Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim P.
I'm curious as to what the markings of the other 5 machines might be and the source of this information. Guess I'll have to check out 'LW/Czech territory' again - been some time since I've looked through that. Note I said ex-JG 51, so the Lfl. wouldn't really matter as aircraft were shuffled from unit to unit.
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The other 5 aircraft are all similarly marked, i.e. with the yellow cowl and rudder. The individual aircraft are numbered from 1-+- to 6-+- and were all abandoned in the same area of the Budweiss airfield.
Two of them had survived in the Stab. Gruppe for some 9 months as proven by the overpainted V's under their port wings (the previous Lfl.4 tactical marking, introduced after the capitulation of Romania).
The style of numeral, outline and their size match other known SG10 aircraft.
JG51 hadn't operated the Fw 190 (except IV. Gruppe with the D-9) since 1943, so this alone must rule them out.
No training or erganzungs units were in Lfl.4, so wouldn't need to or wouldn't have bothered wearing a front-line tactical marking. There's no evidence for SG, or other such Lfl.4 marked, aircraft being transferred to such a unit either (remembering two of these aircraft were 9 months old).
This, beyond reasonable doubt, would have them as six aircraft in the Stab. Gruppe of a front-line Luftflotte 4 unit.
Some sources quote these as Stab.II./SG10, but their aircraft were differently marked (Green <<+-, <o+-) and were surrendered (and well documented as such) at Neubiberg.
The only other unit operating Fw 190Fs in Luftflotte 4 was SG2, but their Stab. didn't operate six of the type (plus the fact that they and their Ju 87s are well documented thanks to their association with Rudel) and they were sub-ordinated to Lfl. 6 by the time of the 7th March order (50cm yellow cowl band and yellow rudder).
The paper trail, including the document I mention above, details the movements of Stab. and III./SG10 to Budweiss some 5 days before the war's end and primary post-war documentation has Budweiss as their final operating base.
As for sources, other than the limited primary documentation, it's mostly circumstantial, but there's enough, in my opinion, to assign this unit beyond doubt.
Cheers,
Chris