KITS 07/2021

Hptm. Friedrich-Karl Müller, CO of 1./NJGr. 10, Werneuchen, Germany, July 1944

The future Knight’s Cross recipient, the ace with 30 night victories over the enemy aircraft, was born on December 4th, 1912 in

Sulzbach in Saarland. In 1934 he completed his pilot training and got the job with Lufthansa. After the outbreak of World War Two

he was ordered to the Luftwaffe. Initially he was flying as a transport pilot, later as an instrument flying instructor. In December

1942 he was assigned to KG 50 operating He 177 aircraft, in the summer of the following year he responded to Hajo Herrmann

call and requested the reassignment to JG 300 famous for its Wilde Sau (single-engine fighter night interception deployment)

tactics. While serving with this unit he was credited with 19 kills and in January 1944 he was ordered to form 1./NJGr. 10. In August 1944 he was promoted to command I./NJG 11 and lead this unit until the end of World War II. He passed away on November

2nd, 1987. The lower and partially side surfaces were painted black for the better night camouflage. The red stripe surrounding

the rear fuselage indicated the original owner of this aircraft within Reich Defense, JG 300. The pilot’s “score” was painted on the

both sides of the rudder in the form of the 23 stripes with the enemy nationality and date of the victory.

MT-463, flown by ylikersanti (Staff Sergeant) Tapio Järvi, 2/HLeLv 24, Lappeenranta, Finland, July/August 1944

Among the deliveries of Bf 109G-2 and G-6 fighters to Germany’s ally Finland were two G-6/AS version aircraft. In the Finnish Air

Force, these were coded MT-463 and MT-471. MT-463 was delivered on June 28th, 1944 and was assigned to HLeLv 24, where it

was flown by, among other pilots, ylikersanti Järvi, who used to down two of his total 27 kills. A further five kills in this aircraft

were claimed by another four pilots. The Bf 109G-6/AS did not represent any major advantage for the Finnish Air Force, because

the majority of air combat with the Soviets took place at altitudes below 3,000m. The DB 605AS, which powered the type, was

designed to offer advantages at high altitudes.

The camouflage scheme of this aircraft consisted of sprayed RLM 74/75/76 with the blue swastikas on discs on the fuselage and

wing positions. The code MT-463 appeared on the fuselage ahead of the tail surfaces. The yellow number of the aircraft within

the unit was applied between the fuselage code and the cockpit. There are no available photographs of this aircraft during its

combat career with HLeLv 24, but from other period photographs of other such aircraft, the list of aircraft numbers for this specific plane has been reduced to 2, 4 or 6.

58

eduard

INFO Eduard - July 2021