Bf 109 G mit Staffelabzeichen Fw Wolfgang 'Lumpi' Hundsdörfer 2./ JG 300

rare JG 300 image currently on offer on ebay.de. However this image is a reproduction from the original negative in the collection of Jean-Yves Lorant; " ...il s'agit d'un de mes tirages de mon négatif de reproduction...tiré sur mon papier cartolyne baryté à tons chauds Agfa Rekord-Rapid dans les années 1980! " 

While the seller is unknown to us, this is a reproduction on barite photo paper produced during the 1980s pre-scanner era - and as Jean-Yves points out, of pretty decent quality considering that it has not been produced with a scanner. During the early 1980s the authors of the JG 300 history used their bathrooms as improvised photo labs. A number of such repros were sent out to JG 300 veterans (Stamp, Dieterle, Gross ) and fellow authors/researchers such as Jochen Prien or Bernd Barbas.

Currently on offer at the following link. The original image is posted below - click to view in full screen mode!

http://www.ebay.de/itm/E46-Foto-Me-Bf-109G-mit-Staffelabzeichen-FW-Hundsdorfer-2-JG300-Messerschmitt-/351515275759?hash=item51d7f171ef 


The following commentary on this machine was prepared by JG 300 co-author Richard Goyat;

 ".. there are three pictures of Hundsdörfer's “Red 10”, all partial. This is the reason why the authors did not request a profile artwork of this machine in their JG 300 history. Too many uncertainties... However, until a photograph of the rear of this aircraft surfaces, I think this Messerschmitt may be rendered as follows:

 a) Aircraft type. Certainly not a G-10, but most probably a G-14/AS, as mentioned elsewhere re Gzik's “Red 2” (another 2./JG 300 pilot). Elsewhere in our book Fw. Hajo Riedel can be seen seated on the cowling of “Red 10”. Since Riedel was KIA on September 27th 1944, the series of photographs showing “Red 10” could not have been taken after this date. And according to the Luftwaffe's monthly strength reports and the nominative loss reports, the first G-10s didn't reach I./JG 300 before November 1944.

 b) Camouflage. Judging by the visible camouflage, this aircraft was most probably produced by MTT Regensburg. No great surprise here, since in September and October 1944, the bulk of known serial numbers worn by I./JG 300 aircraft was in the 780800-784000 range (MTT Regensburg). Knowing that it was most probably a MTT Regensburg aircraft, you can deduce the style of the unseen camouflage and national markings. In my opinion, “Red 10” must have been painted in a very similar manner as “Yellow 15” WNr. 783891 and “Yellow 12” illustrated on pages 6, 17, 18, 19 and 185 of Eagle Editions' JG 300 volume 2. The only big difference with these latter aircraft is that on Hundsdörfer aircraft, there are signs of heavy overpainting under and ahead of the red number 10.

 c) Markings. They are easily discernible on the three photographs from the spinner to the red “10”. The only other possible marking on such an aircraft was the fuselage band, which, if applied, was necessarily red in September 1944...."

Uffz. E. Poschenrieder's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E 7./ JG 53 - Battle of Britain film footage

A Battle of Britain period film clip as posted by 'footagefarmusa' on youtube via the Kent Battle of Britain museum FB page depicting No.66 Squadron at RAF Gravesend during the Battle of Britain. The clip features several scenes from the crash site of Uffz. E. Poschenrieder's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E of 7. Staffel JG 53 after it had been shot down at Broomhill, Strood, Rochester on Monday 30th September 1940. Click once to watch the clip here..

 
 Uffz. Ernst Poschenrieder's wrecked aircraft was heavily souvenired by locals. The military guarding the downed aircraft also reputedly sold souvenirs taken from the Messerschmitt to the locals! Several of these souvenired items are now on show in the Kent Battle of Britain Museum...

 " ..this aircraft was belly landed by the 7./JG 53 ace Hermann Neumann at Bologne 10 days earlier. Poschenrieder, a new pilot was given it after repair only to get shot down in it too. I have said that it likely still carried Neumann's victory tally on the fin and was always told "they would have been painted over before Ernst took the aircraft over" well there they all are clearly still applied... The aircraft stayed on the potato field for some time. One of the soldiers who was tasked with guarding it was trying to make a quick buck selling bullets from the aircraft to the locals. Well the pilot maintains that he let off all his ammo prior to crash landing, which rather upset the farm workers in the fields as they thought he was trying to shoot them. Anyway the soldier was sneakily selling his own bullets as ones that came from the aircraft...." comment via the Kent BoB FB page (Clint Mitchell)

Elsewhere, following his book launch at Hawkinge reported here earlier this week, Christer (Bergstrom) and his party of Swedes and one Dane departed Folkestone and headed up to the Shoreham (Kent) Aircraft museum where Christer placed the memorial cross onto Hurricane P3860 in which the 23-year old 607 Sqn pilot John Lansdell was shot down on 17 September 1940. The young Hurricane pilot baled out but succumbed to his injuries.

Aces and pilots of III./ JG 54 (2) - Gustavs in the Defence of the Reich - Reichsverteidigung 1944 - Wochenschau Nr. 721

In an item devoted to the 'Schlagkraft unsere Verteidigung'  - ('..the striking power of our defence..over 200 British and American aircraft shot down in one 48-hour period..') the weekly news broadcast shown in German cinemas on 10 June 1944 incorporated footage of the fighters of 8. Staffel JG 54 on an Alarmstart. This footage was most probably filmed at Lüneburg earlier that year. Among the featured aircraft was Bf 109 G-6 "Schwarze 8", probably the machine flown by Uffz. Günther Sahl, shot down on 9 April 1944 over Schleswig Holstein (WNr. 26 048)- identified on p283 of Prien JfV 13/I Reichsverteidigung 1944. Note the blue fuselage band with its black Gruppenbalken, the white outline fuselage cross, an over-painted Kennziffer directly aft of the 'black 8'  and the green heart featuring the Gruppen emblems below the cockpit.

Also featured in the broadcast footage is a Bf 109 G-6 Kanonenboot likewise probably lost on 9 April 1944! This is a 'White 1' with Gondelwaffen - the underslung MG 151s. Note the 7./JG 54 emblem on the cowl and the absence of the FuG 16 D/F loop antenna. 'White 1' was most likely flown here by the Staffelkapitän Oblt. Rudolf Klemm - compare with the much clearer images on page 284 of the Prien JfV 13/I.

Klemm had been appointed Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 54 on 1 February 1944 and had accumulated 27 victories at this time. He recorded his 32nd victory on 8 April. On 9 April III./ JG 54 intercepted large bomber formations over Kiel. Klemm was shot down and wounded at the controls of Bf 109 G-6 “White 1” WNr. 15 573- falling to the P-47 escort. In total III./ JG 54 lost seven Bf 109s for one P-47 claimed on 9 April 1944. Klemm returned to the Eastern Front with JG 54 later that summer. ..

Also on this blog

Aces and pilots of III./ JG 54 - Gustavs defending the Reich, Lt Eugen Zweigart
Pauke! Pauke! IV./ JG 3 and Sturmstaffel 1 in action against the US 8th Air Force, 11 April 1944

Christer Bergstrom's book ' The Battle of Britain -an epic conflict revisited' (Casemate) - book launch for the 75th anniversary Battle of Britain 15 September flypast

..after watching the 75th anniversary Battle of Britain flypast on the cliffs at Capel (between Folkestone and Dover and site of the Battle of Britain Memorial) we moved on to Hawkinge for the launch of Christer Bergstrom's new book, ' The Battle of Britain -an epic conflict revisited' (Casemate) at the Kent Battle of Britain museum. The book certainly looks impressive and the paper quality is reasonably good - the artworks are very nice and there is a good selection of interesting pics. The text is very readable (not cluttered with details such as WNr. etc..) and the presentation is in a diary format. There are over 500 'notes' at the rear of the book.
A couple of points that struck me while dipping in and out of the contents;
- the contribution that Bomber Command made to the RAF's success in the Battle of Britain - RAF bombers operated throughout the summer over Germany and the occupied countries, kept the pressure on psychologically, directly contributing to the 'indecision' in the Luftwaffe leadership ...(London vs. the airfields).
 - the 're-appraisal' of combat losses on both sides - the RAF's being much higher for the four months July to October
 - the re-evaluation of the performance of the Bf 110 units, which enjoyed better 'kill' ratios than the 109 units; " the Bf 109's alleged superiority over the Bf 110 finds no support in these statistics.."

More on the book from publishers Casemate here

I was impressed with Christer - a very engaging and genial character- and his new book looks to be excellent. Here Morten (Jessen) and I are clutching our copies while I struggle to hold onto Lady (my Pomeranian) who has just spotted 'Scramble' the museum cat - nearly had a 'dogfight' on our hands!

Elsewhere on the Air War Publications blog Morten reports on his trip around some of southern England's Battle of Britain sites, including a day at Audembert and other Battle of Britain sites in northern France.

Henschel Hs 126 Aufklärungsgruppe - Wintertarnung

Eastern Front,winter 1942/43,unit : Aufklärungsgruppe 23, 2.Staffel Hs 126 B-1,


Hs 126 B-1, 3.Staffel, Aufklärungsgruppe 21, Eastern front,winter 1942/43

and, below, currently on offer here at Manuel Rauh's Ebay sales

II./ JG 51 " verschnupfte Rabe .." runny-nosed Raven emblem "Gott Strafe England" - last edit March 2017

" A couple of photos of JG 51's 'Weeping Bird' emblem..."

difficult to avoid this phrase on certain forums/Facebook pages dealing with Jagdwaffe emblems. Yet for decades - as early as Ries' "Photo Collection Luftwaffe Embleme 1935-1945" and his "Dora Kurfurst ... vol 1." -  the raven has been the " verschnupfte Rabe .."  - lit. the 'runny nosed' raven, full of cold -  those are not tears ! As to colours;  the bird's body could be either red or brown; if the umbrella is red (as usually believed), then the body is probably a light brown. Later representations of the emblems feature the "Gott strafe England" inscription...

Emblem originated with 2./JG 71, the "Chamberlain-Staffel". These photos taken sometime in September/October 1939, shortly before or shortly after the 2./JG 71 was renamed 4./JG 51. The aircraft would be a Bf 109 D-1.

 Bf 109 E "Red 7" of II./ JG 51. The oversized Balkenkreuz and general surroundings indicate that the photo was taken sometime in October/November 1939. This photo along with other details can be found in Michael Meyer & Paul Stipdonk's Das Jagdgeschwader 51; Eine Bilddokumentation uber die Jahre 1938-45, page 131.


Second image above; the starboard-side insignia from the Bf109 E-3 of Lt. Johann Böhmm from 4./JG 51 that was shot down near Ealham, Kent, on 8 July 1940. This was the first Bf 109 to come down in England during the war. This insignia still exists in a private collection. The shield is white, but it's been partially over-sprayed with the green mottled fuselage camouflage, which makes the white on the shield look less intense than the white wing patch. The body and head of the bird is a light brown, the umbrella and lettering are red, although the three drops from the bird's beak are not red but black with light brown highlights. The beak, glasses, umbrella handle & tip and feet are black, as is the outline and detailing of the wing. The shield is outlined in black.  Since this was a 4 Staffel a/c, perhaps that accounts for the very dirty (over-sprayed) white shield background. Could 6 Staffel a/c have had yellow shields? For some examples, such as the Yellow 10 of Fritz Beeck downed on 24 August 1940 (below), this certainly looks possible. On another example, it's pretty clear that the background colour of the insignia was the underlying camouflage colour, with the detailing simply painted against that background.

A member of the Home Guard stands by the rear fuselage of Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 (W.Nr. 5587) 'Yellow 10' of 6./JG 51 'Moelders', which belly landed with a smokng engine at East Langdon in Kent, 24 August 1940. The pilot, Oberfeldwebel Beeck, was captured unhurt. Note the II Gruppe " verschnupfte Rabe .." emblem and the inscription "Gott Strafe England".


Below;  original Associated Press photograph of "Air Force man examining the umbrella mascot (weeping pelican) on the side of a Messerschmitt 109". (sic!)

Bf109 E-4 (5587) 10+ of 6./JG51 was escorting Ju 88's attacking RAF Manston on 24 August 1940 when attacked by Hurricanes of 32 Squadron and Defiants of 264 Squadron. The engine was damaged and the pilot Oberfeldwebel Beeck made a forced landing at East Langdon, Kent at 12.55pm.

JfV Teil 9/II,page 392. captioned as Bf 109 E-4 “Yellow 1”, WNr.5057, of  Staka 6.Staffel Oblt. Josef Priller, taken in the second half of October 1940 in Mardyck. In Prien’s book more of the finer details can be seen. The black frame around the shield is imposed upon a white line which contrasts against the background colour and also intersects the thin mottling behind and above the raven’s head. The white line is most clearly visible in the upper part of the emblem. This shows that the frame was painted on top of the underlying camouflage and mottling.

Below; Bf 109 E assigned to Horst Tietzen of 5./JG 51, around 29 July 1940...

Bf 110 ZG 26 Lippspringe October 1943

Seen in Lippspringe this 2./ZG 1 Me 110 G-2 was flown by pilot (Flugzeugführer) Uffz. Josef ( Bert) Holzmann seen here on his return from a combat sortie on 10 October 1943 during which he claimed 2 Viermot bombers shot down on the 8th USAF raid on Münster. Three days later 2./ZG 1 became 2./ZG 26. On 30 May 1944 the 8th USAF was sent to aviation factories and airfields in the western occupied zone. That morning from 10:00 I./ZG 26 in Königsberg-Neumark committed 13 of its new Me 410s. Ten made contact and seven were shot down including Holzmann who was KIA during combat (Reichsverteidigung). He may have made as many as thirteen claims in as many sorties.

Below middle; Holzmann on the wing of his Bf 110.

Images currently on offer here via Michael Meyer's Ebay sales