Questions on early career of Werner Machold of 1./JG2

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

At the EOE Working Group (WG) we're working on a series of aircraft color profiles documenting the WW II career of RKT Werner Machold through the period 1939-40.

We know that Lt. Paul Temme flew "White 5" in Sept., 1939, during the early period of the phoney way in the west before being promoted to the Gruppenstab. At that point, someone else must have taken over "White 5" and continued flying it for the rest of 1939 and into 1940. There is evidence to suggest that this was Werner Machold, who was an Obfw by the beginning of the WC/FC, and quickly became a major "ace."

Without Machold's FB, this may be impossible to know, but can anyone confirm that Machold took over and flew "White 5" after Temme gave it up, and when this might have happened? Assuming that Machold's took over Temme's old a/c during the fall of 1939 or later, what a/c number was Machold flying before this, during the early part of the war? His RKT bio says that he had joined 1./JG2 by the beginning of the war, so he had to have been flying some other a/c number for at least a while as Temme was flying "White 5" at that time.

Final question, what rank was Machold at the beginning of WWII? It seems likely that he would have been a Fw, but I don't have any hard evidence for that.

Is it just possible that his FB survives somewhere either with his family or in a private collection? Does anyone know?

Your help in answering any of these questions will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator