Good morning Gentlemen,
by courtesy of Andrew Arthy, Johannes, Peter Mosler (PMoz99), Matti Salonen and Evgeny Velichko I learned more about the most probable plane flown by Alfred Druschel when scoring his seven kills on 22./23.Jun1941.
The answers had a range from ‘Yes, he claimed all his victories in the Bf109E’ to ‘Druschel stopped flying the Hs123 in mid1940' to ‘We nee his flugbuch/combat report to know’.
The following statements about the equipment of his unit are of interest:
- II./LG2 had 2 Bf109 Staffeln and 1 Hs123 Staffel in preparation for the Balkans campaign
- II./LG2 had 38 Bf109’s and 22 Hs123's at the start of Barbarossa
- II./LG2 reports a mix of Hs123’s and Bf109’s destroyed or damaged on 22/23Jun1941, the Hs123 losses might have been suffered by 10./LG2 which was attached to II./LG2
- 4./LG2 had the last Hs123 loss on 5Jun1940, the first Bf109 loss on 3Sep1940, all losses after that were Bf109’s
It seems more like Druschel was flying a Bf109 and Georg Brütting’s statement remains the only one that clearly indicates a Hs123.
But: If anybody has ever scored 7 kills in the Hs123 at any time, then it might have been Druschel in the first two days of Barbarossa, right ?
Cheers,
Michael