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eduard
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Info Eduard - June 2011
HISTORY
Fw 190A-6, 1./JG 54, Russia, Summer, 1943
Fw 190A-6, W.Nr. 550528, Maj. Erich Rudorffer, CO of II./JG 54,
Immola, Finland, Summer, 1944
The uniquely painted White ‘5‘ of 1st Staffel,
JG 54 is attributed to being own by Walter
Nowotny, which he did actually y, but in all
probability was not a personal aircraft of his.
The aircraft is interesting rst and foremost by
its camouage scheme, as it appeared at a time
when the Fw 190s of JG 54 were painted in
the original factory scheme of RLM 74/75/76 in
combination with the yellow identication mar-
kings used on the Eastern Front. The light coloring
of the fuselage was darkened with a spray of
green, likely RLM 70. Also non-standard was the
width of the segments of the upper wing crosses.
As noted earlier, Walter Nowotny was one of the
more interesting of personnel to serve with JG
54. Initially, he ew Bf 109s, and switched over
to the Fw 190 when the unit re-equipped with
this type. The bulk of his victories were gained
on the Focke-Wulf, often through extraordina-
ry circumstances. For example, there were nine
kills credited to him on August 13th, 1943, and
even ten gained on September 1st, 1943 (ve
which were amed within a span of twelve mi-
nutes). On October 14th, 1943, he became the
rst German ghter pilot to cross the 250 vic-
tory mark. After receiving diamonds to go with
his Knight’s Cross and Oak Cluster with Swords,
he was called back from his CO of I./JG 54
posting and utilized in a propaganda role, that
really did not sit well with a combat ghter pi-
lot and natural hunter. On April 1st, 1944, he
was assigned to command the training unit JG
101, and in September, 1944 to the command
of Kommando Nowotny, equipped with the
Me 262. This unit was activated to develop
tactics for jet ghters to combat allied air-
craft, and for Nowotny, became his last military,
and life’s, function...
Personal aircraft of the CO of II./JG 54, Maj.
Rudorffer, from the summer of 1944 carried
a standard camouage scheme consisting of RLM
74/75/76, which was signicantly darkened from
nose to tail, likely utilizing a spray of RLM 74. The
tactical CO marking, ‘<<‘ was supplemented by
a small black ‘1‘. The bottom of the cowling comes
across as quite dark in black and white photogra-
phs, and was probably red. It is quite possible that
the top wing colors were mirror images of each
other, much like in that of the aircraft depicted
in Scheme F (Black ‘12‘, W. Nr. 550889). The cro-
sses on the bottoms of the wings did not carry the
usual black outline. The black spiral on the whi-
te spinner was a typical marking carried by air-
craft of the 4. and 5. Staffel JG 54 in the summer
of ‘44, but in the case of this aircraft, that spiral
also may have been red. This aircraft was lost on
December 15th, 1944 in combat with Pe-2s and
Airacobras, along with its pilot, Uffz. Walter Lewe.
Maj. Rudorffer, holder of the Knight’s Cross with
Oak Cluster and Swords, was CO of II./JG 54
from July, 1943 to the end of 1944. Among his
conrmed 224 kills (according to some sources,
222), gained over the course of more than 1000
combat sorties were 58 Il-2s and nine B-17s which
he overwhelmed ying the Me 262 Schwalbe as
a member of Stab I./JG 7. During his career he
was amed at least sixteen times, nine of which
required his use of a parachute.
Erich Rudorffer (archiv autora)