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Old 5th August 2013, 00:39
Larry Hickey Larry Hickey is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Boulder, Colorado USA
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Larry Hickey
Re: Seeking photos and ultimate fate of 2./JGr152 Bf109D-1 flown by Gefr A. Hesselbach SD & POW on the German-French border near Sarreguemines on 24.0

Chris,

Just downloaded and looked at the very large number of unidentified Bf109D-1 photos that you sent from your collection. Only a few FL a/c and none that jumped out at me. A fair number of these mystery a/c are probably identifiable, but it perfectly exemplifies the problem I'm having in creating unit profile a/c from this period. At least some photos of the D-1s from 1 and 3./ZG52 and 1 and 3./JG152 are probably sitting in the unidentified files of collectors, including some of the top German collections.

Without a date, location or unit of the source collection, these can only be identified by unique prop spinner markings or a/c number stencil styles, when they are unique enough to help. Unfortunately, for these two units we don't know the prop spinner style, although we know the style for 2 Staffel, which is a 3/4 solid red spinner front, with a very thin white ring just ahead of solid black spinner back plate (See JFV 2, P.544). How the hell this was adapted for 1 and 3 staffel is anyone's guess because the white ring would be all but invisible against yellow spinner fronts, on all but the highest resolution photos. Obviously it would be invisible and thus not applied to any 1 Staffel a/c if it followed the same pattern. Perhaps we're looking for 109D-1s with 3/4 white or yellow fronts and black back plates.

Another way to get at this might be to look at the Ar68Es of I./ZG143 during early 1939, as the prop spinners of 2 Staffel a/c there, in the I./ZG52 predecessor unit, used a similar pattern to 2./ZG52 -- a red front half followed by the thin white ring, and a black rear half (See P.374 of JFV I). Perhaps someone has photos of a/c of that unit from 1 and 3 Staffel which might tip us off to the spinner patterns used in the successor units.

The a/c numbers tend to be rounded in style, but otherwise look similar to those of many other units of the time. We do know that we're looking for photos (other than for forced-landings or crashes) that would have been taken at the airfields at Biblis (01.09.39-31.10.39), Odendorf (31.10.39-29.11.39) or Düsseldorf-Lohausen (2911.39-06.01.40).

So, that is the challenge. Can anyone help solve this mystery?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator
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Larry Hickey
Eagles Over Europe Project Coordinator
http://airwar-worldwar2.com
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