http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/album....pictureid=1020
184. On page 184 of
American Raiders, (2004), Wolfgang Samuel captions an almost identical photograph of white-surround "33" as, "Master Sergeant Freiburger and his men attached a rope to the nose gear of this photo-reconnaissance Me 262, intending to pull it into the nearby aircraft hanger. The gear promptly collapsed." MSgt. Eugene Freiburger of the 54th Air Disarmament Squadron and his team had reached Lechfeld on 4 May 1945 only to find that GIs had shot up many of the fifty Me 262s left there by the retreating Germans and soon learned he had been assigned to recover and make airworthy fifteen intact jets by a Colonel Harold Watson. He soon found the proper way to tow intact Me 262s and how to throw a cable over the tail plane of disabled ones and haul them backwards.
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/album....pictureid=1021
185. Brown
etal., Messerschmitt Me 262 Production & Arado Ar 234 Final Operations, (JaPo, 2012), pp. 100-106 has an in-depth article on this aircraft. It is identified as "Me 262 A-1a/U3, W.Nr. 500539, "White 33" ...". On pages 31-32, it is revealed that the designation of this
Behelfsaufklärer [interim recce aircraft] was changed by January 1945 from "A4" to "A-1a/U3". From p. 100, "on 22nd March it was flown by Alfred Brück (Fl.Ü.G. 1) from Cheb to Lechfeld, the flight lasted from 16.20 to 16.42. Considering the date, the aircraft was most likely directly assigned to III./EJG 2 and served only for training...".
In this photo, the three-part modified bulge fairings to accommodate the bulk of film canisters atop the Rb 50/30 cameras can clearly be seen. On p. 58 there is an excellent photo of the hangar used by Freiburger's crew at Lechfeld. White-surround "33" had first been dragged to the front left of this hangar still sitting on its nose.