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..