[SMF144]

I am hopping that someone could shed some light on the history of 210103, black 17of JG26. I have seen a private picture of this a/c that was taken at the end of the war. I checked JaPo’s recent release and they have it listed as being with 8/JG 26 and being destroyed at Dussefldorf aerodrome on February 7, 1945. This is clearly not the case because overall, the airframe is complete and it still wears it’s original camouflage. Now, what is also interesting is the fact that this D-9 is a former third staffel machine as the vertical bar has been painted over and the former double-digit number, the first being the numeral one, has been painted over and replaced with a Black '17' only, making this a first staffel machine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Stephen M. Fochuk