John, I never said JG 26 used K-4s in February 1945
I merely gave them as an
example of gunpod use on the K-4. I am well aware the whole of JG 26 was flying Doras by then and therefore the 109 we're looking for can't be a JG 26 example. The information about the gunpods I got from Donald Caldwell's books. The introduction of the K-4 is described (Nov. '44). Let me quote directly from the book:
Quote:
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The 30 mm cannon were extremely potent weapons, but had a tendency to jam, and apparently all of the K-4s supplied to the Third Grupe were also equipped with the 20 mm guns in the despised underwing tubs. Uffz. Georg Genth's regular aircraft was a G-10, but on occasion he flew a K-4. He preferred the G-10 as a dogfighter, as the K-4's bulky armament sharply reduced its maneuverability.
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I've never heard of gunpod use on the G-10/14 and I don't think any G-6 was ever painted in brown/green camo.
But I have never seen gunpod on
any late war 109s myself...
Heuser, III/JG 26 used their K-4s quite a lot and if they all have gunpods that means they must have been used extensively.
The books I refer to are
this one (p.292) and
this one (p.379).
I had never heard of the K-6 variant with built-in guns. The veteran described smoke coming out of the wings when the 109 fired directly at him (and thus missed as the 109 pilot didn't use enough deflection). He didn't mention gunpods and when I asked about it he merely said the smoke was going
over the wings. I'll show him a picture of the gunpods and see what he says.
I'm aware memory can be flakey after 60+ years, but he is 100% sure the 109 fired from its wings as he could see the gun smoke. One would definitely remember being shot at, so we can safely assume it had wing guns.
I really appreciate your help, guys, and hopefully we can find out what unit the 109 belonged to.
The USAAF unit involved was the 357th FS/355th FG by the way.