06/2024

INFO Eduard is a monthly scale model-historical magazine published in Czech and English by Eduard Model Accessories since 2010. The magazine is available for free on the Triobo platform and can be downloaded in PDF format. Eduard is a manufacturer of plastic models and accessories with over 30 years of tradition. Throughout its history in the plastic modeling industry, Eduard has become one of the world's leaders. Further details about the company and its product range can be found at www.eduard.com. You can subscribe to the INFO magazine and receive product information for free at: https://www.eduard.com/cs/info-eduard/

• Page 1

  e-magazine FREE Vol 23 June 2024

  INFO Eduard

  # 172

• Page 2

  INFO Eduard

  # 172

  e-magazine FREE Vol 23 June 2024

  © Eduard - Model Accessories, 2024

  FREE FOR DOWNLOAD, FREE FOR DISTRIBUTION!

  This material may only be used for personal use. No part of the text

  or graphic presentations can be used in another publication in any other media

  form or otherwise distributed without the prior written

  permission of Eduard - Model Accessories and authors involved.

  Editorial and Graphics - Marketing department, Eduard - Model Accessories, Ltd.

• Page 3

  eduard

  eduard

  JUNE 2024

  CONTENTS

  Published by Eduard-Model Accessories, spol. s.r.o.

  Mírová 170, Obrnice 435 21

  support@eduard.com www.eduard.com

  EDITORIAL

  KITS

  BRASSIN

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED SETS

  SPACE

  BUILT

  ON APPROACH

  –

  July 2024

  TAIL END CHARLIE

  ARTICLES

  BOXART STORY

  MARAUDER Limited 1/72

  Spitfire Mk.Vb OVERLORD Weekend 1/48

  Bf 109G-6 ProfiPACK 1/72

  Fw 190A-2 ProfiPACK 1/48 Re-release

  L-29 Delfín ProfiPACK 1/72 Re-release

  P-51B 1/48

  M3A1 Half Track 1/72

  F6F-3 1/72

  Bf 109F-4 1/72

  MUSTANGS IN THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY

  The Defense of Israel

  Air War in Ukraine

  -

  Help is Finally on the Way

  Use of ultrasonic knife in plastic modelling

  Pretty hunting

  From warship to Spitfire

  The “Mayfly” Geschwader

  Ricketts and Lukhmanoff

  4

  14

  30

  36

  58

  72

  90

  102

  108

  122

• Page 4

  Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen!

  Sometimes I get lucky and write these

  editorials in an interesting place, and this

  is one of those times. I am writing the June

  newsletter editorial during the first weekend

  of June at Bublava in the Ore Mountains, at

  a police recreation center where this year's Iron

  Bunny competition is taking place. This time, the

  competition teams are building our 48th scale

  P-51B Mustang. In addition to the kit, they also

  have a number of accessories available to them,

  including the engine, and the usual 24 hour

  allowance of hard work to present their efforts.

  Those of you who watched this year's Iron Bunny

  on the live stream from Bublava know the

  winner, something I personally won’t find out

  til Monday, when this newsletter comes out, but

  at the moment, I am in the dark regarding the

  winner. It’s been raining heavily here steadily

  and the meteorologists' warnings of heavy

  downpours and possible flooding are coming

  true. This year, Iron Bunny is an even bigger

  adventure than usual!

  When I left for Bublava on Friday, we were

  testing what should be the next-to-last mold

  for the 1:72nd scale P-51D Mustang, the mold

  with the fuselage and wings. On the first try, we

  received a complete set of plastic, to the general

  joy of the upper floors of the company, where

  the designers who needed to verify the accuracy

  of photoetched and decal designs were waiting

  for these pressings. While the decal for the

  first edition 1:72 P-51D, Royal Class kit is based

  on the 1:48th scale Royal Class release, and

  the 72nd scale kit design is based on the 1:48

  kit design, that still doesn't mean we can just

  scale the 1/48th scale item down and run with

  it like a banshee. With the moldings in hand, we

  can be sure of the accuracy of the design, and

  the decals, photoetched and masks can go into

  production this week. At the same time, we sent

  the moldings to Omask so that they could verify

  the design of the plugs used for masking off the

  wheel wells for painting. These will be a part

  of the Royal Class package. The final mold will

  be going on the press this week, with the small

  parts, and if all goes well, we will be packing the

  Royal Class kits next week and starting to ship

  them to customers in the second half of June.

  The logistics surrounding the realization of

  a new kit is complex, the processes follow each

  other very precisely and we are pleased to have

  it tuned in such a way that it usually works

  precisely and reliably for us. Of course, it is not

  without cost and the whole process carries with

  it a lot of stress and tension. Major screwups

  and delays are rare, but they do happen.

  We just got over one of those little gems. Moldings

  for June’s release of the B-26F/G Marauder in

  1:72nd scale left the Shimitz port near Shizuoka

  at the end of February. It normally takes six

  weeks for cargo ships to sail from Japan to

  Europe, this time our ship sailed twice as long

  thanks to the attacks by the Yemeni Houthis on

  cargo ships at the entrance to the Red Sea. A lot

  of maritime traffic is diverted along a route that

  circumnavigates Africa, making it longer and

  more expensive. Our Marauders have endured

  exactly that fate. To make matters worse,

  after the truck's arrival in the Czech Republic,

  the shipment was stopped by Czech customs

  officials, who inspected it and thus delayed

  the delivery of the pressings for another week.

  As a result, boxes with ready-made components

  were waiting for the plastic until May 27th, and

  several dozen incomplete shipments were also

  waiting for dealers from all over the world. The

  result of the whole sh*tshow was that we did not

  start sending shipments until May 28th, instead

  of May 15th, which would’ve been our standard-

  procedure date to send out new releases for

  June. It sounds like a fun story, but in our setup,

  where we pack and ship an average of eighty

  new items a month, a delay of even a single

  item means a stop sign for all shipments. We do

  prepare them as far as we can, but most orders

  wait to ship til they are complete. Of course, it

  depends on the type of item being held. If it's

  a mask or a small piece of PE, for example, some

  people opt to have it sent to them a month later.

  On the other hand, you probably understand that

  the production of masks or small PE items don’t

  generally suffer delays at our end. However, an

  item like the Marauder, which has the highest

  sales numbers of any June release by a wide

  margin, has significantly higher destructive

  potential if any of its many components fail to

  show at the right place at the right time. And

  man, was that ever the case with the Marauder!

  Almost 100% of orders were waiting for the

  Marauder and our business completely froze for

  two weeks. So if they don't have Marauders in

  your store yet, please be patient and hold out for

  a few days. They are definitely on their way and

  they will definitely arrive. The Houthis should no

  longer play any role in their delivery.

  Coincidentally, on the same day as the sprues

  for the Marauders, the plastic for the 72nd scale

  Delfin arrived. They flew in by plane and there

  were no tricks associated with their arrival.

  This makes the Delfin another of the kits that

  have returned to the range after our fire in 2020.

  Another item is making a comeback today, the

  Adlerangriff 1/32, a Limited Edition kit dedicated

  to the Bf 109 E during the Battle of Britain. Some

  time ago, we mistakenly advertised its return

  to our range on Facebook, but unfortunately

  we did not have all the components ready at

  that time. On top of that, we needed to abandon

  the injection molding queue due to the high

  demands imposed by the new P-51B. We've

  churned out 16,000 sets for the Royal Class and

  the Limited Edition ‘The D

  -

  Day Mustangs’ kit, but

  we're scraping the bottom of the barrel again

  and need to produce more for the August P-51B

  Profipack release. We made modifications to the

  mold to prevent that mysterious bending of the

  center strut above the wheel well. I hope this

  solves that tricky anomoly.

  Among June new releases there are, as usual,

  interesting pieces, whether it is the 72nd Bf 109

  G-6 in the Profipack line, the 48th Spitfire Mk.Vb

  in a special sub-edition of the Weekend series

  dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Operation

  Overlord, or the reissue of the 48th Profipack

  Fw 190 A-2. Among the new Brassin products,

  you will find a collection of kits for the P-51B

  EDITORIAL

  INFO Eduard4

  Červenec 2024

• Page 5

  in 1:48, the cockpit for the F-35B in 1:48th from

  Tamiya, the engines for the Beaufort from ICM

  and the brake chute for the F-4E from Meng.

  Although the break chute is specifically noted

  as being designed for the Meng kit, it can also

  be used on other Phantom IIs. We took this chute

  to almost every exhibition we attended last year,

  and at many of them it was able to garner at

  least as much interest among modelers as

  the most attractive kits. Also lovely are the

  1:350 scale Japanese naval anti-aircraft guns.

  In photoetched and masks, a collection of sets

  for the 48th scale B-26 Marauder from ICM and

  B-24 from Hobby Boss, and for the A-20 in 1:32

  scale from HKM are on offer, and sets for the

  S-79 Sparviero from Italeri should also prove to

  be interesting.

  However, that is not all that awaits us in

  June. On Thursday, June 6th, we will start

  accepting pre-orders for the Limited Edition kit,

  ‘The Bloody Hundredth 1943’, B-17F 1:48.

  You already know what this project is about.

  We have been reporting on it for several months

  now, and in the last few days the information

  about it on social networks has been very

  detailed, and so is the information in today's

  newsletter. I'd like to add a few details to all of

  this that haven't been covered yet. The Bloody

  Hundredth 1943 is our biggest, most challenging

  and also most expensive project to date, to be

  realized using the plastic from another company,

  that we have ever prepared. We have been

  working on it since last fall in cooperation with

  the 100th Bomb Group Foundation and with HKM.

  HKM not only supplied the plastic of their B-17F

  in 1:48th for us, but also produced, based on our

  design, a mold for conversion parts, allowing the

  construction of other versions from our modified

  kit, which differ from the original kit with later

  variations on the nose. But, it is also important

  what we did not go into within the scope of this

  project. That includes any modifications of real

  or perceived shape issues. We never do that

  with repackaged kits. The reason is quite simple.

  Such adjustments are not as simple as modelers

  imagine. We can replace some parts, make

  more accurate wheels, propellers or seats, but

  we cannot interfere with the shapes of the kit.

  Such partial adjustments always lead to some

  unsatisfactory compromise, where correcting

  one error can accentuate another. If there is

  a slightly thicker fuselage, a bad fuselage

  or wing profile, or a badly positioned engine

  nacelle, as in the case of HKM's B-17F, the only

  possible solution to such a problem is to make

  a new fuselage or a new wing, or both. However,

  the parts of the internal structure will no longer

  fit into it, because in the design of each kit,

  everything is intricately interconnected. In the

  end, we may as well just design and produce

  a whole new kit. I'm writing this because after

  the announcement of the project, the usual

  recommendations about everything that needs

  to be fixed began to come out. But that's not

  our goal, don't expect that from us. We will

  not carry out any comprehensive redesign of

  the HKM kit. In addition, we believe that HKM's

  B-17F kit is actually of very high quality and its

  possible inaccuracies are not out of the realm

  of errors found in other leading manufacturers'

  kits. So we start from the HKM kit and must

  respect its attributes, with all possible errors.

  It is the principle that allows us to work with

  moldings of other manufacturers and build our

  projects based on them, which, despite certain

  shortcomings, are very successful commercially

  and interesting for modelers. I believe that most

  modelers understand this principle and that our

  new project will make them happy despite its, in

  my opinion, small shortcomings.

  It's the same with the selection of markings.

  We have selected seven of the many interesting

  100th BG machines, or eleven included as

  a subscription bonus. Modelers are proposing

  other options, but it is already too late for them,

  or they have been dropped from the selection for

  some, usually technical, reason. But in general,

  it's like an election; there are many candidates,

  but few openings. I already explained that the

  selection of options for the color schemes of

  individual kits is not the result of an ad hoc

  lottery. Each kit has a paint selection committee

  of usually four, but sometimes five or six,

  who carefully consider each inclusion in the

  marking options guide. The selection is a three-

  round process, in the last round the balance

  of the composition of the selected aircraft is

  evaluated in terms of the variability of markings

  and camouflage schemes, the service of the

  aircraft in different theatres of operations or

  with different units. With Bloody Hundredth, the

  choice was specific, because the kit is dedicated

  to only one unit and thus only shows a certain

  slice of the wider history, but that does not

  mean that the choice was easy. On the contrary,

  a similar type of building block usually demands

  a lot of work.

  Modelers and especially reviewers usually

  downplay the marking options in our kits, sort

  of taking it for granted and don't deal with it

  too much in their evaluations. They usually

  just spout off the inclusions of these options

  and that’s it. Once upon a time it was different,

  there was a time when reviewers had a lot of

  comments about our color schemes. Ever since

  we changed our style and put more care into

  creating color guides, I feel like reviewers are

  ignoring them. As if the choice and quantity of

  color schemes had no bearing on the quality of

  the kit, as if the range of this offering and the

  size of the decal sheet had no value. I'm sorry,

  because I think that the options offered are quite

  important for the quality of the kit. Honestly, who

  today will offer you eleven marking options in

  a kit, several of them in two variants, in addition

  to a beautifully rendered historical background

  describing the machine and its crew? I dare say

  no one. And I'm not talking about the size and

  scope of the decal sheet. There are three decal

  sheets in the Bloody Hundredth, all large format.

  If you are hesitating, you have a few weeks

  to think about it. The sale will run in several

  rounds. The first round is a pre-order on our

  e-shop, which will start on June 6th and end on

  June 20th. Some merchants have also launched

  their own pre-orders. After the end of the pre-

  orders, the sale will continue from the second

  half of July in the standard way, where we will

  deliver the kit to our merchants and distributors

  and it will be available to them as an August

  new release. We will be selling them at the IPMS

  USA Nats in Madison between July 17th and

  20th. The remaining kits will also be available

  from our e-shop. So if any kits remain at all by

  August, it looks like the entire shipment will be

  sold within a few weeks.

  You will find only basic information about The

  Bloody Hundredth 1943 project in today's issue.

  More information about the kit and the 100th

  BG will be made available as smaller, detailed

  historical notebooks about the aircraft and the

  unit at the end of next week.

  Articles

  The main historical article this month is Tom

  Cleaver's Mustangs in the Battle of Normandy

  on the P-51B's role during and after the invasion.

  There is also another continuation of the Air

  Battle over Ukraine by Mira Barič, and an article

  on the Iranian attack on Israel. The issue also

  contains a technical article on the use of an

  ultrasonic knife in model making by Ladislav

  Jareš and a report from the competition in

  Čáslav. Of course, there are the now traditional

  Boxart Stories, today dedicated to the cover

  images of the June kit releases – the Marauder,

  Spitfire Mk.Vb, Bf 109 G-6 and the Fw 190 A-2.

  The Iron Bunny slugfest is in the books, and

  the judges are scoring six beautifully built

  Mustangs, all with unbuttoned engines. While

  the Mustang as the competition model did

  not surprise them and they kind of expected

  it, the engine did raise some eyebrows. The

  engine is not slated for release til August, so

  the competition teams received pre-production

  pieces. So, these were a sort of test, and I got

  plenty of advice on how to improve it!

  Happy Modelling!

  Vladimir Sulc

  EDITORIAL

  INFO Eduard

  5

  Červenec 2024

• The Bloody Hundredth

  Information about Pre-orders B-17F 1/48 kit.

• Page 7

  Piccadilly Lily, an aircraft primarily flown by

  the crew of Captain Thomas E. Murphy of the

  351st Bomb Squadron, is probably the most fa-

  mous B-17F of the 100th Bomb Group. Her story

  has been featured in two film projects: the 1949

  movie “Twelve O’clock High” and, more recently,

  the “Masters of the Air” series. The popularity of

  the first movie was due to screenwriter Beirne

  Lay, who, on August 17, 1943, with the rank of

  Lt. Col. and sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of Pic-

  cadilly Lily, flew a mission to Regensburg. This

  was the famous “Double Strike Mission,” after

  which the 100th Bomb Group landed in North Af-

  rica. Above all, however, it marked the first of the

  unit’s black days, as they lost 9 of the 21 aircraft

  involved in the mission. It also earned the unit its

  first “Distinguished Unit Citation.”

  The B-17F Piccadilly Lily and Murphy’s

  crew had been flying it combat since the

  first missions of the 100th BG in the sec-

  ond half of June 1943. During her service,

  the nature of the insignia changed twice

  - first the round insignia was replaced by

  a variant with stripes and red trim, then

  again when the red trim was obscured by

  a richer blue. Lily was lost on 8 October

  1943 in the raid on Bremen. From the crew

  of Cpt. Murphy’s crew, six men perished.

  With them, the squadron operations offi-

  cer, Capt. Alvin L. Barker, who joined the

  crew at the last minute before taxying for

  take off.

  Variant 1 - Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew, Lt. Col. Beirne Lay. Jr., 351st Bomb Squadron,

  100th Bomb Group, Regensburg mission, 17 August 1943, Telergma, Algeria

  Variant 2 - Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb,

  Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, 21 September 1943

  Variant 1

  Variant 2

  Variant 2

  INFO Eduard

  7

  Červenec 2024

• Page 8

  The B-17F “Alice from Dallas” was one of the

  original aircraft that moved with the unit to

  England after completing stateside training.

  She was the ship of the crew led by Lt. William

  D. DeSanders of Dallas, Texas, who named this

  plane after his wife. DeSanders’ crew flew with

  Alice from the beginning of the unit’s combat

  operations in late June 1943 until the mission

  to Trondheim, Norway, on July 24, 1943, after

  which the pilot was hospitalized with a type of flu.

  The rest of the crew flew the very next day on

  a mission in another B-17F with a replacement

  pilot and never returned. After heavy flak hits,

  the aircraft crashed into the North Sea. For the

  raid on Regensburg on August 17, 1943, when

  Lt. DeSanders was still hospitalized, Alice was

  assigned to Lt. Roy F. Claytor. Subsequently, she

  was one of the victims of the first attack by Ger-

  man fighters before arriving at the target. Of the

  six ships composing the lower squadron, led by

  Maj. Gale “Bucky” Cleven, only two remained.

  In all, the 100th Bomb Group lost nine B-17s that

  day. Without his original crew, William DeSanders

  continued his operational tour, which he com-

  pleted on February 14, 1944, in the B-17G “Alice

  from Dallas II.” Sitting in the other seat in the

  cockpit with him was commanding pilot John H.

  “Lucky” Luckadoo. After returning to the U.S., Bill

  DeSanders lived in Dallas with his wife Alice until

  his death in 1983.

  The B-17F 42-5867 was built in the 30th pro-

  duction block of the F series at the Vega plant

  in Burbank. In addition to other specifics typical

  of this production, such as larger national insig-

  nia on the fuselage and a low camouflage paint

  border, it also had one of the evolutionary forms

  of the cheek gun window installed on the left

  side. Inscriptions of the aircraft name on both

  sides were accompanied by a small drawing of

  a gremlin releasing bombs from a potty. It was

  a simplified figure from the 350th Bomb Squad-

  ron emblem.

  Lt. William D. Desanders crew, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, August 1943

  INFO Eduard8

  Červenec 2024

• Page 9

  The B-17F “Alice from Dallas” was one of the

  original aircraft that moved with the unit to

  England after completing stateside training.

  She was the ship of the crew led by Lt. William

  D. DeSanders of Dallas, Texas, who named this

  plane after his wife. DeSanders’ crew flew with

  Alice from the beginning of the unit’s combat

  operations in late June 1943 until the mission

  to Trondheim, Norway, on July 24, 1943, after

  which the pilot was hospitalized with a type of flu.

  The rest of the crew flew the very next day on

  a mission in another B-17F with a replacement

  pilot and never returned. After heavy flak hits,

  the aircraft crashed into the North Sea. For the

  raid on Regensburg on August 17, 1943, when

  Lt. DeSanders was still hospitalized, Alice was

  assigned to Lt. Roy F. Claytor. Subsequently, she

  was one of the victims of the first attack by Ger-

  man fighters before arriving at the target. Of the

  six ships composing the lower squadron, led by

  Maj. Gale “Bucky” Cleven, only two remained.

  In all, the 100th Bomb Group lost nine B-17s that

  day. Without his original crew, William DeSanders

  continued his operational tour, which he com-

  pleted on February 14, 1944, in the B-17G “Alice

  from Dallas II.” Sitting in the other seat in the

  cockpit with him was commanding pilot John H.

  “Lucky” Luckadoo. After returning to the U.S., Bill

  DeSanders lived in Dallas with his wife Alice until

  his death in 1983.

  The B-17F 42-5867 was built in the 30th pro-

  duction block of the F series at the Vega plant

  in Burbank. In addition to other specifics typical

  of this production, such as larger national insig-

  nia on the fuselage and a low camouflage paint

  border, it also had one of the evolutionary forms

  of the cheek gun window installed on the left

  side. Inscriptions of the aircraft name on both

  sides were accompanied by a small drawing of

  a gremlin releasing bombs from a potty. It was

  a simplified figure from the 350th Bomb Squad-

  ron emblem.

  Lt. William D. Desanders crew, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, August 1943

  The crew of Lt. Glenn W. Dye, one of the origi-

  nal 100th Bomb Group crews that moved to En-

  gland together after stateside training, was the

  first crew of this unit to complete a tour of 25

  operational missions. Their aircraft was des-

  ignated EP

  -

  J and named Sunny, but they lost it

  on September 3, 1943, when another crew was

  shot down with her. They named their new B-17,

  designated EP

  -

  K, Sunny II, and finished the tour

  with her on September 16, 1943. The tour at that

  time was not completed by the co-pilot, Lt. John

  H. Luckadoo, who, because of Lt. Dye’s team pro-

  motion to lead crew, was 4 missions short.

  Sunny II was later used by other crews who flew

  most of her 14 missions, during which she sus-

  tained extensive battle damage and not only once

  returned with wounded aboard. The aircraft’s

  fatal mission was Ludwigshafen on December

  30, 1943, when flak over the target knocked out

  two of her engines. The lone return ended for

  the crew of Lt. George W. Brannan with an

  emergency landing on a field near Thorpe

  Abbotts. Sunny II was destroyed but was

  able to bring her crew home once again.

  The original co-pilot of Sunny II, Lt. John

  H. “Lucky” Luckadoo, became the opera-

  tions officer and commanding pilot of the

  351st and later the 350th Bomb Squadron

  after his crew mates finished. He complet-

  ed his operational tour in February 1944.

  Today, at the age of 102, Lucky is one of the

  last living veterans of the 100th BG and is

  very active in passing on the legacy of his

  story, the story of his comrades, and the

  entire 100th BG to younger generations.

  Variant 1 - EP

  -

  K, Capt. Glenn W. Dye crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, September 1943

  Variant 2 - EP

  -

  J, Lt. George W. Brannan crew, 351st Bomb Squadron,

  100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, 30 December 1943

  Variant 1

  Variant 2

  Variant 2

  INFO Eduard

  9

  Červenec 2024

• Page 10

  Starting their missions during the most chal-

  lenging period in the life of the 100th Bomb Group

  in early October 1943 was not an ideal begin-

  ning for young combat crews. However, when

  such conditions meet strong character, charis-

  ma, and personal determination, a legend can

  emerge. One of the 100th BG’s greatest legends

  was Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal. They began their

  operational tour with three combat missions

  in three days. On the first of these, on October

  8, 1943, they took off in their brand new B-17F

  named Rosie’s Riveters for a raid on Bremen.

  The mission from which 7 aircraft from their unit

  did not return was a horror for the rookies. They

  themselves returned with a badly damaged Ros-

  ie’s Riveters, which, like Rosie’s crew, was having

  a baptism of fire. The next day, characterized by

  a much quieter mission, they flew a borrowed

  B-17F “Royal Flush”. Another day later, on Octo-

  ber 10, 1943, Rosenthal’s crew took off in the Royal

  Flush for Munster. On that day, 12 aircraft from

  the Bloody Hundredth formation did not return.

  12 out of 13! The Royal Flush, with “Rosie” Rosen-

  thal and “Pappy” Lewis at the controls, after an

  incredible dogfight with German fighters and

  an endless crawl home, with only two working

  engines, finally landed on the runway at Thorpe

  Abbotts to be the only ones to bear witness to the

  horror over Munster.

  That’s when the young lawyer from Brooklyn

  who volunteered for the Army Air Force began

  to become a legend. As the crew finished their

  operational tour in early March 1944, Robert

  Rosenthal volunteered for the second… and lat-

  er for the third. He later became commander of

  the 350th BS and then the 418th BS. Rosie was

  an exceptional pilot and an inspirational leader to

  many of his men. He flew as a command pilot for

  the 100th BG and the entire 13th CW. His combat

  duty ended on 3 February 1945 when he was shot

  down in a mission to Berlin. With the damaged

  B-17, he continued eastward in an attempt to get

  behind the battle lines. After all surviving crew

  members parachuted out, he abandoned the air-

  craft as well. Rosie parachuted behind the front

  lines and, with the help of the Red Army, made

  his way to the American Embassy in Moscow and

  then back to England.

  After the war, Robert Rosenthal was one of the

  US investigators at the Nuremberg war crime tri-

  als. From the late 1960s until his death in 2007,

  he was one of the leaders of the Association,

  later Foundation of the 100th Bomb Group.

  In early 1944, after receiving a new B-17G as

  a lead crew, Rosenthal’s team handed over his

  B-17F Rosie’s Riveters to her new users, the crew

  of Lt. Ross E. McPhee. They renamed it Satcha

  Lass and were shot down with her on 4 February

  1944 during a mission to Frankfurt.

  Lt. Robert ”Rosie“ Rosenthal crew, 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Bremen mission, 8 October 1943

  INFO Eduard10

  Červenec 2024

• Page 11

  Starting their missions during the most chal-

  lenging period in the life of the 100th Bomb Group

  in early October 1943 was not an ideal begin-

  ning for young combat crews. However, when

  such conditions meet strong character, charis-

  ma, and personal determination, a legend can

  emerge. One of the 100th BG’s greatest legends

  was Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal. They began their

  operational tour with three combat missions

  in three days. On the first of these, on October

  8, 1943, they took off in their brand new B-17F

  named Rosie’s Riveters for a raid on Bremen.

  The mission from which 7 aircraft from their unit

  did not return was a horror for the rookies. They

  themselves returned with a badly damaged Ros-

  ie’s Riveters, which, like Rosie’s crew, was having

  a baptism of fire. The next day, characterized by

  a much quieter mission, they flew a borrowed

  B-17F “Royal Flush”. Another day later, on Octo-

  ber 10, 1943, Rosenthal’s crew took off in the Royal

  Flush for Munster. On that day, 12 aircraft from

  the Bloody Hundredth formation did not return.

  12 out of 13! The Royal Flush, with “Rosie” Rosen-

  thal and “Pappy” Lewis at the controls, after an

  incredible dogfight with German fighters and

  an endless crawl home, with only two working

  engines, finally landed on the runway at Thorpe

  Abbotts to be the only ones to bear witness to the

  horror over Munster.

  That’s when the young lawyer from Brooklyn

  who volunteered for the Army Air Force began

  to become a legend. As the crew finished their

  operational tour in early March 1944, Robert

  Rosenthal volunteered for the second… and lat-

  er for the third. He later became commander of

  the 350th BS and then the 418th BS. Rosie was

  an exceptional pilot and an inspirational leader to

  many of his men. He flew as a command pilot for

  the 100th BG and the entire 13th CW. His combat

  duty ended on 3 February 1945 when he was shot

  down in a mission to Berlin. With the damaged

  B-17, he continued eastward in an attempt to get

  behind the battle lines. After all surviving crew

  members parachuted out, he abandoned the air-

  craft as well. Rosie parachuted behind the front

  lines and, with the help of the Red Army, made

  his way to the American Embassy in Moscow and

  then back to England.

  After the war, Robert Rosenthal was one of the

  US investigators at the Nuremberg war crime tri-

  als. From the late 1960s until his death in 2007,

  he was one of the leaders of the Association,

  later Foundation of the 100th Bomb Group.

  In early 1944, after receiving a new B-17G as

  a lead crew, Rosenthal’s team handed over his

  B-17F Rosie’s Riveters to her new users, the crew

  of Lt. Ross E. McPhee. They renamed it Satcha

  Lass and were shot down with her on 4 February

  1944 during a mission to Frankfurt.

  Lt. Robert ”Rosie“ Rosenthal crew, 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Bremen mission, 8 October 1943

  B-17F 42-3307, later named Skipper, was not

  among the aircraft the unit moved to Thorpe Ab-

  botts, although it arrived there before the Hun-

  dredth began combat flying. Skipper was able

  to take part in the unit’s second combat mission

  on June 26, 1943. It was chosen as his person-

  al aircraft by the 351st Squadron commander,

  Maj. Ollen O. Turner. The new B-17 was named

  after Turner’s nickname for his wife, although

  the nickname soon carried over to Maj. Turner as

  well.

  During August and September, Skipper flew

  several combat missions under the care of its

  crew chief, Dewey R. Christopher, and his team.

  On October 10, 1943, it was assigned to the com-

  bat formation for the raid on Munster. Yes, the

  mission from which Robert Rosenthal returned

  in the B-17F Royal Flush as the only one of the

  whole unit. Skipper was saved from certain de-

  struction by a malfunctioning No. 2 engine, which

  caused its crew to abort and return early.

  On January 24, 1944, the 100th Bombardment

  Group headed for Frankfurt. Skipper took its

  place in the formation, with the crew of Lt. Ar-

  chie J. Drummond aboard. Shortly after take-

  off, at an altitude of 700 feet, they were blinded

  by the sharp landing lights of a B-24 taking off

  from another nearby base. Since the B-24 pilots

  apparently did not see the B-17 in front of them,

  Lt. Drummond pushed the heavy, bomb-laden

  aircraft to the ground in an attempt to avoid

  a collision. Skipper thus avoided the Liberator in

  Variant 1 - Maj. Ollen O. Turner. CO of 351st BS,

  Lt. Jack R. Swartout crew, 351st Bomb Squad-

  ron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, July

  1943

  Variant 2 - Lt. Archie J. “Four Mile” Drummond

  crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, 24 January 1944

  a right descending turn, but at the same time

  came dangerously close to the ground. As he

  leveled off, he caught his left wing on the roof

  of a farm building about 15 miles from the base.

  The gasoline from the punctured tanks turned

  the aircraft into a flaming torch. The machine

  flew through a small forest and landed in

  a field beyond. The impact with the ground threw

  the bombardier, Lt. Maurice G. Zetlen, through

  the Perspex nose. He succumbed to his injuries

  at the scene. Miraculously, the rest of the crew

  managed to crawl out themselves from the burn-

  ing aircraft. The Skipper, however, was destroyed

  where it landed.

  Variant 1

  Variant 2

  Variant 2

  INFO Eduard

  11

  Červenec 2024

• Page 12

  The fate of the B-17F 42-5957, nicknamed Horny

  II, and its crews was very turbulent. It returned

  from its first mission on September 6, 1943, with

  a dead co-pilot on board and a seriously wound-

  ed pilot, bombardier, and navigator. On a mission

  to Stuttgart that day, this B-17 was flown by the

  crew of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder. Despite the badly

  damaged aircraft, he managed to return to En-

  gland. For this feat, he was awarded the DSC.

  The aircraft was repaired and assigned to the

  crew of Lt. Henry M. Henington. Their very first

  mission with this ship was a raid on Bremen

  on October 8, 1943, one of the worst days for

  the Bloody Hundredth. Horny II again returned

  from the mission with only two working engines.

  Henington’s crew completed its operational tour

  of 25 missions in late 1943, flying a large portion

  of them in this aircraft. The last mission of Hen-

  ington’s team took place on December 31, 1943.

  The target was Paris, and Horny II returned again

  with only two working engines and with flat land-

  ing gear tires.

  By early May 1944, Horny II was close to be-

  coming the first B-17 from the 8th Air Force to fly

  50 missions. This impending record was ruined

  by an electrical discharge that caused the gas-

  oline cleaning the aircraft on the hardstand to

  burst into flames. All that remained of Horny II

  was charred wreckage. However, in its 49 mis-

  sions, it was a reliable airplane for its crews,

  always managing to bring them home despite

  considerable damage.

  crews of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder,

  Lt. Henry M. Henington, 349th Bomb

  Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, early 1944

  INFO Eduard12

  Červenec 2024

• Page 13

  The fate of the B-17F 42-5957, nicknamed Horny

  II, and its crews was very turbulent. It returned

  from its first mission on September 6, 1943, with

  a dead co-pilot on board and a seriously wound-

  ed pilot, bombardier, and navigator. On a mission

  to Stuttgart that day, this B-17 was flown by the

  crew of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder. Despite the badly

  damaged aircraft, he managed to return to En-

  gland. For this feat, he was awarded the DSC.

  The aircraft was repaired and assigned to the

  crew of Lt. Henry M. Henington. Their very first

  mission with this ship was a raid on Bremen

  on October 8, 1943, one of the worst days for

  the Bloody Hundredth. Horny II again returned

  from the mission with only two working engines.

  Henington’s crew completed its operational tour

  of 25 missions in late 1943, flying a large portion

  of them in this aircraft. The last mission of Hen-

  ington’s team took place on December 31, 1943.

  The target was Paris, and Horny II returned again

  with only two working engines and with flat land-

  ing gear tires.

  By early May 1944, Horny II was close to be-

  coming the first B-17 from the 8th Air Force to fly

  50 missions. This impending record was ruined

  by an electrical discharge that caused the gas-

  oline cleaning the aircraft on the hardstand to

  burst into flames. All that remained of Horny II

  was charred wreckage. However, in its 49 mis-

  sions, it was a reliable airplane for its crews,

  always managing to bring them home despite

  considerable damage.

  crews of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder,

  Lt. Henry M. Henington, 349th Bomb

  Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, early 1944

  Perhaps no other B-17F in the 100th BG was

  wrapped in as many legends as this aircraft.

  It was surrounded by the recurring number 13.

  Some of these legends were real, some fictional,

  but Hard Luck’s status as an exceptional aircraft

  is indisputable. The aircraft had the last two dig-

  its of its s/n “13” and arrived in England on August

  19, 1943. Legend says it was a Friday 13th, and

  was flown to England by Lt. Don Mitchell’s crew,

  No. 13. This is no longer considered true. Anyway,

  Mitchell’s crew did fly with Hard Luck on their

  first combat mission and several more thereaf-

  ter. The Hard Luck’s hard stand was to be the one

  with the number 13, and the 100th Bombardment

  Group was part of the 13th Combat Wing. Other

  men that flew this aircraft included Lt. Loren C.

  Van Steenis’ crew, which is primarily associated

  with this aircraft. They flew 17 missions with Hard

  Luck.

  One cannot write about Hard Luck without

  mentioning her ground crew chief, the distinctive

  M/Sgt. Glenn M. “Zip” Myers, to whom (among

  others) the aircraft owed its long combat career.

  Toward the end of 1943 and into the winter of 1944,

  other crews flew this aircraft, including those of

  Randall T. Chadwick, John M. Shelly, and espe-

  cially John S. Giles, who flew 8 missions with

  her. After the mission on May 8, 1944, the aircraft

  had a long “wellness” break. Hard Luck received

  a new glass nose, waist windows closures, and

  a new type of top turret from a cannibalized B-17G.

  All four engines were overhauled. In fact, this

  aircraft became the 8th Air Force’s record holder

  after flying 50 combat missions with the original

  engines and turbochargers with which she was

  flown across the ocean in the summer of 1943.

  After repairs, she returned to combat duty on

  July 8, 1944, with the crew of Lt. Albert E. Trom-

  mer, which was on their third combat mission

  and became Hard Luck’s primary user for the

  remainder of her existence. In addition to train-

  ing flights, they flew 8 combat missions together

  during July 1944. On August 14, 1944, Hard Luck

  flew her 62nd mission, this time with the crew

  of Lt. Donald E. Cielewich. The target was Lud-

  wigshafen. There, the aircraft was fatally hit by

  flak. The crew dropped the bombs, and the air-

  craft headed for the ground in a wide turn. Before

  this B-17 impacted the ground, she allowed all

  the men aboard to leave the aircraft with para-

  chutes. Hard Luck was thus the last B-17F to fly

  combat with the 100th BG.

  Variant 1 - crews of Lt. Loren C. Van Steenis and Lt. John S. Giles, Jr, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group,

  Thorpe Abbotts, April 1944

  Variant 2 - Lt. Albert E. Trommer crew, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, July 1944

  Variant 1

  Variant 2

  Variant 2

  INFO Eduard

  13

  Červenec 2024

• MUSTANGS IN THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY

  Once SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) assumed operational control of all air forces in England at the beginning of April 1944, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, second in command of the invasion force to General Eisenhower, placed himself in overall command of air operations. He directed Eighth Air Force to concentrate its missions against the rail transportation system in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France in the weeks leading up to D-Day.

  Adapted from “Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Adapted from “Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter

  Command Against the Luftwaffe - 1942-45"Command Against the Luftwaffe - 1942-45"

  Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

  P-51Bs and P-51Ds of the 361st Fighter Group ready

  for takeoff on D

  -

  Day, June 6, 1944. (USAF Official)

  MUSTANGS

  IN THE BATTLE

  OF NORMANDY

  Once SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) assumed

  operational control of all air forces in England at the beginning of April 1944,

  Air Chief Marshal Tedder, second in command of the invasion force to General

  Eisenhower, placed himself in overall command of air operations. He directed

  Eighth Air Force to concentrate its missions against the rail transportation system

  in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France in the weeks leading up to D

  -

  Day.

  April also saw Eighth Air Force commander

  General Doolittle's decision to standardize VIII

  Fighter Command on the Mustang, re-equipping

  the groups equipped with P-47s and P-38s as

  P-51s were delivered and became available.

  Priority was given to re-equipping the Lightning

  groups, due to the airplane’s poor record in the

  command.

  On April 8, when the Fourth Fighter Group’s

  score was 296, Don Blakeslee set a goal of 500

  destroyed by May 1, a good indication of how

  fast the air war was now moving, since the

  Fourth only had a score of 100 over 18 months of

  combat at the end of January. The Eagles outdid

  their leader’s challenge, with credits for 207

  destroyed in the air and on the ground by April 30,

  for a total score of 503, passing their long-time

  rivals the Wolfpack to become to top-scoring

  fighter group in the Eighth Air Force.

  Following an epic party on the base the night

  of April 30, the Fourth was still able to provide

  escort on May 1 to Saarbrucken. John Godfrey,

  now promoted to flight leader in his own right

  and no longer in Gentile’s shadow, led his flight

  after a gaggle of 12 Bf 109s he spotted below.

  He chased one to low altitude where he hit the

  engine solidly and the pilot bailed out to give him

  his 14th aerial victory. Ralph Hofer scored his

  tenth victory when his enemy pilot bailed out so

  close ahead of him that

  “I could see his uniform

  and his black boots in the sun.”

  Two other pilots

  also scored off this group of enemy fighters.

  The Fourth didn’t score again for a week.

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard14

  Červenec 2024

• Page 15

  On May 8, the bombers went to both Berlin and

  Brunswick. The mission saw the 352nd Fighter

  Group fly their first all-Mustang escort mission

  and the “Blue Nosers” finally appeared over

  Berlin. The Jadgdwaffe responded with over 200

  fighters. The group’s patrol area was soon the

  scene of dogfights from 30,000 feet to street-

  level with the action hot and heavy for nearly an

  hour.

  Over Brunswick, the 487th squadron’s 2nd

  Lieutenant Carl Luksic gained the distinction

  of being the VIII Fighter Command first “ace in

  a day.” His encounter report provides an accurate

  description of the action:

  “While Lieutenant Bob O’Nan was chasing

  this Bf 109 I saw on my left five or six FW 190s

  which I immediately turned into. I put down ten

  degrees of flaps and started queuing up on one

  of the ’190s. I fired very short bursts from about

  300 yards, 15 degrees deflection and observed

  many strikes on the canopy and fuselage.

  He immediately pulled up and rolled over and

  the pilot bailed out, his airplane going straight

  in from fifteen hundred feet. At this time in this

  vicinity there were three ’chutes – one from the

  enemy aircraft that I had shot down and one from

  the enemy aircraft that Lieutenant O’Nan had

  shot down, but I do not know where the third one

  came from.

  I then broke away from one shooting at me and

  got onto another ’190’s tail and fired short bursts,

  but did not see any hits. However, the pilot

  evidently spun out as he went straight into the

  ground from eight hundred feet or so and blew

  up. I was then joined by two P-47s but lost them,

  and finally joined up with two from our own group,

  Captain Cutler [from the 486th squadron] and his

  wingman. He started down over Brunswick to

  strafe a ‘drome, but observing so much ground

  fire and flak I pulled up and away and lost them.

  I then saw another airplane which I thought to

  be a P-51. I closed on it to about thirty yards and

  identified it as a ’109. I gave a short burst, but

  don’t know if there were any strikes, and I found

  myself riding his wing as I was at full throttle.

  He was about two hundred feet off the deck, and

  when he looked at me he pulled up, jettisoned

  his canopy and bailed out. I went down and took

  a picture of the airplane, which had crashed into

  a small wood, and right onto a small fire.

  I started to climb back up when I was rejoined

  by my wingman, Lieutenant O’Nan, and Red

  Leader, Captain Davis. We started back towards

  the bombers when off to our left at nine o’clock

  “I then broke away

  from one shooting

  at me and got onto

  another ’190’s tail…

  A P-51D of the 4th Fighter Group’s 334th Fighter Squadron with D

  -

  Day identification markings. (USAF Official)

  P-51s prepare for takeoff from the Fourth Fighter Group’s base at Debden. (USAF Official)

  P-51Ds of the 20th Fighter Group’s 77th Fighter Squadron. The 20th exchanged their P-38s for P-51s in July 1944.

  (USAF Official)

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard

  15

  Červenec 2024

• Page 16

  low we observed about twenty-plus in close

  formation going down through the clouds.

  The three of us immediately turned into the attack

  and came down on them through the clouds.

  I found myself directly astern of a ’190, with

  a ’109 flying his wing in close formation. I was

  evidently unseen as I got in a very successful

  burst at the ’109 and observed numerous hits

  on his wings, fuselage and tail. He was at about

  eight hundred feet, and after catching fire he

  went straight down into the ground.

  I immediately kicked a little right rudder and

  got in another successful burst at the ’190 and

  observed numerous hits on its left wing, engine

  and canopy. The ’190 went into a tight spiral and

  crashed into the deck from a thousand feet.

  At this point there were about fifteen or more

  enemy aircraft in the vicinity and they started

  aggressive tactics, and since I was alone, and

  they were making head-on passes at me, I had

  to take violent evasive action. I evaded into the

  clouds.”

  Following close behind Luksic were 487th

  squadron commander Lt. Colonel John C. Meyer

  and Lieutenants John Thornell and Clayton Davis,

  who claimed three each. The group returned to

  Bodney with total claims of 27 destroyed, their

  best day ever. The day’s action earned the

  Bodney Blue Nosers their first Distinguished Unit

  Citation, while Luksic, Meyer, Thornell and Davis

  were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

  While the Blue Nosers scored over Berlin,

  VIII Fighter Command Mustangs were ranging

  farther and farther afield. That same day,

  the Fourth escorted bombers to Brüx (Most),

  Czechoslovakia, nearly 800 miles from Debden.

  JG 27's Bf 109s provided opposition, but the

  Mustangs came out on top with five pilots

  submitting claims for five destroyed. The next

  day, the group flew east of Berlin to pick up

  bombers returning from a strike on Poznan,

  Poland over the Oder river.

  While the Eagles flew to Poland, the 352nd

  went to Berlin again on May 13, the Blue Nosers

  got involved in a massive battle with intercepting

  enemy fighters. Nearing Tribsees-Demmin, huge

  formations of Bf 109s and Fw 190s were spotted

  forming up to attack the bombers. First blood

  was drawn by the 328th squadron’s Captain John

  Coleman and his element leader 1st Lieutenant

  Francis Horne, who each scored two. Group

  commander Colonel Joe Mason led the 486th

  squadron into a force estimated as “100-plus.”

  The squadron broke into individual flights, with

  the Mustangs attempting to break up the enemy

  formation.

  Mason, leading White Flight swept through

  enemy fighters that turned away, and he later

  reported:

  “I saw strikes on the wing of one Me 109. Upon

  coming out on the far side, I lost the rest of my

  flight. As I pulled up in a climbing turn and looked

  down at the large formation of bandits, I saw two

  Me 109s spinning down, one with about two-

  thirds of its wing gone. This collision was forced

  by my flight flying through the large formation of

  bandits at about a ninety-degree angle. I am not

  certain as to whether the ’109 I damaged was one

  of the two I later saw going down.

  My wingman broke away and down when we

  started through, and my second element pulled

  up and came in on the rear of the bandits. They

  did not see the collision. I then rolled back and

  down, chasing twenty FW 190s and Me 109s which

  had split off from the bunch and were diving

  for the clouds. I closed on an FW 190 and after

  a few short bursts, set him on fire. The first burst

  knocked his left flap off. He was taking evasive

  action in the clouds, and just before entering one,

  smoke, flame and debris came back over my ship

  and we both went into the cloud. I then pulled up

  to keep from running into him in the cloud, and

  came out on top. My ship was covered with oil

  from the ’190.”

  P-51D-10 “Straw Boss” of the 352nd Fighter Group, the “Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney.” (USAF Official)

  “The rst burst

  knocked his left ap

  off…”

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard16

  Červenec 2024

• Page 17

  Mason claimed two Bf 109s and one Fw 190

  destroyed and one Bf 109 damaged.

  George Preddy, leading the 487th squadron,

  joined the fight shortly after Mason scored his

  victories. Spotting 30 Bf 109s below, Preddy led

  the squadron’s bounce on them and personally

  downed two, with these he became an ace with

  a tally of 5.333 aerial victories. While Preddy

  scored, Lieutenant Nutter closed in when the

  remaining Bf 109s tried to flee and sent another

  down on fire. “Ace in a day” Carl Luksic and

  his wingman Glennon Moran spotted a Ju 88

  attacking a B-17. Both attacked and the Junkers

  crash-landed in a ploughed field. When it didn’t

  catch fire, Luksic strafed it and set it afire.

  The 352nd’s score of 16 destroyed made them

  the top-scoring VIII Fighter Command group for

  the day. Colonel Joe Mason was awarded a DSC.

  The Jagdwaffe reported 58 losses, three less

  than the day before.

  The result of the success the fighter groups

  had achieved in April and early May saw morale

  in the bomber groups begin to recover as the

  crews realized they were flying missions with

  fewer casualties, due to the offensive fighter

  escort tactics. Losses would get progressively

  lower for the rest of the war, but May 1944

  was when those who climbed into the bombers

  began to believe they had a chance to make it

  home, even when Doolittle increased the tour to

  35 missions that summer.

  Range for P-51s would increase as the

  Mustang-equipped groups saw their aircraft

  modified to allow them to carry two 108-gallon

  paper tanks, rather than the metal 75-gallon

  tanks they had been using. The modification took

  several days for each group and was carried

  out a group at a time over mid-May, the Fourth

  was the first to do this between May 14-18. Now

  able to take their Mustangs to places where no

  American fighter had been seen before, or to stay

  longer for the fight over targets like Berlin, the

  Fourth continued amassing victories.

  On May 21, as part of the Transportation

  Program SHAEF planners had developed to

  disrupt German rail transportation, VIII Fighter

  Command and IX Tactical Air Command flew

  what was called “Chattanooga Day” (named for

  the popular song, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”),

  with 552 Mustangs, Lightnings and Thunderbolts

  turned loose over central and western Germany,

  and northern France and Belgium, to attack

  railroads. The groups came back with claims for

  225 locomotives attacked, with 91 considered

  destroyed. Strafing ground targets had not been

  limited to railroads, since the pilots also claimed

  102 aircraft destroyed on airfields, with a further

  76 damaged. The 361st Fighter Group, led by

  Philippines and Guadalcanal veteran Colonel

  Thomas J.J. Christian, the great grandson

  of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson,

  made their first appearance flying P-51s after

  transferring from P-47s and submitted claims for

  wrecking 23 locomotives. Chattanooga Day was

  the pre-invasion high point of railroad attacks

  that had begun back in February and saw over

  900 locomotives destroyed over four months.

  Berlin was attacked again on May 24. Jim

  Goodson led the Fourth and spotted 40-plus

  near Hamburg gathering for an attack on the

  bomber stream. When the Mustangs hit the

  formation, they soon came across several other

  gaggles nearby. Ralph Hofer later reported

  seeing “several gaggles of Fw 190s.” When they

  returned to Debden, the pilots claimed another

  eight destroyed.

  The next day, Goodson again led the group,

  this time an escort to bomb the railyards in

  Chaumont-Sarreguemines in northern France. He

  later reported,

  "We saw fighters and immediately

  went to investigate.”

  The opponents were from JG

  26, with 20 Fw 190s from II Gruppe, covered by

  The 352nd’s Captain Bill Whisner flew P-51B “Princess Elizabeth” - so named to commemorate a visit to Bodney

  in June 1944 by the future queen - throughout the summer of 1944. (photo represents currently flying warbird

  P-51C-10NT now operated in USA under registration N487FS; photo: American Air Museum in Britain)

  P-51D-5 “Short Fuse” was flown by Captain Richard E. Turner of the 354th Fighter Group’s 356th Fighter

  Squadron. (USAF Official)

  The Resumé

  of the hunting

  Chattanooga Day

  Return to Berlin

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard

  17

  Červenec 2024

• Page 18

  30 Bf 109s from III Gruppe.

  “We split them up,

  but due to the fact that we were outnumbered

  fifty to eight, we were not able to destroy any.

  My wingman and I ended up alone on the deck.

  As he climbed to rejoin the group, Goodson

  spotted 24 Bf 109s and Fw 190s flying in close

  formation of six “vics” of four each, in line astern.

  I told my wingman we would try to sneak up

  behind and knock off the last section and then

  run away in the haze. As we were closing on the

  last section, all the Huns broke, and a lengthy

  dogfight ensued, with the Fw 190s showing

  amazing fighting ability and aggressiveness.

  It was only after the most violent maneuvering

  and excessive use of throttle and flaps that I was

  able to get good strikes on the most persistent

  ’190. He pulled up and bailed out.”

  Goodson’s

  fourteenth aerial victory turned out to be his last.

  With the fighters of IX Tactical Air Command

  striking every target they could find in Northern

  France and Belgium, and fighter groups from

  VIII Fighter Command strafing targets during

  their returns from every escort mission,

  while A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders of the

  IX Air Force and the Eighth’s B-17s and B-24s

  hit every rail target in the region, the German

  Army in northwestern France was soon cut off

  from its supply bases. The strikes on airfields

  forced the defending fighters to pull back deeper

  into France and Germany. The week before the

  invasion, the commander of the German Seventh

  Army, tasked with defending Normandy, called

  the roads in the army’s area of operations “Jabo

  Rennstrecke” (fighter-bomber racecourses).

  The Luftwaffe had fewer aircraft available

  on the Channel coast at the end of May than

  had been available at the time of the Dieppe

  Raid. JG 2, which had been assigned to the

  Cherbourg Peninsula since 1941, was closest

  to the Normandy beaches. I./JG 2 had only

  recently returned from the fighting at Anzio.

  The Bf 109-equipped II./JG 2 was at Creil outside

  Paris, while III./JG 2's Fw 190s were in the

  process of transferring to Fontenay-le-Comte

  north of La Rochelle.

  With a forecast for stormy weather during

  the first week in June that seemed to preclude

  any likelihood of invasion, JG 26 Kommodore

  Oberst Josef “Pips” Priller felt safe giving

  some pilots time off. II Gruppe left for Mont de

  Marsan near Biarritz for a week’s leave on June 1.

  The other two gruppen were ordered to move

  inland on June 5, with I Gruppe moving to Reims and

  III Gruppe to Nancy.

  Their ground echelons were still on the road

  when dawn came on June 6.

  The Fourth’s Bob Wehrman remembered

  “June

  6, 1944, really was the longest day. We had

  Double-Daylight Savings Time in England, which

  meant dawn came around 0300 hours. None of

  us had slept much that night. The sky was filled

  for hours with the drone of aircraft. I spotted

  bombers heading toward invasion targets and

  C-47s carrying what I later learned were the

  British and American paratroops.”

  “Pips” Priller learned the invasion was on

  when he was awakened by the phone in his Lille

  command post. It was from 5th Jagddivision,

  Eighth Fighter Command recommended groups apply camouflage to aluminum-finish P-51s in May 1944 before the invasion, in the expectation the fighter

  groups might deploy to mainland Europe following the invasion. The 357th Fighter Group was the only group in Eighth fighter command to completely paint

  their Mustangs, using RAF Dark Green on upper surfaces and RAF Sea Grey Medium on lower surfaces. (USAF Official)

  This photograph of a mixed formation of P-51B and P-51D Mustangs of the 361st Figher Group was taken in late

  July-early August 1944, and became one of the iconoic photos of the Second World War. (USAF Official)

  The Longest Day

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard18

  Červenec 2024

• Page 19

  ordering him to move his headquarters

  immediately to Poix-de-Picardie, closer to the

  anticipated invasion site on the Pas de Calais.

  The dawn skies were a leaden grey at 0800 hours

  as Priller and his longtime wingman, Unteroffizier

  Heinz Wodarczyk, mounted their Fw 190A-8s

  and prepared to take off for a reconnaissance

  of the invasion beaches. With Wodarczyk

  sticking close, Priller headed southwest at

  an altitude of 100 meters. East of Abbeville,

  he looked up and saw several large formations

  of Spitfires flying through the broken cloud

  base. Near Le Havre, he climbed into the cloud

  bank hanging at 200 meters and turned west.

  Moments later, the two fighters broke out of

  the clouds, just south the British invasion beach

  code-named Sword. Priller only had a moment to

  stare out to sea at the largest naval force ever

  assembled in history. He could see wakes of the

  inbound invasion barges as they approached

  the beaches for as far as he could see in the

  hazy weather. With a shouted “Good luck!” to

  Wodarczyk, Priller winged over into a dive as

  his airspeed indicator climbed above 400 m.p.h.

  Dropping to an altitude of 50 feet, the two roared

  toward Sword Beach, where British troops dove

  for cover while ships offshore opened up with

  a barrage of anti-aircraft fire so loud those

  on the ground had trouble hearing Priller and

  Wodarczyk open fire as they flashed overhead,

  unscathed by the fleet’s fire.

  In a moment, the only appearance by the

  Luftwaffe over the Normandy beaches on D

  -

  Day

  was over. Priller and Wodarczyk zoomed back

  into the cloud bank and disappeared, having

  just flown the best-known mission in the entire

  history of JG 26, due to its later inclusion in

  Cornelius Ryan’s book “The Longest Day” and the

  movie made from it.

  JG 26's I and III Gruppen flew the majority

  of the 172 Luftwaffe sorties in the invasion

  sector on June 6. It was a drop in the bucket

  compared to the 14,000 sorties flown that day

  by the Allied air forces. By the end of the day,

  II Gruppe arrived after flying across France in

  time to fly a mission over Normandy in the last

  light of day, during which they caught the Fourth’s

  Mustangs strafing enemy positions and shot

  down four P-51Bs in the first pass for no losses.

  For most of the next eight weeks, I. Gruppe and

  III./JG 54 operated from Cormeilles and Boissy le

  Bois, while II. Gruppe was based at Guyancourt

  outside Paris, and III. Gruppe from Villacoublay

  Nord and Sud, also in the Paris region.

  By the evening of June 7, there were only six

  Jagdgeschwadern left in Germany, while 17 had

  flown into northwestern France to oppose the

  invasion. Had these units been at full strength,

  this would have been over 1,000 fighters,

  a force that might have had an impact on the

  battle. Unfortunately, with the losses suffered

  over Germany in the preceding months and

  the disorganization of the move from Germany

  to France, only 289 fighters were listed as

  operational at sundown of the second day of

  the invasion. On their arrival in France, the

  Jagdflieger discovered that nearly all the

  Luftwaffe’s airfields in France had been too

  badly damaged by American bombing during

  the previous three months to sustain operations.

  They would be forced to fly and fight from

  improvised airfields that were so far from the

  battlefield they would only have less than

  30 minutes combat time over Normandy. Due

  to the inability of 5th Jagddivision to exercise

  control of the newly-arrived units in the form

  of planning and direction of operations, most

  fighter missions flown during the Normandy

  battle were “freie jagd” uncontrolled

  independent fighter sweeps, an ineffective use

  of the limited resources. Over the course of the

  next two months, what was left of the flower

  of the Jagdwaffe would die in the Norman sky,

  outnumbered by odds of 100:1 and outflown by

  better-trained and more experienced Allied

  pilots. Even with the fighter force growing to

  1,000 by the end of June, it was a case of “too

  little, too late.”

  The day’s action saw Priller score his 97th and

  98th victories, a P-47 and P-51 respectively. The

  hard-pressed pilots of I and II Gruppen scored

  eight for two losses. The next day, Priller led

  11 Fw 190s of I Gruppe on a strafing mission

  against the invasion beaches, their “score” was

  the “destruction” of 15 crashed gliders.

  Operation Pointblank had succeeded. The

  Allied air forces now had air superiority over

  western Europe. The five month campaign had

  cost the Eighth Air Force 2,600 bombers and 980

  fighters lost, with 18,400 casualties including

  10,000 dead.

  The weather cleared on June 10, a day that saw

  the Blue Nosers’ 328th squadron, led by Captain

  “Ferocious Frankie,” a well-known P-51D-5 of the 361st Fighter Group. (USAF Official)

  Ralph Hofer was one of the real “characters” of the Fourth Fighter Group. On June 10, 1944, he became the first

  Allied fighter pilot to make an emergency landing on an Advanced Landing Ground in Normandy after suffering

  damage to his oil cooler in a dogfight. (USAF Official)

  “Too little, too late”

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard

  19

  Červenec 2024

• Page 20

  John Thornell, spot 40 bomb-carrying Bf 109s

  flying low toward the beachhead at 300 feet.

  When the German pilots spotted the Mustangs

  as they turned in to attack, they salvoed their

  bombs and split up, but not before Thornell got

  two of them for his 17th and 18th victories.

  The day ended with Fourth’s Ralph Hofer

  making history as the first Allied fighter to

  land at the advanced strip near Grandcamp in

  Normandy after his oil system was damaged

  by small-arms fire during a strafing pass near

  Vire. When he returned to Debden the next day,

  he brought a German helmet and canteen and

  a German-language version of “Mein Kampf,”

  that he had bartered from the GIs near the front,

  which only added to his “screwball” reputation.

  Throughout the battles over Normandy, the

  cloudy skies and rain would give cover to fighters

  of both sides, with units chancing on each other

  becoming involved in sharp, vicious fights.

  American pilots also received a piece of

  personal gear that gave them a real advantage

  over their opponents - the “G” suit, which fit

  around the waist and thighs. The suit was plugged

  into the vacuum system, and under increased

  G-loads during air combat the suit tightened

  around the thigh and waist, preventing blood from

  pooling in the lower extremities and preventing

  the pilot blacking out while maneuvering. Ninth

  Air Force had been aggressive in obtaining the

  G-suits and all the P-47 groups in IX Tactical

  air Command were using it by D

  -

  Day. VIII fighter

  command first began getting the equipment

  shortly after D

  -

  Day and all groups had the gear

  by mid-summer. Bob Wehrman recalled,

  “We had

  just gotten the K-14 ‘no missum’ gyro gunsight

  in July, and then we got the new G-suit. Between

  the two pieces of gear and the new P-51Ds, we

  could outfly the enemy under just about all

  conditions. In April, the Fourth had tried using

  the British G-suit, which used water, but it

  had been discarded for being uncomfortable.

  As Wehrman described it, You didn’t even notice

  you had the new suit till it started squeezing your

  legs and you didn’t black out as before.”

  On June 16, the 357th’s Lt. Colonel Tom Hayes

  used an old trick he had learned while flying

  P-39s in New Guinea to attack a rail yard. The

  group only had 108-gallon paper tanks available,

  which provided far more fuel than they would

  need for the mission to the St. Pierre marshalling

  yard outside Paris. He instructed the pilots to

  drop their tanks, which were about three-fourths

  full, on the railyard in their first pass. Then they

  returned and set the tanks ablaze with gunfire.

  There were four large explosions and the target

  was on fire when the Mustangs departed. Word

  got around among the groups about the 357th’s

  success with using drop tanks as “incendiaries”

  for strafing.

  At the end of June, the Jagdwaffe had lost 230

  pilots killed and 88 wounded, with 551 aircraft

  A P-51D of the 361st Fighter Group’s 375th Fighter Squadron banks away from camera. Note that the D

  -

  Day ID stripes on the fuselage do not carry around the bottom

  of the radiator. This was frequently done with these stripes, due to the P-51 being so low to the ground. (USAF Official)

  Luftwaffe heavy

  losses

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard20

  Červenec 2024

• Page 21

  shot down in combat over France and a further

  65 destroyed on the ground. For this cost, they

  claimed 526 Allied aircraft shot down including

  203 P-47 fighter-bombers.

  n July 1, Captain Wally Starck led 352nd group’s

  328th squadron on a mission to strafe suspected

  V-1 launch sites, but the squadron became

  involved in a battle between the 78th group and

  20 Bf 109s and Fw 190s over St. Quentin. The 78th

  group's mission had been dogged by bad luck

  from the beginning, when two P-47s had collided

  during a mass takeoff on Duxford’s wide grass

  runway and exploded. The P-47s were 12,000

  feet over St. Quentin when Lieutenant James

  Stallings spotted five Bf 109s diving on the

  Thunderbolts, bombs tumbled from their wings

  at his warning. Stallings managed to avoid the

  attackers by throwing his P-47 into a violent spin,

  when he recovered at 3,000 feet, he found he had

  no elevator trim.

  “I’d taken two twenty millimeter

  cannon shells in my tail surface and was darn

  lucky my controls weren’t completely gone. I had

  to keep a lot of forward pressure on the stick to

  fly straight and level.”

  Starck led the Mustangs into the fight and

  immediately became involved in a turning fight

  with a pair of Bf 109s that dived for the deck

  when they couldn’t turn inside him. He followed,

  opening fire on the wingman at a distance of 100

  yards. The fighter burst into flames and the pilot

  bailed out, narrowly missing Starck’s wingman,

  Lieutenant Sheldon Heyer’s P-51. Starck closed

  on the leader and succeeded in damaging the

  Messerschmitt before losing it in the clouds. Two

  other Bf 109s were also damaged by Lieutenants

  Cyrus Greer of the 487th and the 328th’s “Punchy”

  Powell. This was the last fight the “Bluenosers”

  would engage in, despite flying eight more

  missions between July 4-12.

  The Battle of Normandy was over by early

  September, following the liberation of Paris on

  August 25. Steve Pisanos, who had remained with

  the Resistance since crashing in France back on

  March 5, remembered the liberation:

  “Over the

  two weeks before the Germans were chased out,

  my friends in the resistance had been terrified

  they would put up a fight for the city and leave it

  like Stalingrad. In fact, there was some attempt

  by the Germans to destroy things. They set out

  to rig the Seine bridges with explosives, but the

  resistance went out every night and removed the

  explosives. They would leave all the wires and

  the boxes the explosives were in, so the Germans

  wouldn’t realize what had been done. With the

  city restored, Pisanos was able to turn himself

  in to the American army and returned to Debden.

  I got back to Debden and three days later I was on

  my way back to America. I got there just in time to

  be best man for Don Gentile’s wedding.”

  The Luftwaffe had been reduced to impotence

  during the battle for Normandy. I and II

  gruppen of JG 1, and all three gruppen of JG 11,

  which were dedicated anti-bomber units, had

  been transferred to France, where they lost

  a combined 100 pilots killed and 200 Fw 190s

  destroyed in the air and on the ground over the

  three months of combat. In comparison, III./JG 1,

  which had been transferred to the Eastern Front

  and fought there over the summer, suffered the

  loss of one pilot killed.

  Two P-51Bs of the 361st Fighter Group’s 376th Fighter

  Squadron prepare for takeoff at Bottisham. (USAF Official)

  HISTORY

  INFO Eduard

  21

  Červenec 2024

• The Defense of Israel

  During the pre-dawn hours of April 13, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel. The attack was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria two weeks prior which killed two Iranian generals and five other officers. For those following current events, it is of little surprise that regional tensions between Israel and Iran reached a boiling point this spring in the aftermath of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

  Steve Baker

  The

  Defense

  of Israel

  Boiling point

  During the pre-dawn hours of April 13, Iran

  launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel.

  The attack was in response to a suspected

  Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in

  Syria two weeks prior which killed two Iranian

  generals and five other officers. For those

  following current events, it is of little surprise

  that regional tensions between Israel and

  Iran reached a boiling point this spring in the

  aftermath of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack

  on Israel.

  The Iranian regime undoubtedly felt significant

  internal and external political pressures to

  respond to the Israeli attack on the consulate.

  However, the Iranians had to walk the line

  between triggering a full-scale regional war

  with the need to show strength. In the two weeks

  between the consulate attack and the Iranian

  response, Iran communicated its intentions via

  the Turkish embassy and diplomatic dialogue

  was channeled thru Ankara back to Tehran.

  U.S. Officials warned Iran that any response

  needed to be “within certain limits” to avoid

  further escalation. Using this back-channel

  information, the United States quickly scrambled

  to coordinate a defensive response with Israel

  and regional allies to thwart the imminent

  Iranian aerial assault. Israeli air defenses were

  bolstered with the additional deployment of U.S

  Patriot SAM systems and U.S. Navy Destroyers in

  the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The destroyers

  USS Carney (DDG-64) and the USS Arleigh

  Burke (DDG-51) were on station and are AEGIS-

  equipped vessels, which are highly capable of

  shooting down ballistic missiles.

  The Iranians Attack

  The Iranians launched Operation “True Promise”

  with a massive barrage of approximately 120

  Emad intermediate-range ballistic missiles

  (IRBMs), 30 Paveh-type cruise missiles and

  170 Shahed drones fired at Israel. As U.S. early

  detection capabilities picked up the launches,

  International civil aviation quickly ceased in the

  Gulf region as the airspace between Iran and

  Israel closed. GPS signals were subsequently

  jammed and degraded by western forces in an

  effort to minimize the navigational accuracy

  of the drones. The drones and missiles were

  launched to saturate Israeli defenses by having

  all of the weapons arrive within close time

  proximity. Iranian IRBMs take approximately

  20 minutes to reach Israeli territory while

  cruise missiles and drones take 2 hour and up

  to 9 hours respectively. Targets in Israel were

  primarily located in the northern (Golan Heights)

  and southern (Negev Desert) ends of the country

  and away from the more densely populated

  areas of the country, undoubtedly a calculated

  move by Tehran.

  Fighter Defense

  The initial barrage got off to a rather dubious

  start. “U.S. intelligence estimates that half of the

  Photo above posted by the IDF on Facebook on April 12th, the day before the attack.

  “Hellcat” 494th FS F-15E Tail Number AF96-201 returns to RAF Lakenheath with 9 red missiles markings

  symbolizing drone kills

  INFO Eduard22

  Červenec 2024

• Page 23

  weapons fired by Iran failed upon launch or in

  flight due to technical issues,” a U.S. Air Force

  senior officer stated. This still left approximately

  160 weapons in flight towards Israel. Nearly all

  of the slower, and more vulnerable, Shaheed

  drones were systematically intercepted and

  destroyed by American, Israeli, British, French

  and Jordanian fighter aircraft. The U.S. Air Force

  had two F-15E squadrons in theater as well as

  an F-16 unit. According to U.S. Officials, they

  destroyed more than 80 Iranian drones and

  cruise missiles over Syria, long before they

  reached Israeli territory. U.S. President Joe

  Biden called the commanders of the two F-15E

  units, the 335th Fighter Squadron (Chiefs) and

  494th Fighter Squadron (Panthers) to commend

  them for a job well done. 494th FS aircraft

  returning to RAF Lakenheath during the middle

  of May sported multiple missile markings

  alongside other nose art.

  In addition to the U.S. Air Force, the Royal Air

  Force also scrambled four Typhoon FGR.4 aircraft

  from RAF Akrotiri in Cypress. The Typhoons

  deployed over the Iraq-Syria border and shot

  down between 10 and 20 Shaheed drones. Like

  the F-15E, each Typhoon can carry a maximum

  load of 8 air-to-air missiles. French and

  Jordanian fighter aircraft launched from Jordan

  to intercept drones and cruise missiles flying

  thru northern and central Jordanian airspace.

  According to French President Emmanuel Macron,

  the French launched their Rafale fighters

  stationed at the H5 airbase “at Jordan’s request”.

  Reports suggest the combined effort in Jordan

  downed several dozen more drones. Although

  there were initial rumors that Princess Salma of

  Jordan may have participated in the intercepts,

  that rumor has been debunked. Finally, Israeli

  F-15 and F-35 aircraft also intercepted Iranian

  weapons, with IDF spokesperson Adm. Daniel

  Hagari stating approximately 25 cruise missiles

  “were intercepted by IAF fighter jets outside the

  country’s borders”. Most likely, these intercepts

  took place over Jordanian territory.

  Missile Defense

  The IRBMs launched from Iran were

  intercepted by a variety of systems. A U.S. Army

  Patriot Missile battery in Erbil, Iraq shot down at

  least one missile. The previously mentioned U.S.

  Navy AEGIS destroyers accounted for at least

  four and possibly six more ballistic missiles.

  Of note, it is likely the destroyers employed

  the advanced SM-3 interceptor missile in

  combat for the first time. However, most of the

  ballistic missile intercepts were reportedly

  carried out by Israel. Israel employs the locally

  developed Arrow Weapon System which is the

  world’s first standalone anti-tactical ballistic

  missile battery. The Arrow is the outermost

  shield of Israel’s missile defense. It shoots the

  Arrow 3 missile , which is a hypersonic anti-

  ballistic missile that intercepts outside the

  atmosphere and can maneuver in space. Video

  footage captured a series of exo-atmospheric

  detonations suggesting the Arrow 3 was widely

  employed. The Arrow 3 had “proved itself

  against a significant number of ballistic missiles”

  according to IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel

  Hagari. Despite this impressive effort, the IDF

  reported 5 Iranian ballistic missiles impacted

  Nevatim Airbase in the Negev Desert and

  4 missiles hit another unnamed base. Although

  no lives were lost and damage was reported as

  minimal, a young Israeli girl was injured from

  falling ballistic missile debris.

  Iran’s proxy groups in the region, namely

  Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels

  in Yemen, added their own volley of rockets

  and drones to the attack. These attacks were

  largely thwarted by Israel’s David Sling and

  Iron Dome systems. David’s Sling is the medium

  layer in the defensive missile shield. It uses the

  Stunner and SkyCepter kinetic hit-to-kill missile

  which is effective against short range ballistic

  missiles such as those fired from Yemen. The

  Iron Dome system is designed for shorter range

  threats. Israel has 10 Iron Dome point defense

  batteries to provide protection from rocket

  attacks. Each battery can defend 60 square

  miles. The system predicts if an inbound rocket

  494th FS F-15E Tail Number AF01-2002 refuels

  rom a KC-135. The jet is configured with 6x AIM-120

  and 2x AIM-9X missiles for the Defensive Counter

  Air mission.

  An eco-atmospheric explosion after the successful

  interception of an Iranian IRBM by the Israeli Arrow 3

  missile.

  Targeting pod imagery from an Israeli Air Force jet

  tracking an Iranian cruise missile

  The terminal phase of a successful Iranian IRBM strike

  on a target in the Negev desert

  Targeting pod imagery from an Israeli Air Force jet

  tracking an Iranian Shahed 136 drone

  Official Photos published by the Israeli Air Force

  showing IDF aircraft and Iron Dome in action during

  the attack.

  INFO Eduard

  23

  Červenec 2024

• Page 24

  is a threat to populated areas or if it will land

  in an unpopulated area and makes a launch

  determination based on the projected trajectory.

  Iron Dome utilizes a smaller maneuverable

  interceptor missile called the Tamir. It is just

  6 inches wide and 10 feet long with a proximity

  fused warhead.

  A Stunning Success

  After the last missiles impacted, Iran was

  quick to signal the operation concluded and they

  warned against any further retaliation. 99% of

  the projectiles were successfully intercepted

  by Israel and her allies, a stunning achievement

  and testament to their preparedness, technology,

  and training. There has never been a coordinated

  aerial and missile defense like it in the history

  of warfare. “It’s a win for the concept of

  integrated air and missile defense across the

  theater,” retired Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth

  F. McKenzie, the CENTCOM commander from

  2019-2022, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

  “People should draw strong conclusions from

  what just happened about the efficacy of that

  approach”.

  INFO Eduard24

  Červenec 2024

• Page 25

  INFO Eduard

  25

  Červenec 2024

  World Class Publishing

  Guideline Aviation Books

  Colour Conundrum No ‘s 1, 2 & 3 all £23.00

  Dambusters and the Lancaster £20.00

  Fall of Iron £18.00

  Atlantic Resolve £15.00

  Aircraft in Prole - British Classics £11.99

  Aircraft in prole - US Navy and Air Forces £11.99

  Sepcat Jajuar £20.00

  Camouage & Markings

  No. 1 RAF Fighters 1945 - 1950 UK Based £25.00

  No. 2 The Battle of Britain RAF May - Dec 1940 £25.00

  No. 3 The Israeli Air Force Part one 1948-67 £25.00

  No. 4 The Israeli Air Force Part two 1967 - 2001 £25.00

  No.5 RAF Fighters 1945 - 1950 Overseas bases £25.00

  No. 6 The air campaign for the freedom of Libya Feb - Oct 2011 £25.00

  No. 7 The Israeli Air force Part 3 2002 - 2012 £25.00

  Combat Colours

  Combat Colours No. 1 The Messerschmitt Bf109 £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 2 The Hawker Hurricane 1939 to 1945 in RAF £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 3 The Curtis P-36 and P-40 £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 4 Pearl Harbor and beyond £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 5 The de Havilland Mosquito £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 6 de Havilland Mosquito Day and Night Fighters £15.00

  Combat Colours No. 7 Focke Wulf Fw190 £20.00

  Combat Colours No. 8 Supermarine Spitre in WWII £20.00

  Combat Colours No. 9 Mitsubishi Zero £15.00

• Airwar in Ukraine - Help is Finally on the Way

  The most significant news of the observed period (from April 1 to April 30) was the approval of a large package of American military aid for Ukraine. The Republican Party had been blocking it in the US Congress for domestic political reasons since the fall. This delay put the Ukrainian armed forces into a difficult situation, unnecessarily losing territory and soldiers. Civilian suffering due to Russian air raids on Ukrainian cities was also unnecessary.

  Miro Barič

  Help is Finally on the Way

  The military aid was first approved by the

  House of Representatives, then by the Senate,

  and a few days later, on Wednesday, April

  24, it was signed by US President Joe Biden.

  The US military had already indicated that

  it was ready to provide the most essential

  aid almost immediately. It began flowing into

  Ukraine through Poland right after the signing.

  The package includes $61 billion for Ukraine

  and $26.4 billion for Israel. This sum includes

  $9.1 billion in humanitarian aid for the Gaza

  Strip. An additional $8.1 billion will go to aid

  US allies in Asia, particularly Taiwan. Most of

  this aid will not be received by Ukraine directly

  in the form of funds but will be invested in

  American businesses. The Pentagon will

  purchase weapons from American companies

  for Ukraine for $14 billion. For another $23

  billion, the US military will replenish its own

  stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, which

  can be later transferred to Ukraine as needed.

  Help from Slovakia Too

  Amid the billions from the USA, the millions

  from Slovakia might seem insignificant.

  However, it's important that they were raised

  by the citizens. The new Slovak government

  refused to join the Czech government’s initiative

  to purchase critically needed ammunition for

  Ukraine. The Czech government is seeking

  artillery shells that can be immediately

  bought in various countries, especially outside

  the EU. More than 20 states have joined the

  Czech government, providing the necessary

  funds for ammunition procurement. However,

  the Slovak government publicly declined to

  participate. Instead, civil activists and non-

  governmental organizations took action.

  They launched a fundraiser under the slogan

  “If not the government, we send.”

  Several notable figures supported the

  collection, including former partisan and SNP

  participant Otto Šimko, who celebrates his

  hundredth birthday on June 1. Drawing from

  his World War II experience, he explains why

  he decided to contribute: “It was not possible

  to negotiate with aggressors; they had to be

  defeated.” The Slovak fundraiser “Ammunition

  for Ukraine” collected 4 million euros in the

  first three weeks, contributed by 65,000

  donors. With this money, they purchased 2,692

  artillery shells of 122 mm caliber, already

  manufactured by the Czech company STV

  Group. The ammunition was thus able to be

  sent to Ukraine immediately after payment.

  The collection continues.

  However, until the help from the USA and

  the Czech initiative reaches the front, the

  Ukrainian armed forces had to endure another

  tough month. Russia tried to take advantage of

  the time before the western aid materialized

  and attacked with full force on all fronts.

  At the end of April, the Russians exploited

  a poor rotation of Ukrainian units and

  The most significant news

  of the observed period (from

  April 1 to April 30) was the approval

  of a large package of American military

  aid for Ukraine. The Republican Party had been

  blocking it in the US Congress for domestic political

  reasons since the fall. This delay put the Ukrainian

  armed forces into a difficult situation, unnecessarily

  losing territory and soldiers. Civilian suffering due

  to Russian air raids on Ukrainian cities was also

  unnecessary.

  ARTICLES

  A damaged component of the Patriot system, which had to be transported from Ukraine to the USA for repairs.

  A former Slovak MiG-29UBS number

  1303 now in Ukrainian Air Force service.

  Air War in Ukraine

  INFO Eduard26

  Červenec 2024

• Page 27

  A video footage capturing the impact of a sport aircraft converted

  into a drone, hitting a target in Tatarstan.

  A refinery fire in Tatarstan. A hit on the refinery in the city of Oriol.

  captured the village of Ocheretyne near

  Avdiivka. It seemed they had driven a wedge

  into the Ukrainian defense and could create

  a breakthrough. However, the Ukrainian

  defense stopped them, and they did not

  advance further west from Ocheretyne over

  the next month. The occupiers also repeatedly

  announced the capture of the village of

  Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region

  and the settlement of Krynky on the left bank

  of the Dnipro in the Kherson region. Neither

  announcement was true.

  Civilians Suffer

  The lack of air defense systems and missiles

  for them caused frontline defenders to face

  massive air raids throughout the observed

  period. Russian aviation did not only use glide

  bombs launched far from the front. Aircraft

  providing close air support, such as the

  Su-25, were moving directly over the combat

  area, likely for the first time since spring 2022.

  The Ukrainian interior also faced strong air

  attacks. Practically every night, the Russians

  sent small groups of drones to Ukrainian cities,

  which burdened the Ukrainian air defense.

  Occasionally, they launched larger attacks

  with missiles and cruise missiles. For example,

  on Thursday, April 11, the Russians launched

  a total of 82 projectiles—40 drones, six

  Kinzhals, 12 S-300 missiles, 20 Kh-101/555

  missiles, and other rockets. The Ukrainian

  defense destroyed 57 of them, but they lacked

  the ammunition to intercept more. Due to the

  shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, even the

  Kyiv region was no longer as well protected as

  before.

  In this attack, the Trypilska thermal power

  plant, which supplied 50% of the electricity

  for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions,

  was completely destroyed. It was targeted

  by eleven missiles. The Ukrainian defense

  destroyed seven of them, but the remaining

  four scored the direct hits.

  On the night of April 24-25, Russian missiles

  severely damaged four more power plants.

  Since the beginning of the war, the Russians

  have hit Ukrainian power plants 180 times. For

  example, the private company DTEK has lost

  80% of its thermal plant capacities. It will take

  years to repairs some of the power plants.

  Other civilian targets were also hit,

  unfortunately with tragic consequences. In the

  morning of Wednesday, April 17, a missile struck

  an eight-story apartment building in Chernihiv.

  Four other apartment buildings, a hospital,

  and a school were damaged. Eighteen people

  died, and 78 were injured. At the end of April,

  a psychiatric hospital and a TV transmitter

  were hit in Kharkiv. The transmitter broke in

  half and collapsed. In Odesa, 22 residential

  buildings were hit during an air raid. Earlier,

  on Saturday, April 20, the port and an export

  terminal belonging to a Singaporean company

  were hit.

  Russia increasingly uses so-called double

  strikes, sending a second missile to the same

  place after a delay to kill rescuers clearing

  the aftermath of the first attack. This tactic

  was employed in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia at

  the beginning of the observed period. Russian

  double strikes have killed 91 rescuers and

  injured 348 others by April this year. Kharkiv

  was subjected to heavy shelling throughout

  the observed period. This was preparation for

  a ground attack, which will be discussed in

  the next part of this series, the end of which is

  unfortunately not in sight.

  Russian Airports Under Fire

  The Ukrainian side also attacked Russian

  targets throughout the observed period. There

  is a stark contrast in target selection. Unlike

  the Russian targets, they did not primarily

  include hospitals or residential buildings.

  On the night of April 4-5, the Ukrainian

  armed forces, along with the SBU, launched

  a massive attack on Russian airfields.

  The bases attacked included Morozovsk,

  which houses Su-34 aircraft, Yeysk airport

  on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, home

  to Su-34 and Su-25 aircraft, the strategic

  bomber base Engels, and Kursk airport.

  The attack was extensive, with around

  50 explosions reported at Morozovsk alone.

  The Ukrainian side estimated the destruction of

  several aircraft, but this was not immediately

  confirmed. Satellite images suggested that the

  drones landed far from the parked aircraft.

  This highlights the disadvantage of drones, as

  they cannot be controlled over long distances

  to select targets based on importance. They hit

  pre-programmed coordinates. A few days later,

  it was revealed that at least one aircraft at

  Yeysk airport, an amphibious jet Beriev Be-200,

  was seriously damaged. Part of its left wing

  was broken off, and a large puddle of leaked

  fluids, presumably fuel, was under the aircraft.

  At the beginning of the observed period,

  Ukrainian drones also repeatedly attacked

  Russian Tatarstan. This is significant for

  two reasons. Tatarstan is 1,300 km from

  the Ukrainian border, making it the farthest

  target the Ukrainians have hit. Video from the

  attack showed they used light sports aircraft

  modified into unmanned aerial vehicles.

  In this case, they served as kamikaze drones,

  but with a bomb mounted under the fuselage,

  they can be reused. In Tatarstan, a refinery,

  a drone assembly plant, and a factory

  producing Tu-22M and Tu-160M bombers were

  hit. The production hangar in the latter was

  reportedly hit, but the extent of the damage is

  unclear.

  During the observed period, Ukrainians

  also hit several refineries, fuel depots, and

  ARTICLES

  INFO Eduard

  27

  Červenec 2024

• Page 28

  industrial facilities. They also used missiles

  to attack Russian command posts in occupied

  territories. Perhaps the largest attack was

  launched on Wednesday, April 17, in Crimea.

  The target was the Dzhankoy airbase on

  which the Ukrainians launched ATACMS long

  range missiles. Once the information puzzle

  was clarified, the destruction of an S-400

  air defense system battery and presumably

  a missile storage site was confirmed. The

  destruction of aircraft and helicopters in this

  attack was not confirmed.

  The elimination of the S-400 battery at

  Dzhankoy airport allowed Ukrainians to

  conduct further attacks on Crimea. On Sunday,

  April 21, Neptune missiles targeted the port of

  Sevastopol, damaging the submarine support

  vessel Kommuna. This is the oldest active ship

  in the Russian fleet, commissioned during the

  Tsarist era in 1915. Despite its age, it is very

  important to the Russians. They have no similar

  vessel in the Black Sea. It is a catamaran with

  two hulls connected by a structure with cranes

  for lifting objects from the seabed. It can also

  launch its own deep-sea submersibles, which

  can be used to rescue sailors from trapped

  submarines. After the sinking of the cruiser

  Moskva in 2022, Kommuna retrieved various

  items from the wreck at a depth of 50 meters—

  weapons, secret documents, and presumably

  the bodies of crew members.

  Downed Bomber

  During the observed period, Russia lost

  two aircraft in the air. On Wednesday, April 10,

  a Mi-24 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea off

  the western coast of Crimea, likely shot down

  by friendly fire. All four aviators onboard—Ivan

  Stepin, Aziz Shayakhmetov, Nikita Tokarchuk

  from the 396th Mixed Aviation Regiment, and

  Alexander Solovey from the 318th Independent

  Mixed Aviation Regiment—did not survive.

  A significant event was the downing of

  a strategic bomber, the Tu-22M3, on Friday,

  April 19. The aircraft crashed near Bogomolova in

  the Russian Stavropol region. The Russian side

  claimed it was due to a technical malfunction,

  but there were reports of friendly fire.

  The Ukrainian side asserted that the bomber

  was hit and damaged by a modernized S-200

  missile with a range of 350 km. After being

  damaged, the Tu-22M3 attempted to return

  to base but crashed later. Ukrainians also

  reported that another bomber turned back

  without releasing its deadly payload after the

  first aircraft was hit. Video evidence shows the

  burning bomber spiraling to the ground. All four

  crew members ejected, but two did not survive:

  Captain Andrey Kononov and Lieutenant Andrey

  Grushanin, both from the 52nd Heavy Bomber

  Regiment.

  ARTICLES

  The crash of a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber

  on April 19 in the Stavropol region.

  Two crew members died in the Tu-22M3 crash,

  one of them was Captain Andrey Kononov.

  The dismantled wreck of a Russian Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopter with tail number "Yellow 81".

  Three MiG-29s and four Yak-40s were damaged on April

  18 during an Iskander missile attack on Dnipro Airport.

  However, the Yak-40s had been parked there since 2010,

  and at least one MiG had also been immobile for several

  months, likely a non-operational aircraft.

  Another attack on Dnipro Airport

  on April 20 destroyed one MiG-29

  Another casualty of the Tu-22M3 crash

  was Lieutenant Andrey Grushanin.

  Debris of a Tu-22M3.

  INFO Eduard28

  Červenec 2024

• Page 29

  Destroyed on the Ground

  At the end of the observed period, photos

  of the dismantled wreck of a Russian

  Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopter were published.

  It is likely the same aircraft with tail number

  "Yellow 81," which was lightly damaged in

  March 2023 after hitting power lines. The exact

  cause of its recent, much more severe damage

  is unknown.

  Russia also lost two more helicopters to

  sabotage on its territory. On Wednesday, April

  17, a Mi-8 helicopter burned at Kryazh Airport

  in Samara, and on Friday, April 26, a civilian

  firefighting helicopter Kamov Ka-32 was

  damaged by fire at Ostafyevo Airport in the

  Moscow region.

  On the Ukrainian side, unlike the previous

  month, no aircraft or helicopters were shot

  down. However, planes at Dnipro Airport were

  hit by Russian Iskander missiles with cluster

  munitions on Thursday, April 18. According to

  available information, three MiG-29 fighters

  and four civilian Yak-40 transport aircraft

  were damaged. It is unclear if the fighters

  were operational or just derelict. The Yak-

  40s were definitely long-retired and had been

  parked there since 2010. A few days later, on

  Saturday, April 20, Dnipro Airport was targeted

  again, and this time an operational MiG-29

  was confirmed destroyed. The jet caught fire,

  indicating it was fueled.

  Dogfights Reminiscent of World War I

  Russian reconnaissance drones enable

  attacks on Ukrainian airfields and other

  targets. Ukraine is combating these drones

  with all possible means. Besides ground-based

  anti-aircraft systems, such as mobile machine

  guns, they have deployed modified training

  aircraft. This has led to air battles over Ukraine

  reminiscent of World War I dogfights. The use of

  propeller-driven Yak-52 aircraft is improvised

  but far more suitable than jet fighters, which

  are too fast compared to slow drones. The Yak2

  has a maximum speed of 285 km/h, making it

  better suited to match the speed of drones,

  such as the Orlan-10 (maximum 150 km/h) and

  the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone (185 km/h).

  In its original training version, the Yak-52 has no

  armament. It appears the Ukrainians modified

  it so that the second crew member operates

  a movable machine gun from the rear cockpit.

  During the observed period, a video surfaced

  showing a training Yak-52 shooting down

  a Russian reconnaissance drone.

  ARTICLES

  Ukrainian Su-25 in a low level flight.

  Launchers for American and Soviet unguided

  rockets side by side under the wing

  of a Ukrainian Su-25.

  A Mi-24 helicopter maintenance.

  A Yak-52 training aircraft used by Ukrainians against

  Russian drones. The side of the fuselage has a checke

  -

  red area likely indicating a machine gun operated by the

  second crew member from the rear cockpit.

  Defense against Shahed drones, which attack almost every night.

  Ukrainian Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.

  INFO Eduard

  29

  Červenec 2024

• Use of ultrasonic knife in plastic modelling

  The Japanese company Echo Tech started supplying ultrasonic cutter ZO series to the hobby market in 2001. In another 5 years, its second generation came, and then the third in 2012. However, they were still products intended for the Japanese market. It was only in 2016 that the production of the current ZO-91 model, which is sold worldwide, began. As a next step, the new ZO-95 model was put on sale in 2020.

  „Cuts plastic like butter“

  INFO Eduard30

  Červenec 2024

• Page 31

  INFO Eduard

  31

  Červenec 2024

• Page 32

  Widow maker. This unflattering nickname was

  earned by the Martin B-26 Marauder medium

  bomber shortly after its introduction to the US

  Army Air Force. Pilots, by then accustomed to

  easy-to-handle and slow to clunky aircraft such as

  the B-18 Bolo, had great difficulty coping with the

  significantly higher takeoff and landing speeds, as

  well as the need to maintain sufficient airspeed

  at all times, including situations where one of the

  engines blew out. And because the Pratt & Whitney

  R2800 engines were by no means trouble-free,

  tragedies were no exceptions during pilot training.

  In reality, however, the B-26 Marauder was

  a very advanced aircraft for its time, and its

  qualities eventually became fully apparent. Of all

  the American aircraft, it achieved the lowest ratio

  of losses to combat operations. Compared to the

  B-25, it was faster, which was the initial intention,

  and could carry a larger bomb load. However, while

  the Mitchell’s handling was virtually foolproof, the

  Marauder required much more attention from the

  pilots and a stricter adherence to the airspeeds

  given in the manual. This was primarily due to the

  higher wing area load, which was nevertheless

  reduced in the following versions, making the last

  Marauders easier to fly. In total, Marauder crews

  flew more than 100,000 missions and dropped

  over 150,000 tons of bombs on enemy targets. And

  despite the unflattering nickname, Marauder losses

  were the lowest of any type of bomber used by the

  USAAF, at just under half a percent.

  From the history of one bomb group

  One of the bombing groups that was armed with

  Marauders from the beginning was the 394th Bomb

  Group (Mid). It was activated on March 5, 1943, and

  during February and March 1944 its members and

  equipment moved to England at Boreham Base.

  As part of the 9th Air Force, the group attacked

  targets in France, often V-1 sites. Other common

  targets were marshalling yards or roads, especially

  bridges.

  During the D-day landings, crews of the 394th

  BG bombed German positions at Cherbourg, hitting

  several important communications, fuel depots,

  and German positions. Then, during the fighting

  in the St Lo area on July 25, their bombardment

  of German positions helped make an important

  breakthrough. The group received the Distinguished

  Unit Cross for operations from August 7 to 9. During

  this three-day period, they carried out a series of

  five raids on heavily fortified and defended targets,

  destroying an ammunition depot and four important

  railway bridges.

  By the end of August 1944, the move to the

  Continent had taken place and the 394th BG

  Marauders were appearing over Germany with

  increasing frequency. During December 1944 to

  January 1945, they also made their mark in the

  fighting during the Battle of Bulge. Bombing the

  roads, they made it difficult for the Germans to get

  supplies and hit several ammunition depots. Less

  traditional missions also included leaflet drops over

  enemy territory towards the end of the war.

  After the German surrender, the 394th BG

  remained in Europe as part of the occupation

  forces. In September 1945 it began training on the

  A-26 Invader and in December was redesignated

  the 394th Bomb Group (Light). Upon return to the US,

  the group was inactivated on 31 March 1946.

  A pro with a brush

  Like every bombardment group, the 394th BG

  also had someone in its ranks who could portray

  various nosearts according to the wishes of the

  crews. In this case, however, it was a true artist,

  S/Sgt. Frank M. Spangler, Jr. The member of

  the 585th Bomb Squadron was a professional

  cartoonist, and so it was not surprising that there

  was considerable interest in his services. Among

  his works were paintings of Round Too (43-34571),

  Sure Go For No Dough (43-34200), and also Miss

  Manookie (42-96255) aircraft.

  The choice of aircraft name and artwork was the

  privilege of the main pilot to whom the aircraft was

  assigned. While this did not mean that others could

  not fly it, the main pilot used the aircraft most often.

  In the case of Miss Manookie, this was Lt. Thomas

  Craddock Howard, the co-pilot was David Hollice

  Hughes and the theme was an “American Indian”

  woman hunting with bow.

  In mid-August 1945, Spangler began pilot training

  on the L-4 Cub as part of a program conducted at

  Venlo Holland Base. The program was designed to

  prepare selected members of the U.S. Air Force who

  were not pilots to obtain a civilian pilot’s license.

  However, Frank Spangler did not follow the civilian

  pilot route after the war, instead he returned to art

  and become a respected cartoonist. Together with

  his father, also a cartoonist and caricaturist, they

  focused mainly on social and political issues.

  Of his wartime creations rendered on the

  metal surface of Marauders, Miss Manookie was

  probably the most colorful. The aircraft survived its

  60 combat missions. Adam Tooby’s boxart shows it

  on one of these missions late in the war somewhere

  over Germany ...

  Illustration: Adam Tooby

  Pretty hunting

  Text: Richard Plos

  BOXART STORY #2146

  INFO Eduard32

  Červenec 2024

• Page 33

  Among the unusual units that took part in

  the Normandy landings were the squadrons of

  No. 34 Tactical Reconnaissance Wing. Prior to

  D

  -

  Day, ten squadrons - five from the RAF, four

  from the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA), and

  one from the American VCS-7 - were assembled

  at the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Lee-on-

  Solent to provide aerial observation for the

  naval bombardment in the Utah and Omaha

  beach sectors, and later in the Cherbourg

  area. Two RAF squadrons (Nos. 26 and 63) were

  equipped with Spitfires, while the other three

  (Nos. 2, 268, and 414) flew Mustangs. The FAA

  squadrons (Nos. 808, 897, 885, and 886) used

  Naval Seafire IIIs. This group of units, including

  VCS-7, was also known as the The Air Spotting

  Pool.

  VCS-7 was formed in February 1944.

  It consisted of 17 pilots from the cruisers

  USS Quincy (CA-39), USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37),

  USS Augusta (CA-31), and the battleships USS

  Nevada (BB-36), USS Arkansas (BB-33), and USS

  Texas (BB-35). After unpleasant experiences

  with German fighters during the Sicily landings

  in the summer of 1943, they traded their

  Seagulls and Kingfishers for Spitfires Mk.V.

  They were retrained by the USAAF's 67th TRG

  photo reconnaissance unit at Middle Wallop,

  Hampshire.

  The unit was initially commanded by Lt.

  Robert W. Calland (USS Nevada) and, from May

  28, 1944, by Lt. Cdr. William Denton Jr. (USS

  Quincy). Observation missions were always

  flown by a pair of aircraft: the lead pilot acted

  as the observer, while the other provided escort

  and protected the leader from enemy attacks.

  The standard altitude for these missions was

  1,800 meters, but bad weather often forced

  pilots to operate between 450 and 600 meters.

  Occasionally, missions were flown at even

  lower altitudes.

  From 6 June to 26 June, VCS-7 conducted

  a total of 209 sorties over Normandy, mainly

  as part of the Western Naval Task Force, which

  was under the control of the U.S. Navy. VCS-7

  lost nine Spitfires to various causes, with flak

  being the greatest danger. The squadron´s

  planes were attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft just

  four times. A member of this unit, Ens. Robert

  J. Adams, became the first American aviator to

  land in liberated French territory, albeit due to

  damage to his aircraft.

  The unit's only casualty was Lt. Richard

  M. Barclay of the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa.

  On D

  -

  Day, the cruiser’s mission was to support

  the invasion force on Utah Beach. Barclay

  went into action in place of his subordinate,

  with Lt. (jg) Charles S. Zinn, also from the USS

  Tuscaloosa, as his wingman. Unfortunately, they

  were hit by flak during the flight. Barclay was

  killed, but Zinn managed to return to base with

  a damaged right wing and a damaged aileron.

  VCS-7's last combat mission took place

  on 25 June in the Cherbourg area, and the

  unit was disbanded the following day. During

  the twenty days of combat deployment, its

  members received nine DFCs, six Air Medals

  and five Gold Stars. Ten members of the unit

  participated in the August 1944 landings

  in southern France, and three took part

  in the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

  However, the only aerial victory with a VCS-7

  Spitfire was not achieved by an American pilot,

  but by a British member of No. 897 Squadron

  FAA, Slt. D. W. Barraclough, who shot down

  a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on June 7th. This

  dogfight is captured by Piotr Forkasiewicz on

  the box art. Another Bf 109 was credited to

  Lt. R. M. Crosley in a Seafire III from No. 886

  Squadron FAA. However, five other Seafire

  IIIs from the The Air Spotting Pool were shot

  down or damaged by German and Allied flak or

  German fighters during the day, with one pilot

  falling into captivity. To make it short, flying

  artillery spotting missions over Normandy was

  a very risky task.

  Text: Jan Bobek a Michal Krechowski

  Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

  From warship to Spitfire

  #84200

  BOXART STORY

  INFO Eduard

  33

  Červenec 2024

• Page 34

  The name of the German fighter ace Hermann

  Graf is mentioned in several Eduard kits, and

  an article in INFO magazine 01/2024 covers

  a part of his career that was closely linked to

  German football. After his successful service

  with JG 52 on the Eastern Front, then the

  lead of operational training unit Erg. Gr. Ost in

  France, Graf received a new assignment in the

  summer of 1943. He was tasked with organizing

  a unit dedicated to intercepting British

  Mosquito aircraft. Hermann Göring himself

  was interested in this mission, as he wanted to

  prevent the raids these hard-to-catch aircraft

  were launching on German cities. For more

  details, you can read the article

  To this end, two new fighter units were

  established in June 1943. Jagdgeschwader Nord

  (later renamed JG 25) was set up at Berlin-

  Staaken airfield, with Obstlt. Herbert Ihlefeld

  taking command in July. Under Graf's command,

  Jagdgeschwader Süd was established at

  Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield (not to be

  confused with the operational training unit

  Jagdgruppe Süd). Each unit consisted only

  of a Geschwaderstab and three Staffel in

  I. Gruppe, with no additional components. Their

  armament included Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-5

  and G-6s, and the command intended to equip

  theaircraft with the GM-1 system for high-

  altitude interception.

  According to some sources, Graf managed

  to shoot down one Mosquito in June, but this

  is uncertain. By the autumn of 1943, Graf's unit

  had achieved at least 26 victories, all of which

  were B-17 Flying Fortress bombers.

  JG Süd's first four victories occurred on

  August 12 during an American raid on targets

  in the Ruhr. Graf's pilots shot down three B-17s

  and destroyed a damaged bomber. One German

  airman was wounded and made an emergency

  landing at the home base.

  JG Süd had its stellar moment on August

  17, 1943. While engaging the bomber stream

  heading for Regensburg, its pilots managed to

  shoot down five B-17s without any losses. They

  also forced one B-17 to leave the formation

  (counted as a victory) and destroyed another

  damaged Flying Fortress (though this did not

  count as a victory, it was recorded as a point in

  the award system).

  During the afternoon action against the

  stream heading for Schweinfurt, Graf's unit shot

  down four B-17s but lost two pilots. August 17 is

  one of several possible days on which Hermann

  Graf achieved his next victory, though some

  actions from July are also under consideration.

  In mid-August, Graf's unit was renamed

  Jagdgeschwader 50 (not Jagdgruppe 50, as is

  sometimes erroneously stated). By the end of

  the month, it had twelve G-5 and thirteen G-6s,

  most equipped with 20mm guns mounted in

  underwing gondolas, as the command required

  Graf’s unit to participate in heavy bomber

  interceptions. However, as of August 23, 1943,

  only two Bf 109s in this unit were equipped

  with the GM-1 system because ten others had it

  dismantled. When the Bf 109 G was loaded with

  two underwing guns, the GM-1 system was too

  heavy to be installed as well. Graf's mechanics

  attempted to increase the aircraft's speed by

  polishing the wing surfaces, but this did not

  result in a significant speed increase. Graf

  even used an aircraft with landing gear covers

  similar to those later used on the Bf 109 K-4.

  Graf achieved two victories with this unit on

  September 6, 1943, during the raid on Stuttgart.

  One B-17 bomber was destroyed by his wingman,

  and another was credited to the commander of

  the 1st Staffel, Oblt. Alfred Grislawski. However,

  two Bf 109s were shot down, another was

  damaged during landing, and one NCO was

  killed at the home base due to engine failure.

  During the second raid on Schweinfurt on

  October 14, 1943, Graf's JG 50 claimed at least

  four downed B-17s and destroyed two others

  that were already badly damaged, though one

  more kill was not credited. In the process, the

  unit lost three Bf 109s, with one pilot killed, and

  another aircraft was damaged in an emergency

  landing due to fuel exhaustion.

  In October 1943, the “mayfly“ life of this unit

  came to an end. It was unable to fulfil its main

  task, the pursuit of Mosquito aircraft, because

  its technical equipment was focused on fighting

  bombers. The anticipated rearmament to the

  Messerschmitt Me 163 did not occur due to

  technical problems with this revolutionary

  aircraft. Additionally, JG 50 shared its aircraft

  with one of the Wilde Sau units, III./JG 301.

  At the end of October, JG 50 handed over its

  equipment to the newly formed I./JG 301, and

  most of its airmen, including Hermann Graf,

  transferred to the day fighter units of JG 1 and

  JG 11.

  Illustration: Marek Ryś

  The “Mayfly” Geschwader

  Text: Jan Bobek

  BOXART STORY #70159

  INFO Eduard34

  Červenec 2024

• Page 35

  A four-year-old French boy was sitting

  three meters above the ground on the terrace

  of a former pigeon loft near Calais. It was

  the summer of 1942, and the boy watched in

  amazement as aerial battles unfolded in the

  sky. Suddenly, not far from where he was sitting,

  a twin-engined British aircraft flew low over

  the ground. The right engine was running at full

  power, while the left engine was on fire, and

  much of the tail surface was missing. The crew

  was attempting an emergency landing, and the

  boy had the impression that the pilot waved at

  him. However, upon contact with the ground, the

  aircraft exploded.

  The boy, named Michel Ringot, grew up to be

  the head of flight operations at one of the French

  Air Force bases. This memory of the war never

  erased from his mind. In 2020, with the help of

  his family and others, he learned who were the

  pilots whose crash he had witnessed.

  It was July 12, 1942, and the aircraft belonged

  to No. 1 PRU RAF. It was Mosquito PR Mk.II

  W4089, piloted by 29 year-old F/Lt V. A. Ricketts,

  DFC, with 24 year-old navigator P/O G. B.

  Lukhmanoff, DFM. By the time they flew their

  first reconnaissance mission together, Ricketts

  had already conducted such missions along

  the French-Spanish border while piloting the

  Mosquito. Meanwhile, Lukhmanoff, as navigator,

  had flown several missions over Norway and

  Vichy North Africa.

  Victor Anthony Ricketts was born in January

  1913 in Penzance, Cornwall. Interested in flying

  from a young age, he became an aviation

  correspondent for the London Daily Express

  and earned his pilot's license in February

  1936. In February 1938, together with New

  Zealander Arthur E. Clouston, he attempted

  a record-breaking flight to Australia, but it was

  unsuccessful. A second attempt was scheduled

  for March 15, 1938, with the DH88 Comet (G

  -

  ACSS)

  “The Burberry.” This time, they returned to the UK

  after covering a route of 26,450 miles in ten days,

  twenty-one hours, and twenty-two minutes,

  achieving a total of eleven records.

  After the war, Clouston wrote a book, The

  Dangerous Skies, in which he confessed that

  in 1938 he was part of a private initiative to kill

  Adolf Hitler. His mission was to use a modified

  DH88 Comet (G

  -

  ACSS) to bomb Hitler during

  a parade in Berlin on Unter den Linden. Clouston

  ultimately refused to carry out this action.

  The aircraft is currently part of The Shuttleworth

  Collection.

  Ricketts became a member of the RAFVR in

  March 1939, achieved officer rank in February

  1940, was assigned to No. 248 Sqn RAF that same

  month, and transferred to No. 1 PRU in early 1942.

  He received a DFC for a photographic mission

  he completed on March 4, 1942, in extremely

  difficult weather conditions at low altitude. His

  navigator Lukhmanoff received a DFM for this

  mission. Their target was the Renault factory

  at Boulogne-Billancourt, which had been hit by

  RAF bombers the previous night. Together, they

  flew over Augsburg, Pilsen and Marseille, among

  other missions.

  George Boris Lukhmanoff was born in March

  1918 in Harbin, China, to Russian parents as Boris

  Dimitry (Dmitrievich) Lukhmanov. His father,

  Boris, was a representative of the auxiliary

  naval organization Dobrovolnyi Flot in Shanghai

  and later became Harbour Master of the Port

  of Woosung. However, the Soviet government

  stripped them of citizenship, prompting them to

  emigrate to the US. Boris later returned to China,

  where he was tortured to death by the Japanese

  in 1943 because his son was a member of the

  RAF. Interestingly, Boris's father was likely the

  legendary Russian and Soviet captain Dmitry

  Afanasyevich Lukhmanov (1867-1946), who

  was married three times and authored many

  publications on naval issues.

  Dmitry's grandson, Boris Dimitry, became

  a naturalised British citizen as George Boris

  Lukhmanoff, first studying at Margate College

  in Kent and then gaining a degree in mechanical

  and electrical engineering from Glasgow

  Technical College in June 1939. In April 1940 he

  joined the RAF and his first combat unit was No.

  206 Sq. RAF in Gibraltar. Further details of the

  crew can be found at The Battle of Britain London

  Monument.

  The promising careers of both airmen was

  ended on July 12, 1942, by Obfw. Erwin Leibold of

  Stab I./JG 26. At the time we were preparing the

  box art for this kit, Mr. Ringot's testimony was

  not yet available. As we already know, the British

  crew almost succeeded in making an emergency

  landing. Erwin Leibold survived his victims by

  only two weeks. After being hit by an American

  or Canadian Spitfire, his Focke-Wulf exploded.

  Although Leibold miraculously survived and his

  parachute opened, he drowned after landing

  in the sea.

  Text: Jan Bobek

  Illustration: Adam Tooby

  Ricketts and Lukhmanoff

  #82146

  BOXART STORY

  INFO Eduard

  35

  Červenec 2024

• Page 36

  #2146

  MARAUDER

  1/72

  Limited edition kit of WWII US medium bomber

  aircraft B-26F/G in 1/72 scale. In the box are

  machines from the MTO, ETO and PTO.

  plastic parts: Hasegawa

  marking options: 8

  decals: Eduard

  PE parts: yes, pre-painted

  painting mask: yes

  resin parts: yes, wheels

  Product page

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard36

  Červenec 2024

• Page 37

  42-96255, B-26F-1, 586th BS/394th BG, Thomas C. Howard,

  Holmsley South, Great Britain, August 1944

  43-34150, B-26G-1, 2/Lt. Eulan W. Covey, 494th BS/344th BG,

  Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France, late 1944

  The 394th Bomb Group was formed on February 15,

  1943 and activated on March 5. From the beginning,

  its crews trained for combat deployments in

  Europe with Marauders. In February and March

  1944, the group moved to England to Boreham Base

  and was assigned to the 9th Air Force. By March,

  its Marauders were flying attacks on ground

  targets in France, with frequent targets being V-1

  missile bases, marshalling yards, and bridges.

  When D

  -

  Day came, the 394th BG bombed German

  positions at Cherbourg and other targets. After

  moving to the Continent in late August 1944, the

  group began operating against targets in Germany

  and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. After

  the surrender of Germany, it remained in Europe

  as part of the Occupation Forces. In September it

  began training with the A-26s and in December

  1945 was redesignated the 394th Bomb Group

  (Light). Upon return to the United States, the group

  was inactivated on March 31, 1946. The pilot of the

  aircraft with the drawing of an Indian fox and the

  name Miss Manookie was Lt. Thomas Craddock

  Howard, co-pilot David Hollice Hughes. The artist

  of the painting on the nose was S/Sgt. Frank

  M. Spangler Jr. a professional cartoonist in civilian

  life, who decorated a number of other aircraft of

  the group with his hilarious paintings and made

  a living as an artist after the war. Miss Manookie

  flew a total of 60 combat missions during the war.

  After the 344th Bomb Group was established on

  August 31, 1942, it was activated on September 8,

  1942. From the beginning, it flew B-26s and served

  as a Replacement Training Unit. It then moved to

  England during January and February 1944 and

  began operations as part of the 9th Air Force

  in March. During the landings, it supported the

  operation that led to the capture of the Cotentin

  Peninsula and subsequent Allied operations

  in the Caen area. It then participated in the

  Battle of Bulge and continued to operate until

  April 1945. In September of that year, it moved

  to Germany as part of the occupation forces

  and began rearmament to A-26. In December it

  was redesignated the 344th Bomb Group (Light)

  and was inactivated on February 15, 1946, after

  moving to the United States. The aircraft, named

  Gravel Gerty, sported the inscription Concrete

  Mixer on the left engine cowling, which related to

  the name of the aircraft. We don't know if it was

  painted also on the right engine, but the decal is

  included in the sheet for that position as well.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  37

  Červenec 2024

• Page 38

  43-34220, B-26G-5, Capt. Charles G. Fraser,

  587th BS/394th BG, Bricy, France, August 1944

  43-34240, B-26G-5, Lt. Wilbert L Weir, 444th BS/320th BG,

  Decimomannu, Sardinia, August 1944

  The 394th Bomb Group was established on

  February 15, 1943 and activated on March 5. From

  the beginning, its crews flew B-26s with which

  they trained for combat deployments in Europe.

  In February and March 1944, the group moved to

  England to Boreham Base and was assigned to

  the 9th Air Force. By March, its Marauders were

  flying attacks in France, with frequent targets

  being V-1 missile bases, marshalling yards and

  bridges. When the D

  -

  Day came, the 394th BG

  bombed German positions at Cherbourg and other

  targets. After moving to the Continent in late

  August 1944, the group began operating against

  targets in Germany and participated in the Battle

  of the Bulge. After the surrender of Germany,

  it stayed in Europe as part of the occupation

  forces. In September it began training on the

  A-26s and in December 1945 was redesignated

  the 394th Bomb Group (Light). Upon return to

  the United States, the group was inactivated on

  March 31, 1946. The pilot of the aircraft named

  I'll Get By, which was assigned to the unit on

  August 7, 1944, was Capt. Charles G. Fraser, co-

  pilot 2Lt Thomas Leask. The drawing of the girl

  unbuttoning her swimsuit top was based on an

  original by Albert Vargas

  The activation of the 320th Bomb Group occurred

  on June 23, 1942, with most of the group moving

  through England to North Africa after training

  during August–December 1942. As part of the 12th

  Air Force, the group began combat operations

  from bases in Algeria, Tunisia, Sardinia, and

  Corsica. Gradually, crews attacked enemy

  vessels in the approaches to Tunisia, land targets

  in Sardinia, and supported the invasion of Sicily.

  This was followed by raids on targets in Italy

  and, from June 1944, support for the invasion of

  southern France. In June 1945 the group moved

  to Germany and returned to the United States

  during November. It was inactivated as early as

  December 4 of that year. The aircraft, named

  Pancho and his Reever Rats, did not see the end

  of the war unfortunately. On August 23, 1944,

  it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire during

  a raid near Covigliano and exploded in mid-air.

  According to some sources, the entire crew of

  Lt. Wilbert L. Weir was killed, others state that

  the rear gunner, S/Sgt. Albert A. Giuffre, was

  rescued and even returned to duty.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard38

  Červenec 2024

• Page 39

  43-34462, B-26G-5, Lt. David A. Mickelson,

  444th BS/320th BG, France, 1944–45

  43-34213, B-26G-1, Capt. John C. Furnas of the 585th BS,

  394th BG, Venlo, The Netherlands, May 1945

  The 444th Bomb Squadron was formed in mid-

  1942 and armed with Marauders. It trained

  for combat as part of the 3rd Air Force in

  Florida and was deployed to England as part

  of the 320th Bomb Group and 3rd Bomb Wing.

  After the commencement of Operation Torch,

  it participated on operations in North Africa as

  part of the 12th Air Force, flying tactical bombing

  missions against Axis forces there until May 1943.

  It then shifted its attention to targets in Sicily,

  Corsica, Sardinia, and Italy. It then supported the

  Allied advance into Germany and was inactivated

  in December 1945. The aircraft shown here had

  its fuselage guns removed and while the left

  side of the nose bore a drawing of a girl and the

  inscription Margie, the right side sported the

  name Donna Deloris.

  The 585th Bomb Squadron was activated at

  MacDill Field, Florida, as one of four squadrons

  of the 394th Bomb Group. It moved to England

  in mid-February 1944, making its home base

  at Boreham. Its pilots flew their first combat

  mission on March 23, 1943. They then attacked

  V-1 flying bomb launchers and V-2 rocket bases

  as part of Operation Crosbow. During D

  -

  Day,

  the 585th BS targeted enemy sites at Cherbourg,

  then attacked transport lines or fuel depots.

  By July 24, 1944, the unit was stationed at

  Holmsley South and by August it had moved to

  its first mainland base, Tour-en-Bessin, France.

  In addition to the classic missions towards the

  end of the war, the Marauders of the 585th BG

  dropped propaganda leaflets over the occupied

  territory on 16 missions. The aircraft of Capt.

  John C. Furnas was named The Old Goat, and the

  nose art corresponded to the name. It bore the

  symbols of ninety combat missions under the

  cockpit towards the end of the war.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  39

  Červenec 2024

• Page 40

  43-34316, B-26G-5, 496th BS/344th BG,

  Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France, September 1944

  44-68171, B-26G-25, GB 1/22 Maroc, Riedlingen,

  Germany, May 1945

  The 496th Bomb Squadron was activated in late

  1942 as a training unit of III Bomber Command.

  It was converted to operational status late in

  the year and deployed to Europe as part of IX

  Bomber Command in February 1944. After the

  war it remained as part of the Occupation Forces

  in Europe and was inactivated on February 15,

  1946. Named Cleveland Calliope II, the aircraft

  carried “Broken Line” camouflage, consisting

  of Olive Drab paint on the upper surfaces and

  upper fuselage, the rest of the aircraft was left in

  natural metal finish.

  The Free French Air Force acquired its first

  Marauders in late 1943 and eventually units

  GB I/11 Maroc, GB II/20 Bretagne, GB I/19 Gascogne,

  GB II/52 Franche-Comte, GB II/63 Senegal and

  BG I/32 Bourgogne acquired these aircraft.

  Initially, the French received the older, war-weary

  machines for training purposes, after which

  newer ones were supplied. Initial operations

  by French B-26s targeted enemy positions in

  Italy and southern France. They took part in the

  invasion of France on August 15, 1944 and then

  gradually moved north with the advance of the

  Allies. They completed their last mission on April

  25, 1945 and were inactivated in June. The aircraft

  shown here completed 55 bombing missions,

  according to the symbols under the cockpit.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard40

  Červenec 2024

• Page 41

  Recommended: for

  Marauder B-26F/G 1/72

  72703 B-26 Marauder upgrade set (PE

  -

  Set)

  73007 Ammunition Belts US Cal.0.50 (PE

  -

  Set)

  672038 US 250lb bombs (Brassin)

  672039 US 500lb bombs (Brassin)

  672241 B-26 Marauder wheels (Brassin)

  672242 B-26 Marauder engines (Brassin)

  672244 US 1000lb bombs (Brassin)

  3DL72033 B-26 Marauder SPACE (3D Decal Set)

  OVERTREES

  #2146X

  B-26F/G Marauder

  1/72

  Product page

  OVERLEPT

  #2146-LEPT1

  MARAUDER

  1/72

  Product page

  #672242

  #672244

  #672039

  KITS 06/2024

  #672241

  INFO Eduard

  41

  Červenec 2024

• Page 42

  #84200

  Spitfire Mk.Vb OVERLORD

  1/48

  The Weekend edition kit of British fighter aircraft Spitfire Mk.Vb in 1/48 scale.

  The kit presents Spitfires used during operation Overlord.

  plastic parts: Eduard

  marking options: 4

  decals: Eduard

  PE parts: no

  painting mask: no

  resin parts: no

  Product page

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard42

  Červenec 2024

• Page 43

  Slt. D.W. Barraclough, VCS-7, RAF Lee-on-Solent,

  Hampshire, United Kingdom, June 1944

  BL547, F/O Rick R. Richards, No. 401 Squadron, RAF Horne,

  Surrey, United Kingdom, June 1944

  In February 1944, the VCS-7 Cruiser Scouting

  Squadron was formed. It consisted of 17 pilots

  from several ships, who exchanged their Curtiss

  Seagulls and Vought Kingfishers for Spitfires

  Mk.V. The unit was first led by Lt. Robert W.

  Calland and from May 28, 1944, by Lt. Cdr William

  Denton Jr. Prior to D

  -

  Day, ten squadrons, five

  RAF, four Royal Navy FAA (Fleet Air Arm) and

  VCS-7, were assembled at Leeon-Solent to

  provide aerial observation for naval bombing in

  the Utah and Omaha beach sectors and later in

  the Cherbourg area. Observation missions were

  always flown by a pair of aircraft. The lead one

  acted as spotter, while the other provided escort

  and protected the leader from enemy attacks. The

  standard altitude for these missions was 6,000 ft,

  but bad weather often forced the pilots to operate

  between 1,500 and 2000 ft. Occasionally missions

  were flown at even lower altitudes. From June 6

  to June 26, VCS-7 conducted 209 missions over

  Normandy, mainly as part of the Western Naval

  Task Force, which was under the control of the

  U. S. Navy. The VCS-7 lost nine Spitfires to various

  causes, the main threat being the ubiquitous Flak.

  The squadron rarely encountered Luftwaffe

  aircraft, yet on June 7, Slt. D. W. Barraclought

  shot down a Bf 109G in aerial combat. VCS-7’s last

  combat mission was on June 25 in the Cherbourg

  area, and the following day VCS-7 was disbanded.

  Its Spitfires bore the standard camouflage and

  markings of an RAF Day Fighter and invasion

  stripes for quick identification. They were also

  marked with the number 4 in front of the cockpit

  followed by the individual aircraft letter for the

  squadron.

  On D

  -

  Day, No. 402 Squadron had a mixture of

  older Mk.Vb and Mk.Vc Spitfires in its armament

  and was commanded by the famous ace

  S/Ldr G. W. Northcott. The squadron was part of

  No. 142 Wing, which under the command of

  another well-known Canadian ace, W/Cdr John

  Milne Checketts, operated as part of the air

  defense of Great Britain, albeit under 2TAF

  operational control in the role of fighter-bombers.

  No. 402 Squadron was re-equipped with Spitfires

  Mk.IX in July, but their time with the unit was

  brief. Early August 1944 saw a move to Hawkinge,

  where the Squadron was rearmed with the

  new powerful Spitfires Mk. XIV with which they

  immediately engaged in combat against V-1 flying

  bombs. In late September 1944 the squadron was

  transferred to 2TAF in Belgium and joined No. 125

  Wing. In December it then joined No. 126 Wing

  RCAF, where it flew alongside the Mk.IX Spitfires.

  The end of the war found the unit on German soil

  at Wunstorf with a total score of 49.5 enemy shot

  down. One of the Spitfires Mk.Vb operating with

  No. 402 Squadron during D

  -

  Day was the one with

  serial number BL547 which sported the fuselage

  codes AE

  -

  R. It was most often flown by F/O Rick

  Richards who had a drawing of “Black Rufe”,

  a character from the comic strip Li'l Abner,

  painted on the nose of his Spitfire. Under the

  cockpit, it bore the standard markings of most

  No. 402 Squadron Spitfires, a red Canadian leaf

  in a white crest with the City of Winnipeg in white

  lettering.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  43

  Červenec 2024

• Page 44

  481065 Spitfire Mk.V landing flaps (PE

  -

  Set)

  FE1207 Spitfire Mk.V seatbelts STEEL (PE

  -

  Set)

  FE1322 Spitfire Mk.Vb Weekend (PE

  -

  Set)

  644113 Spitfire Mk.V LööK (Brassin)

  648640 Spitfire Mk.V engine (Brassin)

  648663 Spitfire Mk.V cockpit (Brassin)

  648664 Spitfire Mk.V wheels (Brassin)

  648665 Spitfire Mk.Vb gun bays (Brassin)

  648667 Spitfire Mk.V three-stacks exhausts rounded (Brassin)

  648668 Spitfire Mk.V three-stacks exhausts fishtail (Brassin)

  648669 Spitfire Mk.V six-stacks exhausts fishtail (Brassin)

  648738 Spitfire Mk.V landing flaps PRINT (Brassin)

  SIN64886 Spitfire Mk.Vb ADVANCED (Brassin)

  3DL48031 Spitfire Mk.V SPACE (3D Decal Set)

  D48088 Spitfire Mk.V stencils (Decal Set)

  D48101 Spitfire Mk.V national insignia (Decal Set)

  EX1009 Spitfire Mk.Vb early (Mask)

  Recommended: for

  Spitfire Mk.Vb 1/48

  BM366, Cdt. J. M. Accart, No. 345 Squadron,

  RAF Shoreham, United Kingdom, June 1944

  BM327, F/Lt Tony Cooper, No. 64 Squadron,

  RAF Friston, United Kingdom, June 1944

  No. 345 Squadron was established in January

  1944 and reached operational status on April

  28, 1944. Due to the date of the unit’s formation,

  it was not technically a “Free French” unit, it

  was a disparate grouping of French pilots in

  the RAF, some of whom were so-called “évadés

  d'Espagne”, i.e. Frenchmen who had fled France

  by crossing the Pyrenees to join de Gaulle’s FAFL

  and French pilots from North Africa. The unit was

  armed with older Mk.V Spitfires and flew patrols

  over the Normandy beachhead as part of No. 141

  Wing (2TAF). In September 1944 it received Mk.IX

  Spitfires and was subsequently transferred to

  No. 145 Wing, where it primarily flew ground

  attack and escort missions. During a year of

  combat, No. 345 Squadron flew more than 3,000

  combat sorties and destroyed 186 locomotives

  and more than 200 enemy vehicles. The unit’s

  first commander was Cmdt. Jean-Marie Accart,

  who adopted the pseudonym “Bernard” in Britain

  to protect his family in France. Accart achieved

  12 victories, all in P-36 Hawk aircraft with the

  GC I/5 unit during the German invasion of France

  in 1940.

  After completing his pilot training, Tony Cooper

  was posted as an instructor after an above

  average rating, initially in England, and from

  November 1940 to mid-1943 in Canada. In June

  1943 he succeeded, after string of requests sent

  to the authorities, in his application to return to

  combat flying in the UK. He undertook a course

  with the Operational Training Unit at Rednal

  in Shropshire and was then posted to No. 64

  Squadron, which at that time was flying Mk.Vb

  Spitfires. In the spring of 1944, he took part with

  the unit in many ground attacks in preparation

  for D

  -

  Day and on June 6, 1944, he made two

  combat sorties, providing fighter cover over Utah

  and Omaha beaches. He continued operational

  flying until November 1944. In total, Tony Cooper

  flew 3,200 hours and completed 160 operational

  combat sorties. He also survived five forced

  landings, two of them at night, two with burning

  aircraft and one as a result of enemy ground fire.

  After the war Tony returned to his home town

  of Lowestoft and became the fifth generation to

  work in the family wholesaler, WB Cooper Ltd. He

  lived a full life and remained active until his late

  90s. He passed away on January 26, 2017, at the

  age of 100 years. In Tony’s honor a Spitfire Mk. Vb

  serial number AB910 is flying with the Battle of

  Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) as Tony Cooper

  flew it with No. 64 Squadron on D

  -

  Day in June

  1944. His personal Spitfire was BM327, fuselage

  code SH

  -

  F, which had “Peter John 1” inscription

  painted under the front plate, which was the

  name of Tony’s newborn son.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard44

  Červenec 2024

• Page 45

  Bf 109G-6

  The ProfiPACK edition kit of the German fighter plane Bf 109G-6

  in 1/72 scale. From the kit it is possible to build Messerschmitts

  with standard canopy and standard rudder.

  plastic parts: Eduard

  marking options: 6

  decals: Eduard

  PE parts: yes, pre-painted

  painting mask: yes

  resin parts: no

  #70159

  1/72

  Product page

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  45

  Červenec 2024

• Page 46

  Bf 109G-6, WNr. 15919, Maj. Hermann Graf, CO of JG 50,

  Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany, September 1943

  Bf 109G-6, Oblt. Theodor Weissenberger, 6./JG 5, Idriza-Pleskau (Pskov),

  the Soviet Union, January 1944

  Hermann Graf scored a total of 212 kills, most of

  them (202) on the Eastern Front. On September

  16, 1942, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross with

  Oak Leaf Cluster, Swords and Diamonds, the

  highest German war decoration at the time, for

  achieving 172 victories. Graf flew this brightly

  colored aircraft in the autumn of 1943 when he

  commanded JG 50. In June 1943, Hermann Graf

  founded a unit to pursue Mosquito aircraft at

  high altitude, named Jagdgeschwader Süd (not

  to be confused with Jagdgruppe Süd), which was

  renamed Jagdgeschwader 50 on September 1. The

  figure of the Roter Jäger (Red Hunter) symbolized

  the Luftwaffe football team, in which Graf played

  alongside a number of the German national team

  members at the time, and which was known as

  the Rote Jäger (Red Hunters). Within JG 50, only

  the squadron headquarters and I. Gruppe were

  established, and the unit was incorporated into

  I./JG 301 at the end of October 1943.

  Theodor Weissenberger was born on December 21,

  1914, in Mühlheim am Main. He joined the Luftwaffe

  in October 1936. Initially he flew the Bf 110s with

  1.(Z)/JG 77, which was redesignated 10.(Z)/JG 5

  in April 1942. In September 1942 he became

  a Bf 109 pilot with 6./JG 5. He was awarded the

  Knight’s Cross in November 1942 after achieving

  38 victories and destroying a number of ground

  targets, including locomotives. In June 1943

  he was appointed commander of 7./JG 5 and in

  early August, after achieving his 104th victory,

  he was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster. At the end

  of September 1943 he took command of 6./JG 5

  and in April 1944 he was appointed commander

  of the whole of II./JG 5. In early June 1944 he left

  the Eastern Front and became commander of

  I./JG 5 in Normandy. In December 1944, he became

  commander of I./JG 7 with the Me 262 jets, and

  in mid-January 1945 was appointed Commodore

  of JG 7. In total, he achieved 208 victories, eight

  of them flying a Me 262. He died on June 10, 1950,

  during an automobile race at the Nürburgring. His

  Bf 109G-6 Black 4 was in standard Mtt Regensburg

  camouflage completed with white patches on the

  upper surfaces. This design was necessary for

  the area and period of operation of 6./JG 5 in the

  climatic conditions.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard46

  Červenec 2024

• Page 47

  Bf 109G-6/R6, Hptm. Anton Hackl, Stab III./JG 11,

  Oldenburg, Germany, January 1944

  Bf 109G-6/R6, Maj. Ludwig Franzisket, CO of I./JG 27,

  Fels am Wagram, Austria, January 1944

  After recovering from a severe wound sustained in

  Africa on February 4, 1943, during a dogfight with

  a P-38 Lightning, Anton Hackl returned to combat

  activity in September 1943. Hptm. Hackl, by that

  time already an ace with 126 kills and a recipient

  of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, was

  reassigned to III./JG 11, incorporated into the Reich

  Defense system. The following month he took

  command of the unit. During his time with JG 11,

  which ended with another wound on April 15, 1944,

  this time in combat with American P-47s, he had

  already scored 141 kills. During his subsequent

  treatment he received the Knight’s Cross with

  the Swords. After his recovery, he continued his

  service as commander of other Luftwaffe units.

  Anton Hackl is reported to have shot down a total

  of 192 enemy aircraft (34 of which were four-

  engine bombers) during World War II, with another

  24 listed as unconfirmed kills. He died on July 9,

  1984, in his hometown of Reims. Anton Hackl’s

  aircraft was sprayed with the standard Luftwaffe

  camouflage colors of the Messerschmitt factory

  in Regensburg. The tail section of his aircraft

  was painted white for quicker recognition of

  the formation leader during aerial combat.

  On the rear of the fuselage, there was sprayed the

  designation of the JG 11 aircraft – a yellow stripe,

  900 mm wide.

  Ludwig Franzisket began his combat career

  with 1. Staffel of JG 1 (later III./JG 27) and scored

  his first kills in May 1940 over the Netherlands.

  He later took part in the campaign in France

  and from September 1940 he served with Staff

  I./JG 27. Franzisket received the Knight’s Cross

  during his service in Africa on July 23, 1941, after

  he had achieved 22 kills. In December that year

  he was appointed commander of I./JG 27 and

  in the summer of 1943 he took command of the

  entire I./JG 27. At the time the unit operated in

  the skies over the Reich, where it faced Allied

  air raids. Franzisket’s victories include two

  B-17s shot down near Schweinfurt on October

  14, 1943. The total score eventually stood at 43

  victories, including four B-17s. The green stripe

  around the rear of the fuselage was used to mark

  JG 27’s aircraft as part of the Reich’s air defenses.

  The JG 27 emblem was painted on the engine.

  The double black wedge on the fuselage

  symbolized Franzisket’s command position.

  The white rudder marked the aircraft of the leader

  of the formation.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  47

  Červenec 2024

• Page 48

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 440190, Lt. Alfred Hammer, CO of 6./JG 53,

  Vienna-Seyring, Austria, February 1944

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 26048, Oblt. Friedrich Brock, 8./JG 54, Ludwigslust,

  Germany, January 1944

  Alfred “Martello” Hammer achieved a total of

  26 victories during World War II. His first prey was

  a Spitfire shot down over Malta on October 25,

  1942, the last one was Auster destroyed on April

  14, 1945. Hammer’s entire war service was with

  JG 53 “Pik As”. From November 1941 he underwent

  operational training with Erg.Gr./JG 53 and in

  March 1942 was assigned to 4./JG 53. In February

  1943, he became adjutant of II./JG 53 and led

  6./JG 53 from July. In early 1945 he took command

  of IV./JG 53 and remained in this post until the

  end of the war. He flew the Bf 109G-6 WNr. 440190

  during combat operations of JG 53 from the base

  in Vienna, where it moved after the retreat from

  the Mediterranean. He was probably flying this

  aircraft, when he was wounded by defensive

  fire of B-17 over Linz on January 24, 1944. On the

  nose of Hammer’s Messerschmitt, there was the

  ace of spades painted, which was the emblem of

  JG 53. The red stripe around the rear of the fuselage

  identified the aircraft used by JG 53 at that time.

  Friedrich Brock was born on May 6, 1916, in

  Perlach. In August 1939, he began his training

  at the Schule/Flieger-Ausbildungs-Regiment

  23 in Kaufbeuren. In November 1940 he transferred

  to Flugzeugführerschule A/B 63 in Marienbad.

  In March 1942 he joined Jagdfliegervorschule 3 in

  Vienna-Schwechat. He completed his fighter pilot

  training on November 12, 1942, with Ergänzungs-

  Jagdgruppe Ost in France. His first combat unit

  became 8./JG 54 at Siverskaya Air Base on

  November 13, 1942. In January 1943, III./JG 54

  was transferred to Oldenburg to defend northern

  Germany. There Brock achieved his first kill on

  June 13, 1943. He was shot down several times

  during fightings with American B-17s but was

  seriously wounded on April 8, 1944. His “Black 8”

  machine bore all the identifying features of the

  period, i.e., the 8./JG 54 emblem on the nose, the

  III./JG 54 emblem under the cockpit, and a blue

  identification stripe on the rear. Flying this aircraft,

  Uffz. Günther Sahl was shot down and killed on

  April 9, 1944. After his recovery, Friedrich Brock

  became the operations officer of III./JG 54 (later

  renamed IV./JG 26) in October 1944 and did not

  intervene in combat anymore. In May 1945 he was

  captured and after his release in September 1945

  he devoted himself to his profession as a dentist.

  He died on May 3, 1994, in Berlin.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard48

  Červenec 2024

• Page 49

  Recommended: for

  Bf 109G-6 1/72

  #672329

  674006 Bf 109G-6 LööK (Brassin)

  672292 Luftwaffe rudder pedals PRINT (Brassin)

  672324 Bf 109 SC250 bomb (Brassin)

  672329 Bf 109 balance weights PRINT (Brassin)

  672338 Bf 109G undercarriage legs BRONZE (Brassin)

  672344 Bf 109G radio compartment PRINT (Brassin)

  672346 Bf 109G propeller PRINT (Brassin)

  672347 Bf 109G-5/G-6 cockpit PRINT (Brassin)

  672348 Bf 109G-5/G-6 wheels PRINT (Brassin)

  672352 Bf 109G-6 engine PRINT (Brassin)

  672355 Bf 109G-5/G-6 gun barrels PRINT (Brassin)

  OVERTREES

  #70157X

  Bf 109G-5/6

  1/72

  Product page

  OVERLEPT

  #70159-LEPT1

  Bf 109G-6

  1/72

  Product page

  #672347

  #672352

  #672338

  #672344

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  49

  Červenec 2024

• Page 50

  #82146

  Fw 190A-2

  ProfiPACK edition kit of German WWII fighter aircraft Fw 190A-2 in 1/48 scale.

  The kit offers the aircraft with two-cannon as well as four-cannon wings.

  plastic parts: Eduard

  marking options: 5

  decals: Eduard

  PE parts: yes, pre-painted

  painting mask: yes

  resin parts: yes, wheel bay doors

  Product page

  Re-release

  1/48

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard50

  Červenec 2024

• Page 51

  WNr. 0125228, Ofw. Erwin Leibold, Stab I./JG 26, St. Omer-Arques,

  France, July 1942

  WNr. 0125281, Oblt. Siegfried Schnell, CO of 9./JG 2,

  Théville, France, June 1942

  German Jagdgeschwader 26 ace Erwin Leibold

  achieved his 11th and final kill in the afternoon

  of July 12, 1942, when he shot down a reconnai-

  ssance Mosquito PR Mk.II over Licques in France,

  which was on a mission to photograph Stras-

  bourg and Ingolstadt. Both British crewmen died.

  The fate of their conqueror was sealed only two

  weeks later when Ofw. Leibold took part in I./JG

  26 attacks against the Biggin Hill Wing, operating

  over France. The aircraft flown by Leibold, flying

  as wingman of the Gruppe CO Hptm. Seifert, ex-

  ploded after being intercepted by a Spitfire. The

  pilot was spotted on parachute, but a search for

  him turned up nothing. The aircraft assigned to

  Staff I. Gruppe sported standard camouflage, but

  they were marked in a non-standard way, with

  letters or initials of their pilots. The letter “L” (Le-

  ibold) was complemented with the designation

  of the aircraft within the Staffel in the form of

  a chevron and carried eleven kill marks on the

  yellow rudder.

  Siegfried “Wumm” Schnell, a native of today’s

  Polish Sulecin (then Zeilenzig in Brandenburg)

  joined the ranks of the Luftwaffe in 1936 and at

  the beginning of the Second World War he served

  with JG 2. He achieved his first kill over France

  on May 14, 1940, others followed over Britain

  and against English and American pilots over

  Western Europe. After being assigned to JG 54,

  he first served with its III. Gruppe, before being

  promoted as CO of IV. Gruppe on February 1, 1944.

  While serving as Commanding Officer he was shot

  down on February 25, 1944, over Narva by a Soviet

  fighter. This proved to be a fateful encounter for

  him. For his combat results, he was awarded the

  Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves on July 9, 1941.

  During Second World War he downed 93 enemy

  aircraft. The Fw 190A-2 flown by Oblt. Schnell

  carried the standard camouflage scheme applied

  to Luftwaffe fighters consisting of RLM 74/75/76.

  The yellow rudder carried 64 kill markings.

  The sides of the fuselage and engine cowl carried

  the so-called “Adlerflügel”.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  51

  Červenec 2024

• Page 52

  WNr. 0122125, Oblt. Max Buchholz, CO of 5./JG 1, Katwijk,

  the Netherlands, Summer 1942

  WNr. 0125310, Hptm. Josef Priller, CO of III./JG 26, Wevelghem,

  Belgium, June 1942

  Max Bucholz was born on November 3, 1912, in

  Zerbst and at the beginning of the war he served

  with Jagdgeschwader 3. With this unit, he saw

  combat over France and over Great Britain as well

  as during Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of

  the Soviet Union). At the beginning of October 1941,

  I./JG 3 was sent for some R and R to Germany.

  After that, it was moved to the Netherlands and

  on January 6, 1942, the unit was redesignated

  II./JG 1. Oblt. Bucholz was given command of its 6.

  Staffel. On February 12, 1942, he gained his 28th

  victory in a mission to cover the battle cruisers

  Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which, together

  with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, sailed from

  Brest to German harbors. From the middle of the

  year up to the end of the war Bucholz served in

  administrative duties. He died on July 19, 1996, in

  Germany. The tip of the red spinner of Bucholz’s

  aircraft carried a thin white spiral and otherwise

  was camouflaged in RLM 74/75/76. The marking

  of the Commander of the 5. Staffel in the form

  of a black numeral was supplemented by the

  II. Gruppe insignia (the horizontal bar in the Staffel

  color), and also by the personal marking of the

  gull in flight below the cockpit. The engine cowl

  bears the red “Tatzelwurm” – the 5./JG 1 badge.

  Josef “Pips” Priller was born on July 27, 1915, in

  Ingolstadt, Bavaria. In 1935, he joined Wehrmacht

  and as soon as a year later, in October 1936,

  he started to attend the fighter pilot training.

  He achieved his first aerial victory as

  a commander of 6. Staffel JG 51 when he downed

  a Spitfire above Dunkerque on May 28, 1940.

  In November 1940, he was appointed a commander

  of the 1./JG 26. On December 6, 1941, he became

  commander of III./JG 26 and from January 11, 1943,

  he lead the whole Jagdgeschwader 26. His number

  of victories kept growing and on December 20,

  1941, his success was rewarded and Priller was

  decorated with Knights Cross of the Iron Cross

  with Oak Leaves and Swords. On January 28, 1945,

  he was appointed Inspekteur der Jagdflieger

  Ost, where he remained till the end of WWII.

  Priller’s total score was 101 victories over enemy

  aircraft. All of them were achieved in the Western

  Front. After the War Priller married Johanna

  Riegele, the proprietor of a brewery and became

  general manager of Riegele brewery in Augsburg,

  Germany. He died of heart attack on May 20, 1961.

  This aircraft was flown by Josef Priller in June

  1942. It sported the standard camouflage scheme

  for Luftwaffe fighters and had yellow rudder and

  bottom part of the engine cowl. It also carried

  the marking for the CO of the III. Gruppe. The tail

  carried 73 kill markings, Priller’s tally to June 1,

  1942.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard52

  Červenec 2024

• Page 53

  Oblt. Egon Mayer, CO of 7./JG 2, Théville, France, Summer 1942

  Egon Mayer was born on August 19, 1917, in

  Konstanz and he joined the Luftwaffe in

  1937. In December 1939, he was assigned to

  Jagdgeschwader 2 after the training and served

  with this unit though the French campaign

  and into the Battle of Britain. From June 10,

  1941, he became CO of the 7. Staffel and the CO

  of the entire III. Gruppe from November 1942.

  By that time, he had accumulated 52 victories.

  On November 23, he brought down his first

  American four-engine heavy bomber. Together

  with George-Peter Eder, he was developing

  tactics of head on attacks against American

  bomber formations. On July 1, 1943, he was made

  Commanding Officer of the entire JG 2. On March

  2, 1944, Mayer led a formation of JG 2 fighters in

  an intercept of American bombers over Montmédy

  and was shot down and killed by escorting P-47s.

  He was posthumously awarded the Sword to

  his Knight’s Cross. The 7. Staffel JG 2 badge

  was carried on the cowling of this standard-

  camouflaged Fw 190. The yellow rudder carried

  44 kill marks in the form of French and British

  roundels. The former markings of the aircraft

  were sprayed over with RLM 74 Graugrün.

  Recommended: for

  Fw 190A-2 1/48

  648356 Fw 190A wingroot gun bays (Brassin)

  648366 Fw 190A propeller (Brassin)

  648371 Fw 190A control surfaces early (Brassin)

  648381 Fw 190A exhaust stacks (Brassin)

  648736 Fw 190A landing flaps PRINT (Brassin)

  3DL48182 Fw 190A-2 SPACE (3D Decal Set)

  D48040 Fw 190A-2 national insignia (Decal Set)

  EX587 Fw 190A TFace (Mask)

  OVERTREES

  #8215X

  Fw 190A-2

  1/48

  Product page

  OVERLEPT

  #82146-LEPT1

  Fw 190A-2

  1/48

  Product page

  #648736

  #648356

  #648381

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  53

  Červenec 2024

• Page 54

  #7096

  L-29 Delfín

  ProfiPACK edition kit of Czechoslovak military

  jet trainer L-29 Delfín in 1/72 scale.

  plastic parts: AMK

  marking options: 5

  decals: Eduard

  PE parts: yes, pre-painted

  painting mask: yes

  resin parts: ne

  Product page

  1/72

  KITS 06/2024

  Re-release

  INFO Eduard54

  Červenec 2024

• Page 55

  a/c No. 2853, 1 Squadron, 11 Fighter Regiment, Žatec, Czech Republic, 1993

  N179EP, Reno AFB, United States of America, 2009

  3246, 3 Squadron, 1 Fighter Regiment, Planá Air Base, Czechoslovakia, 1969–1970

  This Delfin received its coloring at the beginning

  of June 1993. It was created by the ground crew

  under the leadership of kpt. Ing. Karel Krejčí

  and it was introduced to the public on July 10

  of the same year at an airshow in Žatec. After

  the disbandment of the 11 Fighter Regiment,

  the aircraft was transferred to the 1 Training

  Regiment at Přerov. The entire aircraft, including

  the drop tanks, was cleaned and degreased and

  the national insignia and fuselage number were

  covered by tape. After that, the aircraft was

  painted yellow, followed by the black tiger stripes.

  The American company Tactical Air Services

  owns two L-29 Delfins and these are used to

  train army and navy elements by simulating

  incoming anti-shipping or air-to-surface rounds.

  During RIMPAC 2010 (Rim Of The Pacific – the

  largest international naval exercise) they were

  photographed on the deck of LHD-6 Bon Homme

  Richard. Aircraft N179EP is camouflaged similarly

  to the aircraft operated by the Russian Air Force,

  including Russian stars on the wings and fin.

  While most L-29s served as trainers with

  training units, some aircraft were allocated

  to combat units to help in maintaining pilot’s

  ratings at a minimal expense. One such aircraft

  was this L-29 coded 3246, which was assigned

  to 3 Squadron of the 1 Fighter Regiment based at

  České Budějovice. The aircraft served there right

  from its acceptance in 1969 up to the mid-eighties.

  Later, it was transferred to a training regiment in

  Košice and stayed operational up to 2003. During

  1969–70, the Squadron emblem was painted on

  the nose consisting of a devil on a dark blue

  background, the same as used on MiG-21PFMs of

  the unit. The red trim was part of the standard

  scheme in which the L-29s were delivered to the

  main client, the Soviet Union.

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard

  55

  Červenec 2024

• Page 56

  FE999 L-29 Delfin seatbelts STEEL (fotolept)

  Recommended: for

  L-29 Delfín 1/72

  3250, International Fighter Pilots Academy, Košice, Slovak Republic, 1993

  378, 101 Fighter Reconaissance Wing, Szolnok Air Base, Hungary, Summer 1978

  The International Fighter Pilot Academy was

  formed at the beginning of 1993 at Košice as

  an official training unit allowing civil clients to

  take part in aerial exercises on military aircraft,

  including helicopters. One of the aircraft that

  were used in this role and were also funded for in

  the budget of the Slovak Air Force, was this L-29.

  The fuselage of this Delfin was painted grey, while

  the wings received a striking scheme consisting

  of red, white and blue segments reminiscent of

  past aerobatic schemes. The IFPA badge was

  carried under the windscreen on both sides of

  the aircraft.

  The L-29 factory number 591378 was built in

  1965 and delivered to Hungarian AF to serve

  at Szolnok Air Force Base with 101 Fighter

  Reconnaissance Wing. In the first part of its

  active life the aircraft flew in natural metal

  colors with Red 378 board number. The aircraft

  returned twice to Czechoslovakia for overhaul

  in the Trenčín factory, in 1971 and 1978. After the

  second overhaul it received a new camouflage

  scheme represented here. These are Czech

  colors which were very different from Hungarian

  AF official coloring. Later several new patches of

  dark green were added by Hungarian technicians

  as repairs. It is interesting that this aircraft is still

  in service but this time in private hand in USA as

  N21KE. After withdrawal from Hungarian AF in

  March 1983 it was sold in summer of 1984 and

  had a colorful after-life, flying in VVS colors as

  09 with red star. With breakup of the Soviet Union,

  it received YL

  -

  PAD registration to be shipped

  eventually to Scotland in mid 1990s and kept in

  open storage for many years. It was sold again

  and shipped to the US, after refurbishment flew

  as Red 09 from Minnetonka.

  OVERTREES

  #7096X

  L-29 Delfín

  1/72

  Product page

  OVERLEPT

  #7096-LEPT1

  L-29 Delfín

  1/72

  Product page

  KITS 06/2024

  INFO Eduard56

  Červenec 2024

• Page 57

  www.eduard.com/bfc

  BUNNY BUNNY FIGHTERFIGHTER

  CLUB

  Eduard's special membership club for all modeling enthusiasts!

  15% Permanent Club discount at Eduard Store – you will receive permanent 15% discount on all Eduard

  products 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 sold

  products, specially made for BFC members.

  Even better prices at Eduard events stand – do you know that Eduard usually has huge discounts on

  their products at fairs and events all over the world? BFC members will have even higher discount at

  these 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 available

  to 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 Championship

  BOX CONTENT:

  Plastic parts, Marking options 6, Decal Set, PE parts, Maska, Brassin

  parts (two different types of wheels, landing flaps, dust filter with

  eyelid, intake ring and RP-3 60lb rockets), 3D decals for main and si

  -

  dewalk instrument and control panels with photo-etched details and

  seat belts.

  BOX CONTENT:

  Plastic parts, Marking options 4, Decal Set, PE parts, Maska, Brassin

  parts (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 Eduard

  product in your shopping cart. To apply this discount, the Activation product has to be in your shopping

  cart. Activation product is excluded from this calculation.

  Activation products:Activation products:

  Tempest Mk. V + T-shirt 1/48MiG-21MF + T-shirt 1/72

• Page 58

  BRASSIN

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard and STEEL

  seatbelts for F4U-1A in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: Magic factory

  Set contains:

  - resin: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard and STEEL

  seatbelts for P-47D-30 in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: Miniart

  Set contains:

  - resin: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  644264

  F4U-1A LööK

  1/48 Magic Factory

  644269

  P-47D-30 LööK

  1/48 MINIART

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard58

  Červenec 2024

• Page 59

  644270

  I-16 Type 24 LööK

  1/48 Eduard

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard

  and STEEL seatbelts for I-16 Type 24 in 1/48 scale.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  BRASSIN

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard and STEEL

  seatbelts for FM-1 in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: Tamiya

  Set contains:

  - resin: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  644271

  FM-1 LööK

  1/48 Tamiya

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  59

  Červenec 2024

• Page 60

  BRASSIN

  Collection of 3 sets for Gannet AS.1 or AS.4 in 1/48 scale.

  Recommended kit: Airfix

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - TFace painting mask

  - undercarriage wheels

  Collection of 3 sets for Bf 109G-2 in 1/72 scale.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - gun barrels

  - propeller

  644272

  Gannet AS.1/AS.4 LööKplus

  1/48 Airfix

  674008

  Bf 109G-2 LööKplus

  1/72 Eduard

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard60

  Červenec 2024

• Page 61

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - a deployed parachute for F-4E

  in 1/48 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.

  Recommended kit: Meng

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 4 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  Collection of 3 sets for Bf 109G-4 in 1/72 scale.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - gun barrels

  - propeller

  674009

  Bf 109G-4 LööKplus

  1/72 Eduard

  Product page

  Product page

  648910

  F-4E parachute PRINT

  1/48 Meng

  INFO Eduard

  61

  Červenec 2024

• Page 62

  648983

  Beaufort Mk.I engines PRINT

  1/48 ICM

  648989

  P-51B/C wheels block tread

  1/48 Eduard

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - both enginest for Beaufort Mk.I

  in 1/48 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.

  Recommended kit: ICM

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 16 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51B

  or P-51C in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main

  wheels and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard62

  Červenec 2024

• Page 63

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51B

  or P-51C in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main

  wheels and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  648991

  P-51B/C wheels block tread 2

  1/48 Eduard

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51B

  or P-51C in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main

  wheels and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  648990

  P-51B/C wheels diamond tread 2

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  63

  Červenec 2024

• Page 64

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for Bf 108

  in 1/48 scale. The set consists of the main wheels and

  a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 5 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels

  for Bf 108 in 1/48 scale. The set consists

  of the main wheels and a tail wheel.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 5 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  648999

  Bf 108 wheels

  1/48 Eduard

  648998

  Bf 108 wheels spoked

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard64

  Červenec 2024

• Page 65

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - cockpit for F-35B in 1/48 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing.

  Recommended kit: Tamiya

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 16 parts

  - decals: yes

  - photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  6481000

  F-35B cockpit PRINT

  1/48 Tamiya

  Product page

  Brassin set - fuel drop tanks for P-51B or P-51C

  in 1/48 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 6 parts

  - decals: yes

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  6481001

  P-51B/C 108gal drop tanks PRINT

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  65

  Červenec 2024

• Page 66

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - pilot seat for P-51B or P-51C in 1/48 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - propeller for P-51B or P-51C

  in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resi: 9 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  6481006

  P-51B/C Hamilton Standard propeller

  1/48 Eduard

  6481003

  P-51B/C seat Type 2 PRINT

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard66

  Červenec 2024

• Page 67

  Brassin set - propeller for P-51B

  or P-51C in 1/48 scale. Easy to

  assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resi: 9 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  6481007

  P-51B/C Hamilton Standard propeller uncuffed

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  Brassin set - bazooka type rocket launchers

  for P-51B or P-51C in 1/48 scale.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 8 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  6481008

  P-51B/C bazooka rocket launcher

  1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  BRASSIN

  INFO Eduard

  67

  Červenec 2024

• Page 68

  BRASSIN

  Brassin set - single monunted 25mm AA gun for

  IJN vessels in 1/350 scale. Set consists of 20 guns.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts.

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 20 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  653019

  IJN Type 96 25mm AA gun (single) PRINT

  1/350

  Product page

  Brassin set - double monunted 25mm AA gun for

  IJN vessels in 1/350 scale. Set consists of 18 guns.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts.

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 18 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  653020

  IJN Type 96 25mm AA gun (double) PRINT

  1/350

  Product page

  INFO Eduard68

  Červenec 2024

• Page 69

• Page 70

  BRASSIN

  Collection of 3 sets for P-38J in 1/48 scale.

  Recommended kit: Tamiya

  - left engine

  - right engine

  - turbochargers

  All sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately, but

  with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.

  SIN648126

  P-38J engines

  1/48 Tamiya

  Product page

  INFO Eduard70

  Červenec 2024

• Page 71

  BRASSIN

  Collection of 5 sets for F-35A in 1/72 scale.

  Recommended kit: Tamiya

  - GBU-12

  - AIM-120C AMRAAM

  - AIM-9X

  - AIM-132 ASRAAM

  - GBU-31(V)3/B JDAM

  All sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately, but

  with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.

  SIN67224

  F-35A armament

  1/72 Tamiya

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  71

  Červenec 2024

• Page 72

  JUNE 2024

  A-20J/K

  1/32 HKM

  #321018

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  INFO Eduard72

  Červenec 2024

• Page 73

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  Boston Mk.IV

  Boston Mk.IV

  1/32 HKM

  seatbelts STEEL

  #33369

  #33370

  INFO Eduard

  73

  Červenec 2024

• Page 74

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  Boston Mk.IV

  A-20J/K / Boston Mk.IV

  main wheel well

  1/32 HKM

  1/32 HKM

  #321019

  #32491

  INFO Eduard74

  Červenec 2024

• Page 75

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  A-20J/K / Boston Mk.IV bomb bay

  1/32 HKM

  #32490

  INFO Eduard

  75

  Červenec 2024

• Page 76

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  B-26B Marauder cockpit & nose interior

  1/48 ICM

  #491454

  #FE1454

  INFO Eduard76

  Červenec 2024

• Page 77

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  TBD-1 landing flaps

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  #481139

  INFO Eduard

  77

  Červenec 2024

• Page 78

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  TBD-1

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  #491452 #FE1452

  INFO Eduard78

  Červenec 2024

• Page 79

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  INFO Eduard

  79

  Červenec 2024

• Page 80

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  USS Sangamon CVE-26 island

  1/350 Trumpeter

  #53309 general set

  #53310 island

  INFO Eduard80

  Červenec 2024

• Page 81

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  INFO Eduard

  81

  Červenec 2024

• Page 82

  SM.79 interior

  1/72 Italeri

  #73824 #SS824

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  INFO Eduard82

  Červenec 2024

• Page 83

  PHOTO

  -

  ETCHED

  INFO Eduard

  83

  Červenec 2024

• Page 84

  INFO Eduard84

  Březen 2024

• Page 85

  B-17 ACCESSORIES

  INFO Eduard

  85

  Březen 2024

• Page 86

  B-17 ACCESSORIES

  INFO Eduard86

  Březen 2024

• Page 87

  B-17 ACCESSORIES

  INFO Eduard

  87

  Březen 2024

• Page 88

  B-17 ACCESSORIES

  INFO Eduard88

  Březen 2024

• Page 89

• Page 90

  3DL32023 B5N2 SPACE 1/35 Border Model

  3DL32024

  A-20J/K SPACE 1/32 HKM

  Product page

  Product page

  easy

  application

  INFO Eduard90

  Červenec 2024

• Page 91

  SPACE

  3DL32025 Boston Mk.IV SPACE 1/32 HKM

  3DL48180

  B-24J SPACE 1/48 Hobby Boss

  SPACE

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  91

  Červenec 2024

• Page 92

  3DL48182 Fw 190A-2 SPACE 1/48 Eduard

  Product page

  SPACE

  3DL48181 TBD-1 SPACE 1/48 Hobby Boss

  Product page

  INFO Eduard92

  Červenec 2024

• Page 93

  SPACE

  3DL48183 B-26B Marauder SPACE 1/48 ICM

  SPACE

  Product page

  3DL72032 SM.79 SPACE 1/72 Italeri

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  93

  Červenec 2024

• Page 94

  3DL53014 US Navy WW2 ensign flag for CVL, CVE, CL & DD SPACE 1/350

  Product page

  SPACE

  3DL72033 B-26 Marauder SPACE 1/72 Eduard

  Product page

  INFO Eduard94

  Červenec 2024

• Page 95

  EDDIE THE RIVETER

  ER32006

  Double radial rows

  1/32

  ER48011

  Double radial rows

  1/48

  This product is used to create raised

  rivets on rounded surfaces. It can be used

  for example on propeller cones, engine

  covers and engine radiators. How to work

  with these products can be found in

  INFO 08/2023.

  Product page

  Product page

  ER72006

  Double radial rows

  1/72

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  95

  Červenec 2024

• Page 96

  BIG ED

  All sets included in this BIG ED are available separately,

  but with every BIG ED set you save up to 30 %.

  BIG49406 F-35B 1/48 Tamiya

  BIG49407

  Gannet AS.1 1/48 Airfix

  49103 Remove Before Flight STEEL

  491420 F-35B 1/48

  FE1421 F-35B seatbelts STEEL 1/48

  EX1011 F-35B 1/48

  491424 Gannet AS.1 1/48

  FE1426 Gannet AS.1/AS.4 seatbelts STEEL 1/48

  EX1016 Gannet AS.1/AS.4 1/48

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard96

  Červenec 2024

• Page 97

  All sets included in this BIG ED are available separately,

  but with every BIG ED set you save up to 30 %.

  BIG ED

  BIG49408 Gannet AS.4 1/48 Airfix

  BIG49409

  Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/48 Arma Hobby

  491425 Gannet AS.4 1/48

  FE1426 Gannet AS.1/AS.4 seatbelts STEEL 1/48

  EX1016 Gannet AS.1/AS.4 1/48

  491422 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/48

  FE1423 Hurricane Mk.IIb seatbelts STEEL 1/48

  EX1014 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/48

  Product page

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  97

  Červenec 2024

• Page 98

  MASKS

  IT FITS!

  JX324 A-20J/K

  1/32 HKM

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace

  1/32 HKM

  JX326 B5N2 TFace

  1/32 Border Model

  EX1041 B-24J

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1042 B-24J TFace

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1043 B-24J US national insignia

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1044 B-26B Marauder

  1/48 ICM

  EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace

  1/48 ICM

  EX1046 B-26B Marauder national

  insignia 1/48 ICM

  EX1047 TBD-1 TFace

  1/48 Hobby Boss

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace

  JX326 B5N2 TFace TFace

  JX326 B5N2 TFace TFace

  JX326 B5N2 TFace TFace

  JX326 B5N2 TFace TFace

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace

  JX324 A-20J/K

  JX324 A-20J/K

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace

  INFO Eduard98

  Červenec 2024

• Page 99

  EX1042 B-24J TFace

  EX1042 B-24J TFace

  EX1041 B-24J

  EX1041 B-24J

  EX1042 B-24J TFace

  EX1042 B-24J TFace

  EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace

  EX1044 B-26B Marauder

  EX1044 B-26B Marauder

  EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace

  EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace

  EX1047 TBD-1 TFace EX1047 TBD-1 TFace

  INFO Eduard

  99

  Červenec 2024

  MASKS

• Page 100

  RELEASES

  JUNE 2024

  KITS

  PE

  -

  SETS

  ZOOMS

  MASKS

  2146 MARAUDER 1/72 Limited

  84200 Spitfire Mk.Vb OVERLORD 1/48 Weekend

  70159 Bf 109G-6 1/72 ProfiPACK

  82146 Fw 190A-2 Re-release 1/48 ProfiPACK

  7096 L-29 Delfín Re-release 1/72 ProfiPACK

  53310 USS Sangamon CVE-26 island 1/350 Trumeter

  32490 A-20J/K / Boston Mk.IV bomb bay 1/32 HKM

  32491 A-20J/K / Boston Mk.IV main wheel well 1/32 HKM

  321017 B5N2 1/35 Border Model

  321018 A-20J/K 1/32 HKM

  321019 Boston Mk.IV 1/32 HKM

  481139 TBD-1 landing flaps 1/48 Hobby Boss

  491450 B-24J cockpit & engines 1/48 Hobby Boss

  491452 TBD-1 1/48 Hobby Boss

  491454 B-26B Marauder cockpit & nose interior 1/48 ICM

  72737 SM.79 exterior 1/72 Italeri

  73824 SM.79 interior 1/72 Italeri

  33365 B5N2 1/35 Border Model

  33366 B5N2 seatbelts STEEL 1/35 Border Model

  33367 A-20J/K 1/32 HKM

  33368 A-20J/K seatbelts STEEL 1/32 HKM

  33369 Boston Mk.IV 1/32 HKM

  33370 Boston Mk.IV seatbelts STEEL 1/32 HKM

  FE1450 B-24J 1/48 Hobby Boss

  FE1451 B-24J seatbelts STEEL 1/48 Hobby Boss

  FE1452 TBD-1 1/48 Hobby Boss

  FE1453 TBD-1 seatbelts STEEL 1/48 Hobby Boss

  FE1454 B-26B Marauder 1/48 ICM

  FE1455 B-26B Marauder seatbelts STEEL 1/48 ICM

  SS824 SM.79 1/72 Italeri

  JX324 A-20J/K 1/32 HKM

  JX325 A-20J/K TFace 1/32 HKM

  JX326 B5N2 TFace 1/32 Border Model

  EX1041 B-24J 1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1042 B-24J TFace 1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1043 B-24J US national insignia 1/48 Hobby Boss

  EX1044 B-26B Marauder 1/48 ICM

  EX1045 B-26B Marauder TFace 1/48 ICM

  EX1046 B-26B Marauder national insignia 1/48 ICM

  EX1047 TBD-1 TFace 1/48 Hobby Boss

  BIG-EDBIG-ED

  BIG ED

  BIG49406 F-35B 1/48 Tamiya

  BIG49407 Gannet AS.1 1/48 Airfix

  BIG49408 Gannet AS.4 1/48 Airfix

  BIG49409 Hurricane Mk.IIb 1/48 Arma Hobby

  INFO Eduard100

  Červenec 2024

• Page 101

  RELEASES

  BRASSIN

  LöökPLUS

  BIG SIN

  SPACE

  EDDIE THE RIVETER

  644264 F4U-1A LööK 1/48 Magic Factory

  644269 P-47D-30 LööK 1/48 MINIART

  644270 I-16 Type 24 LööK 1/48 Eduard

  644271 FM-1 LööK 1/48 Tamiya

  648910 F-4E parachute PRINT 1/48 Meng

  648983 Beaufort Mk.I engines PRINT 1/48 ICM

  648989 P-51B/C wheels block tread 1/48 Eduard

  648990 P-51B/C wheels diamond tread 2 1/48 Eduard

  648991 P-51B/C wheels block tread 2 1/48 Eduard

  648998 Bf 108 wheels spoked 1/48 Eduard

  648999 Bf 108 wheels 1/48 Eduard

  6481000 F-35B cockpit PRINT 1/48 Tamiya

  6481001 P-51B/C 108gal drop tanks PRINT 1/48 Eduard

  6481003 P-51B/C seat Type 2 PRINT 1/48 Eduard

  6481006 P-51B/C Hamilton Standard propeller 1/48 Eduard

  6481007 P-51B/C Hamilton Standard

  propeller uncuffed 1/48 Eduard

  6481008 P-51B/C bazooka rocket launcher 1/48 Eduard

  653019 IJN Type 96 25mm AA gun (single) PRINT 1/350

  653020 IJN Type 96 25mm AA gun (double) PRINT 1/350

  644272 Gannet AS.1/AS.4 LööKplus 1/48 Airfix

  674008 Bf 109G-2 LööKplus 1/72 Eduard

  674009 Bf 109G-4 LööKplus 1/72 Eduard

  SIN648126 P-38J engines 1/48 Tamiya

  SIN67224 F-35A armament 1/72 Tamiya

  3DL32023 B5N2 SPACE 1/35 Border Model

  3DL32024 A-20J/K SPACE 1/32 HKM

  3DL32025 Boston Mk.IV SPACE 1/32 HKM

  3DL48180 B-24J SPACE 1/48 Hobby Boss

  3DL48181 TBD-1 SPACE 1/48 Hobby Boss

  3DL48182 Fw 190A-2 SPACE 1/48 Eduard

  3DL48183 B-26B Marauder SPACE 1/48 ICM

  3DL72032 SM.79 SPACE 1/72 Italeri

  3DL72033 B-26 Marauder SPACE 1/72 Eduard

  3DL53014 US Navy WW2 ensign flag for

  CVL, CVE, CL & DD SPACE 1/350

  ER32006 Double radial rows 1/32

  ER48011 Double radial rows 1/48

  ER72006 Double radial rows 1/72

  JUNE 2024

  INFO Eduard

  101

  Červenec 2024

• Page 102

  BUILT

  1/48

  Product Page

  built by Robert Szwarc

  #11181

  MARKING A

  INFO Eduard102

  Červenec 2024

• Page 103

  BUILT

  P-51B-10-NA, s/n 43-6934, Capt. Henry White, 328th FS, 352nd FG, 8th AF,

  Bodney, Great Britain, June 1944

  The 352nd Fighter Group was formed on

  September 29, 1942 and activated three days later

  on October 1. Its first commander was Lt. Col.

  Edwin M. Ramage. The 328th, 486th, and 487th

  Fighter Squadrons, all initially flying P-47s before

  rearming to P-51B, were part of the group. During

  June and July, the group moved from the USA to

  the UK. The first commander of the 328th Fighter

  Squadron was Capt. J. H. Posten, the most famous

  of the commanders was Maj. G. E. Preddy, the most

  successful American P-51 fighter pilot with 26.83

  confirmed kills. Capt. Henry White flew a total of

  89 operational sorties with the unit, recording

  two kills. He achieved the first on May 28, 1944,

  and the second on July 18. The entire squadron

  scored 143 kills, 14 were destroyed probably and

  35 damaged by its pilots on the ground during the

  war. Captain White’s P-51B bore the distinctive

  livery of “Blue-nosed Bastards of Bodney”, as the

  352nd FG was nicknamed after the blue noses of

  its aircraft. On the left side forward of the cockpit,

  a painting of a girl in a red bikini and the name

  “Dallas Darling” adorned the nose. Full invasion

  stripes are portrayed here.

  INFO Eduard

  103

  Červenec 2024

• Page 104

  BUILT

  built by Tomáš Pavlík

  M3A1 HAlf TrAck

  1/72 Academy

  Accessories used:

  22120 M-3 Half Track (PE

  -

  Set)

  INFO Eduard104

  Červenec 2024

• Page 105

  BUILT

  INFO Eduard

  105

  Červenec 2024

• Page 106

  BUILT

  1/72F6F-3

  built by Steve Baker

  #7074

  MARKINGs D and E

  Ens. Gordon Arthur

  Stanley, VF-27,

  USS Princeton (CVL-23),

  October 1944

  OTU VF-2, NAS Melbourne,

  United States, October 1944

  Accessories used:

  672039 US 500lb bombs (Brassin)

  672203 F6F wheels (Brassin)

  INFO Eduard106

  Červenec 2024

• Page 107

  1/72

  Bf 109F-4

  built by Steve Baker

  #70155

  MARKING B

  BUILT

  Accessories used:

  672314 Bf 109F propeller late PRINT (Brassin)

  672316 Bf 109F wheels PRINT (Brassin)

  672322 Bf 109F wheel bays rounded PRINT (Brassin)

  672325 Bf 109F/G exhaust stacks PRINT (Brassin)

  672329 Bf 109 balance weights PRINT (Brassin)

  Bf 109F-4, Maj. Hannes Trautloft,

  CO of JG 54, Relbitsy, the Soviet

  Union, March 1942

  Hannes Trautloft entered combat in the Spanish Civil

  War. He flew the Bf 109 and participated in the development of

  tactics for this fighter aircraft. He fought in the Polish campaign as well

  as in France and managed to achieve at least one victory in every campaign.

  On August 25, 1940, he assumed command of JG 54. He led this fighter

  unit through Operation Barbarossa, the attack on the Soviet Union, and in

  subsequent combat till July 5, 1943. Trautloft was credited with 58 victories and

  he was awarded the Knight’s Cross on July 27, 1941. His personal aircraft wore

  a non-standard camouflage scheme. It is not clear which colors were used by

  JG 54 during its deployment to the Soviet Union.

  Product page

  INFO Eduard

  107

  Červenec 2024

• Page 108

  ON APPROACH

  JULY 2024

  634046

  A-20J/K LööK

  1/32 HKM

  644265

  F4U-2 LööK

  1/48 Magic Factory

  644273

  B-26B Marauder LööK

  1/48 ICM

  BIG5372 HMS Ark Royal 1939 1/350 I LOVE KIT

  BIG49410 P-47D-30 1/48 MINIART

  BIG49411 U-2R 1/48 Hobby Boss

  BIG49412 Lancaster B Mk.III Dambuster PART I 1/48 HKM

  BIG49413 Lancaster B Mk.III Dambuster PART II 1/48 HKM

  BIG72180 PBM-5A 1/72 Academy

  634046 A-20J/K LööK 1/32 HKM

  644265 F4U-2 LööK 1/48 Magic Factory

  644273 B-26B Marauder LööK 1/48 ICM

  6481004 P-51B/C engine 1/48 Eduard

  6481005 P-51B/C 75gal drop tank early PRINT 1/48 Eduard

  6481009 P-51B/C/D seat Type 3 PRINT 1/48 Eduard

  672358 P-51D exhaust stacks PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  672359 P-51D exhaust stacks w/ fairing PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  672361 P-51D Hamilton Standard propeller PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  672362 P-51D Hamilton Standard propeller uncuffed PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  672363 P-51D-5 cockpit PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  672366 P-51D wheels diamond tread 1/72 Eduard

  672367 P-51D wheels oval tread 1/72 Eduard

  672368 P-51D wheels cross tread 1/72 Eduard

  672372 P-51D seat PRINT 1/72 Eduard

  644274 P-47D-30 LööKpkus 1/48 MINIART

  674010 Bf 109G-6 LööKplus 1/72 Eduard

  674011 Bf 109F LööKplus 1/72 Eduard

  SIN635001 WWII German tool set 1/35

  SIN648127 F-16C Block 42 till 2005 1/48 Kinetic

  BIG ED (July)

  BRASSIN (July)

  LöökPlus (July)

  BIGSIN (July)

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard

  and STEEL seatbelts for A-20J/K in 1/32 scale.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: HKM

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - resin: 3 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard

  and STEEL seatbelts for F4U-2 in 1/48 scale.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Magic Factory

  Set contains:

  - resin: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  LööK set - Brassin pre-painted dashboard

  and STEEL seatbelts for B-26B Marauder

  in 1/48 scale. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: ICM

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - resin: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  PRELIMINARY IMAGES

  PRELIMINARY IMAGES

  PRELIMINARY IMAGES

  INFO Eduard108

  Červenec 2024

• Page 109

  6481004

  P-51B/C engine

  1/48 Eduard

  ON APPROACH

  Brassin set - engine for P-51B or P-51C

  in 1/48 scale. The cowlings are included.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 55 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes

  - painting mask: no

  6481005

  P-51B/C 75gal drop tank early PRINT

  1/48 Eduard

  6481009

  P-51B/C/D seat Type 3 PRINT

  1/48 Eduard

  Brassin set - fuel drop tanks for P-51B or P-51C

  in 1/48 scale. The set consists of 2 tanks. Made by

  direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 6 parts

  - decals: yes

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - pilot seat for P-51B or P-51C

  or P-51D in 1/48 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.

  Easy to assemble, replaces plastic parts.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  INFO Eduard

  109

  Červenec 2024

• Page 110

  ON APPROACH

  JULY 2024

  672358

  P-51D exhaust stacks PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  672359

  P-51D exhaust stacks w/ fairing PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  672361

  P-51D Hamilton Standard propeller PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  Brassin set - exhaust stacks for P-51D in 1/72 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - exhaust stacks for P-51D in 1/72 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 2 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - propeller for P-51D in 1/72 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 3 parts

  - resin: 4 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  INFO Eduard110

  Červenec 2024

• Page 111

  ON APPROACHJULY 2024

  672362

  P-51D Hamilton Standard propeller uncuffed PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  672363

  P-51D-5 cockpit PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  672366

  P-51D wheels diamond tread

  1/72 Eduard

  Brassin set - propeller for P-51D in 1/72 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble, replaces

  plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 3 parts

  - resin: 4 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - cockpit for P-51D-5

  in 1/72 scale. Made by direct 3D printing.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 21 parts

  - decals: yes

  - photo-etched details:

  yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51D

  in 1/72 scale. The set consists of the main wheels

  and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic

  parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  INFO Eduard

  111

  Červenec 2024

• Page 112

  ON APPROACH

  672367

  P-51D wheels oval tread

  1/72 Eduard

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51D

  in 1/72 scale. The set consists of the main wheels

  and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic

  parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  672372

  P-51D seat PRINT

  1/72 Eduard

  Brassin set - pilot seat for P-51D in 1/72 scale.

  Made by direct 3D printing. Easy to assemble,

  replaces plastic parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - 3D print: 1 part

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: yes, pre-painted

  - painting mask: no

  672368

  P-51D wheels cross tread

  1/72 Eduard

  Brassin set - the undercarriage wheels for P-51D

  in 1/72 scale. The set consists of the main wheels

  and a tail wheel. Easy to assemble, replaces plastic

  parts. Recommended kit: Eduard

  Set contains:

  - resin: 3 parts

  - decals: no

  - photo-etched details: no

  - painting mask: yes

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard112

  Červenec 2024

• Page 113

• Page 114

  Collection of 3 sets for P-47D-30 in 1/48 scale.

  Recommended kit: Miniart

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - TFace painting mask

  - undercarriage wheels

  644274

  P-47D-30 LööKplus

  1/48 MINIART

  ON APPROACH

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard114

  Červenec 2024

• Page 115

  ON APPROACH

  Collection of 4 sets for Bf 109G-6 in 1/72 scale.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - gun barrels

  - exhaust stacks

  - undercarriage wheels

  Collection of 4 sets for Bf 109F in 1/72 scale.

  Recommended kit: Eduard

  - LööK set (pre-painted Brassin dashboard & Steelbelts)

  - gun barrels

  - exhaust stacks

  - undercarriage wheels

  674010

  Bf 109G-6 LööKplus

  1/72 Eduard

  674011

  Bf 109F LööKplus

  1/72 Eduard

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard

  115

  Červenec 2024

• Page 116

  SIN635001

  WWII German tool set

  1/35

  Collection of 6 sets of tools for German WWII AFV

  in 1/35 scale.

  - pickaxes

  - crowbars

  - wire cutters

  - shovels

  - axe

  - hammer

  All sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately,

  but with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.

  ON APPROACH

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard116

  Červenec 2024

• Page 117

  SIN648127

  F-16C Block 42 till 2005

  1/48 Kinetic

  Collection of 4 sets for F-16C Block 42 in 1/48 scale.

  Recommended kit: Kinetic

  - cockpit

  - undercarriage bays

  - undercariage wheels

  - exhaust nozzle

  All sets included in this BIG SIN are available separately,

  but with every BIG SIN set you save up to 30 %.

  BRASSIN 02/2022BRASSIN 02/2022

  ON APPROACHJULY 2024

  INFO Eduard

  117

  Červenec 2024

• Page 118

  PE

  -

  SETS

  53311 USS Ranger CV-4 part 1 1/350 Trumpeter

  481140 B-24J undercarriage 1/48 Hobby Boss

  481141 B-24J bomb bay 1/48 Hobby Boss

  481142 B-24J bomb racks 1/48 Hobby Boss

  481143 SMB-2 Super Mystere landing flaps 1/48 Special Hobby

  481144 B-26B exterior 1/48 ICM

  481145 B-26B bomb bay 1/48 ICM

  491451 B-24J nose & radio compartment 1/48 Hobby Boss

  491455 B-26B rear interior 1/48 ICM

  491456 SMB-2 Super Mystere Israeli AF 1/48 Special Hobby

  72738 A-6E electronic equipment 1/72 Trumpeter

  73825 A-6E 1/72 Trumpeter

  73827 F-15J MSIP 1/72 Fine Molds

  ZOOMS

  FE1456 SMB-2 Super Mystere Israeli AF 1/48 Special Hobby

  FE1457 SMB-2 Super Mystere seatbelts Israeli AF STEEL 1/48 Special Hobby

  SS825 A-6E 1/72 Trumpeter

  SS826 P-51D seatbelts STEEL 1/72 Eduard

  SS827 F-15J MSIP 1/72 Fine Molds

  MASKS

  EX1048 SMB-2 Super Mystere TFace 1/48 Special Hobby

  EX1049 A-10C 1/48 Great Wall Hobby

  EX1050 A-10C TFace 1/48 Great Wall Hobby

  CX663 A-6E 1/72 Trumpeter

  CX664 P-51D US national insignia 1/72 Eduard

  CX665 P-51D surface panels 1/72 Eduard

  CX666 F-15J MSIP 1/72 Fine Molds

  CX667 B-24H 1/72 Airfix

  SPACE

  3DL48184 SMB-2 Super Mystere Israeli AF SPACE 1/48 Special Hobby

  3DL48185 Fw 190D-9 SPACE 1/48 Eduard

  3DL48186 A-10C SPACE 1/48 Great Wall Hobby

  3DL72034 A-6E SPACE 1/72 Trumpeter

  3DL72035 P-51D-5 SPACE 1/72 Eduard

  3DL72036 P-51D-10 SPACE 1/72 Eduard

  3DL72037 P-51D-15+ SPACE 1/72 Eduard

  3DL72038 F-15J MSIP SPACE 1/72 Fine Molds

  3DL72039 L-29 SPACE 1/72 AMK/Eduard

  EDDIE THE RIVETER

  ER32007 Triple radial rows 1/32

  ER48012 Triple radial rows 1/48

  ER72007 Triple radial rows 1/72

  ON APPROACH

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard118

  Červenec 2024

• Page 119

  ON APPROACH

  Spitfire Mk.XVI High Back #8286 1/48

  JULY 2024

  TB752, S/Ldr Henry Zary, CO of No. 403 Squadron,

  B.114 Diepholz, Germany, April–May 1945

  SM403, F/O Gordon M. Hill,

  No. 416 Squadron, B.56 Evere,

  Belgium, December 1944

  RR227, S/Ldr Otto Smik,

  No. 127 Squadron,

  B.60 Grimbergen, Belgium,

  November 1944

  TB520, W/Cdr Donald G. Andrews, CO of Coltishall

  Wing, RAF Matlaske, United Kingdom, March–May 1945

  TB349, F/Lt Malcom J. Gordon, No. 421 Squadron,

  B.90 Petit Brogel, Belgium, February–April 1945

  F/Lt Gordon M. Braidwood, No. 322 Squadron,

  B.106 Twente, Netherlands, April 1945

  INFO Eduard

  119

  Červenec 2024

• Page 120

  Bf 109G-6 Erla

  1/48

  ON APPROACH

  #84201

  Bf 109G-6, Hptm. Heinrich Ehrler, CO of 6./JG 5,

  Alakurtti, Finland, July 1943

  Bf 109G-6, WNr. 15909, Hptm. Gerhard Barkhorn,

  CO of II./JG 52, Anapa, the Soviet Union,

  September 1943

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 15367, Oblt. Herwig Zuzic,

  CO of 8./JG 1, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands,

  July 1943

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 26048, Oblt. Friedrich Brock,

  8./JG 54, Ludwigslust, Germany, January 1944

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard120

  Červenec 2024

• Page 121

  WNr. 600424, Lt. Heinz Sachsenberg,

  München-Riem, Germany, April-May 1945

  WNr. 210909, Maj. Gerhard Barkhorn,

  Stab JG 6, Welzow, Germany, February 1945

  WNr. 210194, Fw. Werner Hohenberg,

  Stab I./JG 2, Merzhausen, Germany,

  January 1, 1945

  WNr. 210003, Oblt. Hans Dortenmann,

  12./JG 26, Germany, 1945

  ON APPROACH

  Re-release

  Fw 190D-9

  #84102

  1/48

  JULY 2024

  INFO Eduard

  121

  Červenec 2024

• Swastikas and Red Stars

  History is not an exact science, knowledge about things and events of the past is not only added to and refined, but its perception may change in relation to the evolution of society as a whole. The chroniclers of ancient times often wrote along the monarch desire, otherwise they risked their neck.

  History is not an exact science, knowledge

  about things and events of the past is not only

  added to and refined, but its perception may

  change in relation to the evolution of society as

  a whole. The chroniclers of ancient times often

  wrote along the monarch desire, otherwise they

  risked their neck. Those who then set about

  writing down about events that occurred during

  the reigns of monarchs who were already dead

  and therefore harmless, in turn often committed

  errors or fabrications for the simple reason that

  they had few sources or had favorites they did not

  want to disgrace, and vice versa. First half of the

  16th Century Czech chronicler Wenceslaus Hájek

  from Libočany could tell a story about such an

  approach... In his time, he too had limited sources

  of information and usually interpreted what little

  he found in his own way. He was not alone in this,

  and he was by no means the last. Like medieval

  or ancient rulers, modern despots like to alter

  history in their own way. Some time ago, on one

  of the (a)social networks (primarily set up to

  increase the reach of human narrowness and

  smallness, I think), I noticed a reel by a lady of

  about 50 years of age who took umbrage at the

  fact that some historical events are now spoken

  and written about differently than she was taught

  in school. She used the word “unbelievable”

  about twenty times, probably because of her

  weak vocabulary due to her poor education. The

  person in question obviously lives in the belief

  that history is an exact science, which is of

  course nonsense. Unfortunately, in our country

  still dragging a lot from the communist era,

  the communist interpretation of history, which,

  well beyond the work of Wenceslaus Hájek of

  Libočany, resembles the fairy-tale Chronicle of

  the so-called Dalimil (early 14th Century ), still

  greatly influences the worldview of not only the

  older generation. Like a mental cancer, the lies

  that were drilled into our heads by our teachers

  spread from our parents and grandparents to

  the younger generation. If we add to this the

  weakness of contemporary education, then it is

  no wonder that we still have the heroic Soviet

  Union, which was insidiously attacked by the

  Nazis and then saved the whole of Europe, and

  hence the world, from their tyranny. No, that is

  not the case, dear children, the Soviet Union was

  only saving its own ass and extinguishing what it

  had helped to set on fire with great initiative, in

  order to then ruthlessly exploit it all in a race for

  the World ruling. Under the sign of the red star,

  people have died quite needlessly both by the

  hand of their enemies as well as their own leaders’.

  As many as 17 million people were killed during

  the Russian civil war that followed the Bolsheviks’

  (i.e. Communist) seizure of power and nearly

  1.5 million people were killed during the “Great

  Purge” by which the Communists settled their

  accounts and got rid of uncomfortable “elements”.

  All in all, some 12 million people were “terminated”

  during the Stalinist purges. Until the monstrous

  communist ideology was embraced by Mao Tse-

  Tung to dispose of an estimated seventy million

  people in various ways, the Soviet Union was

  the leader of the “hit parade” of mass murders

  crimes committed directly under the flag and

  state symbols of the country. And in both cases,

  the red five-pointed star, which in terms of

  symbolism of atrocities is equaling the swastika,

  played a role. However, while the swastika lost,

  the red star won, at least in the eyes of those

  who adopt as their interpretation of history the

  lessons of the Communist Party’s point of view.

  And that is why today we have laws that seek to

  erase the swastika from history, while the red

  star can continue to shine cheerfully, even as

  a symbol of the most heinous atrocities whenever

  and wherever.

  Today, we have to cope with legislation that

  tries to erase the Nazi symbol from history in

  the preparation of plastic models somehow.

  Swastikas have to be deleted from paint

  schemes, boxarts and decals, even in the form

  of small symbols of aerial victories, which the

  Allied fighters of the time certainly didn’t paint on

  their planes to promote Nazism. In other words,

  the legislator de facto misses the point of his

  own work.

  To be honest, I am not in favor of banning the

  use of Nazi symbols provided they are used solely

  in connection with the depiction of historical

  events, just as I am not in favor of banning the

  red five-pointed star. I’ve yet to see a symbol,

  no matter what it is, do evil on its own. Evil on

  this planet is perpetrated solely by humans,

  and those who wish to perpetrate or promote it

  will not be stopped by any legislation. Turning

  a blind eye to history is strikingly reminiscent

  not only of Wenceslaus Hájek from Libočany,

  or that versifying joker we call Dalimil, but

  especially of communist comrades who wrote

  history textbooks so that everything would fit

  into a predetermined ideology. And this is a very

  dangerous development. Personally, I am very

  curious if the letter “Z”, the symbol of newer

  Russian atrocities, will be measured by the same

  yardstick as the swastika. I don’t know about

  you, but I probably can’t do without it, it is a quite

  useful letter …

  SWASTIKAS AND RED STARS

  Text: Richard Plos

  INFO Eduard122

  Červenec 2024

• From warship to Spitfire

  Text: Jan Bobek and Michal Krechowski

  Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

  Cat. No. 84200

  
  

  Among the unusual units that took part in the Normandy landings were the squadrons of No. 34 Tactical Reconnaissance Wing. Prior to D-Day, ten squadrons - five from the RAF, four from the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA), and one from the American VCS-7 - were assembled at the Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Lee-on-Solent to provide aerial observation for the naval bombardment in the Utah and Omaha beach sectors, and later in the Cherbourg area. Two RAF squadrons (Nos. 26 and 63) were equipped with Spitfires, while the other three  (Nos. 2, 268, and 414) flew Mustangs. The FAA squadrons (Nos. 808, 897, 885, and 886) used Naval Seafire IIIs. This group of units, including VCS-7, was also known as the The Air Spotting Pool.

  VCS-7 was formed in February 1944. It consisted of 17 pilots from the cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39), USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37), USS Augusta (CA-31), and the battleships USS Nevada (BB-36), USS Arkansas (BB-33), and USS Texas (BB-35). After unpleasant experiences with German fighters during the Sicily landings in the summer of 1943, they traded their Seagulls and Kingfishers for Spitfires Mk.V. They were retrained by the USAAF's 67th TRG photo reconnaissance unit at Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

  The unit was initially commanded by Lt. Robert W. Calland (USS Nevada) and, from May 28, 1944, by Lt. Cdr. William Denton Jr. (USS Quincy). Observation missions were always flown by a pair of aircraft: the lead pilot acted as the observer, while the other provided escort and protected the leader from enemy attacks. The standard altitude for these missions was 1,800 meters, but bad weather often forced pilots to operate between 450 and 600 meters. Occasionally, missions were flown at even lower altitudes.

  From 6 June to 26 June, VCS-7 conducted a total of 209 sorties over Normandy, mainly as part of the Western Naval Task Force, which was under the control of the U.S. Navy. VCS-7 lost nine Spitfires to various causes, with flak being the greatest danger. The squadron´s planes were attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft just four times. A member of this unit, Ens. Robert J. Adams, became the first American aviator to land in liberated French territory, albeit due to damage to his aircraft.

  The unit's only casualty was Lt. Richard M. Barclay of the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa. On D-Day, the cruiser’s mission was to support the invasion force on Utah Beach. Barclay went into action in place of his subordinate, with Lt. (jg) Charles S. Zinn, also from the USS Tuscaloosa, as his wingman. Unfortunately, they were hit by flak during the flight. Barclay was killed, but Zinn managed to return to base with a damaged right wing and a damaged aileron.

  VCS-7's last combat mission took place on 25 June in the Cherbourg area, and the unit was disbanded the following day. During the twenty days of combat deployment, its members received nine DFCs, six Air Medals and five Gold Stars. Ten members of the unit participated in the August 1944 landings in southern France, and three took part in the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

  However, the only aerial victory with a VCS-7 Spitfire was not achieved by an American pilot, but by a British member of No. 897 Squadron FAA, Slt. D. W. Barraclough, who shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on June 7th. This dogfight is captured by Piotr Forkasiewicz on the box art. Another Bf 109 was credited to Lt. R. M. Crosley in a Seafire III from No. 886 Squadron FAA. However, five other Seafire IIIs from the The Air Spotting Pool were shot down or damaged by German and Allied flak or German fighters during the day, with one pilot falling into captivity. To make it short, flying artillery spotting missions over Normandy was a very risky task.

• The “Mayfly” Geschwader

  Text: Jan Bobek

  Illustration: Marek Ryś

  Cat. No. 70159

  
  

  The name of the German fighter ace Hermann Graf is mentioned in several Eduard kits, and an article in INFO magazine 01/2024  covers a part of his career that was closely linked to German football. After his successful service with JG 52 on the Eastern Front, then the lead of operational training unit Erg. Gr. Ost in France, Graf received a new assignment in the summer of 1943. He was tasked with organizing a unit dedicated to intercepting British Mosquito aircraft. Hermann Göring himself was interested in this mission, as he wanted to prevent the raids these hard-to-catch aircraft were launching on German cities. For more details, you can read the article

  To this end, two new fighter units were established in June 1943. Jagdgeschwader Nord (later renamed JG 25) was set up at Berlin-Staaken airfield, with Obstlt. Herbert Ihlefeld taking command in July. Under Graf's command, Jagdgeschwader Süd was established at Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airfield (not to be confused with the operational training unit Jagdgruppe Süd). Each unit consisted only of a Geschwaderstab and three Staffel in I. Gruppe, with no additional components. Their armament included Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-5 and G-6s, and the command intended to equip theaircraft with the GM-1 system for high-altitude interception.

  According to some sources, Graf managed to shoot down one Mosquito in June, but this is uncertain. By the autumn of 1943, Graf's unit had achieved at least 26 victories, all of which were B-17 Flying Fortress bombers.

  JG Süd's first four victories occurred on August 12 during an American raid on targets in the Ruhr. Graf's pilots shot down three B-17s and destroyed a damaged bomber. One German airman was wounded and made an emergency landing at the home base.

  JG Süd had its stellar moment on August 17, 1943. While engaging the bomber stream heading for Regensburg, its pilots managed to shoot down five B-17s without any losses. They also forced one B-17 to leave the formation (counted as a victory) and destroyed another damaged Flying Fortress (though this did not count as a victory, it was recorded as a point in the award system).

  During the afternoon action against the stream heading for Schweinfurt, Graf's unit shot down four B-17s but lost two pilots. August 17 is one of several possible days on which Hermann Graf achieved his next victory, though some actions from July are also under consideration.

  In mid-August, Graf's unit was renamed Jagdgeschwader 50 (not Jagdgruppe 50, as is sometimes erroneously stated). By the end of the month, it had twelve G-5 and thirteen G-6s, most equipped with 20mm guns mounted in underwing gondolas, as the command required Graf’s unit to participate in heavy bomber interceptions. However, as of August 23, 1943, only two Bf 109s in this unit were equipped with the GM-1 system because ten others had it dismantled. When the Bf 109 G was loaded with two underwing guns, the GM-1 system was too heavy to be installed as well. Graf's mechanics attempted to increase the aircraft's speed by polishing the wing surfaces, but this did not result in a significant speed increase. Graf even used an aircraft with landing gear covers similar to those later used on the Bf 109 K-4.

  Graf achieved two victories with this unit on September 6, 1943, during the raid on Stuttgart. One B-17 bomber was destroyed by his wingman, and another was credited to the commander of the 1st Staffel, Oblt. Alfred Grislawski. However, two Bf 109s were shot down, another was damaged during landing, and one NCO was killed at the home base due to engine failure.

  During the second raid on Schweinfurt on October 14, 1943, Graf's JG 50 claimed at least four downed B-17s and destroyed two others that were already badly damaged, though one more kill was not credited. In the process, the unit lost three Bf 109s, with one pilot killed, and another aircraft was damaged in an emergency landing due to fuel exhaustion.

  In October 1943, the “mayfly“ life of this unit came to an end. It was unable to fulfil its main task, the pursuit of Mosquito aircraft, because its technical equipment was focused on fighting bombers. The anticipated rearmament to the Messerschmitt Me 163 did not occur due to technical problems with this revolutionary aircraft. Additionally, JG 50 shared its aircraft with one of the Wilde Sau units, III./JG 301. At the end of October, JG 50 handed over its equipment to the newly formed I./JG 301, and most of its airmen, including Hermann Graf, transferred to the day fighter units of JG 1 and JG 11.

• Ricketts and Lukhmanoff

  Text: Jan Bobek Jan

  Ilustration: Adam Tooby

  Cat. No. 82146

  
  

  A four-year-old French boy was sitting three meters above the ground on the terrace of a former pigeon loft near Calais. It was the summer of 1942, and the boy watched in amazement as aerial battles unfolded in the sky. Suddenly, not far from where he was sitting, a twin-engined British aircraft flew low over the ground. The right engine was running at full power, while the left engine was on fire, and much of the tail surface was missing. The crew was attempting an emergency landing, and the boy had the impression that the pilot waved at him. However, upon contact with the ground, the aircraft exploded.

  The boy, named Michel Ringot, grew up to be the head of flight operations at one of the French Air Force bases. This memory of the war never erased from his mind. In 2020, with the help of his family and others, he learned who were the pilots whose crash he had witnessed.

  It was July 12, 1942, and the aircraft belonged to No. 1 PRU RAF. It was  Mosquito PR Mk.II W4089, piloted by  29 year-old F/Lt V. A. Ricketts, DFC, with 24 year-old navigator P/O G. B. Lukhmanoff, DFM. By the time they flew their first reconnaissance mission together, Ricketts had already conducted such missions along the French-Spanish border while piloting the Mosquito. Meanwhile, Lukhmanoff, as navigator, had flown several missions over Norway and Vichy North Africa.

  Victor Anthony Ricketts was born in January 1913 in Penzance, Cornwall. Interested in flying from a young age, he became an aviation correspondent for the London Daily Express and earned his pilot's license in February 1936. In February 1938, together with New Zealander Arthur E. Clouston, he attempted a record-breaking flight to Australia, but it was unsuccessful. A second attempt was scheduled for March 15, 1938, with the DH88 Comet (G-ACSS) “The Burberry.” This time, they returned to the UK after covering a route of 26,450 miles in ten days, twenty-one hours, and twenty-two minutes, achieving a total of eleven records.

  After the war, Clouston wrote a book, The Dangerous Skies, in which he confessed that in 1938 he was part of a private initiative to kill Adolf Hitler. His mission was to use a modified DH88 Comet (G-ACSS) to bomb Hitler during a parade in Berlin on Unter den Linden. Clouston ultimately refused to carry out this action. The aircraft is currently part of The Shuttleworth Collection.

  Ricketts became a member of the RAFVR in March 1939, achieved officer rank in February 1940, was assigned to No. 248 Sqn RAF that same month, and transferred to No. 1 PRU in early 1942. He received a DFC for a photographic mission he completed on March 4, 1942, in extremely difficult weather conditions at low altitude. His navigator Lukhmanoff received a DFM for this mission. Their target was the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt, which had been hit by RAF bombers the previous night. Together, they flew over Augsburg, Pilsen and Marseille, among other missions.

  George Boris Lukhmanoff was born in March 1918 in Harbin, China, to Russian parents as Boris Dimitry (Dmitrievich) Lukhmanov. His father, Boris, was a representative of the auxiliary naval organization Dobrovolnyi Flot in Shanghai and later became Harbour Master of the Port of Woosung. However, the Soviet government stripped them of citizenship, prompting them to emigrate to the US. Boris later returned to China, where he was tortured to death by the Japanese in 1943 because his son was a member of the RAF. Interestingly, Boris's father was likely the legendary Russian and Soviet captain Dmitry Afanasyevich Lukhmanov (1867-1946), who was married three times and authored many publications on naval issues.

  Dmitry's grandson, Boris Dimitry, became a naturalised British citizen as George Boris Lukhmanoff, first studying at Margate College in Kent and then gaining a degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from Glasgow Technical College in June 1939. In April 1940 he joined the RAF and his first combat unit was No. 206 Sq. RAF in Gibraltar. Further details of the crew can be found at The Battle of Britain London Monument. 

  The promising careers of both airmen was ended on July 12, 1942, by Obfw. Erwin Leibold of Stab I./JG 26. At the time we were preparing the box art for this kit, Mr. Ringot's testimony was not yet available. As we already know, the British crew almost succeeded in making an emergency landing. Erwin Leibold survived his victims by only two weeks. After being hit by an American or Canadian Spitfire, his Focke-Wulf exploded. Although Leibold miraculously survived and his parachute opened, he drowned after landing in the sea.

• Markings for B-26F/G 1/72

  42-96255, B-26F-1, 586th BS/394th BG, Thomas C. Howard, Holmsley South, Great Britain, August 1944 

  The 394th Bomb Group was formed on February 15, 1943 and activated on March 5. From the beginning, its crews trained for combat deployments in Europe with Marauders. In February and March 1944, the group moved to England to Boreham Base and was assigned to the 9th Air Force. By March, its Marauders were flying attacks on ground targets in France, with frequent targets being V-1 missile bases, marshalling yards, and bridges. When D-Day came, the 394th BG bombed German positions at Cherbourg and other targets. After moving to the Continent in late August 1944, the group began operating against targets in Germany and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. After the surrender of Germany, it remained in Europe as part of the Occupation Forces. In September it began training with the A-26s and in December 1945 was redesignated the 394th Bomb Group (Light). Upon return to the United States, the group was inactivated on March 31, 1946. The pilot of the aircraft with the drawing of an Indian fox and the name Miss Manookie was Lt. Thomas Craddock Howard, co-pilot David Hollice Hughes. The artist of the painting on the nose was S/Sgt. Frank M. Spangler Jr. a professional cartoonist in civilian life, who decorated a number of other aircraft of the group with his hilarious paintings and made a living as an artist after the war. Miss Manookie flew a total of 60 combat missions during the war.

   

  43-34150, B-26G-1, 2/Lt. Eulan W. Covey, 494th BS/344th BG, Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France, late 1944

  After the 344th Bomb Group was established on August 31, 1942, it was activated on September 8, 1942. From the beginning, it flew B-26s and served as a Replacement Training Unit. It then moved to England during January and February 1944 and began operations as part of the 9th Air Force in March. During the landings, it supported the operation that led to the capture of the Cotentin Peninsula and subsequent Allied operations in the Caen area. It then participated in the Battle of Bulge and continued to operate until April 1945. In September of that year, it moved to Germany as part of the occupation forces and began rearmament to A-26. In December it was redesignated the 344th Bomb Group (Light) and was inactivated on February 15, 1946, after moving to the United States. The aircraft, named Gravel Gerty, sported the inscription Concrete Mixer on the left engine cowling, which related to the name of the aircraft. We don't know if it was painted also on the right engine, but the decal is included in the sheet for that position as well.

   

  43-34220, B-26G-5, Capt. Charles G. Fraser, 587th BS/394th BG, Bricy, France, August 1944

  The 394th Bomb Group was established on February 15, 1943 and activated on March 5. From the beginning, its crews flew B-26s with which they trained for combat deployments in Europe. In February and March 1944, the group moved to England to Boreham Base and was assigned to the 9th Air Force. By March, its Marauders were flying attacks in France, with frequent targets being V-1 missile bases, marshalling yards and bridges. When the D-Day came, the 394th BG bombed German positions at Cherbourg and other targets. After moving to the Continent in late August 1944, the group began operating against targets in Germany and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. After the surrender of Germany, it stayed in Europe as part of the occupation forces. In September it began training on the A-26s and in December 1945 was redesignated the 394th Bomb Group (Light). Upon return to the United States, the group was inactivated on March 31, 1946. The pilot of the aircraft named I'll Get By, which was assigned to the unit on August 7, 1944, was Capt. Charles G. Fraser, co-pilot 2Lt Thomas Leask. The drawing of the girl unbuttoning her swimsuit top was based on an original by Albert Vargas.

   

  43-34240, B-26G-5, Lt. Wilbert L Weir, 444th BS/320th BG, Decimomannu, Sardinia, August 1944    

  The activation of the 320th Bomb Group occurred on June 23, 1942, with most of the group moving through England to North Africa after training during August–December 1942. As part of the 12th Air Force, the group began combat operations from bases in Algeria, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Corsica. Gradually, crews attacked enemy vessels in the approaches to Tunisia, land targets in Sardinia, and supported the invasion of Sicily. This was followed by raids on targets in Italy and, from June 1944, support for the invasion of southern France. In June 1945 the group moved to Germany and returned to the United States during November. It was inactivated as early as December 4 of that year. The aircraft, named Pancho and his Reever Rats, did not see the end of the war unfortunately. On August 23, 1944, it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire during a raid near Covigliano and exploded in mid-air. According to some sources, the entire crew of Lt. Wilbert L. Weir was killed, others state that the rear gunner, S/Sgt. Albert A. Giuffre, was rescued and even returned to duty.   

   

  43-34462, B-26G-5, Lt. David A. Mickelson, 444th BS/320th BG, France, 1944–45     

  The 444th Bomb Squadron was formed in mid-1942 and armed with Marauders. It trained for combat as part of the 3rd Air Force in Florida and was deployed to England as part of the 320th Bomb Group and 3rd Bomb Wing. After the commencement of Operation Torch, it participated on operations in North Africa as part of the 12th Air Force, flying tactical bombing missions against Axis forces there until May 1943. It then shifted its attention to targets in Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and Italy. It then supported the Allied advance into Germany and was inactivated in December 1945. The aircraft shown here had its fuselage guns removed and while the left side of the nose bore a drawing of a girl and the inscription Margie, the right side sported the name Donna Deloris.        

   

  43-34213, B-26G-1, Capt. John C. Furnas of the 585th BS, 394th BG, Venlo, The Netherlands, May 1945

  The 585th Bomb Squadron was activated at MacDill Field, Florida, as one of four squadrons of the 394th Bomb Group. It moved to England in mid-February 1944, making its home base at Boreham. Its pilots flew their first combat mission on March 23, 1943. They then attacked V-1 flying bomb launchers and V-2 rocket bases as part of Operation Crosbow. During D-Day, the 585th BS targeted enemy sites at Cherbourg, then attacked transport lines or fuel depots. By July 24, 1944, the unit was stationed at Holmsley South and by August it had moved to its first mainland base, Tour-en-Bessin, France. In addition to the classic missions towards the end of the war, the Marauders of the 585th BG dropped propaganda leaflets over the occupied territory on 16 missions. The aircraft of Capt. John C. Furnas was named The Old Goat, and the nose art corresponded to the name. It bore the symbols of ninety combat missions under the cockpit towards the end of the war.       

   

  43-34316, B-26G-5, 496th BS/344th BG, Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France, September 1944 

  The 496th Bomb Squadron was activated in late 1942 as a training unit of III Bomber Command. It was converted to operational status late in the year and deployed to Europe as part of IX Bomber Command in February 1944. After the war it remained as part of the Occupation Forces in Europe and was inactivated on February 15, 1946. Named Cleveland Calliope II, the aircraft carried “Broken Line” camouflage, consisting of Olive Drab paint on the upper surfaces and upper fuselage, the rest of the aircraft was left in natural metal finish. 

   

  44-68171, B-26G-25, GB 1/22 Maroc, Riedlingen, Germany, May 1945    

  The Free French Air Force acquired its first Marauders in late 1943 and eventually units GB I/11 Maroc, GB II/20 Bretagne, GB I/19 Gascogne, GB II/52 Franche-Comte, GB II/63 Senegal and BG I/32 Bourgogne acquired these aircraft. Initially, the French received the older, war-weary machines for training purposes, after which newer ones were supplied. Initial operations by French B-26s targeted enemy positions in Italy and southern France. They took part in the invasion of France on August 15, 1944 and then gradually moved north with the advance of the Allies. They completed their last mission on April 25, 1945 and were inactivated in June. The aircraft shown here completed 55 bombing missions, according to the symbols under the cockpit.  

• Markings for Spitfire Mk.Vb OVERLORD 1/48

  Slt. D.W. Barraclough, VCS-7, RAF Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, United Kingdom, June 1944

  In February 1944, the VCS-7 Cruiser Scouting Squadron was formed. It consisted of 17 pilots from several ships, who exchanged their Curtiss Seagulls and Vought Kingfishers for Spitfires Mk.V. The unit was first led by Lt. Robert W. Calland and from May 28, 1944, by Lt. Cdr William Denton Jr. Prior to D-Day, ten squadrons, five RAF, four Royal Navy FAA (Fleet Air Arm) and VCS-7, were assembled at Leeon-Solent to provide aerial observation for naval bombing in the Utah and Omaha beach sectors and later in the Cherbourg area. Observation missions were always flown by a pair of aircraft. The lead one acted as spotter, while the other provided escort and protected the leader from enemy attacks. The standard altitude for these missions was 6,000 ft, but bad weather often forced the pilots to operate between 1,500 and 2000 ft. Occasionally missions were flown at even lower altitudes. From June 6 to June 26, VCS-7 conducted 209 missions over Normandy, mainly as part of the Western Naval Task Force, which was under the control of the U. S. Navy. The VCS-7 lost nine Spitfires to various causes, the main threat being the ubiquitous Flak. The squadron rarely encountered Luftwaffe aircraft, yet on June 7, Slt. D. W. Barraclought shot down a Bf 109G in aerial combat. VCS-7’s last combat mission was on June 25 in the Cherbourg area, and the following day VCS-7 was disbanded. Its Spitfires bore the standard camouflage and markings of an RAF Day Fighter and invasion stripes for quick identification. They were also marked with the number 4 in front of the cockpit followed by the individual aircraft letter for the squadron.

   

  BL547, F/O Rick R. Richards, No. 401 Squadron, RAF Horne, Surrey, United Kingdom, June 1944

  On D-Day, No. 402 Squadron had a mixture of older Mk.Vb and Mk.Vc Spitfires in its armament and was commanded by the famous ace S/Ldr G. W. Northcott. The squadron was part of No. 142 Wing, which under the command of another well-known Canadian ace, W/Cdr John Milne Checketts, operated as part of the air defense of Great Britain, albeit under 2TAF operational control in the role of fighter-bombers. No. 402 Squadron was re-equipped with Spitfires Mk.IX in July, but their time with the unit was brief. Early August 1944 saw a move to Hawkinge, where the Squadron was rearmed with the new powerful Spitfires Mk. XIV with which they immediately engaged in combat against V-1 flying bombs. In late September 1944 the squadron was transferred to 2TAF in Belgium and joined No. 125 Wing. In December it then joined No. 126 Wing RCAF, where it flew alongside the Mk.IX Spitfires. The end of the war found the unit on German soil at Wunstorf with a total score of 49.5 enemy shot down. One of the Spitfires Mk.Vb operating with No. 402 Squadron during D-Day was the one with serial number BL547 which sported the fuselage codes AE-R. It was most often flown by F/O Rick Richards who had a drawing of “Black Rufe”, a character from the comic strip Li'l Abner, painted on the nose of his Spitfire. Under the cockpit, it bore the standard markings of most No. 402 Squadron Spitfires, a red Canadian leaf in a white crest with the City of Winnipeg in white lettering.

   

  BM366, Cdt. J. M. Accart, No. 345 Squadron, RAF Shoreham, United Kingdom, June 1944

  No. 345 Squadron was established in January 1944 and reached operational status on April 28, 1944. Due to the date of the unit’s formation, it was not technically a “Free French” unit, it was a disparate grouping of French pilots in the RAF, some of whom were so-called “évadés d'Espagne”, i.e. Frenchmen who had fled France by crossing the Pyrenees to join de Gaulle’s FAFL and French pilots from North Africa. The unit was armed with older Mk.V Spitfires and flew patrols over the Normandy beachhead as part of No. 141 Wing (2TAF). In September 1944 it received Mk.IX Spitfires and was subsequently transferred to No. 145 Wing, where it primarily flew ground attack and escort missions. During a year of combat, No. 345 Squadron flew more than 3,000 combat sorties and destroyed 186 locomotives and more than 200 enemy vehicles. The unit’s first commander was Cmdt. Jean-Marie Accart, who adopted the pseudonym “Bernard” in Britain to protect his family in France. Accart achieved 12 victories, all in P-36 Hawk aircraft with the GC I/5 unit during the German invasion of France in 1940.

   

  BM327, F/Lt Tony Cooper, No. 64 Squadron, RAF Friston, United Kingdom, June 1944

  After completing his pilot training, Tony Cooper was posted as an instructor after an above average rating, initially in England, and from November 1940 to mid-1943 in Canada. In June 1943 he succeeded, after string of requests sent to the authorities, in his application to return to combat flying in the UK. He undertook a course with the Operational Training Unit at Rednal in Shropshire and was then posted to No. 64 Squadron, which at that time was flying Mk.Vb Spitfires. In the spring of 1944, he took part with the unit in many ground attacks in preparation for D-Day and on June 6, 1944, he made two combat sorties, providing fighter cover over Utah and Omaha beaches. He continued operational flying until November 1944. In total, Tony Cooper flew 3,200 hours and completed 160 operational combat sorties. He also survived five forced landings, two of them at night, two with burning aircraft and one as a result of enemy ground fire. After the war Tony returned to his home town of Lowestoft and became the fifth generation to work in the family wholesaler, WB Cooper Ltd. He lived a full life and remained active until his late 90s. He passed away on January 26, 2017, at the age of 100 years. In Tony’s honor a Spitfire Mk. Vb serial number AB910 is flying with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) as Tony Cooper flew it with No. 64 Squadron on D-Day in June 1944. His personal Spitfire was BM327, fuselage code SH-F, which had “Peter John 1” inscription painted under the front plate, which was the name of Tony’s newborn son.

• Markings for Bf 109G-6 1/72

  Bf 109G-6, WNr. 15919, Maj. Hermann Graf, CO of JG 50, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany, September 1943

  Hermann Graf scored a total of 212 kills, most of them (202) on the Eastern Front. On September 16, 1942, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, Swords and Diamonds, the highest German war decoration at the time, for achieving 172 victories. Graf flew this brightly colored aircraft in the autumn of 1943 when he commanded JG 50. In June 1943, Hermann Graf founded a unit to pursue Mosquito aircraft at high altitude, named Jagdgeschwader Süd (not to be confused with Jagdgruppe Süd), which was renamed Jagdgeschwader 50 on September 1. The figure of the Roter Jäger (Red Hunter) symbolized the Luftwaffe football team, in which Graf played alongside a number of the German national team members at the time, and which was known as the Rote Jäger (Red Hunters). Within JG 50, only the squadron headquarters and I. Gruppe were established, and the unit was incorporated into I./JG 301 at the end of October 1943.

   

  Bf 109G-6, Oblt. Theodor Weissenberger, 6./JG 5, Idriza-Pleskau (Pskov), the Soviet Union, January 1944

  Theodor Weissenberger was born on December 21, 1914, in Mühlheim am Main. He joined the Luftwaffe in October 1936. Initially he flew the Bf 110s with 1.(Z)/JG 77, which was redesignated 10.(Z)/JG 5 in April 1942. In September 1942 he became a Bf 109 pilot with 6./JG 5. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross in November 1942 after achieving 38 victories and destroying a number of ground targets, including locomotives. In June 1943 he was appointed commander of 7./JG 5 and in early August, after achieving his 104th victory, he was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster. At the end of September 1943 he took command of 6./JG 5 and in April 1944 he was appointed commander of the whole of II./JG 5. In early June 1944 he left the Eastern Front and became commander of I./JG 5 in Normandy. In December 1944, he became commander of I./JG 7 with the Me 262 jets, and in mid-January 1945 was appointed Commodore of JG 7. In total, he achieved 208 victories, eight of them flying a Me 262. He died on June 10, 1950, during an automobile race at the Nürburgring. His Bf 109G-6 Black 4 was in standard Mtt Regensburg camouflage completed with white patches on the upper surfaces. This design was necessary for the area and period of operation of 6./JG 5 in the climatic conditions.

   

  Bf 109G-6/R6, Hptm. Anton Hackl, Stab III./JG 11, Oldenburg, Germany, January 1944

  After recovering from a severe wound sustained in Africa on February 4, 1943, during a dogfight with a P-38 Lightning, Anton Hackl returned to combat activity in September 1943. Hptm. Hackl, by that time already an ace with 126 kills and a recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, was reassigned to III./JG 11, incorporated into the Reich Defense system. The following month he took command of the unit. During his time with JG 11, which ended with another wound on April 15, 1944, this time in combat with American P-47s, he had already scored 141 kills. During his subsequent treatment he received the Knight’s Cross with the Swords. After his recovery, he continued his service as commander of other Luftwaffe units. Anton Hackl is reported to have shot down a total of 192 enemy aircraft (34 of which were four-engine bombers) during World War II, with another 24 listed as unconfirmed kills. He died on July 9, 1984, in his hometown of Reims. Anton Hackl’s aircraft was sprayed with the standard Luftwaffe camouflage colors of the Messerschmitt factory in Regensburg. The tail section of his aircraft was painted white for quicker recognition of the formation leader during aerial combat. On the rear of the fuselage, there was sprayed the designation of the JG 11 aircraft – a yellow stripe, 900 mm wide.

   

  Bf 109G-6/R6, Maj. Ludwig Franzisket, CO of I./JG 27, Fels am Wagram, Austria, January 1944

  Ludwig Franzisket began his combat career with 1. Staffel of JG 1 (later III./JG 27) and scored his first kills in May 1940 over the Netherlands. He later took part in the campaign in France and from September 1940 he served with Staff I./JG 27. Franzisket received the Knight’s Cross during his service in Africa on July 23, 1941, after he had achieved 22 kills. In December that year he was appointed commander of I./JG 27 and in the summer of 1943 he took command of the entire I./JG 27. At the time the unit operated in the skies over the Reich, where it faced Allied air raids. Franzisket’s victories include two B-17s shot down near Schweinfurt on October 14, 1943. The total score eventually stood at 43 victories, including four B-17s. The green stripe around the rear of the fuselage was used to mark JG 27’s aircraft as part of the Reich’s air defenses. The JG 27 emblem was painted on the engine. The double black wedge on the fuselage symbolized Franzisket’s command position. The white rudder marked the aircraft of the leader of the formation.

   

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 440190, Lt. Alfred Hammer, CO of 6./JG 53, Vienna-Seyring, Austria, February 1944

  Alfred “Martello” Hammer achieved a total of 26 victories during World War II. His first prey was a Spitfire shot down over Malta on October 25, 1942, the last one was Auster destroyed on April 14, 1945. Hammer’s entire war service was with JG 53 “Pik As”. From November 1941 he underwent operational training with Erg.Gr./JG 53 and in March 1942 was assigned to 4./JG 53. In February 1943, he became adjutant of II./JG 53 and led 6./JG 53 from July. In early 1945 he took command of IV./JG 53 and remained in this post until the end of the war. He flew the Bf 109G-6 WNr. 440190 during combat operations of JG 53 from the base in Vienna, where it moved after the retreat from the Mediterranean. He was probably flying this aircraft, when he was wounded by defensive fire of B-17 over Linz on January 24, 1944. On the nose of Hammer’s Messerschmitt, there was the ace of spades painted, which was the emblem of JG 53. The red stripe around the rear of the fuselage identified the aircraft used by JG 53 at that time.

   

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 26048, Oblt. Friedrich Brock, 8./JG 54, Ludwigslust, Germany, January 1944

  Friedrich Brock was born on May 6, 1916, in Perlach. In August 1939, he began his training at the Schule/Flieger-Ausbildungs-Regiment 23 in Kaufbeuren. In November 1940 he transferred to Flugzeugführerschule A/B 63 in Marienbad. In March 1942 he joined Jagdfliegervorschule 3 in Vienna-Schwechat. He completed his fighter pilot training on November 12, 1942, with Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost in France. His first combat unit became 8./JG 54 at Siverskaya Air Base on November 13, 1942. In January 1943, III./JG 54 was transferred to Oldenburg to defend northern Germany. There Brock achieved his first kill on June 13, 1943. He was shot down several times during fightings with American B-17s but was seriously wounded on April 8, 1944. His “Black 8” machine bore all the identifying features of the period, i.e., the 8./JG 54 emblem on the nose, the III./JG 54 emblem under the cockpit, and a blue identification stripe on the rear. Flying this aircraft, Uffz. Günther Sahl was shot down and killed on April 9, 1944. After his recovery, Friedrich Brock became the operations officer of III./JG 54 (later renamed IV./JG 26) in October 1944 and did not intervene in combat anymore. In May 1945 he was captured and after his release in September 1945 he devoted himself to his profession as a dentist. He died on May 3, 1994, in Berlin.

• Markings for Fw 190A-2 1/48

  WNr. 0125228, Ofw. Erwin Leibold, Stab I./JG 26, St. Omer-Arques, France, July 1942

  German Jagdgeschwader 26 ace Erwin Leibold achieved his 11th and final kill in the afternoon of July 12, 1942, when he shot down a reconnaissance Mosquito PR Mk.II over Licques in France, which was on a mission to photograph Strasbourg and Ingolstadt. Both British crewmen died. The fate of their conqueror was sealed only two weeks later when Ofw. Leibold took part in I./JG 26 attacks against the Biggin Hill Wing, operating over France. The aircraft flown by Leibold, flying as wingman of the Gruppe CO Hptm. Seifert, exploded after being intercepted by a Spitfire. The pilot was spotted on parachute, but a search for him turned up nothing. The aircraft assigned to Staff I. Gruppe sported standard camouflage, but they were marked in a non-standard way, with letters or initials of their pilots. The letter “L” (Leibold) was complemented with the designation of the aircraft within the Staffel in the form of a chevron and carried eleven kill marks on the yellow rudder.

   

  WNr. 0125281, Oblt. Siegfried Schnell, CO of 9./JG 2, Théville, France, June 1942

  Siegfried “Wumm” Schnell, a native of today’s Polish Sulecin (then Zeilenzig in Brandenburg) joined the ranks of the Luftwaffe in 1936 and at the beginning of the Second World War he served with JG 2. He achieved his first kill over France on May 14, 1940, others followed over Britain and against English and American pilots over Western Europe. After being assigned to JG 54, he first served with its III. Gruppe, before being promoted as CO of IV. Gruppe on February 1, 1944. While serving as Commanding Officer he was shot down on February 25, 1944, over Narva by a Soviet fighter. This proved to be a fateful encounter for him. For his combat results, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves on July 9, 1941. During Second World War he downed 93 enemy aircraft. The Fw 190A-2 flown by Oblt. Schnell carried the standard camouflage scheme applied to Luftwaffe fighters consisting of RLM 74/75/76. The yellow rudder carried 64 kill markings. The sides of the fuselage and engine cowl carried the so-called “Adlerflügel”.

   

  WNr. 0122125, Oblt. Max Buchholz, CO of 5./JG 1, Katwijk, the Netherlands, Summer 1942

  Max Bucholz was born on November 3, 1912, in Zerbst and at the beginning of the war he served with Jagdgeschwader 3. With this unit, he saw combat over France and over Great Britain as well as during Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union). At the beginning of October 1941, I./JG 3 was sent for some R and R to Germany. After that, it was moved to the Netherlands and on January 6, 1942, the unit was redesignated II./JG 1. Oblt. Bucholz was given command of its 6. Staffel. On February 12, 1942, he gained his 28th victory in a mission to cover the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which, together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, sailed from Brest to German harbors. From the middle of the year up to the end of the war Bucholz served in administrative duties. He died on July 19, 1996, in Germany. The tip of the red spinner of Bucholz’s aircraft carried a thin white spiral and otherwise was camouflaged in RLM 74/75/76. The marking of the Commander of the 5. Staffel in the form of a black numeral was supplemented by the II. Gruppe insignia (the horizontal bar in the Staffel color), and also by the personal marking of the gull in flight below the cockpit. The engine cowl bears the red “Tatzelwurm” – the 5./JG 1 badge.

   

  WNr. 0125310, Hptm. Josef Priller, CO of III./JG 26, Wevelghem, Belgium, June 1942

  Josef “Pips” Priller was born on July 27, 1915, in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. In 1935, he joined Wehrmacht and as soon as a year later, in October 1936, he started to attend the fighter pilot training. He achieved his first aerial victory as a commander of 6. Staffel JG 51 when he downed a Spitfire above Dunkerque on May 28, 1940. In November 1940, he was appointed a commander of the 1./JG 26. On December 6, 1941, he became commander of III./JG 26 and from January 11, 1943, he lead the whole Jagdgeschwader 26. His number of victories kept growing and on December 20, 1941, his success was rewarded and Priller was decorated with Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. On January 28, 1945, he was appointed Inspekteur der Jagdflieger Ost, where he remained till the end of WWII. Priller’s total score was 101 victories over enemy aircraft. All of them were achieved in the Western Front. After the War Priller married Johanna Riegele, the proprietor of a brewery and became general manager of Riegele brewery in Augsburg, Germany. He died of heart attack on May 20, 1961. This aircraft was flown by Josef Priller in June 1942. It sported the standard camouflage scheme for Luftwaffe fighters and had yellow rudder and bottom part of the engine cowl. It also carried the marking for the CO of the III. Gruppe. The tail carried 73 kill markings, Priller’s tally to June 1, 1942.

   

  Oblt. Egon Mayer, CO of 7./JG 2, Théville, France, Summer 1942

  Egon Mayer was born on August 19, 1917, in Konstanz and he joined the Luftwaffe in 1937. In December 1939, he was assigned to Jagdgeschwader 2 after the training and served with this unit though the French campaign and into the Battle of Britain. From June 10, 1941, he became CO of the 7. Staffel and the CO of the entire III. Gruppe from November 1942. By that time, he had accumulated 52 victories. On November 23, he brought down his first American four-engine heavy bomber. Together with George-Peter Eder, he was developing tactics of head on attacks against American bomber formations. On July 1, 1943, he was made Commanding Officer of the entire JG 2. On March 2, 1944, Mayer led a formation of JG 2 fighters in an intercept of American bombers over Montmédy and was shot down and killed by escorting P-47s.  He was posthumously awarded the Sword to his Knight’s Cross. The 7. Staffel JG 2 badge was carried on the cowling of this standard-camouflaged Fw 190. The yellow rudder carried 44 kill marks in the form of French and British roundels. The former markings of the aircraft were sprayed over with RLM 74 Graugrün.

• Markings for L-29 Delfín 1/72

  a/c No. 2853, 1 Squadron, 11 Fighter Regiment, Žatec, Czech Republic, 1993

  This Delfin received its coloring at the beginning of June 1993. It was created by the ground crew under the leadership of kpt. Ing. Karel Krejčí and it was introduced to the public on July 10 of the same year at an airshow in Žatec. After the disbandment of the 11 Fighter Regiment, the aircraft was transferred to the 1 Training Regiment at Přerov. The entire aircraft, including the drop tanks, was cleaned and degreased and the national insignia and fuselage number were covered by tape. After that, the aircraft was painted yellow, followed by the black tiger stripes.

   

  3250, International Fighter Pilots Academy, Košice, Slovak Republic, 1993

  The International Fighter Pilot Academy was formed at the beginning of 1993 at Košice as an official training unit allowing civil clients to take part in aerial exercises on military aircraft, including helicopters. One of the aircraft that were used in this role and were also funded for in the budget of the Slovak Air Force, was this L-29. The fuselage of this Delfin was painted grey, while the wings received a striking scheme consisting of red, white and blue segments reminiscent of past aerobatic schemes. The IFPA badge was carried under the windscreen on both sides of the aircraft. 

   

  378, 101 Fighter Reconaissance Wing, Szolnok Air Base, Hungary, Summer 1978

  The L-29 factory number 591378 was built in 1965 and delivered to Hungarian AF to serve at Szolnok Air Force Base with 101 Fighter Reconnaissance Wing. In the first part of its active life the aircraft flew in natural metal colors with Red 378 board number. The aircraft returned twice to Czechoslovakia for overhaul in the Trenčín factory, in 1971 and 1978. After the second overhaul it received a new camouflage scheme represented here. These are Czech colors which were very different from Hungarian AF official coloring. Later several new patches of dark green were added by Hungarian technicians as repairs. It is interesting that this aircraft is still in service but this time in private hand in USA as N21KE. After withdrawal from Hungarian AF in March 1983 it was sold in summer of 1984 and had a colorful after-life, flying in VVS colors as 09 with red star. With breakup of the Soviet Union, it received YL-PAD registration to be shipped eventually to Scotland in mid 1990s and kept in open storage for many years. It was sold again and shipped to the US, after refurbishment flew as Red 09 from Minnetonka.

   

  N179EP, Reno AFB, United States of America, 2009

  The American company Tactical Air Services owns two L-29 Delfins and these are used to train army and navy elements by simulating incoming anti-shipping or air-to-surface rounds. During RIMPAC 2010 (Rim Of The Pacific – the largest international naval exercise) they were photographed on the deck of LHD-6 Bon Homme Richard. Aircraft N179EP is camouflaged similarly to the aircraft operated by the Russian Air Force, including Russian stars on the wings and fin.

   

  3246, 3 Squadron, 1 Fighter Regiment, Planá Air Base, Czechoslovakia, 1969–1970

  While most L-29s served as trainers with training units, some aircraft were allocated to combat units to help in maintaining pilot’s ratings at a minimal expense. One such aircraft was this L-29 coded 3246, which was assigned to 3 Squadron of the 1 Fighter Regiment based at České Budějovice. The aircraft served there right from its acceptance in 1969 up to the mid-eighties. Later, it was transferred to a training regiment in Košice and stayed operational up to 2003. During 1969–70, the Squadron emblem was painted on the nose consisting of a devil on a dark blue background, the same as used on MiG-21PFMs of the unit. The red trim was part of the standard scheme in which the L-29s were delivered to the main client, the Soviet Union.

• Use of ultrasonic knife in plastic modelling

  "Cuts plastic like butter"

   

  The Japanese company Echo Tech started supplying ultrasonic cutter ZO series to the hobby market in 2001. In another 5 years, its second generation came, and then the third in 2012. However, they were still products intended for the Japanese market. It was only in 2016 that the production of the current ZO-91 model, which is sold worldwide, began. As a next step, the new ZO-95 model was put on sale in 2020.

  Most knives are manufactured by Honda Electronics.

   While the ZO-91 model is intended for hobby use, the ZO-95 type is intended for professional use. Of course, the principle is the same for both types. The blade oscillates at a frequency of 40kHz, most of the blades in the offer are suitable for use with both types. So what is the difference between the two products? By way of execution and control. The most important differences are the following: ZO-91 has 2 levels of power available, ZO-95 has 3 levels. The ZO-91 has a power switch located on the handpiece, while the ZO-95 has a foot switch. Another difference is the cutting time setting. Since the device heats up quite intensively during operation, in addition to the thermal fuse inside the unit, the software limits the operating time according to the power used.

   Thanks to the wide range of blades offered, the knife can be used for a variety of tasks.

  
  

  Cutting

  - This is the basic function of a knife. In addition to standard blades, special blade designs are also available. In addition to the extra thin blade, there is also a cemented carbide blade and a zirconium ceramic blade. In addition to plastic, the knife reliably cuts resin, 3D prints, thin laminate, cardboard.

   

  Engraving

  - Another interesting option for modellers is a chisel replacement head.

   

  Grinding and polishing

  - with special flat or rounded attachments with 80 to 1200 grit designed for grinding hard surfaces.

   

  Welding

  - joining vinyl strips with a welding attachment.

   

  It is interesting to see where the knife is already being used. Of course, the knife is widely used in model making. Not only plastic, but when building RC models, making dioramas and creating figures.

  Manufacturers of prints on 3D printers are leading to a large expansion of knives sales. Removing supports is easier and significantly faster. With a knife, you can quickly remove the print from its supports, so there is not much left for the final sanding.

  Grinding is used in the production of molds, even in dental laboratories for dental prosthesis production.

  In Japan, where the use of ultrasonic cutter ZO series is most widespread, the knives have also found their way into museums, where they are used, among other things, to clean petrified fossils.

   

  What are the advantages of using a knife in plastic modeling? Easier separation of parts from sprues. If the modeler is skilled enough, he can separate the part in such a way that there is no need for more sanding. For weak and thin parts such as antennas, it is possible to separate the part without subsequent grinding. It is possible to separate parts even from fragile plastic without the part falling apart, which may happen if you use pliers or a saw.

  The knife is priceless if you build resin kits or use resin accessories. Long cuts with a razor saw with a large amount of sawdust are eliminated. You are able to work the casting perfectly with a knife, so there is no need for long grinding. The time saving is considerable.

  Another advantage of the knife is that if you happen to glue a part incorrectly, thanks to the knife, in many cases you'll be able to correct the mistake very easily.

  Video showing the knife used by Zdenek Šebesta you can find on the YouTube channel Plastic modeling.

  You can find other videos of the use of EchoTech products on their YouTube pages and other social media.

  
  

• The Defense of Israel

  Photo above posted by the IDF on Facebook on April 12th, the day before the attack.

  
  

  Text: Steve Baker

   

  Boiling point

   During the pre-dawn hours of April 13, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel. The attack was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria two weeks prior which killed two Iranian generals and five other officers. For those following current events, it is of little surprise that regional tensions between Israel and Iran reached a boiling point this spring in the aftermath of the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

   The Iranian regime undoubtedly felt significant internal and external political pressures to respond to the Israeli attack on the consulate. However, the Iranians had to walk the line between triggering a full-scale regional war with the need to show strength. In the two weeks between the consulate attack and the Iranian response, Iran communicated its intentions via the Turkish embassy and diplomatic dialogue was channeled thru Ankara back to Tehran. U.S. Officials warned Iran that any response needed to be “within certain limits” to avoid further escalation. Using this back-channel information, the United States quickly scrambled to coordinate a defensive response with Israel and regional allies to thwart the imminent Iranian aerial assault. Israeli air defenses were bolstered with the additional deployment of U.S Patriot SAM systems and U.S. Navy Destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The destroyers USS Carney (DDG-64) and the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) were on station and are AEGIS-equipped vessels, which are highly capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

   “Hellcat” 494th FS F-15E Tail Number AF96-201 returns to RAF Lakenheath with 9 red missiles markings symbolizing drone kills

  494th FS F-15E Tail Number AF01-2002 refuels from a KC-135.  The jet is configured with 6x AIM-120 and 2x AIM-9X missiles for the Defensive Counter Air mission.

  
  

  The Iranians Attack

   The Iranians launched Operation “True Promise” with a massive barrage of approximately 120 Emad intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), 30 Paveh-type cruise missiles and 170 Shahed drones fired at Israel. As U.S. early detection capabilities picked up the launches, International civil aviation quickly ceased in the Gulf region as the airspace between Iran and Israel closed. GPS signals were subsequently jammed and degraded by western forces in an effort to minimize the navigational accuracy of the drones. The drones and missiles were launched to saturate Israeli defenses by having all of the weapons arrive within close time proximity. Iranian IRBMs take approximately 20 minutes to reach Israeli territory while cruise missiles and drones take 2 hour and up to 9 hours respectively. Targets in Israel were primarily located in the northern (Golan Heights) and southern (Negev Desert) ends of the country and away from the more densely populated areas of the country, undoubtedly a calculated move by Tehran.

   An eco-atmospheric explosion after the successful interception of an Iranian IRBM by the Israeli Arrow 3 missile.

  The terminal phase of a successful Iranian IRBM strike on a target in the Negev desert

  
  

  Fighter Defense 

  The initial barrage got off to a rather dubious start. “U.S. intelligence estimates that half of the weapons fired by Iran failed upon launch or in flight due to technical issues,” a U.S. Air Force senior officer stated. This still left approximately 160 weapons in flight towards Israel. Nearly all of the slower, and more vulnerable, Shaheed drones were systematically intercepted and destroyed by American, Israeli, British, French and Jordanian fighter aircraft. The U.S. Air Force had two F-15E squadrons in theater as well as an F-16 unit. According to U.S. Officials, they destroyed more than 80 Iranian drones and cruise missiles over Syria, long before they reached Israeli territory. U.S. President Joe Biden called the commanders of the two F-15E units, the 335th Fighter Squadron (Chiefs) and 494th Fighter Squadron (Panthers) to commend them for a job well done. 494th FS aircraft returning to RAF Lakenheath during the middle of May sported multiple missile markings alongside other nose art.

   In addition to the U.S. Air Force, the Royal Air Force also scrambled four Typhoon FGR.4 aircraft from RAF Akrotiri in Cypress. The Typhoons deployed over the Iraq-Syria border and shot down between 10 and 20 Shaheed drones. Like the F-15E, each Typhoon can carry a maximum load of 8 air-to-air missiles. French and Jordanian fighter aircraft launched from Jordan to intercept drones and cruise missiles flying thru northern and central Jordanian airspace. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the French launched their Rafale fighters stationed at the H5 airbase “at Jordan’s request”. Reports suggest the combined effort in Jordan downed several dozen more drones. Although there were initial rumors that Princess Salma of Jordan may have participated in the intercepts, that rumor has been debunked. Finally, Israeli F-15 and F-35 aircraft also intercepted Iranian weapons, with IDF spokesperson Adm. Daniel Hagari stating approximately 25 cruise missiles “were intercepted by IAF fighter jets outside the country’s borders”. Most likely, these intercepts took place over Jordanian territory.

   Targeting pod imagery from an Israeli Air Force jet tracking an Iranian cruise missile

  Targeting pod imagery from an Israeli Air Force jet tracking an Iranian Shahed 136 drone

  
  

  Missile Defense 

  The IRBMs launched from Iran were intercepted by a variety of systems. A U.S. Army Patriot Missile battery in Erbil, Iraq shot down at least one missile. The previously mentioned U.S. Navy AEGIS destroyers accounted for at least four and possibly six more ballistic missiles. Of note, it is likely the destroyers employed the advanced SM-3 interceptor missile in combat for the first time. However, most of the ballistic missile intercepts were reportedly carried out by Israel. Israel employs the locally developed Arrow Weapon System which is the world’s first standalone anti-tactical ballistic missile battery. The Arrow is the outermost shield of Israel’s missile defense. It shoots the Arrow 3 missile , which is a hypersonic anti-ballistic missile that intercepts outside the atmosphere and can maneuver in space. Video footage captured a series of exo-atmospheric detonations suggesting the Arrow 3 was widely employed. The Arrow 3 had “proved itself against a significant number of ballistic missiles” according to IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Despite this impressive effort, the IDF reported 5 Iranian ballistic missiles impacted Nevatim Airbase in the Negev Desert and 4 missiles hit another unnamed base. Although no lives were lost and damage was reported as minimal, a young Israeli girl was injured from falling ballistic missile debris.

   Iran’s proxy groups in the region, namely Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, added their own volley of rockets and drones to the attack. These attacks were largely thwarted by Israel’s David Sling and Iron Dome systems. David’s Sling is the medium layer in the defensive missile shield. It uses the Stunner and SkyCepter kinetic hit-to-kill missile which is effective against short range ballistic missiles such as those fired from Yemen. The Iron Dome system is designed for shorter range threats. Israel has 10 Iron Dome point defense batteries to provide protection from rocket attacks. Each battery can defend 60 square miles. The system predicts if an inbound rocket is a threat to populated areas or if it will land in an unpopulated area and makes a launch determination based on the projected trajectory. Iron Dome utilizes a smaller maneuverable interceptor missile called the Tamir. It is just 6 inches wide and 10 feet long with a proximity fused warhead.

   Official Photos published by the Israeli Air Force showing IDF aircraft and Iron Dome in action during the attack.

  
  

  A Stunning Success 

  After the last missiles impacted, Iran was quick to signal the operation concluded and they warned against any further retaliation. 99% of the projectiles were successfully intercepted by Israel and her allies, a stunning achievement and testament to their preparedness, technology, and training. There has never been a coordinated aerial and missile defense like it in the history of warfare. “It’s a win for the concept of integrated air and missile defense across the theater,” retired Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the CENTCOM commander from 2019-2022, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “People should draw strong conclusions from what just happened about the efficacy of that approach”.

  
  

• Air War in Ukraine

  A former Slovak MiG-29UBS number 1303 now in Ukrainian Air Force service.

  
  

  Help is Finally on the Way

  Text: Miro Barič

   

  The most significant news of the observed period (from April 1 to April 30) was the approval of a large package of American military aid for Ukraine. The Republican Party had been blocking it in the US Congress for domestic political reasons since the fall. This delay put the Ukrainian armed forces into a difficult situation, unnecessarily losing territory and soldiers. Civilian suffering due to Russian air raids on Ukrainian cities was also unnecessary.

  
  

   The military aid was first approved by the House of Representatives, then by the Senate, and a few days later, on Wednesday, April 24, it was signed by US President Joe Biden. The US military had already indicated that it was ready to provide the most essential aid almost immediately. It began flowing into Ukraine through Poland right after the signing. The package includes $61 billion for Ukraine and $26.4 billion for Israel. This sum includes $9.1 billion in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip. An additional $8.1 billion will go to aid US allies in Asia, particularly Taiwan. Most of this aid will not be received by Ukraine directly in the form of funds but will be invested in American businesses. The Pentagon will purchase weapons from American companies for Ukraine for $14 billion. For another $23 billion, the US military will replenish its own stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, which can be later transferred to Ukraine as needed.

   A damaged component of the Patriot system, which had to be transported from Ukraine to the USA for repairs.

  
  

  Help from Slovakia Too

   Amid the billions from the USA, the millions from Slovakia might seem insignificant. However, it's important that they were raised by the citizens. The new Slovak government refused to join the Czech government’s initiative to purchase critically needed ammunition for Ukraine. The Czech government is seeking artillery shells that can be immediately bought in various countries, especially outside the EU. More than 20 states have joined the Czech government, providing the necessary funds for ammunition procurement. However, the Slovak government publicly declined to participate. Instead, civil activists and non-governmental organizations took action. They launched a fundraiser under the slogan “If not the government, we send.”

   Several notable figures supported the collection, including former partisan and SNP participant Otto Šimko, who celebrates his hundredth birthday on June 1. Drawing from his World War II experience, he explains why he decided to contribute: “It was not possible to negotiate with aggressors; they had to be defeated.” The Slovak fundraiser “Ammunition for Ukraine” collected 4 million euros in the first three weeks, contributed by 65,000 donors. With this money, they purchased 2,692 artillery shells of 122 mm caliber, already manufactured by the Czech company STV Group. The ammunition was thus able to be sent to Ukraine immediately after payment. The collection continues.

   However, until the help from the USA and the Czech initiative reaches the front, the Ukrainian armed forces had to endure another tough month. Russia tried to take advantage of the time before the western aid materialized and attacked with full force on all fronts. At the end of April, the Russians exploited a poor rotation of Ukrainian units and captured the village of Ocheretyne near Avdiivka. It seemed they had driven a wedge into the Ukrainian defense and could create a breakthrough. However, the Ukrainian defense stopped them, and they did not advance further west from Ocheretyne over the next month. The occupiers also repeatedly announced the capture of the village of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the settlement of Krynky on the left bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region. Neither announcement was true.

    

  Civilians Suffer

   The lack of air defense systems and missiles for them caused frontline defenders to face massive air raids throughout the observed period. Russian aviation did not only use glide bombs launched far from the front. Aircraft providing close air support, such as the Su-25, were moving directly over the combat area, likely for the first time since spring 2022.

   The Ukrainian interior also faced strong air attacks. Practically every night, the Russians sent small groups of drones to Ukrainian cities, which burdened the Ukrainian air defense. Occasionally, they launched larger attacks with missiles and cruise missiles. For example, on Thursday, April 11, the Russians launched a total of 82 projectiles—40 drones, six Kinzhals, 12 S-300 missiles, 20 Kh-101/555 missiles, and other rockets. The Ukrainian defense destroyed 57 of them, but they lacked the ammunition to intercept more. Due to the shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, even the Kyiv region was no longer as well protected as before.

   In this attack, the Trypilska thermal power plant, which supplied 50% of the electricity for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions, was completely destroyed. It was targeted by eleven missiles. The Ukrainian defense destroyed seven of them, but the remaining four scored the direct hits.

   On the night of April 24-25, Russian missiles severely damaged four more power plants. Since the beginning of the war, the Russians have hit Ukrainian power plants 180 times. For example, the private company DTEK has lost 80% of its thermal plant capacities. It will take years to repairs some of the power plants.

   Other civilian targets were also hit, unfortunately with tragic consequences. In the morning of Wednesday, April 17, a missile struck an eight-story apartment building in Chernihiv. Four other apartment buildings, a hospital, and a school were damaged. Eighteen people died, and 78 were injured. At the end of April, a psychiatric hospital and a TV transmitter were hit in Kharkiv. The transmitter broke in half and collapsed. In Odesa, 22 residential buildings were hit during an air raid. Earlier, on Saturday, April 20, the port and an export terminal belonging to a Singaporean company were hit.

   Russia increasingly uses so-called double strikes, sending a second missile to the same place after a delay to kill rescuers clearing the aftermath of the first attack. This tactic was employed in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia at the beginning of the observed period. Russian double strikes have killed 91 rescuers and injured 348 others by April this year. Kharkiv was subjected to heavy shelling throughout the observed period. This was preparation for a ground attack, which will be discussed in the next part of this series, the end of which is unfortunately not in sight.

   

  Russian Airports Under Fire

   The Ukrainian side also attacked Russian targets throughout the observed period. There is a stark contrast in target selection. Unlike the Russian targets, they did not primarily include hospitals or residential buildings.

   On the night of April 4-5, the Ukrainian armed forces, along with the SBU, launched a massive attack on Russian airfields. The bases attacked included Morozovsk, which houses Su-34 aircraft, Yeysk airport on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, home to Su-34 and Su-25 aircraft, the strategic bomber base Engels, and Kursk airport. The attack was extensive, with around 50 explosions reported at Morozovsk alone. The Ukrainian side estimated the destruction of several aircraft, but this was not immediately confirmed. Satellite images suggested that the drones landed far from the parked aircraft. This highlights the disadvantage of drones, as they cannot be controlled over long distances to select targets based on importance. They hit pre-programmed coordinates. A few days later, it was revealed that at least one aircraft at Yeysk airport, an amphibious jet Beriev Be-200, was seriously damaged. Part of its left wing was broken off, and a large puddle of leaked fluids, presumably fuel, was under the aircraft.

   At the beginning of the observed period, Ukrainian drones also repeatedly attacked Russian Tatarstan. This is significant for two reasons. Tatarstan is 1,300 km from the Ukrainian border, making it the farthest target the Ukrainians have hit. Video from the attack showed they used light sports aircraft modified into unmanned aerial vehicles. In this case, they served as kamikaze drones, but with a bomb mounted under the fuselage, they can be reused. In Tatarstan, a refinery, a drone assembly plant, and a factory producing Tu-22M and Tu-160M bombers were hit. The production hangar in the latter was reportedly hit, but the extent of the damage is unclear.

   During the observed period, Ukrainians also hit several refineries, fuel depots, and industrial facilities. They also used missiles to attack Russian command posts in occupied territories. Perhaps the largest attack was launched on Wednesday, April 17, in Crimea. The target was the Dzhankoy airbase on which the Ukrainians launched ATACMS long range missiles. Once the information puzzle was clarified, the destruction of an S-400 air defense system battery and presumably a missile storage site was confirmed. The destruction of aircraft and helicopters in this attack was not confirmed.

   The elimination of the S-400 battery at Dzhankoy airport allowed Ukrainians to conduct further attacks on Crimea. On Sunday, April 21, Neptune missiles targeted the port of Sevastopol, damaging the submarine support vessel Kommuna. This is the oldest active ship in the Russian fleet, commissioned during the Tsarist era in 1915. Despite its age, it is very important to the Russians. They have no similar vessel in the Black Sea. It is a catamaran with two hulls connected by a structure with cranes for lifting objects from the seabed. It can also launch its own deep-sea submersibles, which can be used to rescue sailors from trapped submarines. After the sinking of the cruiser Moskva in 2022, Kommuna retrieved various items from the wreck at a depth of 50 meters—weapons, secret documents, and presumably the bodies of crew members.

   A video footage capturing the impact of a sport aircraft converted into a drone, hitting a target in Tatarstan.

  A refinery fire in Tatarstan.

  A hit on the refinery in the city of Oriol.

  
  

  Downed Bomber

   During the observed period, Russia lost two aircraft in the air. On Wednesday, April 10, a Mi-24 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea off the western coast of Crimea, likely shot down by friendly fire. All four aviators onboard—Ivan Stepin, Aziz Shayakhmetov, Nikita Tokarchuk from the 396th Mixed Aviation Regiment, and Alexander Solovey from the 318th Independent Mixed Aviation Regiment—did not survive.

   A significant event was the downing of a strategic bomber, the Tu-22M3, on Friday, April 19. The aircraft crashed near Bogomolova in the Russian Stavropol region. The Russian side claimed it was due to a technical malfunction, but there were reports of friendly fire. The Ukrainian side asserted that the bomber was hit and damaged by a modernized S-200 missile with a range of 350 km. After being damaged, the Tu-22M3 attempted to return to base but crashed later. Ukrainians also reported that another bomber turned back without releasing its deadly payload after the first aircraft was hit. Video evidence shows the burning bomber spiraling to the ground. All four crew members ejected, but two did not survive: Captain Andrey Kononov and Lieutenant Andrey Grushanin, both from the 52nd Heavy Bomber Regiment.

    The crash of a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber on April 19 in the Stavropol region.

  Debris of a Tu-22M3.

  Two crew members died in the Tu-22M3 crash, one of them was Captain Andrey Kononov.

  Another casualty of the Tu-22M3 crash was Lieutenant Andrey Grushanin.

  
  

  Destroyed on the Ground 

  At the end of the observed period, photos of the dismantled wreck of a Russian Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopter were published. It is likely the same aircraft with tail number "Yellow 81," which was lightly damaged in March 2023 after hitting power lines. The exact cause of its recent, much more severe damage is unknown.

   Russia also lost two more helicopters to sabotage on its territory. On Wednesday, April 17, a Mi-8 helicopter burned at Kryazh Airport in Samara, and on Friday, April 26, a civilian firefighting helicopter Kamov Ka-32 was damaged by fire at Ostafyevo Airport in the Moscow region.

   On the Ukrainian side, unlike the previous month, no aircraft or helicopters were shot down. However, planes at Dnipro Airport were hit by Russian Iskander missiles with cluster munitions on Thursday, April 18. According to available information, three MiG-29 fighters and four civilian Yak-40 transport aircraft were damaged. It is unclear if the fighters were operational or just derelict. The Yak-40s were definitely long-retired and had been parked there since 2010. A few days later, on Saturday, April 20, Dnipro Airport was targeted again, and this time an operational MiG-29 was confirmed destroyed. The jet caught fire, indicating it was fueled.

   The dismantled wreck of a Russian Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopter with tail number "Yellow 81".

  Three MiG-29s and four Yak-40s were damaged on April 18 during an Iskander missile attack on Dnipro Airport. However, the Yak-40s had been parked there since 2010, and at least one MiG had also been immobile for several months, likely a non-operational aircraft.

  Another attack on Dnipro Airport on April 20 destroyed one MiG-29.

  
  

  Dogfights Reminiscent of World War I

   Russian reconnaissance drones enable attacks on Ukrainian airfields and other targets. Ukraine is combating these drones with all possible means. Besides ground-based anti-aircraft systems, such as mobile machine guns, they have deployed modified training aircraft. This has led to air battles over Ukraine reminiscent of World War I dogfights. The use of propeller-driven Yak-52 aircraft is improvised but far more suitable than jet fighters, which are too fast compared to slow drones. The Yak-52 has a maximum speed of 285 km/h, making it better suited to match the speed of drones, such as the Orlan-10 (maximum 150 km/h) and the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone (185 km/h). In its original training version, the Yak-52 has no armament. It appears the Ukrainians modified it so that the second crew member operates a movable machine gun from the rear cockpit. During the observed period, a video surfaced showing a training Yak-52 shooting down a Russian reconnaissance drone.

  A Yak-52 training aircraft used by Ukrainians against Russian drones. The side of the fuselage has a checkered area likely indicating a machine gun operated by the second crew member from the rear cockpit.

  Ukrainian Su-25 in a low level flight.

  Launchers for American and Soviet unguided rockets side by side under the wing of a Ukrainian Su-25.

  Ukrainian Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.

  A Mi-24 helicopter maintenance.

  Defense against Shahed drones, which attack almost every night.

  
  

• MUSTANGS IN THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY

  P-51Bs and P-51Ds of the 361st Fighter Group ready for takeoff on D-Day, June 6, 1944. (USAF Official)

   
  

  Adapted from “Clean Sweep: VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe - 1942-45"

  Text:  Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

  
  

  Once SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) assumed operational control of all air forces in England at the beginning of April 1944, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, second in command of the invasion force to General Eisenhower, placed himself in overall command of air operations. He directed Eighth Air Force to concentrate its missions against the rail transportation system in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France in the weeks leading up to D-Day.

   

  April also saw Eighth Air Force commander General Doolittle's decision to standardize VIII Fighter Command on the Mustang, re-equipping the groups equipped with P-47s and P-38s as P-51s were delivered and became available. Priority was given to re-equipping the Lightning groups, due to the airplane’s poor record in the command.

  On April 8, when the Fourth Fighter Group’s score was 296, Don Blakeslee set a goal of 500 destroyed by May 1, a good indication of how fast the air war was now moving, since the Fourth only had a score of 100 over 18 months of combat at the end of January. The Eagles outdid their leader’s challenge, with credits for 207 destroyed in the air and on the ground by April 30, for a total score of 503, passing their long-time rivals the Wolfpack to become to top-scoring fighter group in the Eighth Air Force.

  Following an epic party on the base the night of April 30, the Fourth was still able to provide escort on May 1 to Saarbrucken. John Godfrey, now promoted to flight leader in his own right and no longer in Gentile’s shadow, led his flight after a gaggle of 12 Bf 109s he spotted below. He chased one to low altitude where he hit the engine solidly and the pilot bailed out to give him his 14th aerial victory. Ralph Hofer scored his tenth victory when his enemy pilot bailed out so close ahead of him that “I could see his uniform and his black boots in the sun.” Two other pilots also scored off this group of enemy fighters. The Fourth didn’t score again for a week.

  A P-51D of the 4th Fighter Group’s 334th Fighter Squadron with D-Day identification markings. (USAF Official)

  
  

  On May 8, the bombers went to both Berlin and Brunswick. The mission saw the 352nd Fighter Group fly their first all-Mustang escort mission and the “Blue Nosers” finally appeared over Berlin. The Jadgdwaffe responded with over 200 fighters. The group’s patrol area was soon the scene of dogfights from 30,000 feet to street-level with the action hot and heavy for nearly an hour.

   

  “I then broke away from one shooting at me and got onto another ’190’s tail… “

   

  Over Brunswick, the 487th squadron’s 2nd Lieutenant Carl Luksic gained the distinction of being the VIII Fighter Command first “ace in a day.” His encounter report provides an accurate description of the action:

  “While Lieutenant Bob O’Nan was chasing this Bf 109 I saw on my left five or six FW 190s which I immediately turned into. I put down ten degrees of flaps and started queuing up on one of the ’190s. I fired very short bursts from about 300 yards, 15 degrees deflection and observed many strikes on the canopy and fuselage. He immediately pulled up and rolled over and the pilot bailed out, his airplane going straight in from fifteen hundred feet. At this time in this vicinity there were three ’chutes – one from the enemy aircraft that I had shot down and one from the enemy aircraft that Lieutenant O’Nan had shot down, but I do not know where the third one came from.

  I then broke away from one shooting at me and got onto another ’190’s tail and fired short bursts, but did not see any hits. However, the pilot evidently spun out as he went straight into the ground from eight hundred feet or so and blew up. I was then joined by two P-47s but lost them, and finally joined up with two from our own group, Captain Cutler [from the 486th squadron] and his wingman. He started down over Brunswick to strafe a ‘drome, but observing so much ground fire and flak I pulled up and away and lost them. I then saw another airplane which I thought to be a P-51. I closed on it to about thirty yards and identified it as a ’109. I gave a short burst, but don’t know if there were any strikes, and I found myself riding his wing as I was at full throttle. He was about two hundred feet off the deck, and when he looked at me he pulled up, jettisoned his canopy and bailed out. I went down and took a picture of the airplane, which had crashed into a small wood, and right onto a small fire.

  P-51s prepare for takeoff from the Fourth Fighter Group’s base at Debden. (USAF Official)

  
  

  I started to climb back up when I was rejoined by my wingman, Lieutenant O’Nan, and Red Leader, Captain Davis. We started back towards the bombers when off to our left at nine o’clock low we observed about twenty-plus in close formation going down through the clouds. The three of us immediately turned into the attack and came down on them through the

  clouds. I found myself directly astern of a ’190, with a ’109 flying his wing in close formation. I was evidently unseen as I got in a very successful burst at the ’109 and observed numerous hits on his wings, fuselage and tail. He was at about eight hundred feet, and after catching fire he went straight down into the ground.

  I immediately kicked a little right rudder and got in another successful burst at the ’190 and observed numerous hits on its left wing, engine and canopy. The ’190 went into a tight spiral and crashed into the deck from a thousand feet. At this point there were about fifteen or more enemy aircraft in the vicinity and they started aggressive tactics, and since I was alone, and they were making head-on passes at me, I had to take violent evasive action. I evaded into the clouds.”

   Following close behind Luksic were 487th squadron commander Lt. Colonel John C. Meyer and Lieutenants John Thornell and Clayton Davis, who claimed three each. The group returned to Bodney with total claims of 27 destroyed, their best day ever. The day’s action earned the Bodney Blue Nosers their first Distinguished Unit Citation, while Luksic, Meyer, Thornell and Davis were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

  P-51Ds of the 20th Fighter Group’s 77th Fighter Squadron. The 20th exchanged their P-38s for P-51s in July 1944. (USAF Official)

  
  

  While the Blue Nosers scored over Berlin, VIII Fighter Command Mustangs were ranging farther and farther afield. That same day, the Fourth escorted bombers to Brüx (Most), Czechoslovakia, nearly 800 miles from Debden. JG 27's Bf 109s provided opposition, but the Mustangs came out on top with five pilots submitting claims for five destroyed. The next day, the group flew east of Berlin to pick up bombers returning from a strike on Poznan, Poland over the Oder river.

  While the Eagles flew to Poland, the 352nd went to Berlin again on May 13, the Blue Nosers got involved in a massive battle with intercepting enemy fighters. Nearing Tribsees-Demmin, huge formations of Bf 109s and Fw 190s were spotted forming up to attack the bombers. First blood was drawn by the 328th squadron’s Captain John Coleman and his element leader 1st Lieutenant Francis Horne, who each scored two. Group commander Colonel Joe Mason led the 486th squadron into a force estimated as “100-plus.” The squadron broke into individual flights, with the Mustangs attempting to break up the enemy formation.

   

  “The first burst knocked his left flap off…”

   

  Mason, leading White Flight swept through enemy fighters that turned away, and he later reported:

  “I saw strikes on the wing of one Me 109. Upon coming out on the far side, I lost the rest of my flight. As I pulled up in a climbing turn and looked down at the large formation of bandits, I saw two Me 109s spinning down, one with about two-thirds of its wing gone. This collision was forced by my flight flying through the large formation of bandits at about a ninety-degree angle. I am not certain as to whether the ’109 I damaged was one of the two I later saw going down.

  My wingman broke away and down when we started through, and my second element pulled up and came in on the rear of the bandits. They did not see the collision. I then rolled back and down, chasing twenty FW 190s and Me 109s which had split off from the bunch and were diving for the clouds. I closed on an FW 190 and after a few short bursts, set him on fire. The first burst knocked his left flap off. He was taking evasive action in the clouds, and just before entering one, smoke, flame and debris came back over my ship and we both went into the cloud. I then pulled up to keep from running into him in the cloud, and came out on top. My ship was covered with oil from the ’190.”

   P-51D-10 “Straw Boss” of the 352nd Fighter Group, the “Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney.” (USAF Official)

  The 352nd’s Captain Bill Whisner flew P-51B “Princess Elizabeth” - so named to commemorate a visit to Bodney in June 1944 by the future queen - throughout the summer of 1944. (USAF Official)

  
  

  The Resumé of the hunting

   

  Mason claimed two Bf 109s and one Fw 190 destroyed and one Bf 109 damaged.

  George Preddy, leading the 487th squadron, joined the fight shortly after Mason scored his victories. Spotting 30 Bf 109s below, Preddy led the squadron’s bounce on them and personally downed two, with these he became an ace with a tally of 5.333 aerial victories. While Preddy scored, Lieutenant Nutter closed in when the remaining Bf 109s tried to flee and sent another down on fire. “Ace in a day” Carl Luksic and his wingman Glennon Moran spotted a Ju 88 attacking a B-17. Both attacked and the Junkers crash-landed in a ploughed field. When it didn’t catch fire, Luksic strafed it and set it afire. The 352nd’s score of 16 destroyed made them the top-scoring VIII Fighter Command group for the day. Colonel Joe Mason was awarded a DSC. The Jagdwaffe reported 58 losses, three less than the day before.

  P-51D-5 “Short Fuse” was flown by Captain Richard E. Turner of the 354th Fighter Group’s 356th Fighter Squadron. (USAF Official)

  
  

  The result of the success the fighter groups had achieved in April and early May saw morale in the bomber groups begin to recover as the crews realized they were flying missions with fewer casualties, due to the offensive fighter escort tactics. Losses would get progressively lower for the rest of the war, but May 1944 was when those who climbed into the bombers began to believe they had a chance to make it home, even when Doolittle increased the tour to 35 missions that summer.

   

  Chattanooga Day

   

  Range for P-51s would increase as the Mustang-equipped groups saw their aircraft modified to allow them to carry two 108-gallon paper tanks, rather than the metal 75-gallon tanks they had been using. The modification took several days for each group and was carried out a group at a time over mid-May, the Fourth was the first to do this between May 14-18. Now able to take their Mustangs to places where no American fighter had been seen before, or to stay longer for the fight over targets like Berlin, the Fourth continued amassing victories.

  On May 21, as part of the Transportation Program SHAEF planners had developed to disrupt German rail transportation, VIII Fighter Command and IX Tactical Air Command flew what was called “Chattanooga Day” (named for the popular song, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”), with 552 Mustangs, Lightnings and Thunderbolts turned loose over central and western Germany, and northern France and Belgium, to attack railroads. The groups came back with claims for 225 locomotives attacked, with 91 considered destroyed. Strafing ground targets had not been limited to railroads, since the pilots also claimed 102 aircraft destroyed on airfields, with a further 76 damaged. The 361st Fighter Group, led by Philippines and Guadalcanal veteran Colonel Thomas J.J. Christian, the great grandson of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, made their first appearance flying P-51s after transferring from P-47s and submitted claims for wrecking 23 locomotives. Chattanooga Day was the pre-invasion high point of railroad attacks that had begun back in February and saw over 900 locomotives destroyed over four months.

   Eighth Fighter Command recommended groups apply camouflage to aluminum-finish P-51s in May 1944 before the invasion, in the expectation the fighter groups might deploy to mainland Europe following the invasion. The 357th Fighter Group was the only group in Eighth fighter command to completely paint their Mustangs, using RAF Dark Green on upper surfaces and RAF Sea Grey Medium on lower surfaces. (USAF Official)

  
  

  Return to Berlin

   

  Berlin was attacked again on May 24. Jim Goodson led the Fourth and spotted 40-plus near Hamburg gathering for an attack on the bomber stream. When the Mustangs hit the formation, they soon came across several other gaggles nearby. Ralph Hofer later reported seeing “several gaggles of Fw 190s.” When they returned to Debden, the pilots claimed another eight destroyed.

  The next day, Goodson again led the group, this time an escort to bomb the railyards in Chaumont-Sarreguemines in northern France. He later reported, "We saw fighters and immediately went to investigate.” The opponents were from JG 26, with 20 Fw 190s from II Gruppe, covered by 30 Bf 109s from III Gruppe. “We split them up, but due to the fact that we were outnumbered fifty to eight, we were not able to destroy any. My wingman and I ended up alone on the deck. As he climbed to rejoin the group, Goodson spotted 24 Bf 109s and Fw 190s flying in close formation of six “vics” of four each, in line astern. I told my wingman we would try to sneak up behind and knock off the last section and then run away in the haze. As we were closing on the last section, all the Huns broke, and a lengthy dogfight ensued, with the Fw 190s showing amazing fighting ability and aggressiveness. It was only after the most violent maneuvering and excessive use of throttle and flaps that I was able to get good strikes on the most persistent ’190. He pulled up and bailed out.” Goodson’s fourteenth aerial victory turned out to be his last.

  This photograph of a mixed formation of P-51B and P-51D Mustangs of the 361st Figher Group was taken in late July-early August 1944, and became one of the iconoic photos of the Second World War. (USAF Official)

  
  

  With the fighters of IX Tactical Air Command striking every target they could find in Northern France and Belgium, and fighter groups from VIII Fighter Command strafing targets during their returns from every escort mission, while A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders of the IX Air Force and the Eighth’s B-17s and B-24s hit every rail target in the region, the German Army in northwestern France was soon cut off from its supply bases. The strikes on airfields forced the defending fighters to pull back deeper into France and Germany. The week before the invasion, the commander of the German Seventh Army, tasked with defending Normandy, called the roads in the army’s area of operations “Jabo Rennstrecke” (fighter-bomber racecourses).

  The Luftwaffe had fewer aircraft available on the Channel coast at the end of May than had been available at the time of the Dieppe Raid. JG 2, which had been assigned to the Cherbourg Peninsula since 1941, was closest to the Normandy beaches. I./JG 2 had only recently returned from the fighting at Anzio. The Bf 109-equipped II./JG 2 was at Creil outside Paris, while III./JG 2's Fw 190s were in the process of transferring to Fontenay-le-Comte north of La Rochelle.

  With a forecast for stormy weather during the first week in June that seemed to preclude any likelihood of invasion, JG 26 Kommodore Oberst Josef “Pips” Priller felt safe giving some pilots time off. II Gruppe left for Mont de Marsan near Biarritz for a week’s leave on June 1. The other two gruppen were ordered to move inland on June 5, with I Gruppe moving to Reims and III Gruppe to Nancy.

   

  The Longest Day

   

  Their ground echelons were still on the road when dawn came on June 6.

  The Fourth’s Bob Wehrman remembered “June 6, 1944, really was the longest day. We had Double-Daylight Savings Time in England, which meant dawn came around 0300 hours. None of us had slept much that night. The sky was filled for hours with the drone of aircraft. I spotted bombers heading toward invasion targets and C-47s carrying what I later learned were the British and American paratroops.”

  “Pips” Priller learned the invasion was on when he was awakened by the phone in his Lille command post. It was from 5th Jagddivision, ordering him to move his headquarters immediately to Poix-de-Picardie, closer to the anticipated invasion site on the Pas de Calais. The dawn skies were a leaden grey at 0800 hours as Priller and his longtime wingman, Unteroffizier Heinz Wodarczyk, mounted their Fw 190A-8s and prepared to take off for a reconnaissance of the invasion beaches. With Wodarczyk sticking close, Priller headed southwest at an altitude of 100 meters. East of Abbeville, he looked up and saw several large formations of Spitfires flying through the broken cloud base. Near Le Havre, he climbed into the cloud bank hanging at 200 meters and turned west.

  Moments later, the two fighters broke out of the clouds, just south the British invasion beach code-named Sword. Priller only had a moment to stare out to sea at the largest naval force ever assembled in history. He could see wakes of the inbound invasion barges as they approached the beaches for as far as he could see in the hazy weather. With a shouted “Good luck!” to Wodarczyk, Priller winged over into a dive as his airspeed indicator climbed above 400 m.p.h. Dropping to an altitude of 50 feet, the two roared toward Sword Beach, where British troops dove for cover while ships offshore opened up with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire so loud those on the ground had trouble hearing Priller and Wodarczyk open fire as they flashed overhead, unscathed by the fleet’s fire.

  “Ferocious Frankie,” a well-known P-51D-5 of the 361st Fighter Group. (USAF Official)

  
  

  In a moment, the only appearance by the Luftwaffe over the Normandy beaches on D-Day was over. Priller and Wodarczyk zoomed back into the cloud bank and disappeared, having just flown the best-known mission in the entire history of JG 26, due to its later inclusion in Cornelius Ryan’s book “The Longest Day” and the movie made from it.

  JG 26's I and III Gruppen flew the majority of the 172 Luftwaffe sorties in the invasion sector on June 6. It was a drop in the bucket compared to the 14,000 sorties flown that day by the Allied air forces. By the end of the day, II Gruppe arrived after flying across France in time to fly a mission over Normandy in the last light of day, during which they caught the Fourth’s Mustangs strafing enemy positions and shot down four P-51Bs in the first pass for no losses. For most of the next eight weeks, I. Gruppe and III./JG 54 operated from Cormeilles and Boissy le Bois, while II. Gruppe was based at Guyancourt outside Paris, and III. Gruppe from Villacoublay Nord and Sud, also in the Paris region.

   

  “Too little, too late”

   

  By the evening of June 7, there were only six Jagdgeschwadern left in Germany, while 17 had flown into northwestern France to oppose the invasion. Had these units been at full strength, this would have been over 1,000 fighters, a force that might have had an impact on the battle. Unfortunately, with the losses suffered over Germany in the preceding months and the disorganization of the move from Germany to France, only 289 fighters were listed as operational at sundown of the second day of the invasion. On their arrival in France, the Jagdflieger discovered that nearly all the Luftwaffe’s airfields in France had been too badly damaged by American bombing during the previous three months to sustain operations. They would be forced to fly and fight from improvised airfields that were so far from the battlefield they would only have less than 30 minutes combat time over Normandy. Due to the inability of 5th Jagddivision to exercise control of the newly-arrived units in the form of planning and direction of operations, most fighter missions flown during the Normandy battle were “freie jagd” uncontrolled independent fighter sweeps, an ineffective use of the limited resources. Over the course of the next two months, what was left of the flower of the Jagdwaffe would die in the Norman sky, outnumbered by odds of 100:1 and outflown by better-trained and more experienced Allied pilots. Even with the fighter force growing to 1,000 by the end of June, it was a case of “too little, too late.”

  The day’s action saw Priller score his 97th and 98th victories, a P-47 and P-51 respectively. The hard-pressed pilots of I and II Gruppen scored eight for two losses. The next day, Priller led 11 Fw 190s of I Gruppe on a strafing mission against the invasion beaches, their “score” was the “destruction” of 15 crashed gliders.

  Operation Pointblank had succeeded. The Allied air forces now had air superiority over western Europe. The five month campaign had cost the Eighth Air Force 2,600 bombers and 980 fighters lost, with 18,400 casualties including 10,000 dead.

  Ralph Hofer was one of the real “characters” of the Fourth Fighter Group. On June 10, 1944, he became the first Allied fighter pilot to make an emergency landing on an Advanced Landing Ground in Normandy after suffering damage to his oil cooler in a dogfight. (USAF Official)

  
  

  The weather cleared on June 10, a day that saw the Blue Nosers’ 328th squadron, led by Captain John Thornell, spot 40 bomb-carrying Bf 109s flying low toward the beachhead at 300 feet. When the German pilots spotted the Mustangs as they turned in to attack, they salvoed their bombs and split up, but not before Thornell got two of them for his 17th and 18th victories.

  The day ended with Fourth’s Ralph Hofer making history as the first Allied fighter to land at the advanced strip near Grandcamp in Normandy after his oil system was damaged by small-arms fire during a strafing pass near Vire. When he returned to Debden the next day, he brought a German helmet and canteen and a German-language version of “Mein Kampf,” that he had bartered from the GIs near the front, which only added to his “screwball” reputation.

  Throughout the battles over Normandy, the cloudy skies and rain would give cover to fighters of both sides, with units chancing on each other becoming involved in sharp, vicious fights.

  American pilots also received a piece of personal gear that gave them a real advantage over their opponents - the “G” suit, which fit around the waist and thighs. The suit was plugged into the vacuum system, and under increased G-loads during air combat the suit tightened around the thigh and waist, preventing blood from pooling in the lower extremities and preventing the pilot blacking out while maneuvering. Ninth Air Force had been aggressive in obtaining the G-suits and all the P-47 groups in IX Tactical air Command were using it by D-Day. VIII fighter command first began getting the equipment shortly after D-Day and all groups had the gear by mid-summer. Bob Wehrman recalled, “We had just gotten the K-14 ‘no missum’ gyro gunsight in July, and then we got the new G-suit. Between the two pieces of gear and the new P-51Ds, we could outfly the enemy under just about all conditions. In April, the Fourth had tried using the British G-suit, which used water, but it had been discarded for being uncomfortable. As Wehrman described it, You didn’t even notice you had the new suit till it started squeezing your legs and you didn’t black out as before.”

  Two P-51Bs of the 361st Fighter Group’s 376th Fighter Squadron prepare for takeoff at Bottisham. (USAF Official)

  
  

  On June 16, the 357th’s Lt. Colonel Tom Hayes used an old trick he had learned while flying P-39s in New Guinea to attack a rail yard. The group only had 108-gallon paper tanks available, which provided far more fuel than they would need for the mission to the St. Pierre marshalling yard outside Paris. He instructed the pilots to drop their tanks, which were about three-fourths full, on the railyard in their first pass. Then they returned and set the tanks ablaze with gunfire. There were four large explosions and the target was on fire when the Mustangs departed. Word got around among the groups about the 357th’s success with using drop tanks as “incendiaries” for strafing.

   

  Luftwaffe heavy losses

   

  At the end of June, the Jagdwaffe had lost 230 pilots killed and 88 wounded, with 551 aircraft shot down in combat over France and a further 65 destroyed on the ground. For this cost, they claimed 526 Allied aircraft shot down including 203 P-47 fighter-bombers.     

  n July 1, Captain Wally Starck led 352nd group’s 328th squadron on a mission to strafe suspected V-1 launch sites, but the squadron became involved in a battle between the 78th group and 20 Bf 109s and Fw 190s over St. Quentin. The 78th group's mission had been dogged by bad luck from the beginning, when two P-47s had collided during a mass takeoff on Duxford’s wide grass runway and exploded. The P-47s were 12,000 feet over St. Quentin when Lieutenant James Stallings spotted five Bf 109s diving on the Thunderbolts, bombs tumbled from their wings at his warning. Stallings managed to avoid the attackers by throwing his P-47 into a violent spin, when he recovered at 3,000 feet, he found he had no elevator trim. “I’d taken two twenty millimeter cannon shells in my tail surface and was darn lucky my controls weren’t completely gone. I had to keep a lot of forward pressure on the stick to fly straight and level.”

  Starck led the Mustangs into the fight and immediately became involved in a turning fight with a pair of Bf 109s that dived for the deck when they couldn’t turn inside him. He followed, opening fire on the wingman at a distance of 100 yards. The fighter burst into flames and the pilot bailed out, narrowly missing Starck’s wingman, Lieutenant Sheldon Heyer’s P-51. Starck closed on the leader and succeeded in damaging the Messerschmitt before losing it in the clouds. Two other Bf 109s were also damaged by Lieutenants Cyrus Greer of the 487th and the 328th’s “Punchy” Powell. This was the last fight the “Bluenosers” would engage in, despite flying eight more missions between July 4-12.

  A P-51D of the 361st Fighter Group’s 375th Fighter Squadron banks away from camera. Note that the D-Day ID stripes on the fuselage do not carry around the bottom of the radiator. This was frequently done with these stripes, due to the P-51 being so low to the ground. (USAF Official)

  
  

  The Battle of Normandy was over by early September, following the liberation of Paris on August 25. Steve Pisanos, who had remained with the Resistance since crashing in France back on March 5, remembered the liberation: “Over the two weeks before the Germans were chased out, my friends in the resistance had been terrified they would put up a fight for the city and leave it like Stalingrad. In fact, there was some attempt by the Germans to destroy things. They set out to rig the Seine bridges with explosives, but the resistance went out every night and removed the explosives. They would leave all the wires and the boxes the explosives were in, so the Germans wouldn’t realize what had been done. With the city restored, Pisanos was able to turn himself in to the American army and returned to Debden. I got back to Debden and three days later I was on my way back to America. I got there just in time to be best man for Don Gentile’s wedding.”

  The Luftwaffe had been reduced to impotence during the battle for Normandy. I and II gruppen of JG 1, and all three gruppen of JG 11, which were dedicated anti-bomber units, had been transferred to France, where they lost a combined 100 pilots killed and 200 Fw 190s destroyed in the air and on the ground over the three months of combat. In comparison, III./JG 1, which had been transferred to the Eastern Front and fought there over the summer, suffered the loss of one pilot killed.

• Markings for B-17F 1/48

  Variant 1

  Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew, Lt. Col. Beirne Lay. Jr., 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Regensburg mission, 17 August 1943, Telergma, Algeria

   

  Variant 2

  Capt. Thomas E. Murphy crew351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, 21 September 1943

   

  Piccadilly Lily, an aircraft primarily flown by the crew of Captain Thomas E. Murphy of the 351st Bomb Squadron, is probably the most famous B-17F of the 100th Bomb Group. Her story has been featured in two film projects: the 1949 movie "Twelve O’clock High" and, more recently, the "Masters of the Air" series. The popularity of the first movie was due to screenwriter Beirne Lay, who, on August 17, 1943, with the rank of Lt. Col. and sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of Piccadilly Lily, flew a mission to Regensburg. This was the famous "Double Strike Mission," after which the 100th Bomb Group landed in North Africa. Above all, however, it marked the first of the unit's black days, as they lost 9 of the 21 aircraft involved in the mission. It also earned the unit its first "Distinguished Unit Citation."

  The B-17F Piccadilly Lily and Murphy's crew had been flying it combat since the first missions of the 100th BG in the second half of June 1943. During her service, the nature of the insignia changed twice - first the round insignia was replaced by a variant with stripes and red trim, then again when the red trim was obscured by a richer blue. Lily was lost on 8 October 1943 in the raid on Bremen. From the crew of Cpt. Murphy's crew, six men perished. With them, the squadron operations officer, Capt. Alvin L. Barker, who joined the crew at the last minute before taxying for take off.

  
  

  Lt. William D. Desanders crew, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, August 1943

   

  The B-17F "Alice from Dallas" was one of the original aircraft that moved with the unit to England after completing stateside training. She was the ship of the crew led by Lt. William D. DeSanders of Dallas, Texas, who named this plane after his wife. DeSanders' crew flew with Alice from the beginning of the unit's combat operations in late June 1943 until the mission to Trondheim, Norway, on July 24, 1943, after which the pilot was hospitalized with a type of flu. The rest of the crew flew the very next day on a mission in another B-17F with a replacement pilot and never returned. After heavy flak hits, the aircraft crashed into the North Sea. For the raid on Regensburg on August 17, 1943, when Lt. DeSanders was still hospitalized, Alice was assigned to Lt. Roy F. Claytor. Subsequently, she was one of the victims of the first attack by German fighters before arriving at the target. Of the six ships composing the lower squadron, led by Maj. Gale "Bucky" Cleven, only two remained. In all, the 100th Bomb Group lost nine B-17s that day. Without his original crew, William DeSanders continued his operational tour, which he completed on February 14, 1944, in the B-17G "Alice from Dallas II." Sitting in the other seat in the cockpit with him was commanding pilot John H. "Lucky" Luckadoo. After returning to the U.S., Bill DeSanders lived in Dallas with his wife Alice until his death in 1983.

  The B-17F 42-5867 was built in the 30th production block of the F series at the Vega plant in Burbank. In addition to other specifics typical of this production, such as larger national insignia on the fuselage and a low camouflage paint border, it also had one of the evolutionary forms of the cheek gun window installed on the left side. Inscriptions of the aircraft name on both sides were accompanied by a small drawing of a gremlin releasing bombs from a potty. It was a simplified figure from the 350th Bomb Squadron emblem.

  
  

  Variant 1:

  EP-K ”Sunny II“, Capt. Glenn W. Dye crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, September 1943

   

  Variant 2:

  EP-J „Sunny II“, Lt. George W. Brannan crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, Great Britain, 30 December 1943

   

  The crew of Lt. Glenn W. Dye, one of the original 100th Bomb Group crews that moved to England together after stateside training, was the first crew of this unit to complete a tour of 25 operational missions. Their aircraft was designated EP-J and named Sunny, but they lost it on September 3, 1943, when another crew was shot down with her. They named their new B-17, designated EP-K, Sunny II, and finished the tour with her on September 16, 1943. The tour at that time was not completed by the co-pilot, Lt. John H. Luckadoo, who, because of Lt. Dye's team promotion to lead crew, was 4 missions short.

  Sunny II was later used by other crews who flew most of her 14 missions, during which she sustained extensive battle damage and not only once returned with wounded aboard. The aircraft's fatal mission was Ludwigshafen on December 30, 1943, when flak over the target knocked out two of her engines. The lone return ended for the crew of Lt. George W. Brannan with an emergency landing on a field near Thorpe Abbotts. Sunny II was destroyed but was able to bring her crew home once again.

  The original co-pilot of Sunny II, Lt. John H. "Lucky" Luckadoo, became the operations officer and commanding pilot of the 351st and later the 350th Bomb Squadron after his crew mates finished. He completed his operational tour in February 1944. Today, at the age of 102, Lucky is one of the last living veterans of the 100th BG and is very active in passing on the legacy of his story, the story of his comrades, and the entire 100th BG to younger generations.

  
  

  Lt. Robert ”Rosie“ Rosenthal crew, 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Bremen mission, 8 October 1943

   

  Starting their missions during the most challenging period in the life of the 100th Bomb Group in early October 1943 was not an ideal beginning for young combat crews. However, when such conditions meet strong character, charisma, and personal determination, a legend can emerge. One of the 100th BG's greatest legends was Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal. They began their operational tour with three combat missions in three days. On the first of these, on October 8, 1943, they took off in their brand new B-17F named Rosie's Riveters for a raid on Bremen. The mission from which 7 aircraft from their unit did not return was a horror for the rookies. They themselves returned with a badly damaged Rosie's Riveters, which, like Rosie's crew, was having a baptism of fire. The next day, characterized by a much quieter mission, they flew a borrowed B-17F "Royal Flush". Another day later, on October 10, 1943, Rosenthal's crew took off in the Royal Flush for Munster. On that day, 12 aircraft from the Bloody Hundredth formation did not return. 12 out of 13! The Royal Flush, with "Rosie" Rosenthal and "Pappy" Lewis at the controls, after an incredible dogfight with German fighters and an endless crawl home, with only two working engines, finally landed on the runway at Thorpe Abbotts to be the only ones to bear witness to the horror over Munster.

  That's when the young lawyer from Brooklyn who volunteered for the Army Air Force began to become a legend. As the crew finished their operational tour in early March 1944, Robert Rosenthal volunteered for the second… and later for the third. He later became commander of the 350th BS and then the 418th BS. Rosie was an exceptional pilot and an inspirational leader to many of his men. He flew as a command pilot for the 100th BG and the entire 13th CW. His combat duty ended on 3 February 1945 when he was shot down in a mission to Berlin. With the damaged B-17, he continued eastward in an attempt to get behind the battle lines. After all surviving crew members parachuted out, he abandoned the aircraft as well. Rosie parachuted behind the front lines and, with the help of the Red Army, made his way to the American Embassy in Moscow and then back to England.

  After the war, Robert Rosenthal was one of the US investigators at the Nuremberg war crime trials. From the late 1960s until his death in 2007, he was one of the leaders of the Association, later Foundation of the 100th Bomb Group.

  In early 1944, after receiving a new B-17G as a lead crew, Rosenthal's team handed over his B-17F Rosie's Riveters to her new users, the crew of Lt. Ross E. McPhee. They renamed it Satcha Lass and were shot down with her on 4 February 1944 during a mission to Frankfurt.

  
  

  Variant 1:

  Maj. Ollen O. Turner. CO of 351st BS, Lt. Jack R. Swartout crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, July 1943

  Variant 2:

  Lt. Archie J. "Four Mile" Drummond crew, 351st Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, 24 January 1944

   

  B-17F 42-3307, later named Skipper, was not among the aircraft the unit moved to Thorpe Abbotts, although it arrived there before the Hundredth began combat flying. Skipper was able to take part in the unit's second combat mission on June 26, 1943. It was chosen as his personal aircraft by the 351st Squadron commander, Maj. Ollen O. Turner. The new B-17 was named after Turner's nickname for his wife, although the nickname soon carried over to Maj. Turner as well.

  During August and September, Skipper flew several combat missions under the care of its crew chief, Dewey R. Christopher, and his team. On October 10, 1943, it was assigned to the combat formation for the raid on Munster. Yes, the mission from which Robert Rosenthal returned in the B-17F Royal Flush as the only one of the whole unit. Skipper was saved from certain destruction by a malfunctioning No. 2 engine, which caused its crew to abort and return early.

  On January 24, 1944, the 100th Bombardment Group headed for Frankfurt. Skipper took its place in the formation, with the crew of Lt. Archie J. Drummond aboard. Shortly after takeoff, at an altitude of 700 feet, they were blinded by the sharp landing lights of a B-24 taking off from another nearby base. Since the B-24 pilots apparently did not see the B-17 in front of them, Lt. Drummond pushed the heavy, bomb-laden aircraft to the ground in an attempt to avoid a collision. Skipper thus avoided the Liberator in a right descending turn, but at the same time came dangerously close to the ground. As he leveled off, he caught his left wing on the roof of a farm building about 15 miles from the base. The gasoline from the punctured tanks turned the aircraft into a flaming torch. The machine flew through a small forest and landed in a field beyond. The impact with the ground threw the bombardier, Lt. Maurice G. Zetlen, through the Perspex nose. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene. Miraculously, the rest of the crew managed to crawl out themselves from the burning aircraft. The Skipper, however, was destroyed where it landed.

  
  

  crews of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder, Lt. Henry M. Henington, 349th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, early 1944

   

  The fate of the B-17F 42-5957, nicknamed Horny II, and its crews was very turbulent. It returned from its first mission on September 6, 1943, with a dead co-pilot on board and a seriously wounded pilot, bombardier, and navigator. On a mission to Stuttgart that day, this B-17 was flown by the crew of Lt. Sumner H. Reeder. Despite the badly damaged aircraft, he managed to return to England. For this feat, he was awarded the DSC.

  The aircraft was repaired and assigned to the crew of Lt. Henry M. Henington. Their very first mission with this ship was a raid on Bremen on October 8, 1943, one of the worst days for the Bloody Hundredth. Horny II again returned from the mission with only two working engines. Henington's crew completed its operational tour of 25 missions in late 1943, flying a large portion of them in this aircraft. The last mission of Henington's team took place on December 31, 1943. The target was Paris, and Horny II returned again with only two working engines and with flat landing gear tires.

  By early May 1944, Horny II was close to becoming the first B-17 from the 8th Air Force to fly 50 missions. This impending record was ruined by an electrical discharge that caused the gasoline cleaning the aircraft on the hardstand to burst into flames. All that remained of Horny II was charred wreckage. However, in its 49 missions, it was a reliable airplane for its crews, always managing to bring them home despite considerable damage.

  
  

  Variant 1:

  crews of Lt. Loren C. Van Steenis and Lt. John S. Giles, Jr, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, April 1944

  Variant 2:

  Lt. Albert E. Trommer crew, 350th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Thorpe Abbotts, July 1944

   

  Perhaps no other B-17F in the 100th BG was wrapped in as many legends as this aircraft. It was surrounded by the recurring number 13. Some of these legends were real, some fictional, but Hard Luck’s status as an exceptional aircraft is indisputable. The aircraft had the last two digits of its s/n "13" and arrived in England on August 19, 1943. Legend says it was a Friday 13th, and was flown to England by Lt. Don Mitchell’s crew, No. 13. This is no longer considered true. Anyway, Mitchell's crew did fly with Hard Luck on their first combat mission and several more thereafter. The Hard Luck's hard stand was to be the one with the number 13, and the 100th Bombardment Group was part of the 13th Combat Wing. Other men that flew this aircraft included Lt. Loren C. Van Steenis' crew, which is primarily associated with this aircraft. They flew 17 missions with Hard Luck.

  One cannot write about Hard Luck without mentioning her ground crew chief, the distinctive M/Sgt. Glenn M. "Zip" Myers, to whom (among others) the aircraft owed its long combat career. Toward the end of 1943 and into the winter of 1944, other crews flew this aircraft, including those of Randall T. Chadwick, John M. Shelly, and especially John S. Giles, who flew 8 missions with her. After the mission on May 8, 1944, the aircraft had a long "wellness" break. Hard Luck received a new glass nose, waist windows closures, and a new type of top turret from a cannibalized B-17G. All four engines were overhauled. In fact, this aircraft became the 8th Air Force's record holder after flying 50 combat missions with the original engines and turbochargers with which she was flown across the ocean in the summer of 1943.

  After repairs, she returned to combat duty on July 8, 1944, with the crew of Lt. Albert E. Trommer, which was on their third combat mission and became Hard Luck's primary user for the remainder of her existence. In addition to training flights, they flew 8 combat missions together during July 1944. On August 14, 1944, Hard Luck flew her 62nd mission, this time with the crew of Lt. Donald E. Cielewich. The target was Ludwigshafen. There, the aircraft was fatally hit by flak. The crew dropped the bombs, and the aircraft headed for the ground in a wide turn. Before this B-17 impacted the ground, she allowed all the men aboard to leave the aircraft with parachutes. Hard Luck was thus the last B-17F to fly combat with the 100th BG.

• Pretty hunting

  Text: Richard Plos

  Illustration: Adam Tooby

  Cat. No. 2146

  
  

  Widow maker. This unflattering nickname was earned by the Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber shortly after its introduction to the US Army Air Force. Pilots, by then accustomed to easy-to-handle and slow to clunky aircraft such as the B-18 Bolo, had great difficulty coping with the significantly higher takeoff and landing speeds, as well as the need to maintain sufficient airspeed at all times, including situations where one of the engines blew out. And because the Pratt & Whitney R2800 engines were by no means trouble-free, tragedies were no exceptions during pilot training.

  In reality, however, the B-26 Marauder was a very advanced aircraft for its time, and its qualities eventually became fully apparent. Of all the American aircraft, it achieved the lowest ratio of losses to combat operations. Compared to the B-25, it was faster, which was the initial intention, and could carry a larger bomb load. However, while the Mitchell’s handling was virtually foolproof, the Marauder required much more attention from the pilots and a stricter adherence to the airspeeds given in the manual. This was primarily due to the higher wing area load, which was nevertheless reduced in the following versions, making the last Marauders easier to fly. In total, Marauder crews flew more than 100,000 missions and dropped over 150,000 tons of bombs on enemy targets. And despite the unflattering nickname, Marauder losses were the lowest of any type of bomber used by the USAAF, at just under half a percent.

   

  From the history of one bomb group

  One of the bombing groups that was armed with Marauders from the beginning was the 394th Bomb Group (Mid). It was activated on March 5, 1943, and during February and March 1944 its members and equipment moved to England at Boreham Base. As part of the 9th Air Force, the group attacked targets in France, often V-1 sites. Other common targets were marshalling yards or roads, especially bridges.

  During the D-day landings, crews of the 394th BG bombed German positions at Cherbourg, hitting several important communications, fuel depots, and German positions. Then, during the fighting in the St Lo area on July 25, their bombardment of German positions helped make an important breakthrough. The group received the Distinguished Unit Cross for operations from August 7 to 9. During this three-day period, they carried out a series of five raids on heavily fortified and defended targets, destroying an ammunition depot and four important railway bridges.

  By the end of August 1944, the move to the Continent had taken place and the 394th BG Marauders were appearing over Germany with increasing frequency. During December 1944 to January 1945, they also made their mark in the fighting during the Battle of Bulge. Bombing the roads, they made it difficult for the Germans to get supplies and hit several ammunition depots. Less traditional missions also included leaflet drops over enemy territory towards the end of the war.  

  After the German surrender, the 394th BG remained in Europe as part of the occupation forces. In September 1945 it began training on the A-26 Invader and in December was redesignated the 394th Bomb Group (Light). Upon return to the US, the group was inactivated on 31 March 1946.

   

  A pro with a brush

  Like every bombardment group, the 394th BG also had someone in its ranks who could portray various nosearts according to the wishes of the crews. In this case, however, it was a true artist, S/Sgt. Frank M. Spangler, Jr. The member of the 585th Bomb Squadron was a professional cartoonist, and so it was not surprising that there was considerable interest in his services. Among his works were paintings of Round Too (43-34571), Sure Go For No Dough (43-34200), and also Miss Manookie (42-96255) aircraft.

  The choice of aircraft name and artwork was the privilege of the main pilot to whom the aircraft was assigned. While this did not mean that others could not fly it, the main pilot used the aircraft most often. In the case of Miss Manookie, this was Lt. Thomas Craddock Howard, the co-pilot was David Hollice Hughes and the theme was an “American Indian” woman hunting with bow.

  In mid-August 1945, Spangler began pilot training on the L-4 Cub as part of a program conducted at Venlo Holland Base. The program was designed to prepare selected members of the U.S. Air Force who were not pilots to obtain a civilian pilot’s license. However, Frank Spangler did not follow the civilian pilot route after the war, instead he returned to art and become a respected cartoonist. Together with his father, also a cartoonist and caricaturist, they focused mainly on social and political issues.

  Of his wartime creations rendered on the metal surface of Marauders, Miss Manookie was probably the most colorful. The aircraft survived its 60 combat missions. Adam Tooby’s boxart shows it on one of these missions late in the war somewhere over Germany ...        

• Tail End Charlie

  Swastikas and Red Stars

  Text: Richard Plos

  
  

  History is not an exact science, knowledge about things and events of the past is not only added to and refined, but its perception may change in relation to the evolution  of society as a whole. The chroniclers of ancient times often wrote along the monarch desire, otherwise they risked their neck. Those who then set about writing down about events that occurred during the reigns of monarchs who were already dead and therefore harmless, in turn often committed errors or fabrications for the simple reason that they had few sources or had favorites they did not want to disgrace, and vice versa. First half of the 16th Century Czech chronicler Wenceslaus Hájek from Libočany could tell a story about such an approach... In his time, he too had limited sources of information and usually interpreted what little he found in his own way. He was not alone in this, and he was by no means the last. Like medieval or ancient rulers, modern despots like to alter history in their own way. Some time ago, on one of the (a)social networks (primarily set up to increase the reach of human narrowness and smallness, I think), I noticed a reel by a lady of about 50 years of age who took umbrage at the fact that some historical events are now spoken and written about differently than she was taught in school. She used the word “unbelievable” about twenty times, probably because of her weak vocabulary due to her poor education. The person in question obviously lives in the belief that history is an exact science, which is of course nonsense. Unfortunately, in our country still dragging a lot from the communist era, the communist interpretation of history, which, well beyond the work of Wenceslaus Hájek of Libočany, resembles the fairy-tale  Chronicle of the so-called Dalimil (early 14th Century ), still greatly influences the worldview of not only the older generation. Like a mental cancer, the lies that were drilled into our heads by our teachers spread from our parents and grandparents to the younger generation. If we add to this the weakness of contemporary education, then it is no wonder that we still have the heroic Soviet Union, which was insidiously attacked by the Nazis and then saved the whole of Europe, and hence the world, from their tyranny. No, that is not the case, dear children, the Soviet Union was only saving its own ass and extinguishing what it had helped to set on fire with great initiative, in order to then ruthlessly exploit it all in a race for the World ruling. Under the sign of the red star, people have died quite needlessly both by the hand of their enemies as well as their own leaders’.

  As many as 17 million people were killed during the Russian civil war that followed the Bolsheviks’ (i.e. Communist) seizure of power and nearly 1.5 million people were killed during the “Great Purge” by which the Communists settled their accounts and got rid of uncomfortable “elements”. All in all, some 12 million people were “terminated” during the Stalinist purges. Until the monstrous communist ideology was embraced by Mao Tse-Tung to dispose of an estimated seventy million people in various ways, the Soviet Union was the leader of the “hit parade” of mass murders crimes committed directly under the flag and state symbols of the country. And in both cases, the red five-pointed star, which in terms of symbolism of atrocities is equaling the swastika, played a role. However, while the swastika lost, the red star won, at least in the eyes of those who adopt as their interpretation of history the lessons of the Communist Party’s point of view. And that is why today we have laws that seek to erase the swastika from history, while the red star can continue to shine cheerfully, even as a symbol of the most heinous atrocities whenever and wherever.

  Today, we have to cope with legislation that tries to erase the Nazi symbol from history in the preparation of plastic models somehow. Swastikas have to be deleted from paint schemes, boxarts and decals, even in the form of small symbols of aerial victories, which the Allied fighters of the time certainly didn’t paint on their planes to promote Nazism. In other words, the legislator de facto misses the point of his own work.

  To be honest, I am not in favor of banning the use of Nazi symbols provided they are used solely in connection with the depiction of historical events, just as I am not in favor of banning the red five-pointed star. I’ve yet to see a symbol, no matter what it is, do evil on its own. Evil on this planet is perpetrated solely by humans, and those who wish to perpetrate or promote it will not be stopped by any legislation. Turning a blind eye to history is strikingly reminiscent not only of Wenceslaus Hájek from Libočany, or that versifying joker we call Dalimil, but especially of communist comrades who wrote history textbooks so that everything would fit into a predetermined ideology. And this is a very dangerous development. Personally, I am very curious if the letter “Z”, the symbol of newer Russian atrocities, will be measured by the same yardstick as the swastika. I don’t know about you, but I probably can’t do without it, it is a quite useful letter …    

• Editorial

  
  

  Good day, Ladies and Gentlemen! 

  Sometimes I get lucky and write these editorials in an interesting place, and this is one of those times. I am writing the June newsletter editorial during the first weekend of June at Bublava in the Ore Mountains, at a police recreation center where this year's Iron Bunny competition is taking place. This time, the competition teams are building our 48th scale P-51B Mustang. In addition to the kit, they also have a number of accessories available to them, including the engine, and the usual 24 hour allowance of hard work to present their efforts. Those of you who watched this year's Iron Bunny on the live stream from Bublava know the winner, something I personally won’t find out til Monday, when this newsletter comes out, but at the moment, I am in the dark regarding the winner. It’s been raining heavily here steadily and the meteorologists' warnings of heavy downpours and possible flooding are coming true. This year, Iron Bunny is an even bigger adventure than usual!

   When I left for Bublava on Friday, we were testing what should be the next-to-last mold for the 1:72nd scale P-51D Mustang, the mold with the fuselage and wings. On the first try, we received a complete set of plastic, to the general joy of the upper floors of the company, where the designers who needed to verify the accuracy of photoetched and decal designs were waiting for these pressings. While the decal for the first edition 1:72 P-51D, Royal Class kit is based on the 1:48th scale Royal Class release, and the 72nd scale kit design is based on the 1:48 kit design, that still doesn't mean we can just scale the 1/48th scale item down and run with it like a banshee. With the moldings in hand, we can be sure of the accuracy of the design, and the decals, photoetched and masks can go into production this week. At the same time, we sent the moldings to Omask so that they could verify the design of the plugs used for masking off the wheel wells for painting. These will be a part of the Royal Class package. The final mold will be going on the press this week, with the small parts, and if all goes well, we will be packing the Royal Class kits next week and starting to ship them to customers in the second half of June.

   The logistics surrounding the realization of a new kit is complex, the processes follow each other very precisely and we are pleased to have it tuned in such a way that it usually works precisely and reliably for us. Of course, it is not without cost and the whole process carries with it a lot of stress and tension. Major screwups and delays are rare, but they do happen. We just got over one of those little gems. Moldings for June’s release of the B-26F/G Marauder in 1:72nd scale left the Shimitz port near Shizuoka at the end of February. It normally takes six weeks for cargo ships to sail from Japan to Europe, this time our ship sailed twice as long thanks to the attacks by the Yemeni Houthis on cargo ships at the entrance to the Red Sea. A lot of maritime traffic is diverted along a route that circumnavigates Africa, making it longer and more expensive. Our Marauders have endured exactly that fate. To make matters worse, after the truck's arrival in the Czech Republic, the shipment was stopped by Czech customs officials, who inspected it and thus delayed the delivery of the pressings for another week. As a result, boxes with ready-made components were waiting for the plastic until May 27th, and several dozen incomplete shipments were also waiting for dealers from all over the world. The result of the whole sh*tshow was that we did not start sending shipments until May 28th, instead of May 15th, which would’ve been our standard-procedure date to send out new releases for June. It sounds like a fun story, but in our setup, where we pack and ship an average of eighty new items a month, a delay of even a single item means a stop sign for all shipments. We do prepare them as far as we can, but most orders wait to ship til they are complete. Of course, it depends on the type of item being held. If it's a mask or a small piece of PE, for example, some people opt to have it sent to them a month later. On the other hand, you probably understand that the production of masks or small PE items don’t generally suffer delays at our end. However, an item like the Marauder, which has the highest sales numbers of any June release by a wide margin, has significantly higher destructive potential if any of its many components fail to show at the right place at the right time. And man, was that ever the case with the Marauder! Almost 100% of orders were waiting for the Marauder and our business completely froze for two weeks. So if they don't have Marauders in your store yet, please be patient and hold out for a few days. They are definitely on their way and they will definitely arrive. The Houthis should no longer play any role in their delivery.

   Coincidentally, on the same day as the sprues for the Marauders, the plastic for the 72nd scale Delfin arrived. They flew in by plane and there were no tricks associated with their arrival. This makes the Delfin another of the kits that have returned to the range after our fire in 2020. Another item is making a comeback today, the Adlerangriff 1/32, a Limited Edition kit dedicated to the Bf 109 E during the Battle of Britain. Some time ago, we mistakenly advertised its return to our range on Facebook, but unfortunately we did not have all the components ready at that time. On top of that, we needed to abandon the injection molding queue due to the high demands imposed by the new P-51B. We've churned out 16,000 sets for the Royal Class and the Limited Edition ‘The D-Day Mustangs’ kit, but we're scraping the bottom of the barrel again and need to produce more for the August P-51B Profipack release. We made modifications to the mold to prevent that mysterious bending of the center strut above the wheel well. I hope this solves that tricky anomoly.

   Among June new releases there are, as usual, interesting pieces, whether it is the 72nd Bf 109 G-6 in the Profipack line, the 48th Spitfire Mk.Vb in a special sub-edition of the Weekend series dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, or the reissue of the 48th Profipack Fw 190 A-2. Among the new Brassin products, you will find a collection of kits for the P-51B in 1:48, the cockpit for the F-35B in 1:48th from Tamiya, the engines for the Beaufort from ICM and the brake chute for the F-4E from Meng. Although the break chute is specifically noted as being designed for the Meng kit, it can also be used on other Phantom IIs. We took this chute to almost every exhibition we attended last year, and at many of them it was able to garner at least as much interest among modelers as the most attractive kits. Also lovely are the 1:350 scale Japanese naval anti-aircraft guns. In photoetched and masks, a collection of sets for the 48th scale B-26 Marauder from ICM and B-24 from Hobby Boss, and for the A-20 in 1:32 scale from HKM are on offer, and sets for the S-79 Sparviero from Italeri should also prove to be interesting.

   However, that is not all that awaits us in June. On Thursday, June 6th, we will start accepting pre-orders for the Limited Edition kit, ‘The Bloody Hundredth 1943’,  B-17F 1:48. You already know what this project is about. We have been reporting on it for several months now, and in the last few days the information about it on social networks has been very detailed, and so is the information in today's newsletter. I'd like to add a few details to all of this that haven't been covered yet. The Bloody Hundredth 1943 is our biggest, most challenging and also most expensive project to date, to be realized using the plastic from another company, that we have ever prepared. We have been working on it since last fall in cooperation with the 100th Bomb Group Foundation and with HKM. HKM not only supplied the plastic of their B-17F in 1:48th for us, but also produced, based on our design, a mold for conversion parts, allowing the construction of other versions from our modified kit, which differ from the original kit with later variations on the nose. But, it is also important what we did not go into within the scope of this project. That includes any modifications of real or perceived shape issues. We never do that with repackaged kits. The reason is quite simple. Such adjustments are not as simple as modelers imagine. We can replace some parts, make more accurate wheels, propellers or seats, but we cannot interfere with the shapes of the kit. Such partial adjustments always lead to some unsatisfactory compromise, where correcting one error can accentuate another. If there is a slightly thicker fuselage, a bad fuselage or wing profile, or a badly positioned engine nacelle, as in the case of HKM's B-17F, the only possible solution to such a problem is to make a new fuselage or a new wing, or both. However, the parts of the internal structure will no longer fit into it, because in the design of each kit, everything is intricately interconnected. In the end, we may as well just design and produce a whole new kit. I'm writing this because after the announcement of the project, the usual recommendations about everything that needs to be fixed began to come out. But that's not our goal, don't expect that from us. We will not carry out any comprehensive redesign of the HKM kit. In addition, we believe that HKM's B-17F kit is actually of very high quality and its possible inaccuracies are not out of the realm of errors found in other leading manufacturers' kits. So we start from the HKM kit and must respect its attributes, with all possible errors. It is the principle that allows us to work with moldings of other manufacturers and build our projects based on them, which, despite certain shortcomings, are very successful commercially and interesting for modelers. I believe that most modelers understand this principle and that our new project will make them happy despite its, in my opinion, small shortcomings.

   It's the same with the selection of markings. We have selected seven of the many interesting 100th BG machines, or eleven included as a subscription bonus. Modelers are proposing other options, but it is already too late for them, or they have been dropped from the selection for some, usually technical, reason. But in general, it's like an election; there are many candidates, but few openings. I already explained that the selection of options for the color schemes of individual kits is not the result of an ad hoc lottery. Each kit has a paint selection committee of usually four, but sometimes five or six, who carefully consider each inclusion in the marking options guide. The selection is a three-round process, in the last round the balance of the composition of the selected aircraft is evaluated in terms of the variability of markings and camouflage schemes, the service of the aircraft in different theatres of operations or with different units. With Bloody Hundredth, the choice was specific, because the kit is dedicated to only one unit and thus only shows a certain slice of the wider history, but that does not mean that the choice was easy. On the contrary, a similar type of building block usually demands a lot of work.

   Modelers and especially reviewers usually downplay the marking options in our kits, sort of taking it for granted and don't deal with it too much in their evaluations. They usually just spout off the inclusions of these options and that’s it. Once upon a time it was different, there was a time when reviewers had a lot of comments about our color schemes. Ever since we changed our style and put more care into creating color guides, I feel like reviewers are ignoring them. As if the choice and quantity of color schemes had no bearing on the quality of the kit, as if the range of this offering and the size of the decal sheet had no value. I'm sorry, because I think that the options offered are quite important for the quality of the kit. Honestly, who today will offer you eleven marking options in a kit, several of them in two variants, in addition to a beautifully rendered historical background describing the machine and its crew? I dare say no one. And I'm not talking about the size and scope of the decal sheet. There are three decal sheets in the Bloody Hundredth, all large format.

   If you are hesitating, you have a few weeks to think about it. The sale will run in several rounds. The first round is a pre-order on our e-shop, which will start on June 6th and end on June 20th. Some merchants have also launched their own pre-orders. After the end of the pre-orders, the sale will continue from the second half of July in the standard way, where we will deliver the kit to our merchants and distributors and it will be available to them as an August new release. We will be selling them at the IPMS USA Nats in Madison between July 17th and 20th. The remaining kits will also be available from our e-shop. So if any kits remain at all by August, it looks like the entire shipment will be sold within a few weeks.

   You will find only basic information about The Bloody Hundredth 1943 project in today's issue. More information about the kit and the 100th BG will be made available as smaller, detailed historical notebooks about the aircraft and the unit at the end of next week.

   

  Articles

   The main historical article this month is Tom Cleaver's Mustangs in the Battle of Normandy on the P-51B's role during and after the invasion. There is also another continuation of the Air Battle over Ukraine by Mira Barič, and an article on the Iranian attack on Israel. The issue also contains a technical article on the use of an ultrasonic knife in model making by Ladislav Jareš and a report from the competition in Čáslav. Of course, there are the now traditional Boxart Stories, today dedicated to the cover images of the June kit releases – the Marauder, Spitfire Mk.Vb, Bf 109 G-6 and the Fw 190 A-2.

  The Iron Bunny slugfest is in the books, and the judges are scoring six beautifully built Mustangs, all with unbuttoned engines. While the Mustang as the competition model did not surprise them and they kind of expected it, the engine did raise some eyebrows. The engine is not slated for release til August, so the competition teams received pre-production pieces. So, these were a sort of test, and I got plenty of advice on how to improve it!

   

  Happy Modelling!

  Vladimir Sulc