Gloster G.5 with Luftwaffe

[RolandF]

April 16th, 1942 Fliegerschule der Luftwaffe (S) 1 a Gloster G.5 was damaged 45% when force-landing after engine failure at Lichtenfeld. Does anybody have info about this particular type and the incident? TIA

Regards
RolandF

[Tom Willis]

The construction number was 45829. Clearly a Gloster Gladiator captured from Russian stocks via ex Baltic States

[Nick Beale]

There was an article very long ago about these Gladiators. As far was I remember it was by Rick Chapman in Scale Models magazine and included a few photos. Also I think they carried four-character codes.

[AndyMa]

This was an ex Latvian machine I believe, NJ+BO

[RolandF]

So G.5 was the Gloster designation for the Gladiator. Thank you for the clarification. Those designations are hard to find in the net. Could somebody give me a hint for a synopsis?
Those Gladiators were ex-Latvian and ex-Lithuanian fighters captured by the Soviet Airforce and again captured by the Luftwaffe at Siauliai(Schaulen) and Jekabpils(Jakobstadt) airfield during Barbarossa.

Regards
RolandF

[Graham Boak]

No, this was not the Gloster designation for the Gladiator. It presumably was the individual code in one of its previous air forces.

[Orwell1984]

Not sure if this muddies the waters:
https://www.magzter.com/stories/Flyi...-Gladiator-Pt2

The first twelve Gloster built machines were delivered before the end of 1937, and the first Sabca assembled machine was delivered in April 1938. Gloster-built aircraft were given numbers G5-1 to G5-15 before they left Gloster’s factory, and Sabca-build aircraft were registered with numbers G-17 to G-38.

So G.5 appears to be connected to Belgian Gladiators.

[Tom Willis]

G5 was not an official Gloster designation but given by the Luftwaffe Intelligence officer who first compiled the loss report and this Type G5 stuck. A bit like references to captured MiG 3s were given the Type No I-61. I cannot confirm that the G5 reference meant anything to do with the Belgian production of Gladiators just one Lw Officer's idea of a Gloster Type who did not know that they had the collective name of Gladiator. The Germans relied on up-dated Intelligence Reports of Foreign Types and perhaps one did refer to the Gloster Gladiator as a Type G5.

[Nick Beale]

Re my earlier post, the article was by Karl Kössler in the June 1982 issue of Scale Models, Rick Chapman was the translator. Scans of the two pages are attached, hoping that, 39 years on, this is acceptable as fair use for scholarly purposes.

(Note:the original article was in monochrome but the paper had discoloured with age so I've cleaned it up in Photoshop)

[RolandF]

Thank you for this info

Regards
RolandF