1/48 Hasegawa Bf109 G-6/R6, Yellow 1, 3/JG300, flown by Lt.Manfred Dieterle, Bonn-Hangelar, Germany 1944, Luftwaffe.

W.Nr. 206000, III./KG(J) 27, Wels am Wagram, Austria, May, 1945
This airplane was found by the Allies at the end of the war belly landed at Wels am Wagram airfield in Austria. The green-white checkered marking on the tail IIIrd identifies this as a KG(J) 27 aircraft, and the white vertical stripe was applied on III Gruppe machines. The wing lower surface had the colors as delivered from the factory.

192nd Filo, Turkish Air Force, Balikesir Air Base / Fairford, 1991.

This aircraft was assembled by Messerschmitt at their Manching facility with parts manufactured by Lockheed and made its maiden flight on November 5, 1962. It was flown by the following German squadrons – JaboG 33, JaboG 36, JaboG 32 and JaboG 34 and underwent many repairs and upgrades. Turkey bought it in late 1985. From May 1988, the aircraft served with 192nd Filo at Balikesir Air Base. It was withdrawn on January 31, 1994, stored at Diyarbakir AB and likely subsequently scrapped.

1/32 Eduard Bf109 E-4 “Yellow 10“, W.Nr. 5587, Ofw. Fritz Beeck, 6./JG 51, Wissant, France – 24 August 1940.

Fw 190 A-8/R11 ‘Neptun’ Fhj. Ofw. Gunter Migge, 1./NJGr. 10, Werneuchen, 1944

1/48 Eduard Bf109 E-3 Oblt. Josef Priller, Staffelkapitän 6./JG 51, France, Autumn 1940

Gerhard “Gerd” Barkhorn (20 March 1919 – 8 January 1983) was the second most successful fighter ace of all time after fellow Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. Barkhorn joined the Luftwaffe in 1937 and completed his training in 1939.

Barkhorn flew his first combat missions in May 1940, during the Battle of France and then the Battle of Britain without scoring an aerial victory—that is an aerial combat encounter resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. His first victory came in July 1941 and his total rose steadily against Soviet opposition. In March 1944 he was awarded the third highest decoration in the Wehrmacht when he received the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern) for 250 aerial victories. Despite being the second highest scoring pilot in aviation history, Barkhorn was not awarded the Diamonds to his Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords after achieving his 300th victory on 5 January 1945.

Barkhorn flew 1,104 combat sorties and was credited with 301 victories on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Red Air Force piloting the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9. He flew with the famed Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—Fighter Wing 52), alongside fellow aces Hartmann and Günther Rall, and Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG 2). Less than two weeks later he left JG 52 on the Eastern Front and joined Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3), defending Germany from Western Allied air attack.

Barkhorn survived the war and was taken prisoner by the Western Allies in May 1945 and released later that year. After the war Barkhorn joined the Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr also called colloquially Bundesluftwaffe, serving until 1976. On 6 January 1983, Barkhorn was involved in a car crash with his wife Christl. She died instantly and Gerhard died two days later on 8 January 1983.

1/48 Tamiya Bf109 E-4, Maj. Helmut Wick, Geschwaderkommodore JG 2, Beaumont, France – Nov 1940

The appearance of this aircraft comes from a period in time when it was flown by Maj. Helmut Wick, and after many modifications to the camouflage scheme and tactical markings. The changes mirrored not only Wick’s ascension through the ranks as Staffel CO, to Gruppe leader to commanding officer of JG 2, but also the prescribed changes to Luftwaffe camouflage specifications in the second half of 1940. Our reconstruction of the aircraft shows as it appeared in its final guise, when Maj. Wick (as the Luftwaffe’s most successful ace at that time) was killed in combat with Spitfires on November 28, 1940. The aircraft carried a standard scheme of 02/71/65. The light blue fuselage sides were darkened with a light overspray of RLM 71 applied with the blunt end of a brush. The yellow rudder was similarly dulled. The yellow rudder and nose segments were part of later marking modifications. The fuselage retains evidence of the double chevron marking denoting the CO of the Gruppe. Besides the tactical markings, the JG 2 unit insignia was carried below the cockpit, and on the front fuselage, Wick’s original 3. Staffel. The pilot’s personal emblem, the flying kingfisher, was partly oversprayed with the Kommodor insignia, over which the emblem was partially reconstructed. This aircraft had the armored windscreen removed towards the end of its career, but was still mounted when Wick led I./JG 2.
One interesting point regarding the national markings on the bottom of the wings and fuselage sides that was present on many JG 2 Emils, including Wick’s 5344, was that the fuselage markings had an accentuated black border at the expense of the white segments, while those on the bottom of the wings were modified as indicated in our illustrations.