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{"cz":"Info EDUARD"}
{"cz":"Měsíčník o historii a plastikovém modelářství.","en":"Monthly magazine about history and scale plastic modeling."}
02/2023
Dear Friends, Welcome to the February Newsletter! The Nuremberg Toy Fair started yesterday. After a two year hiatus, we are coming back to Nuremberg, and as hard as it may be to believe, we have no idea of what to expect
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INFO Eduard# 156e-magazine FREE Vol 22 February 2023Page 2
INFO Eduard# 156e-magazine FREE Vol 22 February 2023© Eduard - Model Accessories, 2023FREE FOR DOWNLOAD, FREE FOR DISTRIBUTION!This material may only be used for personal use. No part of the textor graphic presentations can be used in another publication in any other mediaform or otherwise distributed without the prior writtenpermission of Eduard - Model Accessories and authors involved.Editorial and Graphics - Marketing department, Eduard - Model Accessories, Ltd.Page 3
eduardeduardFEBRUARY 2023CONTENTSEDITORIALKITSBRASSINPHOTO-ETCHED SETSBIG EDBUILTON APPROACH–March 2023TAIL END CHARLIEHISTORYBOXART STORYA6M3 Zero Type 22 ProfiPACK 1/48HIND E Limited 1/48Spitfire Mk.VIII Weekend edition 1/48Fw 190A-8/R2 ProfiPACK 1/72Fokker D.VII (OAW) ProfiPACK 1/48Bf 110E ProfiPACK 1/48Fokker D.VII (OAW) 1/48SE.5a 1/48F-104G 1/48A6M2 Zero Type 21 1/48P-38F 1/48Eager ElThe Story of Col. Elwyn RighettiSearching for the lost ships with Paul AllenFive Sullivan brothers perished on the cruiser JuneauAir war over UkraineDrones against strategic bombersBlack TuesdayMorotai MutinyMarkersdorf RaidYou won’t get me!Hot wasp summer4626325876808694111Published by Eduard-Model Accessories, spol. s.r.o.Mírová 170, Obrnice 435 21support@eduard.com www.eduard.comPage 4
EDITORIALDear Friends, Welcome to theFebruary Newsletter!The Nuremberg Toy Fair started yesterday.After a two year hiatus, we are coming backto Nuremberg, and as hard as it may be tobelieve, we have no idea of what to expect.It’s like going back in time thirty-two years,to the beginning of the nineties, when weset out on our first such trip with six bagsof photoetched sets with the belief that wewould conquer the modelling world withthem. As it tends to be with such conque-rors, the beginning ended up not particu-larly dazzling. No one much talked to us atthe other stalls and we were often politelyshown the door. With two notable excepti-ons. Mr. Ono of the Japanese firm Beaver,and Chuck Harransky with Jerry Campbellfrom the Texas based Squadron Signal, allof which gave us several hours of theirattention and patiently worked towards anagreement with us. To this day, I am extre-mely grateful for their efforts and long termfriendships, and I acknowledge the fact thatwithout these fine gentlemen and their atti-tude towards us, Eduard would not havebecome what Eduard now is. We left the ex-hibition hall quite a bit of time after it hadactually closed with the feeling that the longtrip and the expended effort was for some-thing instead of a waste of time and that su-ccess was an attainable concept. As you canwell guess, the road was not a smooth one,and at times the dejection was intense andincredibly discouraging, but ultimately, thesuccess began to manifest itself, slowly butsurely. Over all of the years that followed,we attended the fair annually and we grew,as did the Fair and its venue, and experien-ces grew along with them.In 1993, we brought home the Model of theYear award, which neither I nor Karel Padarhad any idea we were getting. It was thanksto the efforts of Mr. Lacina , the long-termeditor of Modellfan magazine, who made theeffort back then to locate us in that massivelabyrinth of stalls. He took us aside andpresented us with the award in all its glo-ry. This was in front of the Squadron Signaltable where two years prior we were ableto secure our first international agreementand become the first of the former EasternBloc countries to receive a Model of the Yearaward from Modellfan. It was by a bit of amiracle that I got it home at all. I almost lostit among the toilets in the basement of theexhibition hall, when its case fell from mytoilet roll tray. After hitting the floor, it ope-ned for a fraction of a second and a bronzemedal came out through the opening, boun-cing and pinging between the toilet to end itsjourney in the only occupied stall betweenthe shoes of a gentleman sitting there, whoevidently had no intention of leaving anytimesoon. It was probably a shock for him, I don'tknow what I would do if a mysterious whitebox landed between my feet at that particu-lar moment. I lay in wait for him behind theentrance to the toilets for a good fifteen mi-nutes, after which his head appeared, lookedaround both sides of the corridor, and a manwith a medal in his hand emerged. I stoppedhim with the question ‘Is that yours?’, andafter a surprised ‘No, it's not’ , I replied ‘Soit's mine’. The medal was returned to its ri-ghtful owner. But the war was not yet won.At the bend above Ohří river just before thevillage of Damice, for the first and hopefullythe last time, I spun out in a Škoda pickup,which, after leaving the road, jumped overa fence of a cow pasture, only to roll backonto its wheels after hitting the roof and,breaking an axle, coming to rest just beforea forest. There were no mobile phones then,so Karel and I took the medal, stopped apassing car and went to get help. When wereturned, we found the car had been bro-ken into and stripped of its wheels. Well, thenineties in the Czech Republic were rough.At that time, the Czech Republic was barelya month old, and the disintegration of Cze-choslovakia was accepted by many of its ci-tizens with embarrassment and uncertaintyas to what they could expect from furtherdevelopments. After thirty years, I dare saythat the result are looking very promisingfor both Eduard and the Czech Republic.In any case, we were at the Fair for somevery important historical events. The birthof the Czech Republic for one, her entryinto the Schengen Group and the elimina-tion of border crossings, which has reallyserved to ease our lives. I will never forgetthe tragedy of the Space Shuttle Columbia,which occurred exactly twenty years ago onFebruary 1st, 2003. I was coming home fromNuremberg that day and the goodbyes withour American friends are seared into mymemory and will be til the end of my days.There were happier days, like when we allwore some form of motif in support of thepresidential bid for Karel Schwarzenberg,although it apparently didn’t help much, andthe following ten years were spent underthe extravagant government of Milos Ze-man, and today, shortly after the last pre-sidential election, we leave for Nurembergwith the belief that better times lay aheadwith a better and more respectable presi-dent.In 1995, we finally had our own table at Nu-remberg, the first Czech model company todo so since the old Kovozavody Prostejov.We were on a waiting list, and the cha-llenge was to be able to react to the phonecall we got on the morning of the first dayof the fair by coming to the event and se-tting up a table by evening. Our spot was inthe improvised inflatable exhibition hall fullof Chinese vendors, the way to which wasa temporary wooden sidewalk over a muddyconstruction site, and no one even knew wewere there. But Mr. Ono found us neverthe-less, just as he had done in 1991. We wereintroducing our Tempest and Yak-3 at thetime, our first World War Two kits followinga series of WWI subjects, eventually leadingus to the quality of our current crop of re-leases. A year later, we had our table in thenew Hall 7A, and were not absent until covidin 2020 when the gates of the NurembergToy Fair remained closed for the first timesince the Second World War.This year, in a way, it’s a new beginning.Among other things, I expect this year tohave a painfully low number of attendees, atleast in our field. For some years, it was dif-INFO Eduard4February 2023Page 5
ferent, and there were a growing number ofCzech, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian firms.Somewhere around 2015, the trend began toreverse itself. Perhaps, this could be partia-lly blamed on the expansion of the fair fromfour to six days, which, under the pressureof protests from attending companies, wasreduced in a compromise to five. Certainly,there will also be the factor of the greaterexpense required to cover a longer eventand the rise in the costs of basic fees andservices that have crossed into uncomfor-table levels. In the noted timeframe to 2019,our expenses for attending Nuremberg eve-ry year rose to some $50,000US, and that’sa price you begin to take into considerationirrespective of good memories and the be-lief of its positive effects on your business.A silver 25th participation medal will haveno effect. It’s much like a display Pour le Me-rite , but if you have the sense that some-thing is wrong, it won’t bring you much plea-sure. And then, when you conduct a bit ofresearch amongst retailers and journalistsand learn that two-thirds of the regularswon’t be coming, you start to look for a wayout. We ended up coming to an agreementwith our colleagues at Special Hobby regar-ding the sharing of a table. It will be a thirdsmaller than our pre-covid table. We arealso reducing our staff, and we are rotatingthem such that the largest concentration ofpeople at our table will be from Thursday toSaturday. Even so, we will do our best to beof interest to our visitors. The Special Hobbytable, like ours, has for many years beena traditional meeting place and we havealways endeavored to provide optimumconditions for negotiating. If you come by,you can count on our traditional hospitality,friendliness and willingness to share infor-mation. I believe that the same can be saidof all five of the other manufacturers thatwill attend the Toy Fair, waving the bannerof our field!February New ReleasesI had already touched on the February re-leases in January’s newsletter. So, just toquickly reiterate, the main item of interestis the Limited Edition kit of the Hind E in1:48th scale with a Jaroslav Spacek publica-tion. Also interesting will be the ProfiPACKFokker D.VII (OAW), as will be the A6M3 Mo-del 22 Zero, and both February Weekendkits, the 1:48th Spitfire Mk.VIII and 1:72ndscale Fw 190A-8/R2 Sturmbock. In Febru-ary, the Bf 110E in 1:48th scale also makesa long awaited return to our range.Among accessory sets, I would like to pointyour attention to the 3D printed F4F-3 Wild-cat engine (Eduard 1:48th) and the elegantwicker seat for the 1:32nd Sopwith Camel inthe Brassin line. Among photoetched sets,I’d point out the sets for the Airfix Anson andthe Kinetic F-16C (both 1:48th). In the caseof the F-16, we are also offering two masksets, one classic and the other two-sidedT-Face. Among the masks, you’ll also notethe first set for masking the RAM panels onthe F-35A. This set diverts a little from ourusual mask assortments, and masks fortreating surfaces have not been offered byus in some time. This set is also made froma different material, which is not a cost--saving measure, but rather because thisblack material is better suited for this pur-pose. This set is designed for seven aircraftderived from the marking options in theTamiya kit, and covers newer aircraft witha simpler structure of these panels. InMarch, a similar release will be available,but with a significantly more complex setof RAM panels of the older variety, suitablefor Japanese and American aircraft that arecovered in the kit. Among today’s releases,we also have two classic canopy masksets. I think it is also worth pointing outthe sets for 1:35th scale tanks, one for theA-34 Comet by Tamiya and two sets for theJagdpanther Ausf G1 from Academy. Othernews, including those covering seven newSpace sets, can be seen described amongstFebruary releases below.ArticlesIn today’s issue of the newsletter, you willfind an article about Elwyn Righetti by Ri-chard Plos. The search for sunken shipscontinues this month with Paul Allen andfrom Mira Baric, we have his article aboutshipwrecks around Guadalcanal and alsohis 11th installment reporting on the airwar over Ukraine covering drone usageagainst bombers. After a short pause, wehave Jozef Blazek describing another classof aircraft. Four of the five Boxart Storiesare written by Jan Bobek, and they coverthe boxart for the A6M3 Model 22 Zero, theBf 110E, the Fw 190A-8/R2 and the SpitfireMk.VIII kits. The fifth Boxart Story was alsowritten by Richard Plos and covers the Fok-ker D.VII (OAW). Richard prepared this kit forproduction. I consider the marking option init, which also is Richard Plos’s work, as isthe story itself, to be very impressive froma modelling, design and historical per-spective. I think you will agree!As long as nothing unexpected comesup, today’s newsletter is being publishedusing Triobo. Perhaps some will think thisis something odd and non-conformist, asnew things are often seen, and if someo-ne should find themselves feeling that way,I would ask for your understanding, pati-ence and leniency. Give it some time, andI think you’ll find Triobo to your liking andthat it brings more pluses than it presentsminuses. And that’s a good attitude in toda-y’s stormy times that goes well beyond thereading of a newsletter.Happy modellingVladimír ŠulcINFO Eduard5February 2023Page 6
HISTORYEAGER ELEAGER ELTHE STORY OF COL. ELWYN RIGHETTIText: Richard PlosINFO Eduard6February 2023Page 7
Photo: Family collection via Jay StoutRighettis’s combat career had been short--lived but intense. His arrival in England atthe beginning of September, 1944 was noteasy. His rank of Lieutenant Colonel wasindicated on his uniform, but no ribbonswere displayed testifying to any combatcommitments. He was a greenhorn withthe rank of a senior officer, equivalentto at least a squadron commander. Hewas also 29 years of age, older than theaverage active fighter pilot. All of this hadits reasons. He was a flight instructor, andone of the best available to the Air Corpsat that. For this fact alone, his requeststo be assigned to a combat unit ended upin the trash bins of his superiors. By thetime he finally did go into combat, he wasa seasoned pilot eager to contribute tothe defeat of Germany. In fact, his was soeager that he earned the nickname “Ea-ger El”. He got his first kill on his secondcombat mission. But for this quality andthe associated impetuousness that hedisplayed, he was seriously reprimanded.But he was a quick study, too. It did nottake long for him to reach ace status andnot just for kills in the air. He was alsoextraordinarily effective in wiping outground targets. In this regard, there wasno one better far and wide….And then came his thirtieth birthday, onApril 17, 1945. This was accompanied bymore heavy bomber escort missions andthe search for air and ground targets ofopportunity on the return flights. Righe-tti and his wingman, Capt. Carroll Hen-ry, attacked an airfield at Riesa with aninviting line of enemy fighters parkedon it. He was making his fourth or fifthpass and was running low on ammunitionwhen his Mustang, adorned with artworkof an attractively slender grasshopperwith the name “Katydid”, shuttered underthe explosion of flak. He conducted onemore pass with his Mustang losing coo-lant and oil pressure before looking for aplace to “park it”. The forced landing wassuccessful, and he radioed to Henry thataside from a busted nose, he was OK. Thatwas the last anyone heard from him…Swiss, or More Accurately, Italian RootsThe Righetti family hailed from the Italianspeaking Swiss canton of Ticino. His gran-dfather on his father’s side, FrancescoRobertino Righetti settled in San LuisObispo, California, in 1873. At the time, thistown had a little over 2,000 inhabitants,including a sizeable Swiss community.Francesco worked as a farmhand untilhe had saved enough money for a smallranch of his own not far from Edna Valley,where he gradually purchased propertyaround his. He married Erminia Bonettiand she gave birth to a son Guido in 1882,and three more children subsequently.Guido helped expand the family’s dairyfarm and graduated from Armstrong Bu-siness College, and after several years inthe oil industry, he returned to the familyfarm. He married Elizabeth Mary Renkert,a woman with a French and Swiss bac-kground. Their first child, Elizabeth, wasborn in 1913, and a year and a half later, onApril 17, 1915, Elwyn was born to them, fo-llowed by another four children after that.Elwyn Righetti was then a farm child withFrench and Swiss blood. His childho-od and young adult life centered aroundcows, stables, farm equipment and eve-rything else associated with a hard farmlife. As his brothers and sisters, he hel-ped out on the farm in any way he could,though he did not see his future there,despite having earned an advanced de-gree in cattle breeding from the CaliforniaPolytechnic College. He was a very lively,temperamental youth. The school paper“El Rodeo” from the time confirms Elwy-n’s active participation in extracurricularand social activities. His two year studyin the field came to an end in 1935, at theheight of the Great Depression when itwas very difficult to find meaningful work.He worked as a truck driver and also asa sales rep for dairy companies. He alsotried his hand at selling real estate andcars at a local Buick dealership. His lifealmost came to an end on September 9,1938, when the twenty-three-year-oldElwyn nearly drowned when, along withhundreds of other men, he tried to fishout of the sea free firewood that had beenthrown overboard by a stranded merchantvessel. Unconscious and on the verge ofhypothermia, he was rescued, but it wasa very close call …A New PassionAt that time, he had already developeda keen interest in aviation, partly fed bythe frequent and well publicized esta-blishment of records for endurance orspeed flights. However, an hour of fli-ght training at the time cost some sevendollars, and that was akin to a two day payfor a laborer. At the aforementioned Buickdealership, Elwyn was promoted to headHISTORYTens of thousands of Allied airmen were discovered at theend of the Second World War in internment camps set up tohold them. They were known as Stalag Lufts, and the airmenfreed from them at the end of the war immediately began wri-ting letters home expressing their yearning to return to theirloved ones. Such a letter was eagerly anticipated from ElwynRighetti, or at least some news about him, by his family at thefamily farm in San Luis Obispo, California. All they knew tothat point was that he had been shot down, crash landed, andsurvived the event. Three weeks had passed from then andthe war ended, and they were still waiting. They waited formonths, and the months turned into years. No news or anyhints regarding his disappearance have come to this day. Lt.Col. Elwyn Righetti, Commanding Officer of the 55th FighterGroup, disappeared not far from Riesa without a trace….The Righetti family circa 1936. From left to right, Doris, Elwyn, father Guido, Elizabeth, mother Elizabeth, Ernie,Maurice and Lloraine.INFO Eduard7February 2023Page 8
Photo: National Archivesof used car sales, and this guaranteedhim a steady income from which he coulddivert funds to flight training. He dove inat an airfield not far from the town of SanLuis Obispo, and he also flew out of thenearby Hancock Field at Santa Maria. Andflying invigorated him. “He loved flyingmore than anything else, even more thanhunting” his sister Doris would recountlater1). In the summer of 1939, he got hisprivate pilot license and took advantageof every opportunity to fly. It was clear tohim that this would not, however, providehim with enough hours to make him a pro-fessional airline pilot. He also knew thatanother possibility lay with the military, atthe time the United States Army Air Corps(USAAC). That meant four years of uni-versity level study. For Elwyn, that wouldhave meant another two years of school,for which he did not have the funds. It lo-oked as though he would have to abandonhis dream of being a pilot, when a majortwist of fate came along. The developingpolitical climate forced the Army to lowerits requirements for pilot acceptance tojust two years of university level educa-tion, provided they pass entry exams. AndElwyn passed!His family had hoped for his return to thefarm, and eventual partial inheritance ofit, but Elwyn, to the contrary, was happyto be able to separate himself from it al-together. According to his brother Ernie,he wanted nothing to do with farming. Hishead was in the clouds …Into the Army!At the beginning of December, 1939, ElwynRighetti recorded in his log: “Mr. Prescotttold me today that if I continue to go asI have been, I’ll be at the top of my classwhen I get out of here.”1) It can be said thatRighetti himself was satisfied with his pro-gress.Bob Prescott was an instructor with RyanSchool of Aeronautics in San Diego, oneof nine civilian flight schools that trainedyoung cadets for the USAAC. There weresome three thousand of these in the world,and Major General Henry Arnold, Chief ofthe Air Corps, wanted many more thanthat, in the light of the German invasionof Poland and it’s division with Germany’sally, the Soviet Union. Righetti, along withhis thirty-six classmates, were among thefirst of almost half a million men trainedduring the course of the war.After basic training and with high praisefrom his superiors, Righetti was sent toRandolph Field in Texas in February, 1940.There, he would further train on the PT-13Kaydet biplane and then the low wing BT-9.He fell in love with the latter. The almosttwo tons beast with a 400hp engine wassomething different than he had come incontact with till then. His flying skills, onceagain, served him well, including at night,though his instructor did chastise his al-most too frivolous attitude. But even thatwouldn’t stand in his way, and after hispost-forty hour flight test, he would writehome, boasting that “I did manage to get avery good grade on my forty-hour check,so I’m practically a cinch to graduate. It’sfigured here that once we get by that, weare as good as through. I was the secondin the class to pass it, so out of two hun-dred men, that’s pretty good”.1)From Student to InstructorIn April, 1940, Righetti completed his basictraining and was assigned to Kelly Field,where advanced training awaited on theAt-6 Texan. Again, he was among the bestin his class, which foreshadowed his fu-ture. Plans for any significant expansionwould not be viable without thousands ofnew instructors, who would, in turn, turnout tens of thousands new pilots. It waslogical to select the best of the best fromeach discipline to become instructors.Group 40D, to which Righetti belonged,completed its training on July 26, 1940.Two hundred graduates received theirwings and were elevated to Officer status.Righetti was pleased to learn he would bea flight instructor.He was assigned his first group of cadetsfor training on BT-145s in mid-August,1940, and he described them in a letterhome thus: “I now have a full-fledgedclass of cadets: Cobeaga, Hayes, Stockettand Pound—two of them poor, and two ofthem worse. I had hoped for a little na-tural talent to start out with, but no suchluck. These mugs will give me somethingto work on, however, and since my cap-tain knows they’re punk, if I can do some-thing with them, it will be very much tomy credit.”1)Perhaps, they were not as bad as all that,and later, Righetti wrote: ‘I soloed them allyesterday and today, but I’m scared everytime they go out that someone will bringme back a little, old, orange piece of alu-minum and say, “Sorry sir, this was all wecould find.”1)A Secret WeddingWhile Righetti was settling into his role asan instructor, the Battle of Britain was re-vving up. On January 18, 1941, he marriedthe small, dark-haired and intelligentEdith Cathryn Davies. The two marriedafter a relatively short courtship, withoutany external pressures that would be for-ced on them by, for example, a pregnan-cy. The two married without the presenceof family or with much fanfare. The nameEdith was never used much by the newly-wed, but her middle name did spawn se-veral nicknames. She was known as Kate,Katie and Kakie, and also Katydid … At thetime, Elwyn likely had no idea that thelast of those would be the name he wouldhave applied to his Mustang, and that itwould be complemented by a rendering ofa grasshopper, the connection being thatthe katydid is an insect that is related tothe grasshopper and cricket.The young couple settled in the offi-cer housing facility at Randolph, whichCathryn gradually improved, but Righe-tti’s quiet and predictable life instructingyoung cadets began to bore him. Histhoughts increasingly turned to the ideaof combat. “Two of my better friends leftyesterday for China with about 100 AirCorps men who are under contract tokeep the Burma Road open. They’ll clearBT-6 aircraft at Randolph Field in Texas, a training base.“He loved flying more than anything else, even more than hunting”(Doris Righetti)HISTORYINFO Eduard8February 2023Page 9
Photo: Family collection via Jay StoutPhoto: USAF$600 per month plus expenses and geta $500 bonus for each enemy [Japane-se] aircraft shot down. Whyinell [sic] amI married and forced to be responsible? Icould make $20,000 in two years if I las-ted.”1)At the time, he couldn’t have known that hewas talking about the basis of the Ameri-can Volunteer Group, later to become fa-mous as the “Flying Tigers”. In any case,Cathryn’s pregnancy forced about anotherrearrangement of priorities … He was alsopromoted to the rank of Lieutenant onNovember 1, 1941, and he was becomingone of the most experienced instructorsin the service, by then known as the Uni-ted States Army Air Force (USAAF). Newtraining facilities were quickly popping upall over the United States, and it lookedlikely that Righetti would be put in chargeof one of them. Then, along came Decem-ber 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on PearlHarbor shocked the American public andElwyn for the first time recognized thehorrors of war: “The first casualty reportssay I lost one of my students who wasalso an especial friend”.1)Rapid DevelopmentsThe beginning of 1942 saw Righetti as-signed to Moore Field and on May 30,Cathryn gave birth to their daughter Eli-zabeth Kyle Righetti. Soon after, theymoved back to Kelly Field, not far fromSan Antonio. It was their third move in ayear, and at the time, there was a certaindegree of chaos within the training sys-tem. There was hectic movement of per-sonnel as new training bases were putin services and the command structureattempted to optimize its use of instruc-tors. Righetti was assigned to the 1030thBasic Flying Training Squadron and waspromoted to Major. In peacetime, such anadvancement would be about ten yearsin coming, but the war changed every-thing. When he entered it, the air servicehad some 3,500 officers. Currently, it had140,000 and its overall strength grew from45,000 men to 1.7 million!On taking command of the 1030th BFTS,his responsibility was the development ofinstructors after basic training. He alsoput together a manual for instructorsthat would be the go-to reference at allof the training centres. He was becomingincreasingly busy and in one of his lettershome, he complained that “Honest, I did-n’t know there was so much work in theworld.”1)He became a respected authority on fli-ght training. He was making more moneythan he could dream of previously, andhis family benefitted. But Elwyn couldn’tstop thinking about air combat. By now,though, he had become an important partof the USAAF’s training machine and theAir Corps couldn’t afford to lose him. Hebegan to search out new ways to defeatthe stereotype of the instruction of cadetpilots. As a senior officer, he took eve-ry advantage to travel to all the cornersof the country, naturally, at the controlsof an aircraft. As a result, he attendedconferences, met new friends and madecontacts, saw new places and he metcelebrities, particularly movie stars. Onoccasion, he would also fly home and vi-sit his parents. He often announced hispending arrival with a low flyby over theranch, after which he would land at theElwyn Righetti was assigned overseas in June, 1944, but wouldn’t gain any combat experience until the endof October of that year.Darrell Cramer, the man that would lead Righetti on his first missions and one who at least on one occasionseverely chewed him out…“Righetti was as excited as any new lieutenant would have beenafter his baptism under fire. I did not want to dampen his excitementwith what I had to say to him, so I waited until we were alone.Then I gave him a chewing out like he probably had not had in hisregroup.”(Capt. Darrell Cramer).HISTORYINFO Eduard9February 2023Page 10
Photo: Family collection via Jay Stoutsmall field where he had taken his firststeps to get to where he currently was.In the meantime, the USAAF had workedto further improve the effectiveness of itssystem of flight training, and the resultwas the concept conceived in March, 1943,leading to the activation of the CIS (Cent-ral Instructor School). It was the definingauthority on standardization of instructortraining. It targeted instructors of futurefighter pilots (based at Randolph Field),bomber pilots, navigators, bombardiers,and other flight personnel. In essence,the goal was to train instructors to traininstructors who would in turn train pilots.Righetti was given command of the 46thSquadron, which was one of two fightertraining squadrons. It put the responsibi-lity of training half of all the instructorsfor the USAAF. It had by then been sometime since Righetti flew trainers exclusi-vely. His duties put him in combat types aswell. And he attempted to use his presti-gious position for a combat assignment.Righetti’s younger brother Maurice hadsimilar ambitions and began his trainingat about the time that Elwyn was assignedto the CIS. Ultimately, he too was to be-come an instructor and became a studentof his brother’s. They even undertook se-veral training flights together. Mauricewent on to become a B-29 co-pilot with40th Bombardment Group. He survivedthe war.Request ApprovedIn 1943, Righetti’s requests for a combatassignment were met with little supportfrom his superiors. But a year later, hisefforts would pay off. In a letter to home,he wrote: “I expect to get back from myoverseas tour, but if I don’t, rememberthat I kept a whole bunch of other guysfrom getting home too, and that I wasworking on my interpretation of being agood American.”1)Things were set into motion at the begi-nning of June 1944, when he was orde-red to Aloe Army Airfield, not far fromVictoria, Texas, where he would undergoconversion training on the P-40. By then,he had some two thousand flying hoursunder his belt, much of it on the P-40, soflying the Warhawk was second nature tohim. But he did need to hone his gunneryand tactical skills. His results were phe-Once having been assigned his own aircraft, Righetti had his wife’s Cathryn’s nickname painted on its nose, along with a somewhat provocative depiction of a katydid.Distinguished Service CrossSilver Star MedalDistinguished Flying Cross with 3Bronze Oak Leaf ClustersPurple HeartAir MedalAmerican Defense Service MedalAmerican Campaign MedalEuropean-African-Middle EasternCampaign MedalWorld War II Victory MedalCommand Pilot BadgeMedals, Awards and BadgesHISTORYINFO Eduard10February 2023Page 11
Photo: Family collection via Jay StoutPhoto: Family collection via Jay Stoutnomenal, but administrative factors kepthim stateside through July. By this time,he was a Lieutenant Colonel, and as theAllies had already made their way into Eu-rope via Normandy, he was aware of thepossibility that Germany would collapsebefore he had a chance to get over the-re. This was his fear, and, understandably,his wife’s hope. Time before his departurewas spent by Righetti flying the P-47 andP-51. On August 2, 1944, he embarked onhis journey overseas through the Over-seas Replacement Depot in Greensboro,where he spent ten days. In his orders,the destination was mentioned as being“cold, wet and windy” which was widelyunderstood to mean England. He didn’tneed to worry about his wife and daugh-ter. They had moved to the family ranchand would be well taken care of.Righetti arrived in England at the be-ginning of September 1944 and was as-signed to the 8th AF, commanded by thelegendary James Doolittle. At Fowlme-re, he flew several familiarization flightswith the P-51, and the same with the P-47at Duxford. Britain made a positive im-pression on him: “British people marve-lous, friendly, sincere and interested inour welfare—truly a wonderful ally.”1) hewrote home.He also caught up with a slew of friendsand contacts that he had made over hisfive years in the military. His friend andmentor, Fred Gray, under whom Righe-tti served while with the CIS, was CO ofthe 78th Fighter Group, subordinate tothe 66th Fighter Wing. Gray showed himaround the command centre of the 66thFW and Righetti could soon rejoice overhis posting in it on September 24th. Im-mediately the following day, he reportedin at Base F-159, just shy of 100km (60miles) north of London, which was hometo the 55th Fighter Group, also one of thecomponent elements of the 66th FW.He made his way to the 338th FS, to whichhe was assigned, pilots’ meeting roomand discovered that he had no acquain-tances there, and the same went for theentire Fighter Group. His rank of Lt. Col.corresponded to the minimum require-ment for a Squadron Commander, andeven for an entire Group, but somethinglike that would also require a certainamount of experience. He lacked suchexperience. As an experienced and me-thodical instructor, he already had comeup with a plan. He would start out as awingman to an experienced fighter pilotand earn his place the right way regardle-ss of his high rank. After he was able tocarry out his duties in a satisfactory ma-nner, he would become the lead of a pairof aircraft, followed by becoming a flightleader. Step by step, nice and steady. Hehad no intention of making things easyon himself and sidestep any steps wi-thin the accepted procedure. In any case,doing so would not have been advisablewhere combat conditions were a factor.Rank was one thing, experience an enti-rely other. According to the plans of theleadership, he would gain enough expe-rience with the 55th FG to become GroupLeader, but not of the 55th FG.Success Without PraiseRighetti took off on his first combat sortieon October 30, 1944 and recorded his firstkill on his second flight on November 2.This was an escort mission for 1,100 bom-bers to Mersenburg, near Leipzig, targe-ting an oil refinery there. The ‘big boys’were escorted by nine hundred fightersand the 55th FG was tasked with close inprotection for bombers of the 3rd Air Di-vision. Righetti was assigned to fly wingfor the experienced Capt. Darrell Cra-mer, who had by then over four months ofcombat mission experience. Enemy figh-ters failed to materialize on the way to thetarget, though anti-aircraft fire was un-comfortably accurate and claimed sevenof the bombers. On the way out, arounda hundred German fighters attacked theformation. No one from the 55th FG eversaw such a concentration at one time andfor the first time, they felt what it was likeElwyn got along very well with the Mustang, and quickly demonstrated his piloting skills.Planning the next operational mission. Elwyn Righetti is at left.HISTORYINFO Eduard11February 2023Page 12
to be outnumbered.The formation quickly broke off in groupsof twos and fours. A part of the Germanfighters tried to get to the bombers, whileothers tried to divert the fight off to theside. A third section of German fightersentered cloud formations and Cramer,with Righetti right behind, along with asecond pair, went after them. The mo-ment they got below the layer of clouds,Cramer went after the first enemy planethat he saw. The attacked Bf 109 went intoa right-hand turn, and Cramer fired, withseveral rounds hitting home. In an effortto evade the fire, the German fighter dovetowards the ground, directly into Righe-tti’s Mustang’s line of fire. “Since I had ou-trun Captain Cramer on his pull up, andhad turned sharply left, I became positio-ned in between my leader and the 109” 1).It was for him a moment of truth, wherehe would put all of his experience to gooduse for the first time under such conditi-ons. He placed his target in his sights andfired at a range of about 180 m (600 ft). “Ifired one short burst and observed seve-ral strikes back of the cockpit. The ene-my aircraft attempted very little evasiveaction but headed for a flak nest straightahead. Just before reaching the flak, I fi-red a three second burst and observednumerous strikes in the vicinity of thecockpit”.1)The Messerschmitt went into a sharpbank and dropped even further and cli-pped a hedgerow with its wing, whichcaused him to go inverted and disintegra-te on impact with the ground a fraction ofa second later. The quartet of Mustangsoverflew the point of impact and headedfor home.Cramer recorded the incident in a reportthusly: “When I got into a good stern cha-se position and closed to firing range,I opened fire. Shortly thereafter I wasamazed to see another P-51 convergingon me from my left and he too opened fireon the Me-109. My bullets were missinghis plane only by a few yards, and I imme-diately quit firing.”1)It was clear to Cramer that it was Righe-tti, who, in the heat of battle, neglected hiswingman obligations. “If I had not gaineda little altitude as he attempted to get intofiring position, I might not have seen himand a midair collision could have resul-ted,”1) continued the angered Cramer.After the obligatory meeting with the In-telligence Officers, Cramer took Righettito one side. He didn’t want to chew out theLieutenant Colonel in front of lieutenants,but there was also no way he could justlet this go. “Righetti was as excited asany new lieutenant would have been af-ter his baptism under fire. I did not wantto dampen his excitement with what I hadto say to him, so I waited until we werealone.” Cramer’s discretion indicated hisconsiderable maturity. “Then I gave him achewing out like he probably had not hadin his regroup.”1) recounted Cramer yearslater.Cramer gave a decent scolding to thehigher-ranking officer, telling him thathad he been a new lieutenant, he wouldhave grounded him on the spot for at leasttwo weeks as a reprimand, and bringabout disciplinary action against Righe-tti because he had violated the rules ofdiscipline and neglected his responsibi-lities as wingman. Righetti deserves fullcredit for accepting the harsh criticismfrom the significantly lower ranking offi-cer: “Righetti immediately acknowledgedthat he had goofed up in the excitement ofthe moment. On the remaining missionsduring which Righetti flew under my su-pervision,” Cramer said, “his performancewas excellent and there was never ano-ther breach of air discipline”1) recalledCramer, who ended his career in 1973 asDeputy Commander of the 17th Air Forcein Germany with the rank of Brigadier Ge-neral. That kill from November 2nd, 1944was ultimately credited to them both,each with a half.CommanderBy the middle of November, there had beena change in plan. Righetti was informedthat it was expected that he would assu-me command of the 338th Fighter Squad-ron, and the entire 55th Fighter Groupafter that, if all went according to design.The information was somewhat sensitive,because the post of 338th FS Commandshould’ve fallen on Cramer … On learningof this idea, Righetti immediately wentI have read a good number of booksmapping out the fates of Second World Warpilots. The book by Jay A. Stout, who him-self until relatively recently was a combatpilot in the Marine Corps, in many waysis unique. The author took the baton fromTony Meldahl, a historian who devoted a lotof energy to mapping out the life of ElwynRighetti and the circumstances surroun-ding his disappearance. The very ill Meldahlturned to the renowned author of aviationthemed books, Jay A. Stout, about the pro-spect of bringing his efforts to completi-on and to ensure the release of the book.Jay accepted this challenge, and despitehurdles that he encountered, succeededin completing the book and enlisting theservices of a publisher. It is one of the mostintense set of circumstances brought bythe war and the work is among the best inthe genre. I strongly recommend the bookto all interested in aviation, and it can bebought, including in electronic form, here.A FEW WORDS BY THE AUTHOR REGARDING THE BOOK BY JAY A. STOUT“Tell the family I’m okay. Broke my nose on landing. It’s been a hellof a lot of fun working with you, gang. Be seeing you a little later.”(Col. Elwyn Righetti)HISTORYINFO Eduard12February 2023Page 13
to Cramer and told him that he need notfret over his position, because he wouldonly take command of the squadron forabout three weeks, after which he wouldtake the reins of the Fighter Group. Fromthat, it is clear that Righetti’s position wi-thin the squadron was not an easy one,despite his methods and especially abilityto make decisions in combat that madehim a formidable figure. After the firsttwo missions on the scene, he flew ano-ther ten ones in November, 1944, duringwhich he further displayed his talents. Heled the 338th Fighter Squadron into battleon November 21st, three weeks after hisbaptism of fire, and four days later wasnamed its CO. According to the most ex-perienced pilot in the squadron, DarrellCramer, there was no doubt about thecapabilities of Righetti among the otherpilots. “By the time he became a squadroncommander,” said Cramer, “he had alrea-dy established himself as a very capablepilot and an aggressive combat leader. Hewas the kind of leader whose attitude was‘come follow me,’ and we were glad to fo-llow him.”1)Righetti was apparently more pleasedwith being assigned his own aircraft thanhaving been given the command. He wasgiven P-51D, serial number 44-14223,onto which he immediately had the name“Katydid” painted, along with an attractiverendering of a grasshopper. Later, thisMustang was exchanged for 44-72227.Both were coded CL-M, and both were de-corated in much the same fashion. But thedrawing of the grasshopper differed. Onthe first P-51, the drawing was in green,while on the second it was a black silhou-ette with blue wings. Losses of pilots interms of combat missions was aroundtwo percent, so it was generally consi-dered that a pilot’s supply of good luckwas exhausted crossing the fifty-missionthreshold. Fifty missions seldom satisfiedthe requirement for a combat tour of 270hours. Righetti was well-aware of the po-ssibility of not coming home, and from hisletters, it seems that he really even didn’tcount on it. Sgt. Millard “Doak” Easton, hiscrew chief, noted that “Katydid” once re-turned with a 20mm round. “He told methe next one would be in the cockpit.”1)His next kill would have to wait till Chris-tmas Eve, on December 24th, when hedowned three Fw 190s and damaged afurther two. Aside from that, he flew se-veral other combat sorties, and probablythe most interesting of them involved anencounter with three Me 262s. He hit anddamaged one of them. “Tangled with 3 jetsand got one damaged. They’re a little toofast to destroy but I took all the fight outof him.”1)Upside Down!At the beginning of 1944, when the 8th AFfell under Doolittle’s command, there wasa change in the tactics of American figh-ters. Besides protecting bombers, it wasdecided that it was necessary to deprivethe Luftwaffe of all ability, leading to attac-king airfields and other ground targets. Tothis end, after the arrival of Righetti andespecially after his command assign-ment, the 55th FG became an elite unit. Itsaggressiveness and combat intensity led,for example, to the destruction of 127 loco-motives during February, 1945 alone.Ground attack action usually came abouton the return trip after escorting bom-bers, as opportunity dictated. Some of thefighters would stick with the bombers,while others dropped down to see if the-re was anything that was worthy of someattention. There were frequent encounterswith enemy aircraft as well. One of themost curious of these for Righetti involveda Mistel composite aircraft. This occurredon February 3rd, 1945, not far from Boizen-burg. He claimed the destruction of two ofthree Mistels and a damaged Fw 190. Thisevent is the basis of the boxart for our kitP-51D-10 (Catalog Number 84184) that of-fers markings for Righetti’s plane. Thesetwo kills elevated him to the status of“ace”, in terms of air-to-air victories. Butwhen it comes to ground targets, he led allof the USAAF stats! He would account for27 locomotives, several dozen trucks, de-stroyed aircraft on the ground, and otheritems. In this regard, Righetti had no equal,and his men followed him.On February 22nd, 1945, he took commandof the 55th FG, replacing Col. George Cro-well, and continued to add to the legendstatus of his Group. He would not be ableto make his mark among the most succe-ssful aces, something for which he arrivedon the scene too late to do, and at a timewhen Luftwaffe activity was greatly decli-ning. Nevertheless, his results and exem-plary command led to many high-levelawards (see table). For his promotion toGroup Commander he was grateful, and henoted so in a letter from February 25: “Thenew job is the best by far I’ve ever had.Lots of responsibility I know, but really sa-tisfying. Now I’m really slapping Jerry withmy own outfit and knocking chunks out ofhim too. We got 14 enemy aircraft today—7jets—and although I didn’t personally sco-re, they’re all my boys now that I have thegroup.” 1The Fateful DayIt is not possible to describe the combatexploits of “Eager El” and his 55th FG inproper detail in the pages of a magazinetype article. After many dangerous situa-tions while escorting bombers and duringground target attacks, Righetti’s thirtiethbirthday came on April 17, 1945. His planwas to crack open a bottle of bubbly onOne of the photos showing the first P-51s christened Katydyd, on which wear and tear is already evident.Kills 7,5Probable Kills 1Damaged Aircraft 2Aircraft destroyed on ground 27Numerous ground targets including locomotivesCombat resultsPhoto: Family collection via Jay StoutHISTORYINFO Eduard13February 2023Page 14
returning from the day’s flying with FrankStitch, another pilot celebrating a birth-day that day. When the bomber formationturned around to head back home, Righe-tti, along with pilots from the 343rd FS,dropped down as he had done many timesbefore to search for targets of opportu-nity on the ground. They neared the townof Kamenz, home to a part of Schlacht-geschwader 77, equipped with Fw 190s.Lieutenants Robert Welch and Philip Erbyspotted a pair of Focke Wulfs just aftertake-off and came at them from aboveand from behind. The Fw 190 pilots hadno time to react and both were downed.In return, Welch and Erby were both hitby flak and both turned in the directionof American positions. Erby announcedthat he needed to bail out of his strickenplane and was not heard from again. Lt.Richard Gibbs and his wingman followedWelch and Erby but broke off when theyspotted the flak, flew around Kamenz ata safe distance, and found another pair ofenemy fighters after take-off. They waiteduntil they were out of range of the flak,attacked the fighters and Gibbs downedthem both. Besides these kills, the 343rdFS shot down another five SG 77 aircraftbut paid a high price for success. Besi-des Erby, flak also brought down GeorgeApple and Daniel Langelier. The bodies ofErby and Langalier were never found …In the meantime, Righetti and his wing-man Carroll Henry spotted a small air-field at Riesa. Righetti wanted to attackit first alone and ordered the rest of thesquadron to stay higher up and off to theside. “He wanted me to stay up there withthe other guys. But when I requested, helet me go.” Wrote Henry in his report.2)Righetti conducted the first strafing runhimself, missing the target. He adjustedhis gunsight, turned around, and peppe-red the aircraft on the ground. He repea-ted the attack two more times. And then,it happened. Katydid shuttered and it wasclear that she had been hit. Righetti radio-ed Henry and told him that he was quicklylosing oil pressure. Henry also advisedRighetti that he had been losing glycol.It was only a matter of a minute beforethe P-51’s engine would critically overhe-at, and Righetti knew this. It is difficult tounderstand why, with about a minute ofengine life left that could have given himsome 10 km (six miles) of coverage, Ri-ghetti chose to come around for anotherattack rather than get as close to friendlypositions as possible. American positionswere about 20km away, and with a littleextra luck, it was possible for Righettito reach them. But instead, he opted tospend the remainder of his ammunition inanother attack, and then head out to finda field to crash-land. Henry tried to fo-llow: “I called him, telling him that I wastacking on. He acknowledged, saying thathe was heading out on 270 degrees. I wasabout 3,000 feet and overran him due toexcess speed gained while letting down.He was at six o’clock to me and I rolledout on 270 degrees,” wrote Henry later inhis report.2)He was unable to locate his commanderand due to haze, none of the squadronthat was higher up was able to do so ei-ther. Then, the radio announced: “Tell thefamily I’m okay. Broke my nose on landing.It’s been a hell of a lot of fun working withyou, gang. Be seeing you a little later.”2)Ray Sharp, one of the pilots circling abo-ve, broke radio silence and he could beheard saying: “Good luck, Colonel!”Due to a lack of fuel, practically the entire55th FG had to land at fields in continen-tal Europe. Frank Stitch had to open thebottle of champagne himself, and undera shroud of a somber mood that corre-sponded to the day’s loss. This was re-flected in the day’s summary report, thatread: “We’re going to miss you Colonel, alltwenty-nine years of your bursting ener-gy and vitality, your eagerness and cou-rage, your initiative and leadership thatmoulded us into a deadly fightin’ machine,whipping the Nazis at every turn. We’regoing to miss your cheerfulness, your de-cisiveness, and your understanding of hu-man nature. You spelled aggressivenesswherever and whenever you flew andmade us into one of the eagerest gangsof eager beavers. Your record speaks forA copy of the sketch on which Carroll Henry marked the position of Righetti’s crash-landing. It does notcorrespond to the information that he headed 270° from the airfield, which was located southwest of Riesa.Photo: MACR via Fold3HISTORYINFO Eduard14February 2023Page 15
itself – 34.5 destroyed German aircraft toyour credit – 27 on the ground and 7.5 inthe air, and enemy ground installationstoo numerous to add up. All of us of oleFive and Five salute you, Eager El”.3)Virtually all believed that they wouldagain see the CO soon. Germany was bre-athing its last, and by the sounds of thelast broadcast by Righetti, he would beheaded for an interrogation and a deten-tion camp for airmen.Extinguished HopeThe War Department sent a telegram toCathryn Righetti on May 3, over two weeksafter her husband was shot down, wherethe situation as it stood was outlined. Thetelegram held out hope that the two wouldmeet again. She waited with Elwyn’s pa-rents and siblings for another telegramor phone call that would add some infor-mation, but no such thing came. For morethan a month, they sent letters as thoughElwyn was still a member of his unit. Theywaited for him. And they continued to waitfor some good news. The days turned intomonths, but they still believed in his re-turn. This was understandable. Europewas in the midst of post-war chaos, andthere were constantly stories of the dis-covery of soldiers and airmen who, forvarious reasons, were turning up out-side of the POW camps. There was hope.Major Tom Welch, who was Elwyn’s goodfriend and still in Europe, searched forhim and held out hope for Righetti’s fa-mily, but that hope was slowly but sure-ly fading. Apparently, the first to come togrips with the worst was Cathryn, whileRighetti’s parents and siblings continu-ed to reject the notion. Righetti’s motherwrote a letter to the military governor ofthe American occupation zone in Europe,General Dwight Eisenhower, and later toPresident Truman. She pleaded for help inthe search for her son. But this yieldedno results. At the end of 1946, she rece-ived a letter from another one of Elwyn’sfriends, Fred Gray, who claimed to haveconducted his search along other thanofficial channels. His own description ofthe events of April 17 compared very wellto the official report, except on one point.Allegedly, about ten minutes after settingdown, Righetti’s voice came on the radiodescribing the approach of farmers … But,if this were true, Henry wouldn’t havekept such information to himself and the-re would be no reason to not include it inhis report. The lynching of downed Alliedpilots was not uncommon and quite a fewGermans were tried and convicted of thepractice. Gray, in his aforementioned le-tter, said that he had received unofficialinformation from the Pentagon that oneof the interrogated Nazis confirmed thatRighetti was murdered by civilians, five ofwhich were already hung and two wereawaiting their verdicts. Even that is un-likely, as the area was occupied by theSoviets, so if anyone was carrying outsentences for the murder of an Americanpilot, it would be them.Of course, the possibility that Righetti wasmurdered by civilians, as were others, isthe most likely reason for his disappea-rance. It could have happened shortly af-ter his forced landing, or even after se-veral days of hiding. He could also havebeen killed because someone wanted hisboots and gun, and he could’ve been shotafter falling in the hands of the SS, whichalso happened.Over the years, many questions, hypo-theses and speculations cropped up.More light couldn’t be shed on the myste-ry even by an investigation by JPAC (JointPOW/MIA Accounting Command), or sta-tements by Germans. To confuse things,there were even doubts raised as to theexact location of the crash landing. Alt-hough he spoke of a course of 270°, duewest, Henry pointed out a spot on themap where Righetti landed his aircraft,northeast of Riesa. This threw into ques-tion even which airfield he and Righettiattacked.A little out there, but with that, a littlemore distressing, is a hypothesis that su-ggests he was taken prisoner by the Ru-ssians who didn’t believe his identity (hecould have been on the run dressed as acivilian). They may have executed him ortaken him to one of their gulags wherehe remained until his death. The Ameri-can embassy requested the Soviets tolook into the whereabouts of the son ofElizabeth Righetti in 1945. In November ofthat year, they responded that no ElwynRighetti was found in the territory of theSoviet Union. Whether or not they actuallylooked …The truth will probably never be known.None of those directly involved or anywitnesses are likely still with us. Perhapssomeone somewhere may locate someo-ne’s log or journal that may shed some li-ght on the matter, but in all likelihood theremains of Colonel Elwyn Righetti lie inthe ground somewhere near Riesa…AcknowledgementsThe author sincerely thanks Jay A. Stout,author of Vanished Hero: The Life, War andMysterious Disappearance of America’sStrafing King for his kind permission touse quotes from his book for the purpo-ses of this article, and for help in sourcingphotographs from the Righetti Family.1)STOUT Jay, Vanished Hero: The Life, War and Myste-rious Disappearance of America’s WWII Strafing King,Casemate Publishers, 20162)MACR (Missing Air Crew Report) 139163)55th FG Mission Summary Report, April 17th, 1955SourcesBooksSTOUT Jay, Vanished Hero: The Life, War and Myste-rious Disappearance of America’s WWII Strafing King,Casemate Publishers, 2016OLYNYK Frank, STARS AND BARS: A tribute to theAmerican Fighter Ace 1920–1973, Grub Street Pub-lishing, 1995HESS William: Down to Earth, Strafing Aces of EighthAir Force, Osprey Publishing, 2003DocumentsMACR (Missing Air Crew Report) 13916/ NARA (Natio-nal Archives and Records Administration) M1380Webpagesjayastout.comvalor.militarytimes.comHISTORYElwyn Righetti christened his first Mustang Katydid and used it from December 1944 to March 1945INFO Eduard15February 2023Page 16
HISTORYSEARCHING FOR THE LOST SHIPSWITH PAUL ALLENFive Sullivan brothers perished on the cruiser JuneauText: Miro BaričMain reason for the attack on Guadalcanalwas its airfield which the Japanese startedto build on this island. After the completionit would have enabled the owner to cont-rol the vast surrounding areas. Thanks tothe bad weather, the American forces app-roached the island undetected and theirlanding on August 7, 1942, came as a to-tal surprise to the Japanese. They quicklyrecovered however and the hard fightingfor Guadalcanal lasted half a year, on theground, in the air and on the sea. The cam-paign ended on February 9, 1943, when theJapanese troops withdrew. There were somany ships sunken between Guadalcanal,Savo and Florida islands that the area wasnicknamed “The Iron Bottom Sound”. Thefirst big battle took place during the nightof August 8 and 9, 1943. At Savo island theJapanese seriously shot up four Americanand one Australian heavy cruiser. Astoria,Quincy, Vincennes and Canberra were sun-ken, only heavily damaged cruiser Chica-go was rescued. The only satisfaction wassinking by the American submarine S-44of the Japanese cruiser Kako while shewas returning on August 10 in the morning.More battles followed and during one ofthem the main hero of our story, AA crui-ser USS Juneau (CL-119), was lost. The AAcruisers started to be built in Britain alrea-dy before WWI. There were modified olderclass C vessels which 152 mm cannonswere replaced with 102 mm caliber guns.In 1937 the cruiser Coventry was the firstship modified in this manner and during1938–1939 Curacao, Curlew, Cairo, Calcuttaand Carlisle followed. During the war Bri-tain acquired more AA vessels of this cate-gory. The American Atlanta class howeverwas the first cruiser group in the worldthat was from the beginning built with de-dicated AA weaponry. It was a paradox thatinitially they were intended as lead shipsfor the fleets of destroyers. Only later theirvalue in protecting the navy fleets again-st the enemy aircraft became obvious andthey continued to be deployed exclusivelyin this role.There were eight vessels of the Atlantaclass. The construction of the first four(Atlanta, Juneau, San Diego and San Juan)was launched in 1940 and they enteredservice in the course of two month, fromthe end of December to the end of Februa-ry 1942. Further four ships – Oakland, Reno,Flint and Tucson entered the service during1943–1945 with slightly modified appearan-ce. The cruisers were 165 meters long andtheir full displacement was 7,400 tons. Thefirst four ships were armed with 16 127 mmcaliber cannons mounted in pairs in eightturrets. Three of them were one steppedabove another on the bow and the samearrangement was on the stern. One turretwas on port and starboard side. It was theheaviest AA weaponry out of all cruisersduring WWII. In a minute the main batteryBattle for Guadalcanal was the first Allied offensive and greatvictory in the Pacific. Sure, the US Navy had won the Battle ofMidway as outlined in previous part of our series. However,that was the reaction to the Japanese attack. In case of Gua-dalcanal in the Solomon Islands they took over the strategicinitiative and have not let it go since.USS Atlanta (CL-51), the lead ship of the class,during trials in November 1941.Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandINFO Eduard16February 2023Page 17
HISTORYPhoto: Naval History and Heritage CommandPhoto: Naval History and Heritage Commandof Atlanta class was able to fire 6 tonsof the ammunition. The 127 mm caliber ca-nnons were supplemented by three, laterfour 28 mm caliber four-barrel cannons.Later these were replaced by more effi-cient 40 mm caliber weapons and supp-lemented by a larger number of 20 mmcaliber cannons. The second four shipswere completed with only 12 127 mm cali-ber cannons, the side turrets were remo-ved. Therefore, it is sometimes considereda separate Oakland class. Gradually thenumber of 40 mm caliber cannons was in-creased..The AA cruisers in actionJuneau did not survive long enough to haveher weaponry changed. After her comple-tion in the summer of 1942, she was firstdeployed in patrolling duties in the nor-thern Atlantic and Caribbean. When onSeptember 15 three torpedoes fired fromthe Japanese submarine I-19 hit USS Wasp,Juneau together with the destroyers re-scued 1910 sailors from the sinking aircraftcarrier. On October 26, 1942, in the Battleof Santa Cruz, she sailed as an escort ofthe aircraft carriers Hornet and Enterpri-se. The American vessels shot down 38attacking Japanese aircraft and Juneaucrew had a lion’s contribution in it. It wasthe ship’s first battle. She met her fate inthe following battle though. The naval ba-ttle of Guadalcanal in November 1942 wasthe only encounter of the surface vesselswhere the Atlanta class cruisers took part.Besides Juneau it was his sister ship At-lanta. Both were sunk. On one side it do-cuments that they were not suitable forsurface vessels’ combat. On the otherhand, their demise was caused by torpe-does and stronger opponent. Not even thelarger cruisers would have sustained sucha damage.Bloody GuadalcanalIn the beginning of 1942 Juneau was atta-ched to TF 67 task force escorting the shipscarrying the reinforcements and suppliesto Guadalcanal. The Japanese howeverthought in a similar way. They intended toland the troops on the island which wouldsupport the ground attack against the Hen-derson airfield. It was a half-built airportwhich the Americans captured, completedand named after Major Lofton Hender-son, VMSB-41 commander who was onJune 4, 1942, killed in the Battle of Midway.The airfield was a thorn in the side for theJapanese. The aircraft taking off from the-re controlled the airspace during the wholeday. The Japanese ships and ground troopscould only operate undisturbed at night.The reinforcements were mostly broughtto Guadalcanal by the fast destroyers andlight cruisers so as they could return underthe cover of darkness. The Americans gavethem the nickname “Tokio Express”.The Japanese destroyers, besides un-loading the troops, used to fire a coupleof “salutes” towards the Henderson air-field. The slower Japanese ships carryingheavy weapons and larger volume supp-lies however could not afford sailing wi-thin the Cactus Air Force range (Cactuswas the Allied code name for Guadalca-nal). Therefore, the Japanese dispatcheda heavy group of combat vessels whichwere tasked to destroy the airfield firingfrom the sea. The core of the group wasformed by the battleships Hiei and Kiris-hima. Each of them carried eight 356 mmcaliber guns. For this mission, insteadof piercing shells, they were armed withshrapnel grenades which were to explodeat the contact with the ground and destroythe American aircraft with the fragments.The American reinforcements reachedGuadalcanal on November 12 and startedto unload. On that day, while protecting thetransport ships, Juneau shot down 6 Japa-nese aircraft. When the Americans foundout that the strong Japanese fleet wasapproaching, they withdrew the transportvessels and dispatched their escorts intothe night battle with the enemy. Thus, theAmerican cruisers were lined up againsttwo enemy battleships. Under the stan-dard circumstances any wise commanderwould have withdrawn but this time the-re was nowhere to go. They were the onlyones to prevent the Henderson airfieldfrom destruction.Close look at the night combatThe American side possessed the advan-tage of the reliable radar while the Ja-panese, at that time, had none. It wasdark, moonless night with rain showers,so the visibility was minimal. The Ame-rican commander, Rear Admiral DanielCallaghan however hesitated too muchand failed to take advantage of the earlyradar information. Once he made the de-The Sullivan brothers aboard the Juneau, February 14, 1942. From left, Joseph “Joe”, Francis “Frank”, Albert,Madison “Matt” and George.Landing at Guadalcanal, August 7, 1942. From the USSAlchiba, a Stuart Marine Corps M2A4 tank is beingunloaded into the landing craft LCM(2).INFO Eduard17February 2023Page 18
cision it was already too late. The Ame-rican and Japanese ships converged tooclose, and his orders caused more chaos.The encounter turned into 40 minutes longmerciless chaotic combat at close rangewhere each individual ship made her owndecisions. Several ships even became tar-gets of the friendly fire. As later describedby one of the American officers, it was likea bar brawl when all lights were shut down.The inferior American vessels however,thanks to the close range, were able to de-liver serious hits. For example, at one mo-ment Hiei was fired at by three Americandestroyers from extremely close range.One of them almost collided with her, theymissed each other just by six meters! Thehuge Japanese ship, under normal circu-mstances, would have blown the destroyeroff the water by a single salvo.But now she could not lower her gunsenough and her heavy grenades were fly-ing above the destroyers making loud noi-se. The American sailors wasted no timeand were shooting at Hiei with all they had,including the machine guns. They couldnot penetrate her armor, but the nume-rous hits were setting off fires on the su-perstructure and killed many officers onthe bridge. The fleet commander, AdmiralHiroaki Abe himself was wounded. Moreseriously, Hiei was hit by at least two tor-pedoes. The Japanese force, besides thebattleships, was also formed by a light cru-iser and 11 destroyers. Those engaged eightAmerican destroyers and Hiei and Kirishi-ma could focus on five American cruisers.Their gun turrets however were stockedwith the shrapnel grenades which causedgreat damage to the superstructures ho-wever were not able to penetrate the hulland turrets’ armor. Therefore, the cruisersmaintained the ability to sail and fire. Oneof them, San Francisco, scored a lucky hiton Hiei, disabling her steering mechanism.The huge ship therefore had her maneuve-ring abilities restricted. Wounded AdmiralAbe had enough and ordered the withdra-wal. He did not know that the only twoundamaged American ships were betweenhis fleet and Henderson airfield – cruiserHelena and destroyer Fletcher.Great losses on both sidesDuring the night battle the Japanese de-stroyer Akatsuki was sunk as well as theAmerican destroyers Laffey and Barton.The first rays of sunshine in the morningrevealed eight more seriously damagedships which were either motionless ormoved very slowly. Three of them wereJapanese and five American. The burningwrecks of Cushing and Monssen wereThe scene of fierce fighting, Henderson Airfield in late August 1942.The first Japanese battleship sunk, the Hiei. Her sister ship Kirishima followed her to the bottom two days later.Photo: US NavyPhoto: Naval History and Heritage CommandHISTORYINFO Eduard18February 2023Page 19
HISTORYabandoned by their crews and during theday they sank to the bottom of the ocean.In the evening, despite the great creweffort, the cruiser Atlanta sank. During thebattle she hit three Japanese destroyers ina row but then a Japanese torpedo disa-bled her engines. The worst damage wascaused by 19 grenades from the cruiserSan Francisco fired at her by mistake. RearAdmiral Norman Scott lost his life on boardof Atlanta. The Japanese shrapnel killedRear Admiral Callaghan on San Francis-co. They were the only American admiralskilled during the surface battle in the cour-se of the whole war.Unlike Atlanta, the destroyer Aaron Wardand heavy cruiser Portland were rescued.Having fired several salvos, Portland stillmanaged to sink the burning wreck of theJapanese destroyer Yudachi. Another da-maged Japanese destroyer, Amatsukaze,managed to save herself. The battleshipHiei however did not escape. Cactus AirForce were all eager to revenge her regu-lar night shelling. Since the morning, tor-pedo Avengers’, dive bombing Dauntlessand even heavy B-17 bombers attacks wereconcentrated on Hiei and in the evening ofNovember 13, 1942, she sank. It was thefirst Japanese battleship lost during theconflict.Unlucky dayOn Friday the thirteen, Juneau met herfate. Still at darkness, the group of fiveAmerican ships maintaining the ability tosail, withdrew. There were the cruisersSan Francisco, Helena, destroyers Sterretand O’Bannon and Juneau. In the battle, thecruiser suffered a torpedo hit to the portside. Only one of his screws worked andthe bow was deeply submerged, yet shemaintained speed of 13 knots. The Ameri-cans ships however were detected by theJapanese submarine I-26. Her commander,Yokota Minoru, at 11 o’clock sharp, orderedlaunching of two torpedoes. He was tar-geting San Francisco but missed. One ofthe torpedoes hit Juneau, exactly at thesame spot she was hit during the night.The spear of steel penetrated deeply intothe vessel and caused the explosion of theammunition dump. Juneau was covered inthe enormous column of water, fire andsmoke and when everything cleared thecruiser disappeared from the surface.The remaining American ships faced adifficult choice. It seemed no one survi-ved the explosion and had they stoppedto search for castaways they could havebecome an easy target for a submarine.A B-17 bomber was just flying by, so theysignaled to it to report at the headquartersthe sinking of the cruiser as they continu-ed sailing. The bomber crew did not wantto break the radio silence, so they submi-tted the report only after landing. That wasburied under other documents to processand did not make it further soon enough.No one dispatched the rescue ship. The USNavy was busy repulsing further Japaneseattacks. During the night of 14-15 of No-vember 1942, the Henderson airfield wasagain shelled by the battleship Kirishima.This time, two battleships, Washington andSouth Dakota, each with nine 406 mm cali-ber guns, opposed her. Having received nu-merous hits Kirishima capsized and sank.In the meantime, the sailors from Juneaufought for their lives. The conclusion thatthere were no survivors after the cruiserexplosion, was mistaken. Approximately115 sailors ended up in the water, however,no one was looking for them. Without foodand drinking water they were left up to theelements and sharks. In the following daysmost of them died a cruel death. After eightdays, accidentally, more-less, just 10 sur-vivors were rescued.Five brothers687 crew members perished, including theJuneau launching at Kearny, New Jersey, October 25, 1941.Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandUSS Juneau (CL-52) taken shortly after launching.Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandINFO Eduard19February 2023Page 20
HISTORYbrothers Sullivan. They hailed from Wa-terloo in Iowa, and all enlisted in the Navyat the same time, on January 3, 1942. Theypresented one condition though – theywere all to serve together. The regulationsdid not allow it but the command lookedthe other way and all of them ended upon Juneau. It turned out as an unfortuna-te decision. Frank, Joe and Matt, accordingto the witnesses’ account, perished in theship’s explosion. Albert, the youngest one,died on the second day and the oldest bro-ther George held for five days. Then deli-rious from thirst and sorrows for his bro-thers he jumped off the raft and drowned.After the death of Sullivan brothers theUS Department of Defense implementedthe directive that the last surviving familydescendant must not continue serving if allother siblings were killed in combat. Stillduring the wartime, a movie about Sullivanbrothers was made. Steven Spielberg alsomentioned them in his movie Saving Pri-vate Ryan.In 1943 the new Fletcher class destroyerwas named after Sullivan brothers. Theship, USS The Sullivans (DD-537) waschristened by their mother, Alleta Sulli-van. Out of her six children she was leftwith only one – daughter Genevieve. Herboyfriend, William Ball, perished on thebattleship USS Arizona in the attack onPearl Harbor. The wish to avenge his deathmotivated Sullivan brothers to enlist in theNavy. Albert was the only one married andhad a son Jimmy who later served on theaforementioned destroyer The Sullivans.Besides WWII the ship also participatedin the fighting in Korea and in 1961 wasa part of the group of vessels that recove-red from the sea the capsule with the firstAmerican astronaut, Alan Shepard. Laterthe destroyer served in training duties andin 1961 she was struck of charge. Nowa-days she is a floating museum in Buffalo,New York state. In 1997 another destroyerThe Sullivans (DDG-68) entered the servi-ce, this time in Arleigh Burke class. In 1995she was christened by Kelly Ann SullivanLoughren, Jimmy’s daughter, and AlbertSullivan’s granddaughter.New JuneauBy the way, the name USS Juneau re-appeared again. In 1944–1946 the Americanshipyards built three cruisers based on theAtlanta class but with the improved systemof the waterproof bulkheads and better de-signed superstructures. The cruisers werearmed with twelve 127 mm caliber gunsin six turrets and were named Juneau,Spokane and Fresno.The whole class was named after Juneau.She missed WWII but took part in the Ko-rean war where on July 2, 1950, togetherwith two British ships faced the attackof six Korean torpedo boats and gunbo-ats. They sank five of them without a loss.In 1955 this Juneau was struck of chargeand later sent to the scrapyards. In 1969 theclass Austin amphibious landing ship USSJuneau (LPD-10) entered the service. Sheparticipated in the Vietnam war and servedas the command vessels during the battleagainst the oil leak from Exxon Valdez tan-ker. In 2008 she was struck of charge.Discovering the wreckThe Iron Bottom Sound could not haveescaped the attention of Microsoft co--founder Paul Allen in his search for WWIIshipwrecks. In January 2015 his ship Octo-pus mapped 980 sq kilometers of the oce-an bottom and located 29 sunken shipsand several shot down airplanes. She alsoJuneau, New Jersey, January 5, 1942.Juneau photographed in New York harbor on February 11, 1942, wearing the camouflage she received shortlyafter completion.Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandPhoto: Naval History and Heritage Command Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandINFO Eduard20February 2023Page 21
identified the wreck of USS Atlanta. June-au’s wreck was discovered by Allen’s newship, RV Petrel, on March 17, 2018. It happe-ned seven months before Allen’s untimelydeath. The cruiser lies 4200 m deep brokenup to several sections. The shipwreck wasfirst located by sonars. On the followingday, the robot was dispatched and tooka lot of pictures and confirmed the wrec-k’s identity. The Allen’s company continu-ed searching for the shipwrecks for sometime after his passing. RV Petrel returnedto Guadalcanal one more time in February2019 to discover the wrecks of the Japane-se battleships Hiei and Kirishima as wellas the American aircraft carrier USS Hor-net. That will be the topic of the followingarticle.Sources:Hubáček, M.: Vítězství v Pacifiku. Praha 2003.Hrbek, I./Hrbek, J.: Námořní válka vrcholí.Praha 1995.https://www.paulallen.comhttps://www.bbc.comhttps://news.usni.orghttps://www.history.navy.mil/HISTORYThe cruiser Juneau in June 1942. The hull received new camouflage, the superstructures and turrets remainedin their original livery.Photo: Naval History and Heritage CommandPhoto: US NavyJuneau lies at a depth of 4,200 feet broken into several pieces.Score painted on the destroyer USS Sterret (DD-407) after the Battle of Guadalcanal.The silhouettes represent the sunken destroyer Yūdachi, the battleship Hiei, and fivedowned Japanese aircraft.Juneau’s propeller.One of the turrets with 127 mm guns.Zdroj: PaulAllen.comJuneau wreck (Photo: PaulAllen.com)INFO Eduard21February 2023Page 22
This lull in combat did not concern twothings. The Russian drive on Bachmutwhich continued since August and, alsothe Russian air campaign against theUkrainian civilian infrastructure continu-ed. During this period two strategic bom-ber bases, located deep in the Russianterritory, were repeatedly hit. The firstattack took place on the early morning ofDecember 5. The explosions were heardat Engels base near Saratov and Dyagile-vo base near Ryazan. The first airbase islocated nearly 500 km from the Ukrainianborder and is a home of two squadronsof the 22nd Guards Division of the hea-vy bomber aviation. Its 184th Squadron isequipped with Tu-95MS and 121st GuardsSquadron operates Tu-160M. Both unitsfly attack missions against Ukraine on theregular basis. According to the initial re-ports the strong explosion damaged twoTu-95 bombers and wounded two people.The following satellite images did not re-veal serious damages, but it seems thatat least one Tu-95 was actually hit.At the same time the explosion took placeat the Dyagilevo airbase which serves asa training center of the strategic bomberaviation. It is located approximately 450km from the Ukrainian border and onlysome 200 km from Moscow. The seriesof photographs of this incident show thatthe explosion took place behind one of theparked Tu-22M3 marked RF-34110. Thetail surfaces and exhausts were damagedand the vehicle with ground power sour-ce, parked next to the airplane, was set onfire. Three Russian soldiers were killed.The Russians got lucky that the Kh-22missile, attached under this Tu-22 wing,was not hit. Its one-ton warhead wouldhave caused significantly more seriousdamages.The Ukrainians officially did not claim thisattack. The Russians made a bizarre claimthat it was a terrorist attack against thedefenseless peaceful airports. However,the aircraft bombing the Ukrainian citiestake off from these bases. And the lackof defenses was contradicted by Russiansthemselves claiming that the attackingdrones flying close to the ground wereshot down by the AA fire. The damageswere only caused by their debris. Thegreatest value of these Russian claimsis in the information that the old Sovietunmanned air vehicles Tu-141 and Tu-143respectively, were used for these attacks.These are originally the reconnaissancejet drones modified by Ukraine to carryexplosives. They fly the pre-program-med route and land by a parachute. Forkamikaze style attack the parachute is ofcourse not considered.On Monday, December 26, the Engelsairbase became a target of yet anotherattack. The air raid sirens blared and theAA rockets’ smoke trails raised to thesky. Two explosions from the direction ofthe airport were heard. According to theRussian official statements the low flyingdrone was destroyed the AA fire. Its debrishowever fell on the airbase and killed twoground personnel. The information abouta larger number of casualties and moreaircraft destroyed could not be confirmed.The names of three victims are known –Major Andrei Voronov, 1st Lt. Maxim Anuf-rienko and 1st Lt. Alexander Pampukhin.All of them belonged to the 121st GuardsSquadron of the heavy bomber aviationequipped with Tu-160M aircraft. Accordingto the Russian side another attack againstthe Engels airbase was also attempted onThursday, December 29.The incident with a Tu-141 drone carryingexplosives did occur in the beginning ofwar on March 11, 2022. Then the unmann-ed air vehicle having exhausted its fuelcrashed on the parking lot in front of thestudent dorms in Zagreb, Croatia. It flewover from Ukraine over Hungary. The Ru-ssian media ridiculed the NATO AA defen-Text: Miro BaričAir war over UkraineDrones against strategic bombersThe fighting didn’t stop on Christmas Day either. Ukrainian pilots at leastremembered them like this.A Ukrainian pilot sent a Christmas greeting to the Russians in the form of two HARManti-radar missiles.During December 1, 2022, through January 1, 2023, the opera-tions in Ukraine were affected by the weather. The mild win-ter in Europe did not allow Putin to use the energy crises forpolitical pressure. On the other hand, the muddy ground inUkraine did not let any large scale movements of the heavyweaponry take place. That allowed for the time to re-group,rest and re-organize the troops while the large operationswere postponed.HISTORYINFO Eduard22February 2023Page 23
ses which let the drone fly hundreds ofkilometers over its territory. The Russi-an AA defense did not excel either. If thedrone were shot down, as the Russiansclaim, they also had flown undisturbedhundreds of kilometers and regardless,hit the bases where they caused damage.And it seems that the Russians are notconfident in their AA defenses becauseafter the attack they transferred majori-ty of their bombers to the more remotebases.Patriots from the USAand GermanyThanks to the Allies, Ukrainians stren-gthen their AA defense. Having receivedvarious systems from several countriesin October and November, on December21 the USA announced that they will de-liver the Patriot system battery. Germanyjoined right after and committed to deli-ver another battery. The American one isthe PAC-3 version primarily designated todestroy the ballistic missiles. PAC-3 mi-ssiles feature the improved guidance andmaneuvering capabilities with the rangeof 30 km. The modernized PAC-3 MSEcan reach as far as 60 km. The disadvan-tage is the shorter range when deployedagainst the aircraft. It can be resolved byusing the older PAC-2 missiles with 160km range if deployed against the airpla-nes. It was confirmed that the Germanversion will use both PAC-2 and PAC-3rockets. Training of the Ukrainian soldiersmanning Patriots supposedly started du-ring January in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.The continued Russian attacks against theUkrainian civilian infrastructure requi-res strengthening of the AA defense. Thattacks took place during the holidays aswell. Ukraine inclines to celebrate Chris-tmas in the European traditional period oftime. They are off on both December 25and January 7, and they can choose thedate. This year approximately 60 per centof Ukrainians chose the first date. TheRussians did not care and shelled tens ofcities and villages in Kharkov and Zapo-rozhye areas. At least 13 civilians died inKherson. On New Year’s Eve more than 20cruising missiles were fired at Kiev andhit a hotel and a multi-family building.Some of them crashby themselvesThe largest attack came between Chris-tmas and New Year’s, on Thursday, De-cember 29. The Russians, according to theinitial reports, launched 100-120 missiles.Approximately 70 of them hit the Ukrai-nian territory and 54 were shot down bythe AA defense. Several videos appearedshowing Ukrainians destroying the cruisemissiles with shoulder mounted portablerockets. Thanks to the early discoveryof the launched rockets, they can esti-mate their hundred of kilometers longroute and intercept their flight by teamsequipped with Stinger missiles. Mostof the time they fire several Stingers atthe same time so as at least one of themhits the Russian rocket. The last of theseteams are positioned on the house roofsin the suburbs of the supposed targets ofthe Russian attacks. The missiles that dopenetrate the defenses cause massivedamage on the energy infrastructure.There is an interesting discrepancy be-tween 100-120 Russian rockets reportedin the morning that day, probably based onthe Allied reconnaissance aircraft data,and 70 missiles that actually hit. It maynot be a mistake, at least partially, andRussians indeed launched more missi-les than actually struck. In the followingdays at least three videos appeared cap-turing the wrecks of the Russian rocketswhich failed after the launch and crashedon their own territory. Two of them werelying in the fields but one hit a house andset it on fire. We can only guess how manymore malfunctioning missiles crashedwithout any trace somewhere in the vastRussian countryside.Are they going to obtainJDAM sets?Besides the AA defense equipment,Ukraine of course receives other wea-pons. To list all the types of AFVs, artilleryand recently tanks as well, would be su-fficient for a standalone article and mo-reover it is not linked to the main themeof this series. One new weapon which isbeing discussed lately is however directlyassociated with the air war. According toWashington Post the USA plan to supplyUkraine with JDAM sets which can trans-form the classic unguided bombs intoprecision guided weapons. The acronymmeans the Joint Direct Attack Munition.Joint means that in 1990s both USAF andUSN cooperated on the weapon’s develo-pment. JDAM set consists of three parts– guiding system based on GPS coordi-nates, longitudinal fins attached to thebomb’s body improving its ability to gli-de and control surfaces installed on thebombs tail. The sets are manufactured inthree sizes and USAF or USN use them onthe bombs from 500 lbs to 2000 lbs. Thatmeans they should be easily adapted andthe modifications for application on theSoviet-made Ukrainian bombs should notpresent any obstacle (as far as the mea-surements is concerned). The WashingtonPost article indicates that the USA will notsupply the bombs, only these sets.A bomb with JDAM set can be deploy-ed in three different ways. Carried by anairplane which simultaneously carriesa container for searching and aiming atthe targets (for example Sniper or LI-An explosion at Diaghilevo Airbase destroyeda ground source and damaged a Tu-22M3 desig-nated RF-34110. The bomber has a Ch-22 missileunder its wing.Three Russian soldiers died in the explosion and subse-quent fire.Detail of the damage to a Tu-22M3 marked RF-34110.HISTORYINFO Eduard23February 2023Page 24
This Ka-52 bore a warlike drawing of an alligator on the fuselage. It was shot down in Kherson Oblast in November 2022.New photos of a Russian Mi-8AMTS helicopter with the fuselage number “Blue 92”that was destroyed by Ukrainian forces on Snake Island as recently as May 7, 2022.A photo of the wreckage of a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter wasreleased on December 24 and is believed to be from the Donetskregion. However, there is no other debris around. It is possible thatthis is a machine destroyed earlier.A Ukrainian Mi-24P helicopterwith a traditional painting fromthe village of Petrykivka inDnipropetrovsk Oblast, wheresuch motifs decorated housesand household items.Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone shot down on December 30 in Chernihiv Oblast.HISTORYINFO Eduard24February 2023Page 25
TENING II). The container transmits thecoordinates to the bomb which is thenreleased by a pilot. The accuracy is wi-thin five meters. In case GPS signal is lostthe bomb “remembers” the target with 10meters accuracy. There is another optionwhen a pilot manually enters the coor-dinates during the flight according to histarget identification or according to thecoordinates supplied by the ground con-trol. In both situations the integration ofthe aircraft’s electronic systems is nece-ssary.The third option is the easiest one. Thetarget coordinates are entered into thebomb while it is still on the ground be-fore the take off and pilot only delivers itto the designated area. It is quite proba-ble that the Ukrainians will deploy JDAMexactly in this way. It requires the minimalmodifications of the aircraft – just addingGPS and control component to releasethe bomb.In the preceding months the Ukrainianssuccessfully adapted the HARM anti-ra-dar missiles for Mig-29 and Su-27 figh-ters. HARM is capable to actively searchfor the targets itself and so the Ukrainiansonly added GPS and a tablet to their figh-ters which helps to launch the HARM roc-ket and it locks on the enemy radar itself.And it seems to be working. It is possiblethat if JDAM bomb is linked to the aircrafttablet (for example via Bluetooth) theUkrainian will be able to enter the targetcoordinates by a pilot during the mission.It is possible that the Ukrainians will dropthe JDAM bombs from Su-24 and Su-25fighter bombers. When dropped from thehigh altitude and speed this munition canglide as far as 20 km. The Ukrainian air-craft however cannot afford flying at highaltitudes in the vicinity of the frontline.Therefore Su-25 will supposedly releasethe bombs in the same way they launchthe unguided missiles – on the ballistictrajectory. The airplane will fly at the ma-ximum airspeed close to the ground, thenit will climb and release the bomb forwardon the curved trajectory. As opposed tothe unguided missiles the JDAM will besignificantly more accurate. There is ano-ther detail in favor of JDAM supplies –a bomb equipped with this set is six timesless expensive than the guided missile forthe HIMARS rocket launchers.Helicopter lossesDuring our reporting period both sidesclaimed several enemy aircraft shot downbut visually confirmed were only coupleof them. It is possible that more of themwill be confirmed later as it happened du-ring the preceding months. All confirmedkills were related to the troops supportat the frontline, mainly in Bachmut area.Two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters were lost.The first crashed on Sunday, December 11while attacking the Russian positions withthe unguided missile near Konstantinovkain Donetsk area. Pilots Vladislav Levchukand Maxim Fedorov were killed. Anotherloss occurred on Monday, December 19near the village of Tonenkov in Donetskarea. Two Mi-8 helicopters were flying ina column close to the ground. The camerain the rear aircraft captured the rocket hiton the leading helicopter. The thick blacksmoke billowed, and it crashed shortlyafterwards.Despite the danger the pilots of the rearaircraft turned around and landed nearthe smoking wreck to try to help its crew.They did not manage to save two crewmembers – Lt. Col. Oleksandr Zubatchand Lt. Col. Vladislav Gulov perished. TwoRussian helicopters were reportedly de-stroyed. They were Ka-52, a type that hassuffered severe losses during the Ukrai-nian war. The first one was destroyed byDnipro AA rocket brigade on Sunday, De-cember 4. The Russian crew made a fatalmistake to fly at fairly high altitude. Afterthe rocket hit, they exploded and had nochance for survival. The kill was capturedon video which also showed the secondRussian helicopter which however flewsignificantly lower and therefore escapedthe fire.Another Ka-52 bort number “yellow23” was hit on Monday, December 20. Itsupposedly fell victim to the Pancir-S1system’s friendly fire. In this case ho-wever the crew survived. Yet another vi-deo surfaced showing the destruction ofthe third Ka-52. It seems to date back toMarch from the vicinity of Kiev and cap-tured the helicopter after its emergencylanding which the Russian soldiers blewup rather than let it be captured by theUkrainian troops. Besides these helico-pter losses the aforementioned Tu-95and T-22M were damaged at the strategicbombers’ bases. On Sunday, December 4south of Bachmut a Su-24M, bort number“blue 48” and marking RF-93798 was de-stroyed. Both pilots, the Wagner’s Groupmercenaries, were killed.The Russian Defense Ministry has published a series of photos of soldiers with the Mi-8 helicopter.Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Fedorov (pictured) was killed along with First Lieutenant Vladislav Levchuk on December11 in a Mi-8. Note the message to Putin in the window of the helicopter and the machine gun mounted in its nose.HISTORYINFO Eduard25February 2023Page 26
Rabaul on New Britain in the South Pacificwas occupied by Japanese in early 1942 andfor the next two years it became a key basefor naval, air and ground units during theircampaigns in the Solomon Islands and NewGuinea. It was so heavily defended that theAllies decided to neutralize it and not wastetheir forces in capturing it. At the end of 1943its fighter protection was provided by Zeropilots from Kōkūtai 201, 204 and 253.On November 1, 1943, the Allies began landingat Cape Torokina north of Empress AugustaBay on the west coast of Bougainville Island.Their mission was to establish air bases clo-ser to Rabaul. The Japanese were preparedfor this risk and therefore sent reinforce-ments to Rabaul in the form of cruisers anddestroyers as well as air units from the air-craft carriers Shōkaku, Zuikaku and Zuihō.The Americans were first unsuccessfullyattacked by airmen from the carrier units,and at night two heavy cruisers, two lightcruisers, and six destroyers sailed to theisland. Behind them, vessels with Japane-se reinforcements followed. A night battleoccurred in Empress Augusta Bay in whichseveral warships collided, and the Japaneselost one light cruiser and one destroyer, twocruisers were damaged, and two destroy-ers suffered heavy damage. The Americanscame out of the battle in better shape, withdamage to one cruiser and one destroyer.The Americans scheduled a raid on Rabaulfor Tuesday, November 2, 1943. The low-alti-tude attack by 75 Mitchells from the 3rd, 38thand 345th BG was escorted by 70 Lightningsfrom the 8th, 49th and 475th FG. The figh-ters were commanded by Gerald Johnson ofthe 9th FS and his deputy, future America'smost successful fighter pilot, Dick Bong. TheLiberator crews were tasked to conduct theirraid at the same time, but due to bad wea-ther, some heavies and part of their escortreturned to New Guinea. While planning theattack, the Americans had no informationabout the reinforcements that had arrivedin Rabaul, nor did they take into account thatthe warships would return after the night ba-ttle off Bougainville. They were thus headinginto deadly trap.The bombers approached Rabaul from thenortheast and passed over the target be-tween the volcanoes of Tovanudatir andKomvur. Two P-38 squadrons were the firstto attack Lakunai airfield, but far from sur-prising the Japanese, they were instead en-gaged by about a hundred Zeros. The indivi-dual gunship squadrons attacked airfieldsand vessels at Rabaul about a minute apart.There the defenders were surprised, butgunners on shore and on ships quickly ope-ned fire. The defence was led by the heavycruisers Haguro and Myoko. The Japanesealso fired large calibres into the water tothreaten the low-flying bombers with highgeysers.All hell broke loose over the bay, the air wasfilled with flak explosions and falling ma-chines. The bombers trying to fly below thelevel of the cruisers' decks to escape theirfire were also attempting to avoid the watergeysers. Piotr Forkasiewicz captured thisphase of the battle on the boxart. The aircraft2-163 probably belonged to Hikōtaichō of 201.Kōkūtai, Lt. Cdr. Shirō Kawai. However, he didnot participate in this action and unit´s for-mation was led by Lt.(jg) Yoshio Ôba.Some Zeros chased the B-25s during theirretreat, but the Japanese pilots avoidedattacking from the front because they fearedthe gunships' armament. Some Japanese pi-lots apparently ran out of ammunition, flewalongside the Mitchells for a while, then sa-luted and took off.The Japanese lost fourteen Zeros and ninepilots, and six more fighters were destroy-ed in collisions during takeoff. The Japanesereported 119 aircraft shot down, 22 of themprobably. The American side also inflated itsreports, with fighters and bombers claiming55 Zeros shot down. The exact damage toJapanese vessels is still disputed, but afterthis attack the Japanese abandoned anothernaval attack on Bougainville.The Americans lost 11 Mitchells and 9Lightnings, many more were damaged.Most of the P-38s were shot down in fighterengagements, while a large number of B-25swas shot down by flak. Due to these losses,November 2, 1943, was nicknamed “BlackTuesday”. Major Raynold H. Wilkins of the8th BS, 3rd BG was posthumously awardedthe Medal of Honor for his attack on one ofthe cruisers and his courage in leading hisformation.BOXART STORY #82214Text: Jan BobekIllustration: Piotr ForkasiewiczBlack TuesdayINFO Eduard26February 2023Page 27
#84154BOXART STORYSquadron Leader Henry Maxwell GibbesDSO, DFC & BAR and OAM was one of Austra-lia's top fighter pilots. Due to his stout build,Bobby Gibbes was known as “the barrel thatwalks”. As commander of No. 3 Sq RAAF heachieved 10.25 victories in MTO. His oppo-nents included not only German and Italianpilots, but a Vichy France’s pilot. who foughtfor Vichy France. He left his command post inApril 1943 after completing 274 combat sor-ties. Gibbes was eager to pilot the Mosquitoand flew 25 hours, because he was to be-come commander of the RAAF's night fighterNo. 464 Sq. Instead, however, he was trans-ferred to Australia as Chief Flying Instructorto No. 2 OTU. He returned to combat servicein October 1944 as deputy of legendary CliveCaldwell, commander of No. 80 Wing RAAF.At that time the Wing consisted of No. 452and 457 Sq RAAF both armed with SpitfiresMk.VIII. In December 1944, parts of the Wingwere gradually moved to the island of Moro-tai in the northern part of present-day Indo-nesia. Gibbes did not take part in this trans-fer, having suffered burns in an emergencylanding at Sattler airfield on 5 December. Butevery cloud has its silver lining, at the hospi-tal he met a nurse he courted for two weeks,and their wedding took place at the end ofJanuary 1945Morotai Island was important to the Alliedadvance into the Philippines. Therefore, inmid-September 1944, American and Aus-tralian troops had made a landing there. Thesmall Japanese garrison, outnumbered 1:100,was pushed into the less important parts ofthe island. Work began immediately on thetwo main airfields, which were completed inOctober. The Japanese, however, would notsurrender and the fighting didn’t stop beforethe end of the war. In the months followingthe landings, Japanese airmen conducteda series of night raids on the island, for whichAllied fighter units found virtually no effecti-ve defence. Japanese bombers destroyed ordamaged over 70 aircraft.Caldwell's Spitfires at Morotai encounteredenemy aircraft only once. The pilots had toattack insignificant ground targets on the su-rrounding islands. As a result, in the attackon the Philippines, the Australian airmenremained aside from the main war zone,and it led to their growing frustration. Theywere not happy with the deployment of theirhigh-altitude Spitfires in the role of strafer.Nevertheless, they tried to suggest modi-fications that would make this role easier.However, some of these were rejected.Work to prepare facilities for Australi-an troops on Morotai Island was not go-ing ideally either. American engineer unitswere in charge, but the pace was very slow.So, Caldwell and Gibbes decided to speedup the work with illegal supplies of alcohol.However, they were denounced and bothofficers were court-martialed and reducedin rank.Gibbes rejoined the unit in March 1945after recovering and flew 44 combat sortiesagainst isolated Japanese positions. Duringone of these, on 4 April, he was wounded inan attack on Ternate Island. Anti-aircraft gunfire hit the Spitfire's starboard radiator, ma-chine-gun hits damaged the port wing andseveral splinters struck Gibbs' right thigh.Gibbes later recalled that he saw no purposein these combat operations. He even stoppedseeing the point of continuing to serve in theAir Force. He especially disliked shooting atcattle. He had previously worked on a farmand shooting at animals with a Spitfire lite-rally made him sick.He was not alone with these feelings on Mo-rotai and so he joined Caldwell and six otherofficers in an unprecedented move in RAAFhistory. Together they submitted their re-signations with a postponement until afterthe fighting was over. The command tried tosweep the matter under the carpet, not wi-lling to address the issues, and wanted topersuade the officers to withdraw their re-signations. This motivated the mutineers tochange the validity of the resignations to im-mediate. Eventually, this led to an inspectionfrom Australia. This resulted in the replace-ment of part of the 1st Tactical Air Force com-mand, the correction of problems, and a gra-dual improvement in morale. Bobby Gibbeswas later reinstated to the rank of SquadronLeader and left RAAF in 1946. His civilian airlife was no less colourful than his wartimeservice. In 1994, he published a biographicalbook, You Live But Once.Text: Jan BobekIllustration: Antonis KarydisMorotai MutinyINFO Eduard27February 2023Page 28
BOXART STORY #7467In the first half of 1944, the Luftwaffe com-mand decided to reinforce fighter units inWestern Europe. The number of Staffeln ina particular fighter Gruppe was increasedfrom three to four. Therefore, some fighterGruppen in other theatres had to select oneStaffel and send it to the West. Hence I./JG 51“Mölders”, fighting on the Eastern Front withBf 109 Gs, had to send its 2. Staffel, which thuscame under the command of IV. Sturm/JG 3“Udet”in June 1944. The commander of this unitwas Major Wilhelm Moritz. It was one of thethree Sturmgruppen in the Defense of the Re-ich, designed to attack bomber formations atclose range. For this purpose, it was rearmedin May from Messerschmitt Bf 109s to heavilyarmoured Fw 190 A-8/R2s (and a few A-7s).At the same time one of its three Staffelnwas disbanded and replaced by Sturmstaffel1, which specialized in such attacks. Its newlyadded Staffel, 2./JG 51, was getting familiarwith Focke-Wulfs throughout June. In August,it was formally redesignated 16. Sturm/JG 3.For the first time, IV. Sturm/JG 3 entered com-bat as Sturmjäger unit on July 7, 1944. With 44aircraft from Stab and four Staffeln, the unitmanaged to attack an unescorted Liberatorformation at Oschersleben, shooting down 19of them during the three-minute battle. As aresult of this engagement, the 492nd BG hadto be disbanded.Moritz and his four Staffeln with 45 armou-red machines made a similar attack overStarnberger See on July 18, 1944. Top co-ver was to be provided by Focke-Wulfs from2./JG 51 under Oblt. Haase. The Germans wereable to attack a B-17 formation from the 483rdBG that was also unescorted. In the ensuingfight, 14 bombers were shot down. The Ameri-can unit received a Distinguished Unit Citationfor its valiant defense. Oblt. Haase, however,disobeyed Moritz's order and instead of pro-tecting his colleagues, ordered his 2./JG 51to attack the bombers as well. The Mustangsthat arrived at the scene of the bloody en-counter punished this mistake severely andthe result was 12 Focke-Wulfs shot down andan equal number of pilots killed or wounded.In the following weeks the number of aircraftthat IV. Sturm/JG 3 deployed into combat wasreduced in most cases to between 10 and 20.Similar events happened on August 23, 1944,when 17 fighter planes took off under Mori-tz´s command from Schongau airfield againstbombers of the 15th Air Force targeting fuelproduction plants in Blechhammer (Bla-chownia Śląska) and Odertal (Zdzieszowice),as well as aviation and industrial plants inand around Vienna. In total the Germans sent96 fighters against that raid, but only 50 ofthem made contact with the enemy. The alliedescort fighters shot down seven Focke-Wulfsfrom II. Sturm/JG 300 and the only significantsuccess was scored by Moritz's Sturmgruppe.At first his unit joined the JG 300 formation,which drew attention of the US fighters. ButIV. Sturm/JG 3 then avoided the escort andsouth-west of Vienna it attacked 24 Libera-tors of the 451st BG, which were flying, wit-hout escort, a north-westerly course to theirtarget, Markersdorf airfield. The bombers tookup a tight formation to make it dangerous forthe Germans to attack at close range. A deadlystruggle ensued, taking place at an altitude of6000 mètres on a route of sixty kilometresapproximately between the towns of Nass-wald and Kilb. Moritz and his fighters claimedthe downing of nine bombers within three mi-nutes, and nine actually crashed. The otherswere badly damaged. The commander of theAmerican unit, Col. Robert E. L. Eaton repor-ted that about forty fighters attacked themextremely aggressively, making expert useof the dense cloud cover before the attacks.The Germans attacked in groups of six to tenmachines in a very aggressive, almost suici-dal manner. Some of the Liberators were sobadly hit that they disintegrated in mid-air. Thepicture of the burning Liberator “Extra Joker”just before its explosion is one of the most fa-mous photographs in aviation history. Its co-mmander, 1st Lt Kenneth A Whiting, was killedwith his entire crew.Sixteen 451st BG aircraft got over the targetand managed to hit Markersdorf airfield. Forthis action the unit received a Unit Citationfrom the commander of the 15th Air Force,Maj. Gen. Twinning, stating among other factsthat the gunners shot down or damaged 29enemy aircraft. Certainly, five pilots of the 15.and 16. Sturm/JG 3 were shot down, killed orremained missing, to which must probably beadded three other machines that were da-maged. During the fighting over Europe, the451st BG lost 112 crews over enemy territo-ry. The fight over the foothills of the Alps onAugust 23, 1944, was one of the heaviest.Text: Jan BobekIllustration: Piotr ForkasiewiczMarkersdorf RaidINFO Eduard28February 2023Page 29
BOXART STORY#8136He’s still in bed when the phone rings. “Sir,north of the forest at Villers-Cotterets,a French Breguet is directing enemy artilleryfire. Its effects are devastating!” He quicklynotes the area on the map and then repliescurtly into the phone, “We’ll be there in a mi-nute!”Off duty, he should have been allowed to sle-ep, but needs must. He looks at his watch.It’s not even 0730! But all the other pilotshave left for the morning patrol, so it’s upto him. In five minutes, he’s ready. The me-chanic is fluttering about his new FokkerD.VII. Jasta 4, which he leads now, was thelast of the whole JG I to get these beasts onJune 13, just a fortnight ago. He picked oneof them, had its fuselage, upper wing andelevator painted red, while the nose waspainted black and, following the example ofKirschstein’s Fokker Dr.I, which he also usedfor a short time, the upper wing was decora-ted with white stripes. After the letters “Lo”,accompanied by an exclamation mark, hadbeen painted on the sides of the fuselage asusual, the work was almost complete. Butsomething was still missing. A short me-ssage to anyone who might want to get himdown. He had already made up his mind andthe words “Du doch nicht!!” were added onthe elevator.He jumps into the cockpit, settles in, spraysfuel, turns on the magneto, moves the stickto check the controls clearance. The me-chanic turns the propeller twice, and by thethird time the whole plane shakes with thefirst revs of the nose engine. A minute later,he takes off.He heads for the front, his eyes searching forthe enemy. It doesn’t take long. There it is!North of the forest, about 600 meters up. Hedoesn’t waste time and immediately attacksfrom behind. He’s got to be careful, the twinmachine-guns of the Breguet could reallymess him up. He’s keeping level and sits ri-ght behind. The French observer would sho-ot his own rudder off if he tried anything! Hepulls the breeches of his machine guns andfires a short burst. The head behind the ma-chine guns disappears. Did he hit him? Lookslike it. But the French pilot is not about togive his skin cheap and maneuvers violently.He takes a sharp descend turn and tries toescape towards friendly territory.Now, he’s attacking from the side, whichwould normally be risky. But now there’s no-body behind the Breguet’s guns. He is perha-ps only twenty meters from the French air-craft when suddenly the observer reappearsbehind them! And it’s bad! The first flashescome from the guns, and he can literally feelthe projectiles passing close by. Then hisFokker jolts upwards and there is an abruptdrop in the feedback of the control stick.The rods, leading to the elevator, were cutby enemy shots and the aircraft gets out ofcontrol within second. Worse still, the rudderwas also hit and badly damaged! The Fokkerturns and circles while the Breguet escapes.The combat took him over the enemy positi-ons. He must make it back to friendly terri-tory! But how? An idea emerges. Wheneverthe nose begins to turn in the direction of fri-endly positions, he pushes the throttle. Morepower widens the turn and that takes hima little bit further in the desired direction.He repeats this over and over again. The pro-gress is slow, but he keeps it. The Germanpositions are within reach already, whensuddenly the Fokker banks sharply and goesviolently into a dive. There’s no time to lose!He crouches, pushes his feet on the edgeof the seat and hurls himself from thecockpit.A blast of air hits him in the chest and throwshim straight into the damaged rudder, whichcatches on a loose strap of the parachuteharness. He is trapped in the wildest ride ofhis life! He’s trying to get rid of the half-shotrudder, but in vain, the ground is closing. Hisbeloved Lo in tears flashes through his mind... Snap! The rudder loosens and the strapslips from its grasp. “It’s too late,” he thinks.But then something jerks him upwards.The parachute has opened! A second fliesby, maybe two, and he hits the ground hard.Pain shoots from ankle of Ernst Udet to hisentire leg. He lies there, breathing deeply.Artillery fire rumbles around him and oneshell explodes so close that a lump of dirtfalls on him. He must get out! Struggling fora moment with the pile of white silk, he isfinally free. His heart skipping, he makeshis way to the nearby firing positions of theGerman artillery. It’s not over, he’s escapeddeath again. Du doch nicht!!!Text: Richard PlosIllustration: Adam ToobyYou won’t get me!INFO Eduard29February 2023Page 30
BOXART STORY #8203Zerstörergeschwader 1, known as Wespen(wasps) or Wespengeschwader due to thepainting on the bows of its MesserschmittBf 110s, derived its origins from the pre-warJG 132 “Richthofen”. The Richthofen tradi-tion was maintained by the unit, althoughits designation was gradually changed toZG 141, ZG 1 and later to SKG 210.ZG 1 was re-established in Lechfeld in Ja-nuary 1942. At that time, Stab, I. and II./SKG210 specialized in the deployment of Bf 110sas fighter-bombers. At the same time, thenewly established III./ZG 1 was armed withMesserschmitt Bf 109 E.The entire Geschwader moved to Belgorod,Russia at the end of May 1942 as part of VIII.Fliegerkorps, commanded by Gen. Feldm.Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, a cousinof the well-known Manfred. ZG 1 was notinvolved in the fighting in the Crimea, butwas deployed in the direction of Taganrog,Rostov and Krasnodar. The main task ofits airmen was to support ground troops.It attacked supply columns, bridges, flakand field artillery positions and attacked in-fantry groups and armoured vehicles at thefront. In doing so, Bf 110 crews used power-ful nose armament and bombs, most of-ten of 250 and 50 kg caliber. The preferredmethod of bombing was the steep descent,which the crews called Sturzflug (dive fli-ght). The 110s came to be known as "flyingartillery". Between June and August 1942,the worst enemy of the ZG 1 pilots was theSoviet anti-aircraft defences. During thisperiod, I./ZG 1 lost 19 machines to their gunsand II./ZG 1 lost as many as 52. Many of thedamaged aircraft managed to return overtheir own territory with one engine.In aerial combat, the Bf 110 pilots tried totake advantage of the high speed and strongarmament in the nose. But sometimesBf 110 crews also used the so-called defen-sive ring, which they had already used in theBattle of Britain. However, there were alsolosses in combat with Soviet airmen. Andone Bf 110 was even shot down by a tank.The combat deployment of the Wasps wasextremely intense on some days. An exam-ple is August 25, 1942, during which I./ZG 1was deployed in the Kotluban area. Fromquarter to four in the morning until sixthirty in the evening (German time), Bf 110crews carried out 25 missions with a totalof 134 deployed aircraft. They dropped 79.6tons of bombs on enemy positions and de-stroyed one tank, four guns (three otherswere disabled), three tractors and sixteentrucks, and damaged dozen of others. Theyalso destroyed four towed vehicles and twosleds. A train was hit as well, and bombssevered the tracks in six places. One Bf 110was shot down by flak, its crew being killed.A boxart created years ago by our late fri-end Martin Novotný shows a crew from6./ZG 1 in combat with Polikarpov I-16. Du-ring June 1942 this Staffel lost two com-manders. First it was Hptm. Götz Baumann,who was wounded in a combat flight on9 June. His successor, Oblt. Albert Heilma-yer was shot down by flak just two dayslater. The new commander was Oblt. EgonAlbrecht (25 v., KC), a German born inBrazil.However, ZG 1 did not fight only the RedArmy. Surprisingly, its jealous rival was vonRichthofen, the commander of VIII. Flieger-korps. His HQ often found itself in a situati-on of a dynamic battlefield where it did nothave the information to deploy units effecti-vely. But the improvising ZG 1 was able tosupport very effectively the ground troops.The officers of ZG 1 also tried to get thecommand to scientifically prepare a so-lution for calibrating compasses in areaswith large quantities of iron ore. Due to thisanomaly, navigation errors and aircraft lo-sses were occurring. The unwillingness ofthe command to address this problem ledKommodore Diesing to contact scientificservices by himself and resolve the pro-blem at the unit level.Von Richthofen decided to disband the twoGruppen of ZG 1 in June 1942, but the ZG 1command discreetly contacted Göring, whowanted to maintain Richthofen Geschwaderunit's tradition. An exasperated Wolframvon Richthofen began to complicate the lo-gistics and delivery of new equipment to ZG1, but at the end of June he was transferredto command Luftflotte 4 and the situationgradually calmed down. This problem isdiscussed in detail by John J. Vasco in thesecond volume of Ian Allan Publishing'sZerstörer.Text: Jan BobekIllustration: Martin NovotnýHot wasp summerINFO Eduard30February 2023Page 31
12. ročník modelářské soutěžePANTHERS CUPHlavní téma: KDYŽ HVĚZDY TANČÍKdy: 25. 3. 2023Kde: Novoborská 2, Praha 9Další informace: www.pantherscup.czať je tou vaší hvìzda smrti,britney spears neboinsignie americkéholetectva...pøijïte nám dokázat,že ta vaše je ta nejzáøivìjší!téma letošníhoPantherscupu jekdyž hvìzdy tanèí.Page 32
#82214A6M3 Zero Type 221/48ProfiPACK edition kit of Japanese WWII naval fighterplane A6M3 Zero Type 22 in 1/48 scale. Kit representsA6M3 Zero Type 22 and 22a versions.plastic parts: Eduardmarking options: 5decals: EduardPE parts: yes, pre-paintedpainting mask: yesresin parts: noProduct pageKITS 02/2023INFO Eduard32February 2023Page 33
Lt. Cdr. Shirō Kawai, Kōkūtai 201, Rabaul air base, New Britain, September 1943c/n 3257, Kōkūtai 252, Wake Island, November 1943Lt. Usaburō Suzuki, Kōkūtai 582, Buin airfield, Ballale Island, April 1943This aircraft, with commander’s markings and factorygreen paint, was filmed for a Japanese newsreel pub-lished in October 1943. Some Japanese sources attributethis machine to Lt. Cdr. Kawai, who was serving as Hi-kōtaichō at Kōkūtai 201 at the time. In the second half of1943, the markings of fighter units at Rabaul changed, andnumerals ranging from 1 to 9 began to be used, the assign-ment of which to individual units has not yet been reliablydetermined. Aircraft with these markings are unofficiallyassigned to a combat group called Rabauru Kōkūbuntai(Rabaul Air Force). One of the theories assumes the nu-merical codes identified parts of the fighter units opera-ting in Rabaul at the time. These were Kōkūtai 201 (codedesignations 1 to 3), Kōkūtai 204 (4 to 6) and Kōkūtai 253(7 to 9). Shirō Kawai graduated from the Naval Academy inMarch 1937 and was a veteran of 12. Kōkūtai from fightingin China. His most successful period was in 1942 as leaderof part of 4. Kōkūtai and later Tainan Kōkūtai. He servedwith Kōkūtai 201 from early 1943. The unit was deployedto Bougainville and Rabaul from July, but Kawai flew veryfew combat sorties. In October 1944 he was assigned toHikōtai 308 as part of Kōkūtai 221. He remained missingafter aerial combat on December 24 near Clark Field, Phi-lippines. He bailed out in mountains but was apparentlykilled by guerrillas. After WWII it was revealed that Kawaigave order to execute Allied prisoners in February 1942 atManus Island.The wreckage of this aircraft was found on Wake Islandwhen it was captured by American forces in September1945. This base fell into Japanese hands in December 1941after valiant resistance by the defenders. Kōkūtai 252was formed in late 1942 from the Genzan Kōkūtai fightersquadron and participated in the fighting over Guadal-canal. In February 1943, it moved to Micronesia and thepart of it based at Wake Island was under the commandof Lt. Yūzō Tsukamoto and later Lt. Suhō. Their pilots wereinvolved in sporadic engagements with American B-24bombers, but the unit suffered heavy losses on October 5,1943 during the Task Force 14 attack on Wake Atoll. Ame-ricans were engaged by 26 Zeroes, but 16 were lost withtheir pilots. The Japanese claimed ten victories and theAmerican side lost six aircraft. According to Kōkūtai 252records, c/n 3257 was to be redesignated from tail codeY2-157 to 52-150 in early November 1943. Photographs,however, indicate that only the individual aircraft num-ber was changed. By mid-November, this Zero no longerappears on the Kōkūtai 252 equipment list. The unit wasdestroyed in early 1944 during the fighting in the MarshallIslands. The air raid on October 5 caused considerable da-mage to the technical facilities and aircraft at Wake base.A Japanese naval officer, fearing an anticipated landing,ordered the execution of the remaining 98 prisoners. Afterthe war, he and his subordinate were sentenced to death.This originally grey machine was partially repainted in fieldconditions with dark green paint. The pilot of this machineis said to have been Lieutenant Suzuki. The aircraft is shownin a photograph taken at the airfield during Operation I-gō.Unfortunately, the tail number was retouched by the censor.The numbers 191 and 182 are only hypothetical variants andare derived from the principle of dividing the unit into for-mations of nine machines. The machine with two chevronswith a photographic evidence of the tail code bore the num-ber 173. Kōkūtai 582 was a mixed unit, armed with both A6Mfighters and D3A Val bombers. Usaburō Suzuki graduatedfrom the Naval Academy in August 1940. Two years later hewas assigned to the 3. Kōkūtai (later Kōkūtai 202) and sawcombat over New Guinea and Guadalcanal. With Kōkūtai 582as Buntaichō of its fighter squadron, he led pilots in a seriesof battles in mid 1943 during the defence of Bougainville.He also commanded in the last action, on July 12, afterwhich Kōkūtai 582's fighter squadron was disbanded andSuzuki was transferred to Kōkūtai 204. In November 1943 hebecame Hikōtaichō in Kōkūtai 265, which had been deploy-ed in the Marianas area since the spring of 1944 and wasdisbanded in July after heavy losses. He then became com-mander of Hikōtai 301 within Kōkūtai 201 (II) and was killedin action off Taiwan on October 13, 1944.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard33February 2023Page 34
Iwakuni Kōkūtai, Iwakuni airbase, Japan, 1944Kōkūtai 261 (Tora), Kagoshima airbase, Japan, 1944This machine was manufactured with factory applied darkgreen color on upper surfaces. The markings of this trai-ning unit are the Katakana characters "I" and "Ha". TheIwakuni Kōkūtai was established in July 1940 and wasused to train pilots for naval units operating from landbases until August 1944. It was then disbanded and re--established in March 1945. Fighter aces Akio Matsuba (18victories), Momoto Matsumura (13 v.) or veteran of the air-craft carrier veteran Sōryū Ki-ichi Oda (9 v.) passed throu-gh its ranks as instructors. Hiroshi Shibagaki came throu-gh the unit as a student pilot, achieving thirteen victoriesin Rabaul with Kōkūtai 201 and 204. Another successfulgraduate became a Lt.(jg) Kagemitsu Matsu-o. In August1943, he was assigned to Rabaul to Kōkūtai 253 and, withmore than ten kills to his credit, became the only NavalReserve officer to achieve ace status.The machine was manufactured with factory painted darkgreen paint on the upper surfaces. Kōkūtai 261 was esta-blished in June 1943 at Kagoshima Air Base, Japan, andwas given the battle name Tora (Tiger) and was also refe-rred to as Tora Butai. The identifying feature of its aircraftwas the numerical code 61, or Kanji character for tiger.Its design varied from machine to machine. At the endof February 1944 unit moved to Iwo Jima and later wentthrough heavy combat with US Navy airmen, primarily inCentral Pacific. Unit also operated briefly from Biak Islandnorth of New Guinea. By May 1944, its aircraft strengthwas already reduced to half, and in July the unit had tobe disbanded due to high casualties. Some of the remai-ning members of the unit were killed in ground combat oraboard a submarine during the evacuation. The position ofHikōtaichō was held by Lieutenant Masanobu Ibusuki, whoparticipated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battleof Midway on the aircraft carrier Akagi and served on theaircraft carrier Shōkaku during the fighting in the SouthPacific. It is possible that Ibusuki achieved 25 to 30 aerialvictories during the war. After the war, he became the firstJSDAF unit commander with F-86 Sabre jets, reaching therank of Lieutenant Colonel, but was killed in January 1957in a collision with another F-86.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard34February 2023Page 35
Recommended:for A6M3 Zero Type 22 1/48481091 A6M3 Zero landing flaps (PE-Set)481092 A6M3 Zero (PE-Set)644185 A6M3 LööK (Brassin)644189 A6M3 Zero LööKplus (Brassin)648695 A6M undercarriage legs BRONZE (Brassin)648786 A6M3 seat PRINT (Brassin)648787 A6M3 tailwheel PRINT (Brassin)648788 A6M3 cannon barrels & cockpit guns PRINT (Brassin)648799 A6M3 wheels (Brassin)648800 A6M3 cockpit PRINT (Brassin)648801 A6M3 exhausts PRINT (Brassin)648806 A6M3 Type 22 folding wingtips PRINT (Brassin)648807 A6M3 Type 22 landing flaps PRINT (Brassin)648808 A6M wheels w/smooth tire (Brassin)3DL48088 A6M3 SPACE (3D Decal Set)EX899 A6M3 Zero TFace (Mask)Cat. No. 3DL48088Cat. No. 644189Cat. No. 648800Cat. No. 648806Cat. No. 644185Cat. No. 648695KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard35February 2023Page 36
HIND ELimited edition kit of Soviet attack helicopter Mil Mi-24Vand Mi-35 in 1/48 scale. Focused on aircraft usedby Czechoslovak and Czech Air Forces.plastic parts: Zvezdamarking options: 8decals: EduardPE parts: yes, pre-paintedpainting mask: yesresin parts: yes, wheels, flares dispensers, GPS antennaeextra: a pictorial book about Mi-24V and Mi-35 servicein the Czechoslovak and Czech Air ForcesProduct page#111631/48KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard36February 2023Page 37
Mi-24V, 7353, kpt. Tomáš Brom, npor. Hynčica, prap. Tisoň, 221 Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou,The Last Flight of the „Night Tiger“, May 27, 2015Mi-24V, 0834, mjr. Bohuslav Dvořák, kpt. Jan Jiřík, pprap. Viliam Švacho, 2 Squadron,11 Helicopter Regiment, Líně airfield, CIAF Hradec Králové, July 17, 1993Mi-24V, 0815, kpt. Rudolf Straka, npor. Martin Vaniš, kpt. Ondřej Pospíšil, 331 Attack HelicopterSquadron, 33 Helicopter Base, Přerov, NATO Tiger Meet, Beja, Portugal, Jun 28 – July 9, 2002KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard37February 2023Page 38
Mi-35, 3370, 221 Helicopter Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou,RIAT Fairford, United Kingdom, July 14–16, 2015Mi-24V 0786, mjr. Bohuslav Dvořák, kpt. Richard Plos, nrtm. Petr Vavrík, 2 Squadron,11 Helicopter Regiment, Plzeň-Bory airfield, CSIAF Bratislava, Slovakia, September 5, 1992Mi-24V, 0837, pplk. Jaroslav Špaček, npor. Pavel Heřman, kpt. Radek Spáčil, 231 Attack HelicopterSquadron, 23 Helicopter Base, Přerov, the last flight, route Přerov–Želátovice, December 12, 2005KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard38February 2023Page 39
Mi-24V 0786, mjr. Bohuslav Dvořák, kpt. Richard Plos, nrtm. Petr Vavrík, 2 Squadron,11 Helicopter Regiment, Plzeň-Bory airfield, CSIAF Bratislava, Slovakia, September 5, 1992Mi-35, 3361, 221 Helicopter Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou,NATO Tiger Meet, Cambrai-Épinoy, France, May 9–20, 2011Mi-24V, 0835, 331 Attack Helicopter Squadron, 33 Helicopter Base, Přerov, March, 2002DECAL detailKITS 02/2023INFO Eduard39February 2023Page 40
BOOKKITS 02/2023INFO Eduard40February 2023Page 41
Recommended:for HIND E 1/48FE1098 Mi-24V seatbelts STEEL (PE-Set)644059 Mi-24V LööK (Brassin)644085 Mi-24V LööKplus (Brassin)648126 OFAB-100 Soviet bombs (Brassin)648574 UB-32A-24 rocket launcher (Brassin)648585 Mi-24V/VP Pitot tubes (Brassin)648587 Mi-24V 9A624 machine gun (Brassin)648696 Mi-24V cockpit (Brassin)ER48001 Mi-24V positive rivets & surface details (Eddie The Riveter)3DL48001 Mi-24V SPACE (3D Decal Set)Cat. No. 644059Cat. No. 648696Cat. No. ER48001Cat. No. 648587KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard41February 2023Page 42
Spitfire Mk.VIIIWeekend edition kit of British WWII fighter plane SpitfireMk.VIII in 1/48 scale. The kit is focused on on Spitfires fightingover Italy, Burma and in RAAF over New Guinea.plastic parts: Eduardmarking options: 4decals: EduardPE parts: nopainting mask: noresin parts: no#841541/48Product pageKITS 02/2023INFO Eduard42February 2023Page 43
MT775, S/Ldr Neville F. Duke, No. 145 Squadron, Loreto, Italy, July–September 19441Lt. Leland P. Molland, 308th FS, 31st FG, Castel Volturno, Italy, December 1943–February 1944MT507, F/O Len A. Smith, No. 152 Squadron, Sinthe, Burma, March 1945Neville Frederik Duke, native of Turnbridge in Kent,joined RAF in June 1940 when he was eighteen yearsold. After he completed his pilot training in Februa-ry 1941, he was assigned to No. 92 Squadron wherehe scored his first two kills. Frequently he flew asa wingman to famous “Sailor“ Malan, commanderof the Biggin Hill’s Wing. In October 1941 Duke wasdispatched to North Afrika to No. 122 Squadron flyingTomahawks and Kittyhawks where he scored anotherfour kills. He started his second tour of duty againwith No. 92 Squadron which was transferred to theAfrican continent and received “tropical“ SpitfiresMk.Vb. In the course of several months Duke scorefurther fourteen victories. In March 1944 he assumedcommand of No. 145 Squadron equipped with SpitfiresMk.VIII and till the end of September he was credi-ted with another six victories. In the role of No. 145Squadron commander Duke flew three personal Spit-fires Mk.VIII. Their serial numbers were JG241, JG953and MT775. All those three Spitfires carried ZX-Jcodes painted in Deep Sky outlined in white. His lastSpitfire s/n MT775 carried No. 145 Squadron insigniaon both sides of the engine cowling. Unfortunatellyphotograph of the starboard side has not known yetbut most likely, same as on his previous Spitfires, thevictory markings were painted on the port side underthe windshield. Neville Duke finished the conflictwith 28 kills and became the most successful MTOpilot. After his return to Europe he continued flying asa chief test pilot for the Hawker company.Leland Phillips “Tommy“ Molland was born on May 7, 1919in Chaffie, North Dakota. He completed his pilot trainingat Moore Field in Texas and on July 5, 1943 was attachedto 31st FG. He achieved his first success as a fighter piloton January 16, 1944, when he managed to shoot downone Bf 109 in cooperation. Another two kills quickly fo-llowed. On February 22, 1944 he became an ace havingshot down two Bf 109. At the same time he became oneof the most successful Spitfire Mk.VIII pilots. When in theend of March 1944 the 31st FG converted to P-51 Mus-tangs he continued flying combat missions and shotdown another six enemy aircraft. After the war Mollandremaind in the Air Force service and was promoted toLt. Colonel. But on May 16, 1951 he tragically lost his lifein Korea. Flying T-33 under the marginal weatherconditions he struck terrain returning from themeteorological reconnaissance over the enemy terri-tory.In 1943 Len Smith served as a sargeant with No. 152Squadron operating over Tunisia, Sicily and SouthernItaly. He scored four kills for which he was awardedDFM. Before his squadron’s transfer to Burmese frontin November he was promoted to Flying Officer. In theend of 1944 he was credited with a confirmed kill ofKi-43 and became an ace. His kill was one of onlythree Japanese aircraft destroyed credited to No. 152Squadron during the fighting in the Burmese theater.In the spring of 1945 Smith completed his tour of dutywith this unit and returned to the Great Britain. Sadly,shortly afterwards he was killed in a flying accident.His Spitfire, which he flew in the beginning of 1945,sported the fuselage nose painted white contrary tothe regulations on SEAC aircraft white quick recogni-tion markings. The propeller spinner was decoratedwith black chevrons painted at the propeller blades‘bases. The unit insignia, leaping black panther, waspainted on the fuselage port side.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard43February 2023Page 44
A58-602, W/Cdr Robert H. M. Gibbes, No. 80 Wing, Sattler airfield,Australia, December 1944–April 1945Bobby Gibbes, nicknamed “A Walking Barrel“ by hisfellow pilots due to his short body complexion, wasone of the most renowned Australian pilots and achie-ved one unusual sussess by shooting down aircraftof three different Axis nations i.e. German, Italy VichyFrance. He scored 12 victories in total. Gibbes‘ Spitfi-re Mk.VIII A58-602 retained the factory camouflage,the Australian national insignia were complementedby RG-V codes and Grey Nurse inscription. Both werepainted in Sky Blue. It was a very light blue color usedby RAAF. Its application on the code letters was intro-duced in January 1943. Originally white tail surfaceswere overpainted with Foliage Green on the top andsides, the undersides were painted Sky Blue. Ace ofSpades on Gibbes aircraft’s rudder was painted upsidedown. Kill markings, depicting Gibbes‘ victories scoredin MTO flying with No. 3 Squadron RAAF, were paintedbelow the canopy. The quick recognition markings –white wing leading edge – appeared on the Austra-lian Spitfires for the first time in the middle of 1943and No. 80 Fighter Wing adopted the practice. Duringits service Gibbes‘ Spitfire carried two different sharkmouths. Later version, with wide mouth is portrayedin this profile.Recommended:for Spitfire Mk.VIII 1/4849708 Spitfire Mk.VIII (PE-Set)FE746 Spitfire Mk.VIII Weekend (PE-Set)648099 Spitfire exhaust stacks fishtail (Brassin)648115 Spitfire wheels - 4 spoke (Brassin)648118 Spitfire wheels - 4 spoke w/pattern (Brassin)648120 Spitfire - radio compartment (Brassin)648199 Spitfire Mk.VIII cockpit (Brassin)648200 Spitfire Mk.VIII engine (Brassin)648201 Spitfire Mk.VIII gun bays (Brassin)648338 Spitfire Mk.VIII top cowl (Brassin)648380 Spitfire Mk.VIII / IX cockpit door (Brassin)3DL48039 Spifire Mk.VIII SPACE (3D Decal Set)D48048 Spitfire Mk.VIII over Europe (Decal Set)D48049 Spitfire Mk.VIII over Pacific (Decal Set)Cat. No. 648199Cat. No. 648115Cat. No. 648338Cat. No. 648200KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard44February 2023Page 45
Fw 190A-8/R2 1/72Weekend edition kit of German WWII fighter aircraftFw 190A-8/R2 in 1/72 scale. The kit offers Sturmbocksserved in JG 3, JG 4 and JG 300..plastic parts: Eduardmarking options: 4decals: EduardPE parts: nopainting mask: noresin parts: no#7467Product pageKITS 02/2023INFO Eduard45February 2023Page 46
WNr. 681382, Hptm. Wilhelm Moritz, Stab IV./JG 3, Schongau, Germany, August 1944WNr. 680747, Oblt. Hans Weik, CO of 10.(Sturm)/JG 3, Memmingen, Germany, June 1944Hptm. Gerhard Schröder, CO of II.(Sturm)/JG 4, Welzow, Germany, September 1944Wilhelm Moritz was born on June 29, 1913, in Hamburgand joined the German army in 1933. He was assignedto the air force and went through fighter pilot training.The beginning of the war found him flying the twin--engine Bf 110 with II./ZG 1. In the summer of 1940 hewas reassigned to 6./JG 77 and in April 1942, he servedas CO of 11./JG 1. In September 1942, he was transfe-rred to JG 51 on the Eastern Front where he wouldgo on to shoot down twenty-five aircraft. On October19, 1943, he was made Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 3. JG 3was a component of the fighter network tasked withthe defense of the Reich (Reichsverteidigung) and onApril 18, 1944, Wilhelm Moritz became the CO of its IV.Gruppe. The Gruppe specialized in the use of heavilyarmed and armored single-engine fighters againstAllied four-engine bombers. He was relieved of his co-mmand of IV. Gruppe on December 5, 1944, followinga nervous breakdown. After convalescence he tookover command of the Luftwaffe replacement trainingunit IV./EJG 1. He found his way back to a combat unitbefore the war ended, becoming CO of II./JG 4 on April18, 1945, a post he held till the end of the war. He iscredited with the downing of 44 enemy aircraft in to-tal. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on July 18, 1944.Hans Weik was born on July 6, 1922, in Heilbronn and joi-ned the Luftwaffe in October 1941. After completing trai-ning, he was assigned to JG 3 on February 21, 1943, andsent to the Eastern front where he shot down ten Sovietaircraft. From May to November he served as an instruc-tor at 4./JGr Ost and there he gained his first kill of a B-17bomber. He was subsequently transferred to 9./JG 3 andon February 10, 1944, he was promoted to CommandingOfficer position of 10. Staffel JG 3, where he achieved 23kills. Twenty of them were four-engine heavy bombers.He was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his achievementson July 27, 1944. In April 1945 he was assigned to III./EJG2, where he was retrained for Me 262. After the war, HansWeik studied architecture and was responsible for thedesign of many structures. During retirement years hededicated his time to ship modelling and died on June 5,2001, in Heidenheim an der Brenz. The aircraft flown byWeik carried the markings of IV. Gruppe JG 3, i.e., a blackengine cowl and a stylized Adlerflügel on the sides of thefuselage. The rear fuselage sports a white fuselage bandthat was common to JG 3 aircraft within the structureof the Defense of the Reich units. On these aircraft, thewave sign denoted the IV. Gruppe. The rudder carries vic-tory markings up to June 1944.The death of Obstlt. Hans-Günther von Kornatzki allowed8. Staffel CO Hptm. Gerhard Schröder to take commandof II./JG 4 on September 12, 1944. Kornatzki died in a fai-led emergency landing attempt that ended in high voltagetransmission lines. Schröder was thirty-two years old atthe time and remained Gruppe commander until the begi-nning of March 1945, when he was replaced by the curedMaj. Wilhelm Moritz. He held the post until the end of theWorld War II. Historians generally assert that the reason forthe change of the II. Gruppe command was the poor showingof the unit during Operation Bodenplatte. The aircraft wascamouflaged in the standard colors of RLM 74/75/76 andcarried the JG 4 emblem on the nose and JG 4’s Defense ofthe Reich identifier in the form of black-white-black fuse-lage bands ahead of the tail surfaces.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard46February 2023Page 47
72611 Fw 190A-8 (PE-Set)72612 Fw 190A-8 landing flaps (PE-Set)SS557 Fw 190A-8/R2 Weekend (PE-Set)672080 Fw 190A wheels late (Brassin)672081 Fw 190A-8 cockpit (Brassin)672085 Fw 190A exhaust stacks (Brassin)672086 Fw 190A propeller (Brassin)D72018 Fw 190A-8/R2 national insignia (Decal Set)Fw. Adalbert Koch, 6./JG 300, Löbnitz, Germany, fall 1944JG 300 was initially tasked with nighttime interceptionof Allied bombers headed to targets in occupied Europeas was the case with her sister unit JG 301 as well. Ho-wever, at the beginning of 1944, attention shifted to day-light operations. The II. Gruppe of the unit was formed inJuly 1943 and equipped with heavily armed and armoredFw 190A-8/R2s or R8s in the summer of 1944. It was alsodesignated as a Sturmgruppe. One of the unit’s pilots wasFw. Adalbert Koch, who in the fall of 1944 flew an aircraftwith the “yellow 15” code. The armor plating on the si-des of the fuselage carried the inscription “Titi Wau Wau”.The Defense of the Reich marking for JG 300 consisted ofa red fuselage band. By this time, very few of these air-craft retained their armored glass on the sliding portionof the canopy. The pilots generally had these removed be-cause of condensation, which formed between the glasssurfaces at high altitude, compromising visibility of thepilot.Recommended:for Fw 190A-8/R2 1/72Cat. No. 672081Cat. No. 672086Cat. No. 672085KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard47February 2023Page 48
#BFC114Weekend edition kit of German WWII fighter aircraftFw 190A-8/R2 in 1/72 scale. The kit offers Sturmbockswhich served in JG 3, JG 4 and JG 300. Bonus decals arefor captured Sturmbock (ex 5./JG 4) from 404th FG, 9th AF.plastic parts: Eduardmarking options: 4+1decals: EduardPE parts: nopainting mask: noresin parts: noextra: sprue HProduct pageCaptuRED Sturmbock1/72WNr. 681497, Lt. Col. Leo C. Moon, 404th FG, 9th AF, Sint-Truiden, Belgium, January 1945Operation Bodenplatte of January 1, 1945 was thelast hard blow to the collapsing Luftwaffe. A group ofSturmbocks from II.(Sturm)/JG 4 attacked St. Trondairfield after failing to reach their own target. Aftersustaining flak damage, the Fw 190A-8/R2 "White 11"flown by Gefr. Walter Wagner crashlanded close tothe St. Trond airfield. Subsequently, USAAF techni-cians attempted to bring the aircraft back into flyingcondition using available spare parts.Under the care of the 404th Fighter Group groundcrews, the weapons and some other unimportantcomponents were removed. The original camouf-lage was oversprayed by the all-red paint. Only theemblem of JG 4 was retained on the left side of theengine cowling. The aircraft was given the US in-signia and code OO-L. The paint was a fulfillment ofthe unit CO, Lt. Col. Leo C. Moon wishes "to have hisown red aircraft". His first name also appeared in theaircraft individual letter. The numbers painted on thevertical stabilizer reflect the date when this a/c en-tered the U.S. "inventory." The propeller and prop hubwere painted black (with yellow prop blades tips).The same applies for the upper wing root walkwa-ys and the stripes behind the exhausts, reminiscingthe Adlerflügel. The fan blades at the engine mouthwere painted yellow. Apart from the missing positionlights at the wing tips, the aircraft showed no serioussigns of damage after the American modifications.Although successful engine and taxi tests were de-monstrated, it never got into the air again.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard48February 2023Page 49
www.eduard.com/bfcBUNNY BUNNY FIGHTERFIGHTERCLUBEduard's special membership club for all modeling enthusiasts!15% Permanent Club discount at Eduard Store – you will receive permanent 15% discount on all Eduardproducts and also discount on various other non-Eduard products. Fixed, permanent, forever!Unique valuable Club kits and accessories – you will gain access to unique and nowhere else to be soldproducts, specially made for BFC members.Even better prices at Eduard events stand – do you know that Eduard usually has huge discounts ontheir products at fairs and events all over the world? BFC members will have even higher discount atthese events.Club T-shirt – you will receive fancy BFC T-shirt with unique design and special barcode(used for event discounts). This exclusive T-shirt will be only availableto the members of BFC.Free entry fee on E-day – you will not have to pay a penny to visit Eduard's E-day.That means lot of fun at E-day for two days and entry kit, absolutely free!* E-day - INTERNATIONAL SCALE KIT EXHIBITION - IPMS Czech Republic ChampionshipBOX CONTENT:Plastic parts, Marking options 6, Decal Set, PE parts, Maska, Brassinparts (two different types of wheels, landing flaps, dust filter witheyelid, intake ring and RP-3 60lb rockets), 3D decals for main and si-dewalk instrument and control panels with photo-etched details andseat belts.BOX CONTENT:Plastic parts, Marking options 4, Decal Set, PE parts, Maska, Brassinparts (undercarriage wheels, cockpit, exhaust nozzle, FOD).How to become a member of BFC?How to become a member of BFC?Simply by purchasing the Activation product. You will be given 15% discount on (almost) every Eduardproduct in your shopping cart. To apply this discount, the Activation product has to be in your shoppingcart. Activation product is excluded from this calculation.Activation products:Activation products:Tempest Mk. V + T-shirt 1/48MiG-21MF + T-shirt 1/72Page 50
#8136ProfiPACK edition kit of German WWI fighter planeFokker D.VII in 1/48 scale. Kit offers planes aircraftbuilt by OAW (Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke GmbH)factory in Johannisthall.plastic parts: Eduardmarking options: 6decals: EduardPE parts: yes, pre-paintedpainting mask: yesresin parts: noProduct pageFokker D.VII (OAW)1/48KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard50February 2023Page 51
Lt. Ernst Udet, Jasta 4, Beugneux-Cramoiselles Airfield, France, June 1918VzFlgMstr. Franz Mayer, MFJ III, Jabbeke, Belgium, September 1918Lt. Walter Blume, Jasta 9, Sissone, France, September 1918Jasta 4 received the new Fokkers D.VII on June 13, 1918. All thesewere license-built OAW aircraft. Immediately, a new unit marking,consisting of black-painted noses, wheel covers and struts, wasintroduced. This marking was certainly inspired by the black fu-selages of Jasta 37. Udet was named the acting commander ofJagdgeschwader “Von Richthofen” on June 18, and although he onlyheld this position for one day, it was probably enough to mark hisplane in a more recognizable style. The fuselage was supposedlyfully painted red, possibly as a reference to Udet’s previous servicewith Jasta 11. The wings were striped in red and white. The num-ber of stripes is usually thought to be higher than we portray here,but the famous photo of this plane is heavily retouched. Close in-spection reveals that only the stripe going through the right-wingcross is original. By comparison with another photo, shown in a TVdocumentary, we have our interpretation of the upper wing stripeslayout. The aircraft did not survive long, as it was lost on June 29.At 7:40 a.m. over the village of Cutry Udet attacked a French Bregu-et, but the observer returned fire and managed to rip the steeringlines of Udet’s Fokker with his fire and Udet had to bail out fromthe uncontrollable aircraft. The nose and wheel covers may haveretained the black Jasta 4 unit colour or they were painted red aswell. Available photos leave the possibility of both these options.Franz Mayer was credited with three or four victories during WWI,depending on the source and flew with the marine unit MFJ III(formed from the personnel of MFJ I and MFJ II on June 23, 1918).Mayer’s Fokker D.VII from the OAW production was of early-midbatch and sported attractive paint scheme of white fuselage withyellow nose and diagonal black stripes on both sides. The inte-resting feature is the fuselage cross. On well-known and goodquality photo of the plane it is quite clear the cross was of thesame color as the front of the fuselage, i.e. yellow. There is no-thing known about the reasoning behind this unusual approach,the yellow color was probably used to make the cross better vi-sible within the fuselage black stripes. Both wings were left infour-color version of the printed Flugzeugstoff, the elevator wasyellow with three black stripes denoting the MFJ III unit.Walter Blume was very interesting person not only as a WWI figh-ter, but also as the post-war aircraft designer. Born in Hirschberg(Jelenia Góra, Poland today) he was just 18 at the outbreak ofWWI and, as a member of the Jaeger battalion, was woundedearly. He decided to become a pilot afterwards and after thetraining he joined the Fliegertruppe in June 1915. After the spellwith two-seaters, he was assigned to the Jasta 26 in January1917 and started his tally of 28 aerial victories there on May 10,1917, downing an D.H.9. He had been wounded on November 29,1917, and spent three months in hospital. Returning to the actionhe was appointed CO of Jasta 9 on March 5, 1918. On October 2,1918, he was awarded Pour le Mérite and the same day he scoredhis penultimate 27th victory. After the war he became successfulaircraft designer working for Albatros and Arado and was a forcebehind the early German jets. Blume flew several D.VIIs with simi-lar marking of the black fuselage with stylized B letter. This oneD.VII from early-mid production batch had half-white top wingand the white strip on the bottom of the lower wing as the marksof his CO status.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard51February 2023Page 52
Lt. d. R. Kurt Monnington, Jasta 18, Montoy-Flanville, France, August 1918Uffz. Alfred Bäder, Jasta 65, Tichémont, France, November 1918Lt. d. R. Hans Besser, Jasta 12, Chéry-les-Pouilly, France, August 1918Kurt Monnington is well known pilot today thanks to his personalsymbol, the detailed skull, he had painted on his aircraft. He kept italso after receiving the D.VII, complementing the Jasta 18 symbol, theblack raven with it. Monnington had served with FA 62 before he wasposted to Jasta 15 in 1917. The famous Berthold´s swap of personnelbetween Jastas 15 and 18 meant that Monnington became member ofthe new Jasta 18 in March 1918 as well as all his other comrades fromformer Jasta 15. He scored his first victory on May 11, 1918, downingthe S.E.5a, which stayed as his only victory over enemy fighter. All theother victims were to be double seaters. The most interesting of hisscore of nine kills is the double-victory on August 13, 1918. Monning-ton declared pair of D.H.9s as his 5th and 6th victories, but in factthey were victims of flak fire and consequent crash. Monnington´sD.VII (OAW) was painted in the famous scheme of “new” Jasta 18 withred nose and white fuselage. Rims of the rudder and elevator hada black outline, also on the edges of the fuselage were neat blackstripes painted. Both wings were red, at least from the upper side. It isnot certain, whether the red color was applied to the bottom as well,so it is up to modeler to decide, whether to paint them, or leave themin the Flugzeugstoff (Lozenge) fabric.Alfred Bäder was born on September 20, 1893, in Tübingen, Wurt-emburg. After an injury sustained in summer 1916 with InfanterieRegiment Nr. 180, he went through pilot training and subsequentfighter pilot training at Jastaschule II, being finally assigned toJasta 65 on August 31, 1918. Less than a week later he was shotdown by a Salmson 2A2 of 91st Aero Squadron flown by 1Lt Vic-tor H. Strahm and Capt. James E. Wallis near Rembercourt. Heeventually shot down two USAAC Salmsons in a kind of revenge.The first one belonged to 99th Aero Squadron and was shot downon October 2. The second one was from 91st Aero Squadron andBäder sent it down on November 8, 1918. His wartime Fokker D.VIIfrom early OAW production sported a very colorful and complexillustration of Seven Schwabians, the group of villagers froma medieval fairy tale collected by the Grimm brothers. The sto-ry makes fun of the people from the then Duchy of Swabia, thevillagers portrayed in the tale are foolish and so they all die fi-nally. The illustration was painted on both sides of the fuselageand differed from each other. Bäder sent a photograph of thisaircraft as a postcard to his injured colleague Wilhelm Scheutzel,to whom this aircraft was wrongly attributed for many years.Hans Besser was a member of Jasta 12 by the first half of July 1918,and he stayed with them till the end of the war. It is not known whenexactly he joined the unit, nor details about his previous service.Besser was credited with two victories over American DH.4s, whichhe achieved on September 18 and 26, 1918. During the second en-counter, Besser hit the bombs of his opponent with his first burst,causing the massive explosion of the aircraft of No. 20 Aero Squad-ron at an altitude of 15,000 ft (4,500 m). The blast killed 2/Lt. D. B.Harris and 2/Lt. E. Forbes, while Besser barely avoided it. No detailsabout his post-war life are available. Besser flew at least threeFokkers D.VII with his personal broom marking. “Besen ist Besser”(meaning “broom is better”) was the saying used for his planes byhis comrades in Jasta 12. The fuselage was painted in blue withwhite nose. The wings were left in the Flugzeugstoff (Lozenge) prin-ted fabric of four-color pattern on both upper and bottom sides.Although the early batch of the OAW production, the aircraft wasalready fitted with later version of the exhaust manifold, called the“saxophone” because of its shape.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard52February 2023Page 53
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6./ZG 1, Russia, Summer 19424./NJG 1, Sint-Truiden, Belgium, February 1942Lt. Felix-Maria Brandis, 1.(Z)/JG 77, Malmi, Finland, 1942The wasp emblem (Wespe in German) was designed in theautumn of 1939 by Lt. Richard Malchfelder, a technicalofficer of one of the Zerstörergruppe (II./ZG 1). It was origi-nally composed of three small wasps and was utilized bythe same Gruppe of heavy fighters that went through se-veral designation changes (including II./SKG 210). Finally,in early 1942, it ended up as II./ZG 1. Soon, other Gruppe ofZerstörergeschwader 1 came to use the wasp emblem andtheir Geschwader carried the operational name of “Wes-pen”. This aircraft sported the RLM 74/75/76 camouflagepattern.NJG 1 was the oldest night fighter Luftwaffe unit and wasfounded by the legendary Oberst Wolfgang Falck. At the be-ginning of 1942, the unit’s II. Gruppe was led by Major WalterEhle, who kept the commanding position for over next threeyears. In 1942, the well-known night fighter Wilhelm Herget,for example, also served within the ranks of 4. Staffel II./NJG1. This “G9+JM” is interesting not only for the shark mouthmarking, but also for the temporary application of a “naval”RLM 72 green on the upper surfaces, as this plane took part inpatrol flights for Operation Donnerkeil. A quick identificationmark came in the form of a yellow fuselage band. During theoperation, the Germans managed to navigate the battleshipsScharnhorst and Gneisenau as well as the heavy cruiser PrinzEugen through the English Channel from Brest (Bretagne,France) to northern Germany. The Luftwaffe ensured uninter-rupted patrols over the formation between February 11 and 13,1942, with II./NJG 1 and II./NJG 3 tasked with cover duty duringtwilight and overnight hours. On the second day of operations,elements of both night fighter units relocated to Lister airba-se in Norway, from which the last segment of the fleet’s cruisewas covered. The unit’s detachment stayed in Norway throughto the end of February. All air to air victories during OperationDonnerkeil were achieved by day fighters of the Luftwaffe.One of the aircraft of 1.(Z)/JG 77 commander LeutnantFelix-Maria Brandis while stationed on the EasternFront. His credit count tallied 14 victories of whichfive victims were British aircraft (including a pair ofFairey Albacores) and nine Soviet ones. Lt. Brandisdied on February 2, 1942, when flying Bf 110E-2 (WNr.2546) LN+AR at Olang. He crashed on the return legof a combat sortie in bad weather conditions. By thattime, his unit had been redesignated as 6.(Z)/JG 5(January 25, 1942). The designation of the unit pro-gressively changed from 1.(Z)/JG 77 to 6.(Z)/JG 5,10.(Z)/JG 5 and 13.(Z)/JG 5. On the nose of the aircraft,there was the emblem of a dachshund with a Rata(Polikarpov I-16) in its mouth. It was a typical mar-king of this unit, as a number of these dogs weremascots of the “Dackelstaffel” through its existence,irrespective of the unit designation carried at anyparticular time. Some sources even say each crewhad their own dog. The wiener dogs even occasio-nally flew on combat missions with the crews. Theunit opposed British aircraft as well as Soviet onesin northern Europe. This aircraft, flown by Lt. HarryKripphal, fell a victim of anti-aircraft fire 30 km westof Murmansk on June 18, 1942.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard55February 2023Page 56
4./ZG 76, Sonderkommando Junck, Mosul Air Base, Iraq, May 1941Lt. Herbert Kutscha, 5./ZG 1, Soviet Union, 1942After the outbreak of the Anglo-Iraqi War, whichlasted from April 18 to May 30, 1941, the Italians andGermans gave their military support to the Iraqis.The Luftwaffe opposed the RAF with the unit namedSonderkommando Junck, which had MesserschmittBf 110 fighters, Heinkel He 111 bombers, and JunkersJu 52 transport planes in its inventory. The unit wascommanded by Oberst Werner Junck, who, during thecourse of the First World War with Jasta 8, gained fiveaerial victories. Between the wars, he was a well--known sport pilot. The Messerschmitts Bf 110 carriedIraqi national insignia but were manned by Germancrews. In fact, the aircraft in question came fromZG 76 and ZG 26. The only unit’s victory during thisepisode was achieved on May 20, 1941 by Lt. MartinDrewes (a future night fighter ace) of II./ZG 76, whenhe shot down a Gloster Gladiator flown by Sgt. Smithof A Squadron of Habbaniya Strike Force over Fallujah.Herbert Kutscha served with II./JG 77 at the beginningof the war, but he was soon transferred to 5./ZG 1 equi-pped with Messerschmitts Bf 110. During the Battle ofFrance, he shot down a number of aircraft, includinga Bf 109 of the air force of neutral Switzerland. Later,he also gained much success on the Eastern Front asa ground attack pilot, partially due to II./ZG 1 trans-formation into II./SKG 210. Kutscha’s II. Gruppe, underthe command of Hptm. Rolf Kaldrack, was specializedin ground attack operations, especially in low levelbombing. The Bf 110 was able to move faster over theenemy territory than other bombers. Here it is wherethe term “fast bombardment wing” (SKG; Schnellkam-pfgeschwader) was coined. Kutscha was awarded theKnight’s Cross after his 22nd victory. At that time therewere 41 aircraft destroyed on the ground, 41 tanks, 15locomotives, 11 anti-aircraft guns and 157 transportvehicles added to his tally. In June 1943 he took co-mmand of 15. Staffel JG 3 “Udet”, utilizing single en-gine fighters. In the summer of 1944, he took controlof II./JG 3 in Normandy and by the end of the year hechanged the unit to lead II./JG 27. From February 1945he commanded III./JG 1 on the Eastern Front. All in all,he flew over 900 sorties and achieved 47 kills, six ofwhich were four-engine heavy bombers and 22 of hiskills he achieved behind controls of Bf 110. GermanGeschwader was much bigger unit than RAF or USAAFSquadron. In fact, it was corresponding to USAAF Wing,while Gruppe was equal to USAAF Group and Staffelwas similar unit as the USAAF squadron.KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard56February 2023Page 57
OVERTREESOVERLEPT#8204XBf 110E1/48#8203-LEPTBf 110E1/48Product pageProduct pageRecommended:for Bf 110E 1/48648055 Bf 110E/F/G main undercarriage wheels (Brassin)648085 MG 15 gun (2 pcs) (Brassin)648161 SC 250 German bombs (Brassin)648264 SC 50 German WWII bombs (Brassin)648607 Bf 110C/D/E exhaust stacks (Brassin)Cat. No. 648055Cat. No. 648161Cat. No. 648607KITS 02/2023INFO Eduard57February 2023Page 58
BRASSINFw 190A8/R21/48 EduardLööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboardand STEEL seatbelts for Bf 109G-4 in 1/32 scale.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: RevellSet contains:- resin: 1 part- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: no634030Bf 109G-4 LööK1/32 Revell644198Buccaneer S.2C/D LööK1/48 AirfixProduct pageProduct pageLööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboardand STEEL seatbelts for Buccaneer S.2C/Din 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: AirfixSet contains:- resin: 5 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: noINFO Eduard58February 2023Page 59
BRASSINCollection of 3 sets for F-35B in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Italeri- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- undercarriage wheels644195F-35B LööKplus1/48 ItaleriLööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboardand STEEL seatbelts for P-39Q in 1/72 scale.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- resin: 2 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: no674002P-39Q LööK1/72 Arma HobbyProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard59February 2023Page 60
BRASSIN1/48 EduardCollection of 4 sets for Yak-9D in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Zvezda- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- exhaust stacks- undercarriage wheels644196Yak-9D LööKplus1/48 ZvezdaBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for Bf 109G-2in 1/32 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a tailwheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: RevellSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes632186Bf 109G-2 wheels1/32 RevellProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard60February 2023Page 61
BRASSINBrassin set - NOTEK rear lights for German WWII AFVin 1/35 scale. The set consists of 3 types of NOTEK(6 pcs of each). Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 18 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: no653022WWII German NOTEK rear lights PRINT1/35Brassin set - seat for Sopwith Camelin 1/32 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Wingnut Wings / AcademySet contains:- 3D print: 1 part- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-peinted- painting mask: no632187Sopwith Camel seat PRINT1/32 WNW/AcademyProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard61February 2023Page 62
BRASSINFw 190A8/R21/48 EduardBrassin set - the engine for F4F-3 in 1/48 scale.The cowling are included. Made by direct 3D printing.Recommended kit: EduardSet contains:- 3D print: 29 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes- painting mask: no648792F4F-3 engine early PRINT1/48 EduardBrassin set - the ejection seats for Buccaneer S.2C/Din 1/48 scale. The set consists of 2 seats. Made by direct3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: AirfixSet contains:- 3D print: 10 parts- decals: yes- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: no648823Buccaneer S.2C/D ejection seats PRINT1/48 AirfixProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard62February 2023Page 63
BRASSINBrassin set - the airbrakes for F-16 in 1/48 scale.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: KineticSet contains:- resin: 2 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: no648831F-16 airbrakes PRINT1/48 KineticBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for BeaufortMk.I in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a tailwheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plasticparts. Recommended kit: ICMSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes648830Beaufort Mk.I wheels1/48 AirfixProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard63February 2023Page 64
BRASSINFw 190A8/R21/48 EduardBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for F-16Cin 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a nosewheel. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: KineticSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes648832F-16C wheels early1/48 KineticBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for F-16Cin 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a nosewheel. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: KineticSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes648833F-16C wheels late1/48 KineticProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard64February 2023Page 65
BRASSINBrassin set - balsa lifeboats in 1/350 scale.The set consists of 20 rafts.Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 20 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes- painting mask: no653017Balsa life raft PRINT1/350Brassin set - pre-painted upper handles for Martin Bakerejection seats in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the5 handles. Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 5 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: no648834MB Mk.6 ejection seat upper handles PRINT1/48Product pageProduct pageINFO Eduard65February 2023Page 66
Fw 190A8/R21/48 EduardBRASSINBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-39Qin 1/72 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a nose wheel. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes672303P-39Q wheels PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-39Qin 1/72 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a nose wheel. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yes672304P-39Q wheels w/rims PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard66February 2023Page 67
Brassin set - seat for P-39Q in 1/72 scale. Madeby direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- 3D print: 1 part- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: no672306P-39Q seat PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyBRASSINBrassin set - the exhaust stacks for P-39Q in 1/72 scale.Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- 3D print: 2 parts,- decals: no,- photo-etched details: no,- painting mask: no.672305P-39Q exhaust stacks PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard67February 2023Page 68
BRASSINBrassin set - gun barrels for P-39Q in 1/72 scale.Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- 3D print: 4 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: no672307P-39Q gun barrels PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyProduct pageE-BUNNY SQUATINFO Eduard68February 2023Page 69
BRASSINCollection of 3 sets for P-38J in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Tamiya- cockpit PRINT- wheels,- undercarriage legs BRONZEAll sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately,but with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.SIN64899P-38J ESSENTIAL1/48 TamiyaProduct pagecockpit PRINTwheelsundercarriagelegs BRONZEINFO Eduard69February 2023Page 70
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BIG EDAll sets included in this BIG ED are available separately,but with every BIG ED set you save up to 30%.BIG33147 F-35C 1/32 TrumpeterBIG49356F4U-1A 1/48 Hobby Boss32886 Remove Before Flight STEEL321001 F-35C33336 F-35C seatbelts STEELJX297 F-35C491314 F4U-1AFE1315 F4U-1A seatbelts STEELEX902 F4U-1AProduct pageProduct pageINFO Eduard80February 2023Page 81
BIG49358 Buccaneer S.2C/D 1/48 Airfix49051 Remove before flight UK491316 Buccaneer S.2C/DFE1317 Buccaneer S.2C/D seatbelts STEELEX906 Buccaneer S.2C/DProduct pageAll sets included in this BIG ED are available separately,but with every BIG ED set you save up to 30%.BIG EDBIG49357 F-35B 1/48 Italeri49103 Remove Before Flight STEEL491312 F-35BFE1313 F-35B seatbelts STEELEX900 F-35BProduct pageINFO Eduard81February 2023Page 82
MASKSIT FITS!EX919 F-16C Block 25/421/48 KineticEX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFace1/48 KineticEX921 F-35A1/48 TamiyaEX922 F-35A TFace1/48 TamiyaEX923 Spitfire Mk.VIII TFace1/48 EduardEX924 F-35A RAM coating late1/48 TamiyaCX642 Fw 190A-8/R21/72 EduardEX921 F-35AEX921 F-35AEX922 F-35A TFaceEX922 F-35A TFaceEX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFace EX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFaceEX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFaceEX919 F-16C Block 25/42EX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFaceEX919 F-16C Block 25/42INFO Eduard82February 2023Page 83
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RELEASESFEBRUARY 2023BIG-EDBIG-EDKITSPE-SETSZOOMSMASKS82214 A6M3 Zero Type 22 1/48 ProfiPACK11163 HIND E 1/48 Limited84154 Spitfire Mk.VIII 1/48 Weekend edition7467 Fw 190A-8/R2 1/72 Weekend edition8136 Fokker D.VII (OAW) 1/48 ProfiPACK8203 Bf 110E Reedice 1/48 ProfiPACK53290 USS Alaska CB-1 part 2 1/350 Hobby Boss36495 A34 Comet 1/35 Tamiya36496 Jagdpanther Ausf. G1 1/35 Academy36497 Jagdpanther Ausf. G1 schurzen 1/35 Academy481099 Anson Mk.I landing flaps 1/48 Airfix481100 Anson Mk.I bomb bays 1/48 Airfix491326 Anson Mk.I 1/48 Airfix491328 F-16C Block 25 1/48 Kinetic491329 F-16C Block 42 till 2005 1/48 Kinetic491330 F-16C Block 42 from 2006 1/48 Kinetic72727 Bf 110E 1/72 Eduard73791 Meteor F.8 1/72 Airfix73792 F6F-3 1/72 Eduard73793 F6F-5 1/72 EduardFE1326 Anson Mk.I 1/48 AirfixFE1327 Anson Mk.I seatbelts STEEL 1/48 AirfixFE1328 F-16C Block 25 1/48 KineticFE1329 F-16C Block 42 till 2005 1/48 KineticFE1330 F-16C Block 42 from 2006 1/48 KineticFE1331 F-16C Block 25/42 seatbelts STEEL 1/48 KineticFE1332 F-35A 1/48 TamiyaFE1333 F-35A seatbelts STEEL 1/48 TamiyaSS791 Meteor F.8 1/72 AirfixEX919 F-16C Block 25/42 1/48 KineticEX920 F-16C Block 25/42 TFace 1/48 KineticEX921 F-35A 1/48 TamiyaEX922 F-35A TFace 1/48 TamiyaEX923 Spitfire Mk.VIII TFace 1/48 EduardEX924 F-35A RAM coating late 1/48 TamiyaCX642 Fw 190A-8/R2 1/72 EduardBIG ED SETSBIG33147 F-35C 1/32 TrumpeterBIG49356 F4U-1A 1/48 Hobby BossBIG49357 F-35B 1/48 ItaleriBIG49358 Buccaneer S.2C/D 1/48 AirfixINFO Eduard84February 2023Page 85
RELEASESBRASSINLöökPLUSBIG SINSPACEDECAL SETS634030 Bf 109G-4 LööK 1/32 Revell644198 Buccaneer S.2C/D LööK 1/48 Airfix674002 P-39Q LööK 1/72 Arma Hobby632186 Bf 109G-2 wheels 1/32 Revell632187 Sopwith Camel seat PRINT 1/32 WNW/Academy635022 WWII German NOTEK rear lights PRINT 1/35648792 F4F-3 engine early PRINT 1/48 Eduard648823 Buccaneer S.2C/D ejection seats PRINT 1/48 Airfix648830 Beaufort Mk.I wheels 1/48 ICM648831 F-16 airbrakes PRINT 1/48 Kinetic648832 F-16C wheels early 1/48 Kinetic648833 F-16C wheels late 1/48 Kinetic648834 MB Mk.6ejection seat upper handles PRINT 1/48653017 Balsa life raft PRINT 1/350672303 P-39Q wheels PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby672304 P-39Q wheels w/rims PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby672305 P-39Q exhaust stacks PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby672306 P-39Q seat PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby672307 P-39Q gun barrels PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby644195 F-35B LööKplus 1/48 Italeri644196 Yak-9D LööKplus 1/48 ZvezdaSIN64899 P-38J ESSENTIAL 1/48 Tamiya3DL32011 Tornado IDS SPACE 1/32 Italeri3DL48103 Anson Mk.I SPACE 1/48 Airfix3DL48104 F-16C Block 25 SPACE 1/48 Kinetic3DL48105 F-16C Block 42 till 2005 SPACE 1/48 Kinetic3DL48106 F-16C Block 42 from 2006 SPACE 1/48 Kinetic3DL72011 Meteor F.8 SPACE 1/72 Airfix3DL72012 P-39Q SPACE 1/72 Arma HobbyD32020 Mosquito FB Mk.II stencils 1/32 TamiyaD32021 Mosquito B Mk.IV stencils 1/32 HKMD48109 Mosquito FB Mk.II stencils 1/48 TamiyaFEBRUARY 2023INFO Eduard85February 2023Page 86
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BUILTLt. Ernst Udet, Jasta 4, Beugneux-Cramoiselles Airfield, France, June 1918Jasta 4 received the new Fokkers D.VII on June13, 1918. All these were license-built OAW aircraft.Immediately, a new unit marking, consisting ofblack-painted noses, wheel covers and struts,was introduced. This marking was certainly inspi-red by the black fuselages of Jasta 37. Udet wasnamed the acting commander of Jagdgeschwa-der “Von Richthofen” on June 18, and although heonly held this position for one day, it was probablyenough to mark his plane in a more recognizablestyle. The fuselage was supposedly fully paintedred, possibly as a reference to Udet’s previousservice with Jasta 11. The wings were striped inred and white. The number of stripes is usuallythought to be higher than we portray here, but thefamous photo of this plane is heavily retouched.Close inspection reveals that only the stripe goingthrough the right-wing cross is original. By com-parison with another photo, shown in a TV docu-mentary, we have our interpretation of the upperwing stripes layout. The aircraft did not survivelong, as it was lost on June 29. At 7:40 a.m. overthe village of Cutry Udet attacked a French Bre-guet, but the observer returned fire and managedto rip the steering lines of Udet’s Fokker with hisfire and Udet had to bail out from the uncontro-llable aircraft. The nose and wheel covers mayhave retained the black Jasta 4 unit colour or theywere painted red as well. Available photos leavethe possibility of both these options.INFO Eduard87February 2023Page 88
SE.5a1/48 Dual ComboAccessories used:648299 SE.5a guns (Brassin)648318 propeller four-blade (hub only) (Brassin)648319 SE.5a radiator - Hispano Suiza for 4blade prop (Brassin)648333 SE.5a wheels (Brassin)Cat. No. R0015Marking is masked and painted.Built by Frank BarkhofenBUILTINFO Eduard88February 2023Page 89
BUILTBEST BRASS AROUNDBEST BRASS AROUNDF-104GF-104GHASEGAWA 1/48Built by Angelo LodettiAccessories used:648174 F-104 exhaust nozzle early (Brassin)648181 F-104 undercarriage wheels late (Brassin)648525 F-104 C2 ejection seat (Brassin)INFO Eduard89February 2023Page 90
1/48A6M2 Zero Type 21BUILTCat. No. 82212marking DBuilt by Ignat PomazkovAccessories used:Accessories used:481076 A6M2 landing flaps (PE-Set)Cat. No. 481076A6M2 landing flaps1/48 (PE-Set)INFO Eduard90February 2023Page 91
BUILTLt. Kunio Kanzaki, CO of Hikōtai 311 of Kōkūtai 381, Kendari airfield, Celebes island, May 1944Kōkūtai 381 was established in October 1943 atKendari Base on the island of Celebes. It wasa mixed Kōkūtai with 48 fighter-bombers (Hikōtai602), 24 night fighters (Hikōtai 902) and 48 fighteraircraft in Hikōtai 311, the latter commanded by Lt.Kanzaki. During the 1944 he operated from baseson islands in Indonesia and the Philippines. Theirmost frequent opponents were U.S. Army aircraft.Kanzaki's unit used special phosphorus anti-air-craft bombs to attack enemy bombers. Kanzaki'saircraft, manufactured by the Nakajima company,has been reconstructed in the past with variouscolor markings. It is assumed that the verticaltail surfaces and part of the upper wing surfaceswere painted the same color like lower surfaces.The front part of the engine may also have beenpainted grey or yellow. It is not entirely clear fromthe photograph of the aircraft whether the whitestripes on the lower fuselage are joined. It mayhave been designed to improve the mutual iden-tification of Army and Navy aircraft when fightingAllied fighters. Another reason for this camouf-lage may have been for easier identification du-ring night fighter flights. For example, Lt. Kanzakiand his wingman shot down a B-24 of the 380thBG over Balikpapan on the night of January 12-13,1944. Some aircraft of Kōkūtai 331 were also pain-ted in the same upper and tailplane camouflage.Both units operated in one tactical group duringpart of 1944.Cat. No. 481076A6M2 landing flaps1/48 (PE-Set)Product pageINFO Eduard91February 2023Page 92
BUILTBEST BRASS AROUNDBEST BRASS AROUNDBuilt by Paolo PortuesiPP--38F38FPP--38F38FAccessories used:648515 P-38F/G wheels (Brassin)648519 P-38F/G superchargers(Brassin)648521 P-38F/G undercarriage legs BRONZE (Brassin)648533 P-38F/G nose gun bay (Brassin)648544 P-38F cockpit (Brassin)EX667 P-38F/G TFace (Mask)INFO Eduard92February 2023Page 93
DKO Jihlava Tolstého 2, Jihlava29 soutěžních kategorií19 speciálních cenModelářský workshopHistorické přednáškyprodej modelů a modelářských potřebvíce než 500 modelůwww.kpmjihlava.estranky.cz18. 03. 202310 - 15:00 hodinP O Z O RZMĚNA MÍSTA KONÁNÍKPM Jihlavasi Vás dovoluje pozvat na modelářskou soutěžPage 94
ON APPROACHMARCH 2023644201Mi-24V black (Mi-35) LööK1/48 Zvezda644202Anson Mk.I Löök1/48 Airfix648203F-35A LööK1/48 Tamiya635023WWII German NOTEK headlights PRINT1/35BIG33148 Bf 109G-2/4 1/32 RevellBIG33149 Yak-9K 1/32 ICMBIG49359 Mi-4 1/48 TrumpeterBIG49360 Beaufort Mk.I PART I 1/48 ICM644201 Mi-24V black (Mi-35) LööK 1/48 Eduard/Zvezda644202 Anson Mk.I Löök 1/48 Airfix644203 F-35A LööK 1/48 Tamiya635023 WWII German NOTEK headlights PRINT 1/35635025 WWII German shovels PRINT 1/35648828 F4F-4 engine PRINT 1/48 Eduard648829 F4F-4 wheel bay PRINT 1/48 Eduard648835 Anson Mk.I wheels 1/48 Airfix648836 ACES II ejection seat lower handles PRINT 1/48648837 F-16 ejection seat PRINT 1/48 Kinetic648838 Mi-24Vcockpit black (Mi-35) PRINT & SPACE 1/48 Eduard/Zvezda648839 F-35A wheels 1/48 Tamiya648840 Beaufort Mk.I guns PRINT 1/48 ICM648841 Anson Mk.I radiators PRINT 1/48 Airfix672308 P-39Q 500lb bomb PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby672309 P-39Q 75gal drop tank PRINT 1/72 Arma Hobby634031 Bf 109G-2 LööKplus 1/32 Revell644197 Z-326 LööKplus 1/48 Eduard644199 Buccaneer S.2C/D LööKplus 1/48 Airfix644200 Beaufort Mk.I LööKplus 1/48 ICMSIN648100 F-35A armament 1/48 TamiyaSIN648101 Fw 190A-8 ESSENTIAL 1/48 EduardBIG ED (March)BRASSIN (March)LöökPlus (March)BIGSIN (March)LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboards and STEELseatbelts for Mi-24V w/ black-painted interior (Mi-35)in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Eduard / ZvezdaSet contains:- resin: 2 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details:yes, pre-painted- painting mask: noLööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboardand STEEL seatbelts for Anson Mk.I in 1/48 scale.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: AirfixSet contains:- resin: 1 part- 3D print: 2 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details:yes, pre-painted- painting mask: noLööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboardand STEEL seatbelts for F-35A in 1/48 scale.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: TamiyaSet contains:- resin: 1 part- decals: no- photo-etched details:yes, pre-painted- painting mask: noBrassin set - NOTEK headlights for German WWII AFVin 1/35 scale. The set consists of 12 pcs of NOTEKheadlights. Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 12 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details:yes- painting mask: noINFO Eduard94February 2023Page 95
635025WWII German shovels PRINT1/35ON APPROACHBrassin set - showels for German WWII AFV in 1/35 scale.The set consists of 3 showels. Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes- painting mask: no648828F4F-4 engine PRINT1/48 Eduard648829F4F-4 wheel bay PRINT1/48 EduardBrassin set - the engine for F4F-4 in 1/48 scale.The cowling are included. Made by direct 3D printing.Recommended kit: EduardSet contains:- 3D print: 35 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes- painting mask: noBrassin set - the wheel bay for F4F-4in 1/48 scale. . Made by direct 3D printing.Recommended kit: EduardSet contains:- 3D print: 10 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: noINFO Eduard95February 2023Page 96
ON APPROACHMARCH 2023648835Anson Mk.I wheels1/48 Airfix648836ACES II ejection seat lower handles PRINT1/48 ICM648837F-16 ejection seat PRINT1/48 KineticBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for Anson Mk.Iin 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheels anda tailwheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: AirfixSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yesBrassin set - pre-painted lower handles for ACES II ejectionseats in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the 5 handles.Made by direct 3D printing.Set contains:- 3D print: 5 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: noBrassin set - ejection seat for F-16 in 1/48 scale.Made by direct 3D printing.Recommended kit: KineticSet contains:- 3D print: 5 parts- decals: yes- photo-etched details:yes, pre-painted- painting mask: noINFO Eduard96February 2023Page 97
ON APPROACHMARCH 2023648838Mi-24V cockpit black (Mi-35) PRINT1/48 Eduard/Zvezda648839F-35A wheels1/48 Tamiya648840Beaufort Mk.I guns PRINT1/48 ICMBrassin set - black-painted cockpit for Mi-24V(Mi-35) in 1/48 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.Recommended kit: Eduard / ZvezdaSet contains:- 3D print: 10 parts- resin: 46 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted- painting mask: no- SPACE 3D decals: yesBrassin set - the undercarriage wheels for F-35Ain 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheelsand a nose wheel. Easy to assemble, replacesplastic parts. Recommended kit: TamiyaSet contains:- resin: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: yesBrassin set - guns for Beaufort Mk.I in 1/48 scale.Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: ICMSet contains:- 3D print: 4 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: noINFO Eduard97February 2023Page 98
ON APPROACH648841Anson Mk.I radiators PRINT1/48 Airfix672308P-39Q 500lb bomb PRINT1/72 Arma Hobby672309P-39Q 75gal drop tank PRINT1/72 Arma HobbyBrassin set - radiators for Anson Mk.I in 1/48 scale.The set consists of two radiators. Made by direct 3Dprinting. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: AirfixSet contains:- 3D print: 2 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: noBrassin set - the 500lb bomb and a bomb rack forP-39Q in 1/72 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- 3D print: 2 parts- decals: eys- photo-etched details: yes- painting mask: noBrassin set - 75gal drop tank and a rack forP-39Q in 1/72 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.Recommended kit: Arma HobbySet contains:- 3D print: 3 parts- decals: no- photo-etched details: no- painting mask: noMARCH 2023INFO Eduard98February 2023Page 99
ON APPROACH634031Bf 109G-2 LööKplus1/32 RevellCollection of 4 sets for Bf 109G-2 in 1/32 scale.Recommended kit: Revell- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- exhaust stacks- undercarriage wheels644197Z-326 LööKplus1/48 EduardCollection of 3 sets for Z-326 in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: eduard- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- undercarriage wheelsMARCH 2023INFO Eduard99February 2023Page 100
ON APPROACH644199Buccaneer S.2C/D LööKplus1/48 AirfixCollection of 4 sets for Buccaneer S.2C/D in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Airfix- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- ejection seats- undercarriage wheelsMARCH 2023INFO Eduard100February 2023Page 101
ON APPROACH644200Beaufort Mk.I LööKplus1/48 ICMCollection of 3 sets for Beaufort Mk.I in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: ICM- LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboards & Steelbelts)- TFace painting mask- undercarriage wheelsMARCH 2023INFO Eduard101February 2023Page 102
SIN648100F-35A armament1/48 TamiyaCollection of 6 sets for F-35A in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Tamiya- AIM-120C AMRAAM (2 sets)- AIM-9X- AIM-132 ASRAAM- GBU-12 bomb- GBU-31(V)1/B JDAMAll sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately,but with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.ON APPROACHMARCH 2023INFO Eduard102February 2023Page 103
SIN648101Fw 190A-8 ESSENTIAL1/48 EduardCollection of 4 sets for Fw 190A-8 in 1/48 scale.Recommended kit: Eduard- undercarriage wheels- undercarriage legs BRONZE- landing flaps PRINT- cockpit PRINTAll sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately,but with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.BRASSIN 02/2022BRASSIN 02/2022ON APPROACHMARCH 2023INFO Eduard103February 2023Page 104
PE-SETS53291 USS Alaska CB-1 part 3 1/350 Hobby Boss23036 Spitfire Mk.IXc 1/24 Airfix23037 Spitfire Mk.IXc 1/24 Airfix32481 Hurricane Mk.IIb landing flaps 1/32 Revell321006 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/32 Revell481101 B-25J bomb bay 1/48 HKM481102 B-24D exterior 1/48 Revell481103 MiG-21bis exterior 1/48 Eduard491332 F-35A 1/48 Tamiya491334 F-16A MLU 1/48 Kinetic491336 B-25J glazed nose 1/48 HKM491338 B-24D cockpit 1/48 Revell491339 B-24D nose interior 1/48 Revell72728 C-130J exterior 1/72 Zvezda72729 Bf 110G-2 1/72 Eduard73794 C-130J interior 1/72 Zvezda73795 C-130J cargo floor 1/72 Zvezda73796 C-130J cargo seatbelts 1/72 Zvezda73797 C-130J cargo interior 1/72 ZvezdaZOOMS33343 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/32 Revell33344 Hurricane Mk.IIb seatbelts STEEL 1/32 RevellFE1334 F-16A MLU 1/48 KineticFE1335 F-16A MLU seatbelts STEEL 1/48 KineticFE1336 B-25J glazed nose 1/48 HKMFE1337 B-25J glazed nose seatbelts STEEL 1/48 HKMFE1338 B-24D 1/48 RevellFE1339 B-24D seatbelts STEEL 1/48 RevellSS794 C-130J 1/72 ZvezdaSS798 Bf 110G-2 Weekend 1/72 EduardMASKSLX007 Spitfire Mk.IXc 1/24 AirfixLX008 Spitfire Mk.IXc TFace 1/24 AirfixJX305 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/32 RevellJX306 Hurricane Mk.IIb TFace 1/32 RevellEX925 B-25J glazed nose 1/48 HKMEX926 B-25J glazed nose TFace 1/48 HKMEX927 B-24D TFace 1/48 RevellEX928 B.534 IV. serie TFace 1/48 EduardEX929 F-16A MLU 1/48 KineticEX930 F-16A MLU TFace 1/48 KineticEX931 F-35A RAM coating early 1/48 TamiyaEX932 Mi-8MT 1/48 ZvezdaEX933 Mi-8MT TFace 1/48 ZvezdaCX643 C-130J 1/72 ZvezdaCX644 Bf 110G-2 1/72 EduardSPACE3DL32012 Hurricane Mk.IIb SPACE 1/32 Revell3DL32013 Spitfire Mk.IXc SPACE 1/24 Airfix3DL48107 F-16A MLU SPACE 1/48 Kinetic3DL48108 B.534 IV. serie SPACE 1/48 Eduard3DL48109 F-35A SPACE 1/48 Tamiya3DL48110 B-24D SPACE 1/48 Revell3DL48111 B-25J glazed nose SPACE 1/48 HKM3DL48112 Mi-8MT SPACE 1/48 ZvezdaDECAL SETD48110 B-25J stencils 1/48 HKMD48111 Su-25 Russian stencils 1/48 ZvezdaON APPROACHMARCH 2023INFO Eduard104February 2023Page 105
ON APPROACHSpitfire Mk.Vc TROP #82126 1/48BR301, Sgt. George F. Beurling,No. 249 Squadron, RAF Hal Far, Malta,July 1942JG959, Lt. McClellan E. S. Robinson,No. 1 Squadron SAAF, Ben Gardane,Tunis, April 1943MH592, S/Ldr Hinko Šoić, NOVJ No. 352(Yugoslav) Squadron, Vis, Yugoslav,January–February 1945BR476, S/Ldr Jefferson H. Wedgwood,No. 92 Squadron, RAF LG. 173, Egypt,August–October 1942Lt. Luis T. Zendegui, 2nd FS, 52nd FG, 12th AF,La Sabala, Tunis, Winter 1942–1943A58-137 (EE835), F/Lt David H. Hopton,No. 79 Squadron RAAF, Kiriwina,Trobriand Islands, October 1943MARCH 2023INFO Eduard105February 2023Page 106
ON APPROACHBf 109E-4 1/72#7033WNr. 5819, Obstlt. Adolf Galland, CO of JG 26,Audembert, France, October–December 1940WNr. 5587, Ofw. Fritz Beeck, 6./ JG 51, Wissant,France, August 1940Lt. Josef Eberle, 9./JG 54,The Netherlands, August 1940WNr. 1559, Hptm. Wilhelm Balthasar,CO of 7./JG 27, Carquebut, France, July 1940WNr. 5901, Oblt. Walter Fiel, CO of 8./JG 53,Le Touquet-Etaples, France, September 1940WNr. 2060, Lt. Hans Guse, 2.(J)/LG 2, Tudora,Soviet Union (Republic of Moldova today), July 1941MARCH 2023INFO Eduard106February 2023Page 107
GUADALCANAL #11170 1/48ON APPROACHDual ComboMARCH 2023INFO Eduard107February 2023Page 108
ON APPROACHBf 110G-2 1/72#7468Bf 110G-2/R7/M2, 6./ZG 1, Brest, France, August 1943Bf 110G-2/R3/M1/M5, 7./ZG 26, Fels am Wagram,Austria, May 1944Bf 110G-2/M1/R7, 5./NJG 200, Nikolajew,Soviet Union, September 1943Bf 110G-2/R1/M5, 4./ZG 76, Wertheim, Germany, October 1943MARCH 2023INFO Eduard108February 2023Page 109
ON APPROACHB.534.208, 36th Fighter Squadron,Air Regiment 2, Olomouc Airfield,Czechoslovakia, Fall 1937B.534.239, 45th Fighter Squadron,Air Regiment 3, Piešťany Airfield,Czechoslovakia, July 1938B.534.217, Combined Squadron of Slovak NationalUprising, Tri Duby Airfield, Slovakia, September 1944B.534.186, 34th Fighter Squadron,Air Regiment 4, Hradec Králové Airfield,Czechoslovakia, Summer 1937Avia B.534 IV. serieRe-release1/48 #8192MARCH 2023INFO Eduard109February 2023Page 110
ON APPROACHMiG-21bisRe-release1/48 #8232MiG-21BIS, c/n 75084300, HävLLv 31,Kuopio airbase, Finland, 1980 – 1981MiG-21bis, c/n 75080880, 1. Pucki DLMW, LotnictwoMarynarki Wojennej, Gdynia-Babie Doły, Poland,late 1997MiG-21bis, Tactics & Air Combat Development Establishment,Jamnagar airbase, India, September 1986MiG-21bis, 3rd Air Base, Graf Ignatevo,Bulgaria, from 2002MiG-21bis, c/n 75061874, 47. Pápa Harcászati Repülő Ezred,Pápa airbase, Hungary, 1991MiG-21bisD, c/n 75002075, 22. eskadrila lovačkih zrakoplova,Pula airbase, Croatia, 2008MARCH 2023INFO Eduard110February 2023Page 111
COMPROMISESAn aircraft is usually the result of a designprocess that is a compromise between theaircraft’s purpose, the available engine, thecurrent level of aerodynamic knowledge andother factors. Over more than a century ofaircraft development, the knowledge of air-craft designers has continually improved,and aircraft designs have naturally evolvedwith the level of technical knowledge at thetime of their creation. I use the word “usua-lly” because there have been highly unortho-dox aircraft designs in which aerodynamicsdid not play a significant role. In these cases,the engine power prevailed.Making a faithful scale model of an aeroplaneisn’t also an easy engineering discipline.I understand modellers who want theirmodel to match the original as perfectly aspossible. The problem is what exactly is anoriginal.When my colleagues prepare a new aircraftkit, they ideally work with the original pro-duction documentation, good quality photo-graphs and, for verification, a 3D scan of theactual machine. The historic aircraft we scanare carefully selected. In museums, we lookfor pieces in as historically faithful a conditi-on as possible. For instance, concerning theL-13 Blaník glider that we’re going to make in1/48 scale, it’s quite easy, we just drive thescanner to our nearby airport.However sometimes museums’ aircraft needsome repairs or are missing parts. And insome cases, the newly fitted parts aren’texact replacements of the original parts.Of course, we don't want to include some-thing like that in a 3D design. This is not tosuggest that museum technicians have donea bad job. They are often in a difficult situa-tion because original parts are scarce anddocumentation for a given part of the aircraftmight be missing, and the complicated cur-ved shape of any specific part is sometimeshard to deduce from historical photographs.We are also in the same difficult situation ifthe production documentation or the aircraftin its original condition is not available or isonly available in partial form. In this casewe study historical photographs, wreckageimages, surviving aircraft parts and dra-wings prepared by aviation researchers. Theresult is our best interpretation, which is ba-sed on the current state of knowledge.This is a demanding discipline. The qualityof the documents, including publication dra-wings, changes over time. If someone waspreparing a kit for a particular aircraft, say,thirty years ago, they had different documen-tation than we would have in our hands todaywhile working on said aircraft. And in ano-ther ten or twenty years, knowledge of thetype will probably be a little more improved.It is therefore important to approach kitsproduced in the past with a certain toleran-ce and detachment. They can usually be usedto build a beautiful model. Last week I sawa very nicely built ARII 1/48 Ki-61 Tony. Thiskit was produced in 1972 and has a beauti-fully riveted surface. Some of my favouritepieces from this period include the Ki-43 orKi-45 from Nichimo. In the half century sincetheir creation, new information about theseaircraft has probably come to light and todaythe designers of these kits would possiblydesign some parts in a different way. ButI don't think that's important. They are justbeautiful pieces.But it’s a bit of a digression from my consi-deration of the progression of knowledgeover time. I would like to mention the rela-tivity of the validity of the research materi-als. They often contradict each other to someextent. The production documentation maynot correspond exactly to the condition inwhich the aircraft left the factory. The pointis that there may have been changes duringthe manufacturing process. Manufacturingjigs may have been modified, some details ofthe aircraft may have been changed and theoriginal documentation no longer reflectsthe production details. Even a 3D scan of anaircraft that is preserved in its original sta-te may not be completely accurate. If it is anaircraft that has been in service for a longtime, it has usually been through a lot. I'mthinking of hard landings, small accidents oreven crashes and subsequent repairs. Theplane is not made of diamond, but of metal,possibly even wood and canvas. A hard lan-ding can cause deformations, for instancethe rear half of the fuselage to be moved upa few degrees from the longitudinal axis ofthe machine. Nothing special for the pilot.An extra worry for the kit designer.So, even with ideal research materials for kitdesign, there are situations where they con-tradict each other. So ,a kit at a certain scaleis not only a scaled down version, but almostalways the result of various compromises.If we have to make them, we try to make themas best as we can.As colleagues from previous generationsdid before us and, hopefully, as some othersfrom the next generation will do after us.Jan BobekINFO Eduard111February 2023Tail End Charlie
Compromises
An aircraft is usually the result of a design process that is a compromise between the aircraft’s purpose, the available engine, the current level of aerodynamic knowledge and other factors. Over more than a century of aircraft development, the knowledge of aircraft designers has continually improved, and aircraft designs have naturally evolved with the level of technical knowledge at the time of their creation. I use the word “usually” because there have been highly unorthodox aircraft designs in which aerodynamics did not play a significant role. In these cases, the engine power prevailed.
Making a faithful scale model of an aeroplane isn’t also an easy engineering discipline.
I understand modellers who want their model to match the original as perfectly as possible. The problem is what exactly is an original.
When my colleagues prepare a new aircraft kit, they ideally work with the original production documentation, good quality photographs and, for verification, a 3D scan of the actual machine. The historic aircraft we scan are carefully selected. In museums, we look for pieces in as historically faithful a condition as possible. For instance, concerning the L-13 Blaník glider that we’re going to make in 1/48 scale, it’s quite easy, we just drive the scanner to our nearby airport.
However sometimes museums’ aircraft need some repairs or are missing parts. And in some cases, the newly fitted parts aren’t exact replacements of the original parts. Of course, we don't want to include something like that in a 3D design. This is not to suggest that museum technicians have done a bad job. They are often in a difficult situation because original parts are scarce and documentation for a given part of the aircraft might be missing, and the complicated curved shape of any specific part is sometimes hard to deduce from historical photographs.
We are also in the same difficult situation if the production documentation or the aircraft in its original condition is not available or is only available in partial form. In this case we study historical photographs, wreckage images, surviving aircraft parts and drawings prepared by aviation researchers. The result is our best interpretation, which is based on the current state of knowledge.
This is a demanding discipline. The quality of the documents, including publication drawings, changes over time. If someone was preparing a kit for a particular aircraft, say, thirty years ago, they had different documentation than we would have in our hands today while working on said aircraft. And in another ten or twenty years, knowledge of the type will probably be a little more improved.
It is therefore important to approach kits produced in the past with a certain tolerance and detachment. They can usually be used to build a beautiful model. Last week I saw a very nicely built ARII 1/48 Ki-61 Tony. This kit was produced in 1972 and has a beautifully riveted surface. Some of my favourite pieces from this period include the Ki-43 or Ki-45 from Nichimo. In the half century since their creation, new information about these aircraft has probably come to light and today the designers of these kits would possibly design some parts in a different way. But I don't think that's important. They are just beautiful pieces.
But it’s a bit of a digression from my consideration of the progression of knowledge over time. I would like to mention the relativity of the validity of the research materials. They often contradict each other to some extent. The production documentation may not correspond exactly to the condition in which the aircraft left the factory. The point is that there may have been changes during the manufacturing process. Manufacturing jigs may have been modified, some details of the aircraft may have been changed and the original documentation no longer reflects the production details. Even a 3D scan of an aircraft that is preserved in its original state may not be completely accurate. If it is an aircraft that has been in service for a long time, it has usually been through a lot. I'm thinking of hard landings, small accidents or even crashes and subsequent repairs. The plane is not made of diamond, but of metal, possibly even wood and canvas. A hard landing can cause deformations, for instance the rear half of the fuselage to be moved up a few degrees from the longitudinal axis of the machine. Nothing special for the pilot. An extra worry for the kit designer.
So, even with ideal research materials for kit design, there are situations where they contradict each other. So ,a kit at a certain scale is not only a scaled down version, but almost always the result of various compromises. If we have to make them, we try to make them as best as we can.
As colleagues from previous generations did before us and, hopefully, as some others from the next generation will do after us.
Jan Bobek
Editorial
Dear Friends, Welcome to the February Newsletter!
The Nuremberg Toy Fair started yesterday. After a two year hiatus, we are coming back to Nuremberg, and as hard as it may be to believe, we have no idea of what to expect. It’s like going back in time thirty-two years, to the beginning of the nineties, when we set out on our first such trip with six bags of photoetched sets with the belief that we would conquer the modelling world with them. As it tends to be with such conquerors, the beginning ended up not particularly dazzling. No one much talked to us at the other stalls and we were often politely shown the door. With two notable exceptions. Mr. Ono of the Japanese firm Beaver, and Chuck Harransky with Jerry Campbell from the Texas based Squadron Signal, all of which gave us several hours of their attention and patiently worked towards an agreement with us. To this day, I am extremely grateful for their efforts and long term friendships, and I acknowledge the fact that without these fine gentlemen and their attitude towards us, Eduard would not have become what Eduard now is. We left the exhibition hall quite a bit of time after it had actually closed with the feeling that the long trip and the expended effort was for something instead of a waste of time and that success was an attainable concept. As you can well guess, the road was not a smooth one, and at times the dejection was intense and incredibly discouraging, but ultimately, the success began to manifest itself, slowly but surely. Over all of the years that followed, we attended the fair annually and we grew, as did the Fair and its venue, and experiences grew along with them.
In 1993, we brought home the Model of the Year award, which neither I nor Karel Padar had any idea we were getting. It was thanks to the efforts of Mr. Lacina , the long-term editor of Modellfan magazine, who made the effort back then to locate us in that massive labyrinth of stalls. He took us aside and presented us with the award in all its glory. This was in front of the Squadron Signal table where two years prior we were able to secure our first international agreement and become the first of the former Eastern Bloc countries to receive a Model of the Year award from Modellfan. It was by a bit of a miracle that I got it home at all. I almost lost it among the toilets in the basement of the exhibition hall, when its case fell from my toilet roll tray. After hitting the floor, it opened for a fraction of a second and a bronze medal came out through the opening, bouncing and pinging between the toilet to end its journey in the only occupied stall between the shoes of a gentleman sitting there, who evidently had no intention of leaving anytime soon. It was probably a shock for him, I don't know what I would do if a mysterious white box landed between my feet at that particular moment. I lay in wait for him behind the entrance to the toilets for a good fifteen minutes, after which his head appeared, looked around both sides of the corridor, and a man with a medal in his hand emerged. I stopped him with the question ‘Is that yours?’, and after a surprised ‘No, it's not’ , I replied ‘So it's mine’. The medal was returned to its rightful owner. But the war was not yet won. At the bend above Ohří river just before the village of Damice, for the first and hopefully the last time, I spun out in a Škoda pickup, which, after leaving the road, jumped over a fence of a cow pasture, only to roll back onto its wheels after hitting the roof and, breaking an axle, coming to rest just before a forest. There were no mobile phones then, so Karel and I took the medal, stopped a passing car and went to get help. When we returned, we found the car had been broken into and stripped of its wheels. Well, the nineties in the Czech Republic were rough. At that time, the Czech Republic was barely a month old, and the disintegration of Czechoslovakia was accepted by many of its citizens with embarrassment and uncertainty as to what they could expect from further developments. After thirty years, I dare say that the result are looking very promising for both Eduard and the Czech Republic.
In any case, we were at the Fair for some very important historical events. The birth of the Czech Republic for one, her entry into the Schengen Group and the elimination of border crossings, which has really served to ease our lives. I will never forget the tragedy of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which occurred exactly twenty years ago on February 1st, 2003. I was coming home from Nuremberg that day and the goodbyes with our American friends are seared into my memory and will be til the end of my days. There were happier days, like when we all wore some form of motif in support of the presidential bid for Karel Schwarzenberg, although it apparently didn’t help much, and the following ten years were spent under the extravagant government of Milos Zeman, and today, shortly after the last presidential election, we leave for Nuremberg with the belief that better times lay ahead with a better and more respectable president.
In 1995, we finally had our own table at Nuremberg, the first Czech model company to do so since the old Kovozavody Prostejov. We were on a waiting list, and the challenge was to be able to react to the phone call we got on the morning of the first day of the fair by coming to the event and setting up a table by evening. Our spot was in the improvised inflatable exhibition hall full of Chinese vendors, the way to which was a temporary wooden sidewalk over a muddy construction site, and no one even knew we were there. But Mr. Ono found us nevertheless, just as he had done in 1991. We were introducing our Tempest and Yak-3 at the time, our first World War Two kits following a series of WWI subjects, eventually leading us to the quality of our current crop of releases. A year later, we had our table in the new Hall 7A, and were not absent until covid in 2020 when the gates of the Nuremberg Toy Fair remained closed for the first time since the Second World War.
This year, in a way, it’s a new beginning. Among other things, I expect this year to have a painfully low number of attendees, at least in our field. For some years, it was different, and there were a growing number of Czech, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian firms. Somewhere around 2015, the trend began to reverse itself. Perhaps, this could be partially blamed on the expansion of the fair from four to six days, which, under the pressure of protests from attending companies, was reduced in a compromise to five. Certainly, there will also be the factor of the greater expense required to cover a longer event and the rise in the costs of basic fees and services that have crossed into uncomfortable levels. In the noted timeframe to 2019, our expenses for attending Nuremberg every year rose to some $50,000US, and that’s a price you begin to take into consideration irrespective of good memories and the belief of its positive effects on your business. A silver 25th participation medal will have no effect. It’s much like a display Pour le Merite , but if you have the sense that something is wrong, it won’t bring you much pleasure. And then, when you conduct a bit of research amongst retailers and journalists and learn that two-thirds of the regulars won’t be coming, you start to look for a way out. We ended up coming to an agreement with our colleagues at Special Hobby regarding the sharing of a table. It will be a third smaller than our pre-covid table. We are also reducing our staff, and we are rotating them such that the largest concentration of people at our table will be from Thursday to Saturday. Even so, we will do our best to be of interest to our visitors. The Special Hobby table, like ours, has for many years been a traditional meeting place and we have always endeavored to provide optimum conditions for negotiating. If you come by, you can count on our traditional hospitality, friendliness and willingness to share information. I believe that the same can be said of all five of the other manufacturers that will attend the Toy Fair, waving the banner of our field!
February New Releases
I had already touched on the February releases in January’s newsletter. So, just to quickly reiterate, the main item of interest is the Limited Edition kit of the Hind E in 1:48th scale with a Jaroslav Spacek publication. Also interesting will be the ProfiPACK Fokker D.VII (OAW), as will be the A6M3 Model 22 Zero, and both February Weekend kits, the 1:48th Spitfire Mk.VIII and 1:72nd scale Fw 190A-8/R2 Sturmbock. In February, the Bf 110E in 1:48th scale also makes a long awaited return to our range.
Among accessory sets, I would like to point your attention to the 3D printed F4F-3 Wildcat engine (Eduard 1:48th) and the elegant wicker seat for the 1:32nd Sopwith Camel in the Brassin line. Among photoetched sets, I’d point out the sets for the Airfix Anson and the Kinetic F-16C (both 1:48th). In the case of the F-16, we are also offering two mask sets, one classic and the other two-sided T-Face. Among the masks, you’ll also note the first set for masking the RAM panels on the F-35A. This set diverts a little from our usual mask assortments, and masks for treating surfaces have not been offered by us in some time. This set is also made from a different material, which is not a cost-saving measure, but rather because this black material is better suited for this purpose. This set is designed for seven aircraft derived from the marking options in the Tamiya kit, and covers newer aircraft with a simpler structure of these panels. In March, a similar release will be available, but with a significantly more complex set of RAM panels of the older variety, suitable for Japanese and American aircraft that are covered in the kit. Among today’s releases, we also have two classic canopy mask sets. I think it is also worth pointing out the sets for 1:35th scale tanks, one for the A-34 Comet by Tamiya and two sets for the Jagdpanther Ausf G1 from Academy. Other news, including those covering seven new Space sets, can be seen described amongst February releases below.
Articles
In today’s issue of the newsletter, you will find an excerpt from the publication on the Hind E by Jaroslav Spacek and an article about Elwyn Righetti by Richard Plos. The search for sunken ships continues this month with Paul Allen and from Mira Baric, we have his article about shipwrecks around Guadalcanal and also his 11th installment reporting on the air war over Ukraine covering drone usage against bombers. After a short pause, we have Jozef Blazek describing another class of aircraft. Four of the five Boxart Stories are written by Jan Bobek, and they cover the boxart for the A6M3 Model 22 Zero, the Bf 110E, the Fw 190A-8/R2 and the Spitfire Mk.VIII kits. The fifth Boxart Story was also written by Richard Plos and covers the Fokker D.VII (OAW). Richard prepared this kit for production. I consider the marking option in it, which also is Richard Plos’s work, as is the story itself, to be very impressive from a modelling, design and historical perspective. I think you will agree!
As long as nothing unexpected comes up, today’s newsletter is being published using Triobo. Perhaps some will think this is something odd and non-conformist, as new things are often seen, and if someone should find themselves feeling that way, I would ask for your understanding, patience and leniency. Give it some time, and I think you’ll find Triobo to your liking and that it brings more pluses than it presents minuses. And that’s a good attitude in today’s stormy times that goes well beyond the reading of a newsletter.
Happy modelling
Vladimír Šulc
Black Tuesday
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
Cat. No. 82214
Rabaul on New Britain in the South Pacific was occupied by Japanese in early 1942 and for the next two years it became a key base for naval, air and ground units during their campaigns in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. It was so heavily defended that the Allies decided to neutralize it and not waste their forces in capturing it. At the end of 1943 its fighter protection was provided by Zero pilots from Kōkūtai 201, 204 and 253.
On November 1, 1943, the Allies began landing at Cape Torokina north of Empress Augusta Bay on the west coast of Bougainville Island. Their mission was to establish air bases closer to Rabaul. The Japanese were prepared for this risk and therefore sent reinforcements to Rabaul in the form of cruisers and destroyers as well as air units from the aircraft carriers Shōkaku, Zuikaku and Zuihō.
The Americans were first unsuccessfully attacked by airmen from the carrier units, and at night two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and six destroyers sailed to the island. Behind them, vessels with Japanese reinforcements followed. A night battle occurred in Empress Augusta Bay in which several warships collided, and the Japanese lost one light cruiser and one destroyer, two cruisers were damaged, and two destroyers suffered heavy damage. The Americans came out of the battle in better shape, with damage to one cruiser and one destroyer.
The Americans scheduled a raid on Rabaul for Tuesday, November 2, 1943. The low-altitude attack by 75 Mitchells from the 3rd, 38th and 345th BG was escorted by 70 Lightnings from the 8th, 49th and 475th FG. The fighters were commanded by Gerald Johnson of the 9th FS and his deputy, future America's most successful fighter pilot, Dick Bong. The Liberator crews were tasked to conduct their raid at the same time, but due to bad weather, some heavies and part of their escort returned to New Guinea. While planning the attack, the Americans had no information about the reinforcements that had arrived in Rabaul, nor did they take into account that the warships would return after the night battle off Bougainville. They were thus heading into deadly trap.
The bombers approached Rabaul from the northeast and passed over the target between the volcanoes of Tovanudatir and Komvur. Two P-38 squadrons were the first to attack Lakunai airfield, but far from surprising the Japanese, they were instead engaged by about a hundred Zeros. The individual gunship squadrons attacked airfields and vessels at Rabaul about a minute apart. There the defenders were surprised, but gunners on shore and on ships quickly opened fire. The defence was led by the heavy cruisers Haguro and Myoko. The Japanese also fired large calibres into the water to threaten the low-flying bombers with high geysers.
All hell broke loose over the bay, the air was filled with flak explosions and falling machines. The bombers trying to fly below the level of the cruisers' decks to escape their fire were also attempting to avoid the water geysers. Piotr Forkasiewicz captured this phase of the battle on the boxart. The aircraft 2-163 probably belonged to Hikōtaichō of 201. Kōkūtai, Lt. Cdr. Shirō Kawai. However, he did not participate in this action and unit´s formation was led by Lt.(jg) Yoshio Ôba.
Some Zeros chased the B-25s during their retreat, but the Japanese pilots avoided attacking from the front because they feared the gunships' armament. Some Japanese pilots apparently ran out of ammunition, flew alongside the Mitchells for a while, then saluted and took off.
The Japanese lost fourteen Zeros and nine pilots, and six more fighters were destroyed in collisions during takeoff. The Japanese reported 119 aircraft shot down, 22 of them probably. The American side also inflated its reports, with fighters and bombers claiming 55 Zeros shot down. The exact damage to Japanese vessels is still disputed, but after this attack the Japanese abandoned another naval attack on Bougainville.
The Americans lost 11 Mitchells and 9 Lightnings, many more were damaged. Most of the P-38s were shot down in fighter engagements, while a large number of B-25s was shot down by flak. Due to these losses, November 2, 1943, was nicknamed “Black Tuesday”. Major Raynold H. Wilkins of the 8th BS, 3rd BG was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his attack on one of the cruisers and his courage in leading his formation.
Morotai Mutiny
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Antonis Karydis
Cat. No. 84154
Squadron Leader Henry Maxwell Gibbes DSO, DFC & BAR and OAM was one of Australia's top fighter pilots. Due to his stout build, Bobby Gibbes was known as “the barrel that walks”. As commander of No. 3 Sq RAAF he achieved 10.25 victories in MTO. His opponents included not only German and Italian pilots, but a Vichy France’s pilot. who fought for Vichy France. He left his command post in April 1943 after completing 274 combat sorties. Gibbes was eager to pilot the Mosquito and flew 25 hours, because he was to become commander of the RAAF's night fighter No. 464 Sq. Instead, however, he was transferred to Australia as Chief Flying Instructor to No. 2 OTU. He returned to combat service in October 1944 as deputy of legendary Clive Caldwell, commander of No. 80 Wing RAAF. At that time the Wing consisted of No. 452 and 457 Sq RAAF both armed with Spitfires Mk.VIII. In December 1944, parts of the Wing were gradually moved to the island of Morotai in the northern part of present-day Indonesia. Gibbes did not take part in this transfer, having suffered burns in an emergency landing at Sattler airfield on 5 December. But every cloud has its silver lining, at the hospital he met a nurse he courted for two weeks, and their wedding took place at the end of January 1945
Morotai Island was important to the Allied advance into the Philippines. Therefore, in mid-September 1944, American and Australian troops had made a landing there. The small Japanese garrison, outnumbered 1:100, was pushed into the less important parts of the island. Work began immediately on the two main airfields, which were completed in October. The Japanese, however, would not surrender and the fighting didn’t stop before the end of the war. In the months following the landings, Japanese airmen conducted a series of night raids on the island, for which Allied fighter units found virtually no effective defence. Japanese bombers destroyed or damaged over 70 aircraft.
Caldwell's Spitfires at Morotai encountered enemy aircraft only once. The pilots had to attack insignificant ground targets on the surrounding islands. As a result, in the attack on the Philippines, the Australian airmen remained aside from the main war zone, and it led to their growing frustration. They were not happy with the deployment of their high-altitude Spitfires in the role of strafer. Nevertheless, they tried to suggest modifications that would make this role easier. However, some of these were rejected.
Work to prepare facilities for Australian troops on Morotai Island was not going ideally either. American engineer units were in charge, but the pace was very slow. So, Caldwell and Gibbes decided to speed up the work with illegal supplies of alcohol. However, they were denounced and both officers were court-martialed and reduced in rank.
Gibbes rejoined the unit in March 1945 after recovering and flew 44 combat sorties against isolated Japanese positions. During one of these, on 4 April, he was wounded in an attack on Ternate Island. Anti-aircraft gun fire hit the Spitfire's starboard radiator, machine-gun hits damaged the port wing and several splinters struck Gibbs' right thigh.
Gibbes later recalled that he saw no purpose in these combat operations. He even stopped seeing the point of continuing to serve in the Air Force. He especially disliked shooting at cattle. He had previously worked on a farm and shooting at animals with a Spitfire literally made him sick.
He was not alone with these feelings on Morotai and so he joined Caldwell and six other officers in an unprecedented move in RAAF history. Together they submitted their resignations with a postponement until after the fighting was over. The command tried to sweep the matter under the carpet, not willing to address the issues, and wanted to persuade the officers to withdraw their resignations. This motivated the mutineers to change the validity of the resignations to immediate. Eventually, this led to an inspection from Australia. This resulted in the replacement of part of the 1st Tactical Air Force command, the correction of problems, and a gradual improvement in morale. Bobby Gibbes was later reinstated to the rank of Squadron Leader and left RAAF in 1946. His civilian air life was no less colourful than his wartime service. In 1994, he published a biographical book, You Live But Once.
Markersdorf Raid
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration by Piotr Forkasiewicz
Cat. No. 7467
In the first half of 1944, the Luftwaffe command decided to reinforce fighter units in Western Europe. The number of Staffeln in a particular fighter Gruppe was increased from three to four. Therefore, some fighter Gruppen in other theatres had to select one Staffel and send it to the West. Hence I./JG 51 “Mölders”, fighting on the Eastern Front with Bf 109 Gs, had to send its 2. Staffel, which thus came under the command of IV. Sturm/JG 3 “Udet”in June 1944. The commander of this unit was Major Wilhelm Moritz. It was one of the three Sturmgruppen in the Defense of the Reich, designed to attack bomber formations at close range. For this purpose, it was rearmed in May from Messerschmitt Bf 109s to heavily armoured Fw 190 A-8/R2s (and a few A-7s). At the same time one of its three Staffeln was disbanded and replaced by Sturmstaffel 1, which specialized in such attacks. Its newly added Staffel, 2./JG 51, was getting familiar with Focke-Wulfs throughout June. In August, it was formally redesignated 16. Sturm/JG 3.
For the first time, IV. Sturm/JG 3 entered combat as Sturmjäger unit on July 7, 1944. With 44 aircraft from Stab and four Staffeln, the unit managed to attack an unescorted Liberator formation at Oschersleben, shooting down 19 of them during the three-minute battle. As a result of this engagement, the 492nd BG had to be disbanded.
Moritz and his four Staffeln with 45 armoured machines made a similar attack over Starnberger See on July 18, 1944. Top cover was to be provided by Focke-Wulfs from 2./JG 51 under Oblt. Haase. The Germans were able to attack a B-17 formation from the 483rd BG that was also unescorted. In the ensuing fight, 14 bombers were shot down. The American unit received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its valiant defense. Oblt. Haase, however, disobeyed Moritz's order and instead of protecting his colleagues, ordered his 2./JG 51 to attack the bombers as well. The Mustangs that arrived at the scene of the bloody encounter punished this mistake severely and the result was 12 Focke-Wulfs shot down and an equal number of pilots killed or wounded. In the following weeks the number of aircraft that IV. Sturm/JG 3 deployed into combat was reduced in most cases to between 10 and 20.
Similar events happened on August 23, 1944, when 17 fighter planes took off under Moritz´s command from Schongau airfield against bombers of the 15th Air Force targeting fuel production plants in Blechhammer (Blachownia Śląska) and Odertal (Zdzieszowice), as well as aviation and industrial plants in and around Vienna. In total the Germans sent 96 fighters against that raid, but only 50 of them made contact with the enemy. The allied escort fighters shot down seven Focke-Wulfs from II. Sturm/JG 300 and the only significant success was scored by Moritz's Sturmgruppe. At first his unit joined the JG 300 formation, which drew attention of the US fighters. But IV. Sturm/JG 3 then avoided the escort and south-west of Vienna it attacked 24 Liberators of the 451st BG, which were flying, without escort, a north-westerly course to their target, Markersdorf airfield. The bombers took up a tight formation to make it dangerous for the Germans to attack at close range. A deadly struggle ensued, taking place at an altitude of 6000 mètres on a route of sixty kilometres approximately between the towns of Nasswald and Kilb. Moritz and his fighters claimed the downing of nine bombers within three minutes, and nine actually crashed. The others were badly damaged. The commander of the American unit, Col. Robert E. L. Eaton reported that about forty fighters attacked them extremely aggressively, making expert use of the dense cloud cover before the attacks. The Germans attacked in groups of six to ten machines in a very aggressive, almost suicidal manner. Some of the Liberators were so badly hit that they disintegrated in mid-air. The picture of the burning Liberator “Extra Joker” just before its explosion is one of the most famous photographs in aviation history. Its commander, 1st Lt Kenneth A Whiting, was killed with his entire crew.
Sixteen 451st BG aircraft got over the target and managed to hit Markersdorf airfield. For this action the unit received a Unit Citation from the commander of the 15th Air Force, Maj. Gen. Twinning, stating among other facts that the gunners shot down or damaged 29 enemy aircraft. Certainly, five pilots of the 15. and 16. Sturm/JG 3 were shot down, killed or remained missing, to which must probably be added three other machines that were damaged. During the fighting over Europe, the 451st BG lost 112 crews over enemy territory. The fight over the foothills of the Alps on August 23, 1944, was one of the heaviest.
You won’t get me!
Text: Richard Plos
Illustration: Adam Tooby
Cat. No. 8136
He’s still in bed when the phone rings. “Sir, north of the forest at Villers-Cotterets , a French Breguet is directing enemy artillery fire. Its effects are devastating!” He quickly notes the area on the map and then replies curtly into the phone, “We’ll be there in a minute!”
Off duty, he should have been allowed to sleep, but needs must. He looks at his watch. It’s not even 0730! But all the other pilots have left for the morning patrol, so it’s up to him. In five minutes, he’s ready. The mechanic is fluttering about his new Fokker D.VII. Jasta 4, which he leads now, was the last of the whole JG I to get these beasts on June 13, just a fortnight ago. He picked one of them, had its fuselage, upper wing and elevator painted red, while the nose was painted black and, following the example of Kirschstein’s Fokker Dr.I, which he also used for a short time, the upper wing was decorated with white stripes. After the letters “Lo”, accompanied by an exclamation mark, had been painted on the sides of the fuselage as usual, the work was almost complete. But something was still missing. A short message to anyone who might want to get him down. He had already made up his mind and the words “Du doch nicht!!” were added on the elevator.
He jumps into the cockpit, settles in, sprays fuel, turns on the magneto, moves the stick to check the controls clearance. The mechanic turns the propeller twice, and by the third time the whole plane shakes with the first revs of the nose engine. A minute later, he takes off.
He heads for the front, his eyes searching for the enemy. It doesn’t take long. There it is! North of the forest, about 600 meters up. He doesn’t waste time and immediately attacks from behind. He’s got to be careful, the twin machine-guns of the Breguet could really mess him up. He’s keeping level and sits right behind. The French observer would shoot his own rudder off if he tried anything! He pulls the breeches of his machine guns and fires a short burst. The head behind the machine guns disappears. Did he hit him? Looks like it. But the French pilot is not about to give his skin cheap and maneuvers violently. He takes a sharp descend turn and tries to escape towards friendly territory.
Now, he’s attacking from the side, which would normally be risky. But now there’s nobody behind the Breguet’s guns. He is perhaps only twenty meters from the French aircraft when suddenly the observer reappears behind them! And it’s bad! The first flashes come from the guns, and he can literally feel the projectiles passing close by. Then his Fokker jolts upwards and there is an abrupt drop in the feedback of the control stick. The rods, leading to the elevator, were cut by enemy shots and the aircraft gets out of control within second. Worse still, the rudder was also hit and badly damaged! The Fokker turns and circles while the Breguet escapes.
The combat took him over the enemy positions. He must make it back to friendly territory! But how? An idea emerges. Whenever the nose begins to turn in the direction of friendly positions, he pushes the throttle. More power widens the turn and that takes him a little bit further in the desired direction. He repeats this over and over again. The progress is slow, but he keeps it. The German positions are within reach already, when suddenly the Fokker banks sharply and goes violently into a dive. There’s no time to lose! He crouches, pushes his feet on the edge of the seat and hurls himself from the cockpit.
A blast of air hits him in the chest and throws him straight into the damaged rudder, which catches on a loose strap of the parachute harness. He is trapped in the wildest ride of his life! He’s trying to get rid of the half-shot rudder, but in vain, the ground is closing. His beloved Lo in tears flashes through his mind ... Snap! The rudder loosens and the strap slips from its grasp. “It’s too late,” he thinks. But then something jerks him upwards. The parachute has opened! A second flies by, maybe two, and he hits the ground hard.
Pain shoots from ankle of Ernst Udet to his entire leg. He lies there, breathing deeply. Artillery fire rumbles around him and one shell explodes so close that a lump of dirt falls on him. He must get out! Struggling for a moment with the pile of white silk, he is finally free. His heart skipping, he makes his way to the nearby firing positions of the German artillery. It’s not over, he’s escaped death again. Du doch nicht!!!
Hot wasp summer
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Martin Novotný
Cat. No. 8203
Zerstörergeschwader 1, known as Wespen (wasps) or Wespengeschwader due to the painting on the bows of its Messerschmitt Bf 110s, derived its origins from the pre-war JG 132 “Richthofen”. The Richthofen tradition was maintained by the unit, although its designation was gradually changed to ZG 141, ZG 1 and later to SKG 210.
ZG 1 was re-established in Lechfeld in January 1942. At that time, Stab, I. and II./SKG 210 specialized in the deployment of Bf 110s as fighter-bombers. At the same time, the newly established III./ZG 1 was armed with Messerschmitt Bf 109 E.
The entire Geschwader moved to Belgorod, Russia at the end of May 1942 as part of VIII. Fliegerkorps, commanded by Gen. Feldm. Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, a cousin of the well-known Manfred. ZG 1 was not involved in the fighting in the Crimea, but was deployed in the direction of Taganrog, Rostov and Krasnodar. The main task of its airmen was to support ground troops. It attacked supply columns, bridges, flak and field artillery positions and attacked infantry groups and armoured vehicles at the front. In doing so, Bf 110 crews used powerful nose armament and bombs, most often of 250 and 50 kg caliber. The preferred method of bombing was the steep descent, which the crews called Sturzflug (dive flight). The 110s came to be known as "flying artillery". Between June and August 1942, the worst enemy of the ZG 1 pilots was the Soviet anti-aircraft defences. During this period, I./ZG 1 lost 19 machines to their guns and II./ZG 1 lost as many as 52. Many of the damaged aircraft managed to return over their own territory with one engine.
In aerial combat, the Bf 110 pilots tried to take advantage of the high speed and strong armament in the nose. But sometimes Bf 110 crews also used the so-called defensive ring, which they had already used in the Battle of Britain. However, there were also losses in combat with Soviet airmen. And one Bf 110 was even shot down by a tank.
The combat deployment of the Wasps was extremely intense on some days. An example is August 25, 1942, during which I./ZG 1 was deployed in the Kotluban area. From quarter to four in the morning until six thirty in the evening (German time), Bf 110 crews carried out 25 missions with a total of 134 deployed aircraft. They dropped 79.6 tons of bombs on enemy positions and destroyed one tank, four guns (three others were disabled), three tractors and sixteen trucks, and damaged dozen of others. They also destroyed four towed vehicles and two sleds. A train was hit as well, and bombs severed the tracks in six places. One Bf 110 was shot down by flak, its crew being killed.
A boxart created years ago by our late friend Martin Novotný shows a crew from 6./ZG 1 in combat with Polikarpov I-16. During June 1942 this Staffel lost two commanders. First it was Hptm. Götz Baumann, who was wounded in a combat flight on 9 June. His successor, Oblt. Albert Heilmayer was shot down by flak just two days later. The new commander was Oblt. Egon Albrecht (25 v., KC), a German born in Brazil.
However, ZG 1 did not fight only the Red Army. Surprisingly, its jealous rival was von Richthofen, the commander of VIII. Fliegerkorps. His HQ often found itself in a situation of a dynamic battlefield where it did not have the information to deploy units effectively. But the improvising ZG 1 was able to support very effectively the ground troops.
The officers of ZG 1 also tried to get the command to scientifically prepare a solution for calibrating compasses in areas with large quantities of iron ore. Due to this anomaly, navigation errors and aircraft losses were occurring. The unwillingness of the command to address this problem led Kommodore Diesing to contact scientific services by himself and resolve the problem at the unit level.
Von Richthofen decided to disband the two Gruppen of ZG 1 in June 1942, but the ZG 1 command discreetly contacted Göring, who wanted to maintain Richthofen Geschwader unit's tradition. An exasperated Wolfram von Richthofen began to complicate the logistics and delivery of new equipment to ZG 1, but at the end of June he was transferred to command Luftflotte 4 and the situation gradually calmed down. This problem is discussed in detail by John J. Vasco in the second volume of Ian Allan Publishing's Zerstörer.
Markings for A6M3 Zero Type 22 1/48
Lt. Cdr. Shirō Kawai, Kōkūtai 201, Rabaul air base, New Britain, September 1943
This aircraft, with commander’s markings and factory green paint, was filmed for a Japanese newsreel published in October 1943. Some Japanese sources attribute this machine to Lt. Cdr. Kawai, who was serving as Hikōtaichō at Kōkūtai 201 at the time. In the second half of 1943, the markings of fighter units at Rabaul changed, and numerals ranging from 1 to 9 began to be used, the assignment of which to individual units has not yet been reliably determined. Aircraft with these markings are unofficially assigned to a combat group called Rabauru Kōkūbuntai (Rabaul Air Force). One of the theories assumes the numerical codes identified parts of the fighter units operating in Rabaul at the time. These were Kōkūtai 201 (code designations 1 to 3), Kōkūtai 204 (4 to 6) and Kōkūtai 253 (7 to 9). Shirō Kawai graduated from the Naval Academy in March 1937 and was a veteran of 12. Kōkūtai from fighting in China. His most successful period was in 1942 as leader of part of 4. Kōkūtai and later Tainan Kōkūtai. He served with Kōkūtai 201 from early 1943. The unit was deployed to Bougainville and Rabaul from July, but Kawai flew very few combat sorties. In October 1944 he was assigned to Hikōtai 308 as part of Kōkūtai 221. He remained missing after aerial combat on December 24 near Clark Field, Philippines. He bailed out in mountains but was apparently killed by guerrillas. After WWII it was revealed that Kawai gave order to execute Allied prisoners in February 1942 at Manus Island.
c/n 3257, Kōkūtai 252, Wake Island, November 1943
The wreckage of this aircraft was found on Wake Island when it was captured by American forces in September 1945. This base fell into Japanese hands in December 1941 after valiant resistance by the defenders. Kōkūtai 252 was formed in late 1942 from the Genzan Kōkūtai fighter squadron and participated in the fighting over Guadalcanal. In February 1943, it moved to Micronesia and the part of it based at Wake Island was under the command of Lt. Yūzō Tsukamoto and later Lt. Suhō. Their pilots were involved in sporadic engagements with American B-24 bombers, but the unit suffered heavy losses on October 5, 1943 during the Task Force 14 attack on Wake Atoll. Americans were engaged by 26 Zeroes, but 16 were lost with their pilots. The Japanese claimed ten victories and the American side lost six aircraft. According to Kōkūtai 252 records, c/n 3257 was to be redesignated from tail code Y2-157 to 52-150 in early November 1943. Photographs, however, indicate that only the individual aircraft number was changed. By mid-November, this Zero no longer appears on the Kōkūtai 252 equipment list. The unit was destroyed in early 1944 during the fighting in the Marshall Islands. The air raid on October 5 caused considerable damage to the technical facilities and aircraft at Wake base. A Japanese naval officer, fearing an anticipated landing, ordered the execution of the remaining 98 prisoners. After the war, he and his subordinate were sentenced to death.
Lt. Usaburō Suzuki, Kōkūtai 582, Buin airfield, Ballale Island, April 1943
This originally grey machine was partially repainted in field conditions with dark green paint. The pilot of this machine is said to have been Lieutenant Suzuki. The aircraft is shown in a photograph taken at the airfield during Operation I-gō. Unfortunately, the tail number was retouched by the censor. The numbers 191 and 182 are only hypothetical variants and are derived from the principle of dividing the unit into formations of nine machines. The machine with two chevrons with a photographic evidence of the tail code bore the number 173. Kōkūtai 582 was a mixed unit, armed with both A6M fighters and D3A Val bombers. Usaburō Suzuki graduated from the Naval Academy in August 1940. Two years later he was assigned to the 3. Kōkūtai (later Kōkūtai 202) and saw combat over New Guinea and Guadalcanal. With Kōkūtai 582 as Buntaichō of its fighter squadron, he led pilots in a series of battles in mid 1943 during the defence of Bougainville. He also commanded in the last action, on July 12, after which Kōkūtai 582's fighter squadron was disbanded and Suzuki was transferred to Kōkūtai 204. In November 1943 he became Hikōtaichō in Kōkūtai 265, which had been deployed in the Marianas area since the spring of 1944 and was disbanded in July after heavy losses. He then became commander of Hikōtai 301 within Kōkūtai 201 (II) and was killed in action off Taiwan on October 13, 1944.
Iwakuni Kōkūtai, Iwakuni airbase, Japan, 1944
This machine was manufactured with factory applied dark green color on upper surfaces. The markings of this training unit are the Katakana characters "I" and "Ha". The Iwakuni Kōkūtai was established in July 1940 and was used to train pilots for naval units operating from land bases until August 1944. It was then disbanded and re-established in March 1945. Fighter aces Akio Matsuba (18 victories), Momoto Matsumura (13 v.) or veteran of the aircraft carrier veteran Sōryū Ki-ichi Oda (9 v.) passed through its ranks as instructors. Hiroshi Shibagaki came through the unit as a student pilot, achieving thirteen victories in Rabaul with Kōkūtai 201 and 204. Another successful graduate became a Lt.(jg) Kagemitsu Matsu-o. In August 1943, he was assigned to Rabaul to Kōkūtai 253 and, with more than ten kills to his credit, became the only Naval Reserve officer to achieve ace status.
Kōkūtai 261 (Tora), Kagoshima airbase, Japan, 1944
The machine was manufactured with factory painted dark green paint on the upper surfaces. Kōkūtai 261 was established in June 1943 at Kagoshima Air Base, Japan, and was given the battle name Tora (Tiger) and was also referred to as Tora Butai. The identifying feature of its aircraft was the numerical code 61, or Kanji character for tiger. Its design varied from machine to machine. At the end of February 1944 unit moved to Iwo Jima and later went through heavy combat with US Navy airmen, primarily in Central Pacific. Unit also operated briefly from Biak Island north of New Guinea. By May 1944, its aircraft strength was already reduced to half, and in July the unit had to be disbanded due to high casualties. Some of the remaining members of the unit were killed in ground combat or aboard a submarine during the evacuation. The position of Hikōtaichō was held by Lieutenant Masanobu Ibusuki, who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway on the aircraft carrier Akagi and served on the aircraft carrier Shōkaku during the fighting in the South Pacific. It is possible that Ibusuki achieved 25 to 30 aerial victories during the war. After the war, he became the first JSDAF unit commander with F-86 Sabre jets, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, but was killed in January 1957 in a collision with another F-86.
Markings for HIND E 1/48
Mi-24V, 7353, kpt. Tomáš Brom, npor. Hynčica, prap. Tisoň, 221 Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou, The Last Flight of the „Night Tiger“, May 27, 2015
Mi-24V, 0834, mjr. Bohuslav Dvořák, kpt. Jan Jiřík, pprap. Viliam Švacho, 2 Squadron, 11 Helicopter Regiment, Líně airfield, CIAF Hradec Králové, July 17, 1993
Mi-24V, 0815, kpt. Rudolf Straka, npor. Martin Vaniš, kpt. Ondřej Pospíšil, 331 Attack Helicopter Squadron, 33 Helicopter Base, Přerov, NATO Tiger Meet, Beja, Portugal, Jun 28 – July 9, 2002
Mi-35, 3370, 221 Helicopter Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou, RIAT Fairford, United Kingdom, July 14–16, 2015
Mi-24V 0786, mjr. Bohuslav Dvořák, kpt. Richard Plos, nrtm. Petr Vavrík, 2 Squadron, 11 Helicopter Regiment, Plzeň-Bory airfield, CSIAF Bratislava, Slovakia, September 5, 1992
Mi-24V, 0837, pplk. Jaroslav Špaček, npor. Pavel Heřman, kpt. Radek Spáčil, 231 Attack Helicopter Squadron, 23 Helicopter Base, Přerov, the last flight, route Přerov–Želátovice, December 12, 2005
Mi-35, 3361, 221 Helicopter Squadron, 22 Helicopter Base, Náměšť nad Oslavou, NATO Tiger Meet, Cambrai-Épinoy, France, May 9–20, 2011
Mi-24V, 0835, 331 Attack Helicopter Squadron, 33 Helicopter Base, Přerov, March, 2002
Markings for Spitfire Mk.VIII 1/48
MT775, S/Ldr Neville F. Duke, No. 145 Squadron, Loreto, Italy, July–September 1944
Neville Frederik Duke, native of Turnbridge in Kent, joined RAF in June 1940 when he was eighteen years old. After he completed his pilot training in February 1941, he was assigned to No. 92 Squadron where he scored his first two kills. Frequently he flew as a wingman to famous “Sailor“ Malan, commander of the Biggin Hill’s Wing. In October 1941 Duke was dispatched to North Afrika to No. 122 Squadron flying Tomahawks and Kittyhawks where he scored another four kills. He started his second tour of duty again with No. 92 Squadron which was transferred to the African continent and received “tropical“ Spitfires Mk.Vb. In the course of several months Duke score further fourteen victories. In March 1944 he assumed command of No. 145 Squadron equipped with Spitfires Mk.VIII and till the end of September he was credited with another six victories. In the role of No. 145 Squadron commander Duke flew three personal Spitfires Mk.VIII. Their serial numbers were JG241, JG953 and MT775. All those three Spitfires carried ZX-J codes painted in Deep Sky outlined in white. His last Spitfire s/n MT775 carried No. 145 Squadron insignia on both sides of the engine cowling. Unfortunatelly photograph of the starboard side has not known yet but most likely, same as on his previous Spitfires, the victory markings were painted on the port side under the windshield. Neville Duke finished the conflict with 28 kills and became the most successful MTO pilot. After his return to Europe he continued flying as a chief test pilot for the Hawker company.
1Lt. Leland P. Molland, 308th FS, 31st FG, Castel Volturno, Italy, December 1943–February 1944
Leland Phillips “Tommy“ Molland was born on May 7, 1919 in Chaffie, North Dakota. He completed his pilot training at Moore Field in Texas and on July 5, 1943 was attached to 31st FG. He achieved his first success as a fighter pilot on January 16, 1944, when he managed to shoot down one Bf 109 in cooperation. Another two kills quickly followed. On February 22, 1944 he became an ace having shot down two Bf 109. At the same time he became one of the most successful Spitfire Mk.VIII pilots. When in the end of March 1944 the 31st FG converted to P-51 Mustangs he continued flying combat missions and shot down another six enemy aircraft. After the war Molland remaind in the Air Force service and was promoted to Lt. Colonel. But on May 16, 1951 he tragically lost his life in Korea. Flying T-33 under the marginal weather conditions he struck terrain returning from the meteorological reconnaissance over the enemy territory.
MT507, F/O Len A. Smith, No. 152 Squadron, Sinthe, Burma, March 1945
In 1943 Len Smith served as a sargeant with No. 152 Squadron operating over Tunisia, Sicily and Southern Italy. He scored four kills for which he was awarded DFM. Before his squadron’s transfer to Burmese front in November he was promoted to Flying Officer. In the end of 1944 he was credited with a confirmed kill of Ki-43 and became an ace. His kill was one of only three Japanese aircraft destroyed credited to No. 152 Squadron during the fighting in the Burmese theater. In the spring of 1945 Smith completed his tour of duty with this unit and returned to the Great Britain. Sadly, shortly afterwards he was killed in a flying accident. His Spitfire, which he flew in the beginning of 1945, sported the fuselage nose painted white contrary to the regulations on SEAC aircraft white quick recognition markings. The propeller spinner was decorated with black chevrons painted at the propeller blades‘ bases. The unit insignia, leaping black panther, was painted on the fuselage port side.
A58-602, W/Cdr Robert H. M. Gibbes, No. 80 Wing, Sattler airfield, Australia, December 1944–April 1945
Bobby Gibbes, nicknamed “A Walking Barrel“ by his fellow pilots due to his short body complexion, was one of the most renowned Australian pilots and achieved one unusual sussess by shooting down aircraft of three different Axis nations i.e. German, Italy Vichy France. He scored 12 victories in total. Gibbes‘ Spitfire Mk.VIII A58-602 retained the factory camouflage, the Australian national insignia were complemented by RG-V codes and Grey Nurse inscription. Both were painted in Sky Blue. It was a very light blue color used by RAAF. Its application on the code letters was introduced in January 1943. Originally white tail surfaces were overpainted with Foliage Green on the top and sides, the undersides were painted Sky Blue. Ace of Spades on Gibbes aircraft’s rudder was painted upside down. Kill markings, depicting Gibbes‘ victories scored in MTO flying with No. 3 Squadron RAAF, were painted below the canopy. The quick recognition markings – white wing leading edge – appeared on the Australian Spitfires for the first time in the middle of 1943 and No. 80 Fighter Wing adopted the practice. During its service Gibbes‘ Spitfire carried two different shark mouths. Later version, with wide mouth is portrayed in this profile.
Markings for Fw 190A-8/R2 1/72
WNr. 681382, Hptm. Wilhelm Moritz, Stab IV./JG 3, Schongau, Germany, August 1944
Wilhelm Moritz was born on June 29, 1913, in Hamburg and joined the German army in 1933. He was assigned to the air force and went through fighter pilot training. The beginning of the war found him flying the twin-engine Bf 110 with II./ZG 1. In the summer of 1940 he was reassigned to 6./JG 77 and in April 1942, he served as CO of 11./JG 1. In September 1942, he was transferred to JG 51 on the Eastern Front where he would go on to shoot down twenty-five aircraft. On October 19, 1943, he was made Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 3. JG 3 was a component of the fighter network tasked with the defense of the Reich (Reichsverteidigung) and on April 18, 1944, Wilhelm Moritz became the CO of its IV. Gruppe. The Gruppe specialized in the use of heavily armed and armored single-engine fighters against Allied four-engine bombers. He was relieved of his command of IV. Gruppe on December 5, 1944, following a nervous breakdown. After convalescence he took over command of the Luftwaffe replacement training unit IV./EJG 1. He found his way back to a combat unit before the war ended, becoming CO of II./JG 4 on April 18, 1945, a post he held till the end of the war. He is credited with the downing of 44 enemy aircraft in total. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on July 18, 1944.
WNr. 680747, Oblt. Hans Weik, CO of 10.(Sturm)/JG 3, Memmingen, Germany, June 1944
Hans Weik was born on July 6, 1922, in Heilbronn and joined the Luftwaffe in October 1941. After completing training, he was assigned to JG 3 on February 21, 1943, and sent to the Eastern front where he shot down ten Soviet aircraft. From May to November he served as an instructor at 4./JGr Ost and there he gained his first kill of a B-17 bomber. He was subsequently transferred to 9./JG 3 and on February 10, 1944, he was promoted to Commanding Officer position of 10. Staffel JG 3, where he achieved 23 kills. Twenty of them were four-engine heavy bombers. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his achievements on July 27, 1944. In April 1945 he was assigned to III./EJG 2, where he was retrained for Me 262. After the war, Hans Weik studied architecture and was responsible for the design of many structures. During retirement years he dedicated his time to ship modelling and died on June 5, 2001, in Heidenheim an der Brenz. The aircraft flown by Weik carried the markings of IV. Gruppe JG 3, i.e., a black engine cowl and a stylized Adlerflügel on the sides of the fuselage. The rear fuselage sports a white fuselage band that was common to JG 3 aircraft within the structure of the Defense of the Reich units. On these aircraft, the wave sign denoted the IV. Gruppe. The rudder carries victory markings up to June 1944.
Hptm. Gerhard Schröder, CO of II.(Sturm)/JG 4, Welzow, Germany, September 1944
The death of Obstlt. Hans-Günther von Kornatzki allowed 8. Staffel CO Hptm. Gerhard Schröder to take command of II./JG 4 on September 12, 1944. Kornatzki died in a failed emergency landing attempt that ended in high voltage transmission lines. Schröder was thirty-two years old at the time and remained Gruppe commander until the beginning of March 1945, when he was replaced by the cured Maj. Wilhelm Moritz. He held the post until the end of the World War II. Historians generally assert that the reason for the change of the II. Gruppe command was the poor showing of the unit during Operation Bodenplatte. The aircraft was camouflaged in the standard colors of RLM 74/75/76 and carried the JG 4 emblem on the nose and JG 4’s Defense of the Reich identifier in the form of black-white-black fuselage bands ahead of the tail surfaces.
Fw. Adalbert Koch, 6./JG 300, Löbnitz, Germany, fall 1944
JG 300 was initially tasked with nighttime interception of Allied bombers headed to targets in occupied Europe as was the case with her sister unit JG 301 as well. However, at the beginning of 1944, attention shifted to daylight operations. The II. Gruppe of the unit was formed in July 1943 and equipped with heavily armed and armored Fw 190A-8/R2s or R8s in the summer of 1944. It was also designated as a Sturmgruppe. One of the unit’s pilots was Fw. Adalbert Koch, who in the fall of 1944 flew an aircraft with the “yellow 15” code. The armor plating on the sides of the fuselage carried the inscription “Titi Wau Wau”. The Defense of the Reich marking for JG 300 consisted of a red fuselage band. By this time, very few of these aircraft retained their armored glass on the sliding portion of the canopy. The pilots generally had these removed because of condensation, which formed between the glass surfaces at high altitude, compromising visibility of the pilot.
Markings for Fokker D.VII (OAW) 1/48
Lt. Ernst Udet, Jasta 4, Beugneux-Cramoiselles Airfield, France, June 1918
Jasta 4 received the new Fokkers D.VII on June 13, 1918. All these were license-built OAW aircraft. Immediately, a new unit marking, consisting of black-painted noses, wheel covers and struts, was introduced. This marking was certainly inspired by the black fuselages of Jasta 37. Udet was named the acting commander of Jagdgeschwader “Von Richthofen” on June 18, and although he only held this position for one day, it was probably enough to mark his plane in a more recognizable style. The fuselage was supposedly fully painted red, possibly as a reference to Udet’s previous service with Jasta 11. The wings were striped in red and white. The number of stripes is usually thought to be higher than we portray here, but the famous photo of this plane is heavily retouched. Close inspection reveals that only the stripe going through the right-wing cross is original. By comparison with another photo, shown in a TV documentary, we have our interpretation of the upper wing stripes layout. The aircraft did not survive long, as it was lost on June 29. At 7:40 a.m. over the village of Cutry Udet attacked a French Breguet, but the observer returned fire and managed to rip the steering lines of Udet’s Fokker with his fire and Udet had to bail out from the uncontrollable aircraft. The nose and wheel covers may have retained the black Jasta 4 unit colour or they were painted red as well. Available photos leave the possibility of both these options.
VzFlgMstr. Franz Mayer, MFJ III, Jabbeke, Belgium, September 1918
Franz Mayer was credited with three or four victories during WWI, depending on the source and flew with the marine unit MFJ III (formed from the personnel of MFJ I and MFJ II on June 23, 1918). Mayer’s Fokker D.VII from the OAW production was of early-mid batch and sported attractive paint scheme of white fuselage with yellow nose and diagonal black stripes on both sides. The interesting featur