[Nick Beale]

First: does anyone have a photo of that Me 262 that actually shows the fuselage marking as F1+DA? If not, then all we have to go on is the label on the back. If we go on what we can see, then we have "[big] D [small] A" on the nosewheel door, the style of lettering used by KG 51. The location is Giebelstadt: KG 51 was based there but so far as I know it was never associated with KG 76's jet operations.

Serious researchers Dan O'Connell and David E. Brown have posted here that KG 76 had a couple of Me 262 and used them for reconnaissance but I don't know their sources for this. My own efforts have never uncovered a single Me 262 with KG 76, whether in a strength return, a loss report, a deciphered signal, Luftwaffenkommando West daily operations report or an Allied radio monitoring summary. What I do have is that during the actiions against the Remagen bridgehead the Me 262s and Ar 234s of KG 51 and KG 76 were under a single ad hoc tactical command, Gefechtsverband Kowalewski. Kowalewski was also KG 76's Kommodore but that didn't make KG 51 part of KG 76.