Long range reconnaissance Fw190 and Bf109 pilots
 

Hi everybody,

while looking at the OOB of Fernaufklärungsgruppen 121,122 and 123, i saw they had a variety of Fw190 and Bf109 on strength. I remember reading a loss report on www.aircrewremembered.com of a Bf 109 pilot in 1.(F)/123, he had a regular fighter pilot training (JVS, Erg.Grp) and no reconnaissance training, before being posted to this reconnaissance unit! I could not establish so far, if this pilot career was a singular case or if it was standard policy.

So i was wondering about the background of these pilots in general. Were they "normal" fighter pilots seconded to these long range reconnaissance units? Were they short range reconnaissance pilots (trained on Fw190 or Bf109) transferred to a long range reconnaissance unit? Or were they long range reconnaissance pilots (trained on Ju88 or Bf110), who simply had to convert to single engined fighters?

Thank you very much in advance for any answer, which might shed some light on these questions!

Best regards

Michael