Somewhere I agree with Bronc
This is said with my pants a bit around my knees...
I know frightfully little about the Lw recce units!
If Helmuth Orlowski was such a good 'vessel destroyer' why was he not transferred to a bomber unit? I cannot find him listed as a KG pilot receiving the RK. I suppose in Luftwaffe anything was possible, but were there anyone else in the Aufkl units who laid claim to some 15 vessels?
According to Ed this is a mod Ju 88 A to D. Did the Aufkl units seek out surface vessels in their D-models loaded with bombs and actively tried to sink these vessels? Maybe they did, but then I have missed something and (as a second thought) why should that have been their primary job? Somehow I cannot visualise a recce pilot overstep his 'job' boundary over and over again to claim 15 vessels and get away with it.
I have no idea what it took to rebuild an A model to a D and the detailed circumstances, but is it possible the paintings on the tail is a remnant from a previous life and in fact has nothing to do with Orlowski?
Am I and Bronc the only ones who feel a bit uncomfortable with this situation?
Those who know more, could they use small calibre flak please and not 88 mm...
Cheers
Stig