Some impressive JG 54 Eastern Front footage on Youtube

[Mysticpuma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOL0-q3KtKg

Cheers. MP

[Nokose]

Does anyone know who took this footage in III/JG 54? The one belly landed Messerschmitt appears to be Bf 109 G-2 (10 436) ge. 3+~ flown by Obfw. Siegfried Müller 9/JG 54 at Krasnogrvardeysk on the 09Sep1942 resulting in 30% damage. The Soviet twin engine aircraft flying over the water at the beginning I assume are flying over Lake Ladoga so maybe PS-84 (Li-2) transports. They could have left out the counter numbers as it took away from watching the video.

[sidney]

I think that the opening sequences with the Bf 109 F-2 "Black 3" of 8./JG 54 piloted by Erwin Leykauf are taken sometime in the summer of 1941, so those aircraft might have flown over the Baltic sea as well, although it is hard to tell, because the footage is mixed 1941-42 issue.

[Von Alles]

Maybe too slim for Li 2s perhaps DB-3/IL 4 ?

[Von Alles]

Note at 10:19 : a MG FF 20mm drum is pulled off from the Bf 109 : a less common F-1 model, still in use in 1942.

[Nick Hector]

As Sidney pointed out, that's Erwin Leykauf at the start, given that his mount is identifiable as a Bf109F-1 or F-2 (C-3 fuel triangle for 96 Octane Fuel), could this be one of the DB-3s he claimed on July 6th, 1941? Or perhaps the single one claimed on July 14th?

[CJE]

His aircraft sports already 10 victory bars, a score he reached on 17 July and he did not add up any kill until 2 September (AFAIK).

[Nick Hector]

Originally Posted by CJE

His aircraft sports already 10 victory bars, a score he reached on 17 July and he did not add up any kill until 2 September (AFAIK).

Hey that's a good point. Perhaps the Leykauf footage and the gun camera footage might not be as closely related as we might have assumed....

Nick

[Mark Steinitz]

I'm interested in the segment of this film from 39:11:16 to 40:06:20, which shows what looks to be a Bf 109 G-2 with a Gruppenkommandeur chevron from III./JG 54. I speculate that the film was taken in late summer-fall 1942 because of when the G-2 was introduced and because the crew servicing the aircraft is dressed for mild temperatures. If I am correct in what the film shows, it would suggest that the plane belonged to Hauptmann Reinhard Seiler. However, the plane in the film differs in several aspects from a color drawing one generally sees to represent Seiler's G-2 in September 1942 at Lissino, USSR. The plane in the film is not armed with 20 mm underwing canon. The large chevron on the plane in the film is wider than in the popular picture and the small chevron is open, not closed. The Balkenkreuz in the film is not painted on a broad yellow theater band. In the film, the theater band appears much more narrow and appears to bisect the wavy III Gruppe marking. Could this be an earlier or later version of the Seiler plane in the drawing? Is it a separate aircraft? I'd like to solicit ideas on the identity of the plane in the film. If Seiler flew it, when did he fly it and did he score any victories in it?

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

This movie comes from this German archive: http://www.archiv-akh.de/