8th A.F. / JG 26 tidbit...

Because of Prentice Hall's cooperation with the 8th Air Force, and the "Honoring the American Past" book we put out, a pretty good amount of 8th Air Force-related stuff has been floating around the office lately. A copy of March's "8th Air Force News" (the magazine put out by the 8th Museum) passed across my desk this morning, and an article caught my eye...

The article is about 8th Air Force P-47 ace Alwin Max Juchheim. Juchheim talks about many of his war experiences- and I haven't read the whole article. but here's the tidbit that first caught my eye...

Max recalls a 1998 German fighter pilot convention in Germany he was invited to...

"They had invited 12 of us as guests to their convention, but I was the only one to make it.

I had shot a black Me 109 one day. The guy who wrote the book on the German JG 26 unit said there wasn't such a thing as a balck Me 109. I may have been colorblind, but it was either dark gray or it was black with a 5 on the side of it. I can't swear that I shot him down but my wingman saw him go down.

[Juchheim describes a rather intense sounding dogfight, which finally results in him scoring some solid hits on the German 109]

"... at that meeting in 1998. A pilot there, one of the nicest fellows I ever met, wanted me to meet his general, and took me over to him. I had told him about that black 109 and that one reason I wanted to go to Germany was to see if there was such a thing. The General was standing straight as a board and the pilot intriduced us. He said, " Sir, I want you to meet Captain Juchheim here. He was a top pilot and I want you to meet him. He shot down several airplanes during the war and one of them was a black 209 with a 5 on the side of it. Do you know of anyone who flew a black fighter with a 5 on the side?"
The General replied, "You've known me all my life and you know I had a black airplane with a number 5." The pilot said, "Well, Captain Juchheim here shot down an airplane like that in the war." The General didn't admit to remembering that fight, but he got acting real nervous and told us he had to leave to go see a man about a book interview, and he quickly left. The pilot looked at me and said, "You know, I've known that General all my life and I have never seen him act nervous like that.
My wingman had seen his black airplane go straight down, and what had happened was that he had bailed out when he rolled over in the clouds. That General remembered and knew me. He remembered."

I haven't had time to read the entire article. but looking at that page/area, I do find one odd thing- the article/Juchheim never mentions the NAME of the "general" he is talking to/about.
I am going to Xerox the whole article to read...

 

most probably a schwarz-grun Bf 109

will be interesting on your next findings

E

 

Wow, Erich... do you have some sort of "JG radar"?!?! Couldn't have been more than 5 minutes since I posted this!!!
(Any chance you are the "guy" Juchheim refers to? )

There's nothing else in the article on this specific "black 209" thing. That was most all of that passage...
So I take it you don't think there was a black 109? I did also note that when "the general" acknowledges his plane, he refers to "a black plane"- but not a "black 109".
I would think that planes flown by generals or high-ranking aces would be rather well-documented- especially if they were unique in some way. Again, unfortunate that the article does not mention the name of the German general.

I'll read it over and post any other tidbits tonight (or this afternoon if this "slow day" actually continues to be slow... yeah, right!)

 

C :

Do we know for a fct this chap was from JG 26 ? Most of the Geschwader and ridden themsleves of the Bf 109 for the Fw 190 by late 41. In fact I think they were the first Geschwader to be equipped with it. If the US ace battled it out it must have been in the spring to fall of 1943, or in the spring of 44 till he was involved in a mid air collision with a P-51 and he bailed out, POW. does it give a date ? Black-green 109's were standard during the Polish and French campaign only. From then the a/c were painted a dappled grey with spots/streaks over a RLM 76 light blue base and undersides. The only all black 109's after late 43 were for the JG 300 night fighters. Also the present German general probably would not have been a general at the time of the engagement....Addi Galland ?, well I am not sure. I've got two books on the JG 26 unit so if time permits a look over through text during Sunday as I lead a winter back country seminar at Crater Lake on Saturday. See what else you can find, as the US pilot was an ace with the 78th fighter group. Aldwin M Jucheim, (Max) 10 kills. His P-47 was coded HL*J

E

 

I know Max Juchheim. He is my brother in law's father. The German general was Walter Krupinski. Krupinski admits to being forced to bail out 4 times during the course of the war.

 

Walter Krupinski flew with JG11 when he was wounded in August 1944 . He was burnt and after he recovered he was transferred to JG26 in September 1944. Does these dates fit?