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Old 6th April 2007, 11:38
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Re: Need Help to ID Luftwaffe Fighter

It's a Ju 87 D-3 adapted for night harassment operations, hence the tubular flame suppressors (your "2") attached to the exhaust ejectors. By day these aircraft had been dive bombers but this one had its dive brakes removed.

The wing guns are MG 17 rifle-calibre machine guns and what you have arrowed as "3" is a three-way bomb rack that can take either two 70kg bomb or one 250 kg.

There's another Ju 87 D in the background.

The camouflage of both is characteristic of Nachtschlachtgruppe 9 (NSG 9 for short) which was operational against allied supply lines in Italy from March 1944 to April 1945 when it retreated over the Alps to Innsbruck, Austria (but a few aircraft wound up at airfields around Munich due to problems with weather and navigation). I wrote a book about the unit and got to know many former airmen from it.

If there's any chance you could send me a 300dpi scan of this photo, I'd very much appreciate it. It would be purely for my own study and to share with the few surviving veterans of NSG 9.
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