Bf110 fin image on ebay - Jabs aircraft?
 

I was browsing one of the last Edwest's postings and found this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...m=260328022092

19 victory bars and what seems to be a fourth letter P immediately made me think of Hans-Joachim Jabs, and them I went looking for a picture I was sure I knew from somewhere. I have found it on Luftwaffe in Focus #11, page 12. Despite of the same number of bars, the darker color and different style of the markings painting on the ebay photography reveals that it is not the same machine, or at list not at the same period.

The caption on page 13, however, puzzles me since it mentions the W.Nr. of the aircraft as being 3090 (suitable for a C-2 batch, accordingly to Petrick/Mankau Bf110 book) but the aircraft is quite probably a D or an E, since it has the extended tail.

Does anybody know more about the aircraft Jabs flew in order to bring some light?

Best regards,

Fernando.

Re: Bf110 fin image on ebay - Jabs aircraft?
 

Fernando,

The photo on eBay is indeed Jabs' aircraft, photographed in Norway sometime after II./ZG 76 moved there after the Battle of Britain, probably late in 1940. I have an excellent photo of the other side of the tail taken on or about the same time, confirming that it is M8+IP, which is the code Jabs' aircraft probably carried from at least early September, 1940, onward. The photo of the aircraft in Norway is apparently not the aircraft he was flying when he was awarded the Knight's Cross in October, but an earlier M8+IP, which was probably a "C" model.

As a part of the EOE Project I have tried to assemble a comprehensive collection of photographs of the aircraft that Jabs flew beginning in 1939 through the end of 1940, and, via our friend John Vasco, have correspondence with him about his career during 1940. I have excellent photos of his previous aircraft as well, M8+KP, which he force landed on a French beach in early September, 1940. He apparently began flying M8+IP after that incident, and continued to fly Bf110s with that code well into 1941.

What else do you want to know?

Regards,

Re: Bf110 fin image on ebay - Jabs aircraft?
 

Re: Bf110 fin image on ebay - Jabs aircraft?
 

Bob,

M8+IP WAS the aircraft flown by Jabs. See my post above. I have a photo of the other side which clearly shows the plane code.

Regards,

Re: Bf110 fin image on ebay - Jabs aircraft?
 

Mr. Hickey,

thank you for your promply reply. At this point I am assuming that the W.Nr. in the caption on Luftwaffe im Focus refers to another aircraft, possibily this one we are discussing. So, I understand that photographs exist for three different aircraft coded M8+IP, and also one more M8+KP, right? Is the information available for the W.Nr. of all of them?

Best regards,

Fernando.