Strana 57
Stab I./SG 2, Csar or Raab, Hungary, winter 1944/1945
1./SG 4, Airasca, Italy, June 1944
The original camouflage in the colors RLM 74
and 75 was overpainted with washable white
winter paint on this aircraft. Focke-Wulf 190s
of the Stab I. Gruppe SG 2 had blue numbers in
their fuselage markings during this period. The
I./SG 2 was deployed in Hungary until March
1945. Hptm. Herbert Bauer, an Austrian native
from Innsbruck held the command of the unit
from November 1944 until the end of the war.
From the beginning of 1941 he flew Stukas with
I./St.G. 2 Immelmann (later I./SG 2). From
June 1943 to May 1944, he was commander of
the 3. Staffel. Prior to rearming the unit with
Fw 190F during May 1944, he was given the
task of commanding operational training unit
II./SG 103 in France. During the war, he
conducted 1071 combat flights, 70 of them with
Fw 190. He destroyed 51 tanks, two armored
trains and achieved a direct hit of the battleship
Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya. He was awarded
11 aerial victories as well (one with Ju 87), while
another 12 were not confirmed. Bauer was
awarded the Knight's Cross with an Oak leaves.
The I./SG 4 was formed from the II./Sch.G. 2 in
Italy during October 1943. The unit used Fw 190s
of A and G versions and the F-8 starting from
June 1944. By then, the unit lost almost sixty
aircraft in combat on the Italian battlefield, as
the Luftwaffe faced strong Allied air superiority
in Italy over this period. Therefore, to achieve
lower visibility over the battlefield, the crosses
on the upper surfaces and the upper half of the
white fuselage band of this aircraft were over-
painted. The I./SG 4 took over Fw 190F-8s in
June 1944 at the base of Airasca during rest and
refitting. In July, the unit moved to the Eastern
Front under the command of Maj. Werner
Dörnback, who later became Kommodore of
SG 4. At the end of the war, I./SG 4 had a base
in Kostelec na Hané in the then Protectorate
Böhmen und Mähren (Czechoslovakia after the
war and Czech Republic today).
KITS 03/2026
INFO Eduard
57
March 2026