[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Thanks for your comments. I still can't believe that a 49-victory (sic) rudder discovered in the field wouldn't have been retained by someone. Perhaps the rudder fabric was torn into pieces and apportioned to several people present at the time. This was the Bf109E-4/N in which Mölders apparently got his 40th victory, which qualified him for the Oak Leaves to the RK. It was seen and recorded by the wreck investigation officer and the information on it is reasonably consistent with all other information known about W.Nr. 3737, so I believe that it, or at least pieces of it, likely still exist somewhere. It would have been much examined and commented upon at the time and someone would have kept it if there was any way to do so. Perhaps it is long forgotten in someone's barn or garage, but it seems to me that it is not just something that would have been thrown in the scrap heap.

Incidentally, we have photos of this rudder displaying 40, 42 and 43 victory tabs in the EoE Photo DB. I believe that the total of 49 victory tabs is a miscount, as Mölders got his 49th, 50th and 51st victories on the same mission on 22 October, and it doesn't make sense that only one of these was recorded, unless the painter responsible for this was interrupted by the mission on 25 October when W.Nr.3737 was shot down. A more likely count would have been either 48 or 51 victory tabs. Since we don't know the condition of the rudder when it was recovered, part of the victory count may have been difficult to interpret.

I agree with Andy that it is not at the Lashenden Museum, as back in the late 1970s I visited there and subsequently corresponded several years later with the staff. They denied any knowledge of the rudder artifact, although they have a large piece of fuselage decking which was reportedly from this a/c.

This a/c, displaying 40 victories, will be one of the color profiles in the EoE book series.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator