II./JG 53 alone against Malta (May - June 1942)
-  Stab and II./JG 53 over Malta (July – October 1942)
-  Final assault against Malta
-  I. and II./JG 53 (October 1942)
-  The 'Pik As' in Tunisia (November 1942 – May 1943)
-  The 'Pik As' on Sicily (13 May – 9 July 1943)

Read my extensive review of part 2 of this series elsewhere on this blog
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/history-of-jagdgeschwader-53-pik-as.html

Elsewhere I am currently proofing my contribution to Part 5 of the hugely impressive Stipdonk/Meyer  "Die Deutsche Luftwaffe - Zerstörer- und Nachtjagdverbände" series published through VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrücken, Germany. No news on publication yet though.

As the title suggests this series is primarily concerned with Luftwaffe Zerstörer (‘destroyer’ or heavy fighters) and Nachtjagd (nightfighting) operations. The books are essentially photo journals with extensive German and English captions. The authors have released one book per year over the past four years with each volume featuring around 400-500 images over 200 pages in an A4 soft-back format. Most of the photos in each volume are previously unpublished and well printed. They are captioned in German and English except for Volume 4, which is German-language only.

More info here
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/die-deutsche-luftwaffe-zerstorer-und.html

A review of Colin Heaton's new 'Me 262 Stormbird' title 

from the publisher's blurb;

" The Me 262 was the first of its kind, the first jet-powered aircraft. Although conceived before the war, with the initial plans being drawn in April 1939, the Stormbird was beset with technological (particularly the revolutionary engines) and political difficulties, resulting in it not entering combat until August 1944, with claims of nineteen downed Allied aircraft. The performance of the Me 262 so far exceeded that of Allied aircraft that on 1 Sepember 1944, USAAF General Carl Spaatz remarked that if greater numbers of German jets appeared, they could inflict losses heavy enough to force cancellation of the Allied daylight bombing offensive. The story of how the Stormbird came to be is fascinating history, and it comes to life in the hands noted historian Colin Heaton. Told largely in the words of the German aces who flew it, The Me 262 Stormbird provides the complete history of this remarkable airplane from the drawing boards to combat in the skies over the Third Reich..."


I had fairly low expectations for this book when I ordered it, certainly Amazon's blurb is not a good start: "The Me 262 was the first of its kind, the first jet-powered aircraft." Joe Peterburs assessment, 'an interesting and informative account of the significance and development of the Me 262' features on the front cover blurb. The dust-jacket and the general design though is first class - the jacket has a marvellous velvety feel to it as well. As for the contents, it is mostly of interest for the numerous first-person accounts furnished via author interviews or quoted directly from articles and books - " from the pilots who flew, fought and survived it..". A number of Heaton's interviewees especially Galland, Steinhoff, Herrmann etc have of course published their own memoirs, usually good translations from the original German. Here they are 'interviewed' in English so don't offer much more than " ..and there I was at 20,000 ft.." or Georg-Peter Eder's " my first kill in the Me 262 was fantastic!" or Herrmann's " the Me 262 was not a great night fighter as high speeds made accuracy an issue.."  . It is easy to come away with the impression that Heaton is somewhat in awe of these high-ranking and highly decorated veteran Luftwaffe pilots - he may have shot down lots of (mostly) poor quality Russian pilots on the Eastern Front, but to describe Nowotny as a tactical innovator is well wide of the mark - see Manfred Boehme's benchmark history of JG 7 (Schiffer Publishing) for Messerschmitt's own deep concerns about Nowotny's 'qualities' to be entrusted with the Me 262 trials unit. The relative unknowns, pilots like Georg Czypionka (10./ NJG 11) unfortunately get only brief - and not terribly insightful - passages.

" I remember my introduction to the Me 262 fondly. I had arrived at Burg airfield on a March afternoon...after my first two flights at dusk I flew my first Me 262 combat sortie that night. I was returning from my sortie, ten or fifteen minutes from the airfield, when all of a sudden a Mosquito crossed my way (sic). It was pure coincidence, I just decided to fire a burst into him as he came into the Revi. With a very strong armament of four cannons (sic) he went down..."

The author also fills his text with cringe-worthy 'colloquialisms' too - sentences such as "the Me 262 was a potential game-changer for the Germans" make me wince every time. These criticisms aside, while the Me 262 was technologically very impressive, its shortcomings and teething problems rendered much of its impact more psychological than anything else, so the human aspects - the focus of Heaton's take on the story - make for an interesting read. If a little repetitive - the high speeds, the poor low speed performance, engine flame outs, the difficulties in juggling the throttle controls - all these aspects of flying the Me 262 were a given for every Me 262 pilot. A proportion of the interview material originally appeared in magazine interviews such as 'Aviation History' - there is for example a lengthy description of Nowotny's last moments which is well recounted over three pages from the observers on the ground and the successful P-51 pilots. The extensive bibliography and chapter notes are notable for some curious omissions but do indicate though that a fair amount of research went into the book - Heaton has spent time in the archives and put together an organisational framework on which to build a supporting structure for his personal accounts - while the collection of personal letters, data, information, and documents was accumulated from an impressively lengthy list of (not exclusively) German participants. Rather mysteriously though the Classic Smith/Creek/Forsyth four-volume history of the Me 262 isn't listed. Neither is Manfred Boehme's benchmark JG 7 opus. Of the cited 336 pages, at least 100 of these comprise the usual lists of aces, 8th AF jet claims, Me 262 losses and technical appendices.Overall Heaton's work is a decent enough angle on a well-trodden story and while this title won't replace any of the standard texts we have for the 262, you may find that it complements them quite nicely.

Visit author Colin Heaton's website for news of his forthcoming Luftwaffe books

http://www.lewisheatonbooks.com/

Bomber Command memorial - Green Park, London

Located close to Buckingham Palace, the Bomber Command Memorial was unveiled on Friday 29 June - we visited today, although it was difficult to get close due to the crowds in Green Park.

While the merits or otherwise of the bombing campaign have become a subject of controversy, what has not is the fact that 55,576 Bomber Command aircrew died fighting a battle in a war. Many of those have no known graves. Their bravery and commitment should have been acknowledged a long time ago. The aircrew were not responsible for the tactics or the targets. And while criticism tends to focus primarily on Dresden, operationally that raid was no different to any other. A number of factors though made it exceptional - the Nazi authorities had left the city defenceless and for the attackers everything went to plan - from Bomber Command's point of view the raid ran almost flawlessly. If this had been the case every time a major city was raided there would have been dozens of Dresdens. " ..at the time of Dresden Jews were still being gassed in February 1945 and the Gestapo was still shooting people - if Dresden shortened the war by one day, then it was worth it.."  (Bomber Command veteran on ITV's "Bomber Command" documentary.)
Perhaps Harris should have been subjected to a greater level of control by his military and political masters. But by late 1944/early 1945 Churchill already had an eye on post war elections and was ready to disassociate himself from the strategic air offensive, despite being one of its principal architects. He thus set in motion a grave injustice that has never really been put right. This memorial at last marks the sacrifice of the men of Bomber Command.

Luftwaffe modelling - new Bachem 349 Natter in 1:72 from hauler.cz, test shots of Revell Heinkel He 219 in 1:32 scale

First in a new line of plastic injection molded kits with etch details, Bachem Natter in 1:72, first test shot build by Libor.

"...this is the first Hauler injection molded aircraft kit. I built the very first test shot without having at hand the etched parts and decals that are not yet available (the gun sight came from spare box). Therefore I built a "generic" example as found after the war. The kit is on sale now.."

Download the latest Hauler newsletter for sprue shots etc

http://www.hauler.cz/

The first test shots of the forthcoming Revell Heinkel He 219 have been released. See more at Revell's home page with some sprue shots at the Deutscher Plastik Modellbau Verband site. Parts count will be over 350 according to Scale Model News.

Good Heinkel He 219 reference and images - including an in-depth look at Ron Ferguson's He 219 research paper to be published in hardback book form by Red Kite - can be found here

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/he-219-research-paper-2nd-edition-by.html

Around the forums;

From the rather tricky Italeri 1:48 th Ju 87 kit this is Roman's  lovely B 2. Visit Roman's forum here World of scale modelling forum

Jan's Supermodel Bv 138 Seedrache and Heinkel He 115

" It took me 3 months to make a presentable model of my "Seedrache", but here it is. Decals by Revell (Italeri) and Xtradecal. Long range reconnaissance and transport flying boat, belonging to 2.Staffel KüstenFlieger Gruppe 406, WNr.0310158, 1942-1943, based on the catapult launching ship Bussard, Northern Norwegian coast, Trondheim. Crashed during landing on 13.06 1943 near Ilsvikøra, Trondheim, after being damaged by Beaufighters near the Shetlands..."

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about32931.html&highlight=

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about33837.html

Moskito hunting in the Luftwaffe (2) (Bf 109 nightfighters -wilde Sau)

The following is a translation of an article - with some additional material - that appeared in the late 70s in the French magazine 'Le Fana de L'Aviation' written by 'Le Fana' staff writer Jean-Yves Lorant. Translation copyright retained. ..

The De Havilland 98 Mosquito - of wooden construction and aerodynamically pure lines - was the scourge of the Luftwaffe fighter force during the last two years of the war. Powered by two Rolls Royce Merlins, capable of out-running the latest Luftwaffe fighters and hauling a bomb load of 1,800 kg - even a lone Mosquito could send entire city populations to the air raid shelters and proved a real thorn in the night defences of the Reich. From the summer of 1943 special units were formed to combat the Mosquito menace - Hermann Graf's JGr. 50 enjoyed a spectacular lack of success against the fast British twins. The Wilde Sau units, JG 300, 301, and JG 302 claimed no more than a dozen Mosquitos shot down during the first half of 1944 - but then these specialist night-fighters were largely turned over to the day fighter role during May 1944 under the pressure of the US Air force bombing offensive. Luftwaffe commanders were to place their hopes in the formation of a specialist anti-Moskito night fighting unit during the summer of 1944 - NJG 11 flying the latest high-altitude and high speed models of the Bf 109. On paper at least, these G-14/AS and G-10 variants possessed a turn of speed which enabled them to catch a Mosquito - provided they were loitering at high altitude along one of the many 'corridors' through which the Mosquitos penetrated German air space. We recently met and interviewed two former NJG 11 pilots. Their accounts shed new light on this little-known aspect of the night air battles over the Reich ...

Feldwebel Fritz Gniffke  ".. I was born on 28 Decmber 1920 in Danzig and spent a year as an instructor at the A/B 9 flying school in Grottkau where I acquired a little night flying experience. In August 1943 I was posted to the wilde Sau night fighter training school at Altenburg where I achieved the three blind flying Scheine -'licences'- qualifying me for night ops on the Fw 190 and Bf 109. It was while I was undergoing this training that I learnt that new single-engine night fighting Staffeln were being set up and that recruits were being sought from the ranks of flying instructors and other experienced airmen. On 10 September 1943 I received my first operational posting - to 6. Staffel JG 302 stationed in Husum. There we were told that being able to pinpoint English bombers over cities on fire didn't require any super human qualities - their silhouettes were readily visible and in any event the searchlight batteries would assist us. On clear nights lighting conditions were similar to those that might be encountered by day. I'm afraid all this left me rather sceptical. On 23 September 1943 I was airborne at 21:53 for my first combat mission at the controls of Fw 190 A-4 "Yellow 9" - as luck would have it the sortie proved to be a complete fiasco.. The controllers ordered us to orbit for thirty minutes but when the call came through for all 'wilde Sau' to proceed to Mannheim - the actual objective of the British bombers - I was much too far to the south. By the time I arrived over the city I could see several fires blazing on the ground while the searchlights continued to sweep the skies - but there was no sign of any English bombers...in the end I managed to put down at Lippstadt at 23:03 after narrowly avoiding a collision with a Bf 110 in the circuit..my knees were trembling as I climbed down from the cockpit and made my way over to the control room to find a telephone and report that I had landed safely. It was pouring with rain.."  (to be continued)

Below; Fritz Gniffke -seen here on the left- with his 6./ JG 302 Bf 109 G-6 'N Yellow 7' in which he claimed a B-24 on a day sortie, 11 April 1944  (note; not 12 April as I previously captioned this image, apologies!)

This image has appeared in a number of books (eg Brett Green's 'Augsburgs Last Eagles' by Eagle Editions) - but is not always correctly captioned. 'White 11' of I./NJG 11 was regularly flown by Fw. Fritz Gniffke and this scan is via Lorant/Gniffke. The aircraft is a G-10 with Erla canopy and exhaust flame dampers, rare for a G-10. The pilot head armour appears to have been retained which in itself was also unusual for a 109 Moskito hunter. Camouflage was the standard grey scheme. Gniffke flew sorties in this aircraft up until 14 January 1945 - picture was taken on 27 September 1944 at Bonn Hangelar.

Elsewhere on this blog, part 1 of my 'Moskito hunting' pieces  - Kurt Welter's 10./ NJG 11

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/mosquito-hunting-in-luftwaffe-1-me-262s.html

Schnellkampfgeschwader 210 May 1941 - Johannes Kaufmann " Meine Flugberichte "

Me 110 E "S9+.L" of 3./SKG 210 over Cambrai, northern France, in April 1941



" ..on Saturday 10 May we arrived in Brussels after a long train journey and the following morning travelled on to Lille. From there we were bussed on to our new airfield at Merville driving through the bucolic countryside of northern France - of the war there was nothing to be seen.. Our group, freshly posted to SKG 210, comprised young Zerstörer crews just out of the 'destroyer' training school and included my radio operator Gefr. Schmidt and myself. Our Geschwader CO was Major Storp, Gruppenkommandeur Hptm. Stricker and our Staffelkapitän Oblt. Forgatsch. The principal mission of our Geschwader was all-weather precision bombing sorties by day and night with the Bf 110. The Me 210 - after which our unit was named- was not yet available. On Tuesday 13 May we flew our first orientation flights, followed by navigation and practise bombing training sorties - the latter were flown against shipwrecks off the Channel coast. These were the sort of sorties that we weren't taught at the Zerstörer training school at Schleissheim. Another deficiency in our training programme that we were to make good as quickly as we could was night flying in the Bf 110. On 18 May 1941 we took off at 23:15 from Merville heading out over the Channel coast. We climbed to 3,000 metres and once through the cloud deck visibility in the light of the moon was good. We had to maintain strict radio silence and had no ground navigation aids. Course, height and speed had to be scrupulously maintained in order to find our way safely back home.. While we had to keep a keen watch  out for English night fighters there were no untoward events on this flight. Shortly after crossing back over the coast we let down through the clouds and once in the vicinity of the airfield requested the very sparse airfield lighting be switched on, which was just of sufficient help to line up for an  approach and touch down. This was our first night sortie 'at the front' and as such was of particular significance for us. Our daytime navigation flights took us to Le Bourget, Calais, Chateaudun and Paderborn. In the view of our Staffelkapitän we quickly reached a point where we could be declared 'einsatzreif' - ready for combat - and awaited our first 'Feindflug' ...some combat sorties were planned but always cancelled, sometimes at the last moment, without us ever knowing why. It was around this period though that the Fuehrer's Deputy, Rudolf Hess, flew to Great Britain in his Bf 110 and there was much rumour and speculation in our personal conversations. Those wishing for a speedy end to the war and peace kept their own counsel though.."

extract from Johannes Kaufmann - 'Meine Flugberichte'









images of 3./SKG 210 Bf 110s from Michael Meyer's current Ebay sales

http://www.ebay.de/sch/macflly41/m.html?hash=item5894725e29&item=380447645225&pt=Militaria&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2562

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..