FW 190 defending the reich

This is really very interesting stuff, Erich - many thanks for the link !

 

thought I would get back to this old thread as now I have access to pics to put on the forums.

War is hell as well as fickle. Title pic in my collection that we used for the Sturmgruppen article in Neil Pages segment in the British SAM magazine a few years back. Notice the whites of the eyes on the Leather jackets. Black 14 is the background SturmFw of Oskar Bösch who is on the right side of the pic in the summer weight leather jacket. Oskar and two other pilots of this staffel the 14thSturm/JG 3 were to make it to war's end. The rest KIA in the defence of the Reich

 

a continuation..........

two SturmFw aces. Konrad Bauer leans over to wish RK winner of the 5.Sturm/JG 300 Klaus Brettschneider good hunting. The a/c depected shows Raubautz VII, Kalus going through several Fw's during his career and it was in this machine that his life was ended short in December of 44. Konrad was wounded in the fall of 44 while serving in the same staffel as Klaus and was called upon till war's end to teach new pilots shooting skills while in house..

 

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, a pretty mellow scene. Even JG 301 had some armored knights added to their arsenal. Here a derilcit Fw 190A-8/R2 sits waiting it's occupiers and the trash heap. This item will be in one of our books coming.....

 

Splendid photos, Erich ! Thanks for resurrecting this excellent thread.....

 

Danke Martin !

here is a pic of ace Huebert Engst next to his Gelbe 2. Herbert was quite active with II./JG 300 before it became a SturmFw unit in July of 44, Herbert flying night ops against RAF 4 engine bombers. Herbert made it through war's end.

 

and one last shot before Herberts lovely wife comes into the picture. The yellow two Fw 190A-8/R2 was equipped with usual removal of the upper mg 131's and had the addition of the outboard Mk 108 3cm weapons instead of the outboard 2cm weapon package. the Sturm armor weighed roughly 500 additional pounds but unlike IV.Sturm/JG 3 Fw's JG 300 and most of JG 4 Sturm machines the canopy glass did not have the added blinkers or "Scheuklappen" to protect the pilot.

 

I think I have posted this pic elsewhere but thought I would show what the Scheuklppen is. Look behind friend and ace Will Ungers head and you can see the armored canopy screen. JG 3 Sturm's kept this till there transfer to the Ost front in January 45 when the Sturm items were removed and the usual A-8 and A-9 Fw 190 configs took over. the problem with this canopy set up at least with JG 300 a/c was the icing that built up at altitude with the inevitable "I can't see" response........

 

Obviously a different unit and slightly O/T, but Steinhoff in his second book comments at some length about how the Luftwaffe fighter pilots attracted quantities of very attractive young ladies, right up until the wars' end.....

 

Thanx for the great pics and information, Erich!

 

Siggy Müller of IV.Sturm/JG 3. whats that I see: the eyes have been removed from the lederjacke for security reasons. The a/c in the background is a rare Fw 190A-9/R2; the pic on the Ost front in 1945 when the Sturm unit was phazing out it's Sturm machines

 

oooooooooooppppps nope guess that is on another pic about the white eyes...........guess I should explain this.

Neil and I chatted with several JG 3 aces about this and the idea taken from Friedrich der Grosse was take on the US 4-engine bombers as close as possible till you see the whites of the bomber crewmans eyes. Of course at 30 metres range you can simply understand what Mine rounds from a 3cm weapon could do to both a heavy bomber and the reprucussions of debris to the attacking fighter