Yellow 1 I/JG54 Spring 1944

[Del Davis]

Here is another aircraft from the AKH film archive, File # 162. Can anyone assist with the writing under the cockpit and speculate as to who may have flown Yellow 1?

[sidney]

I believe that the writing under the cockpit reads "Im Auftrage der Reichsbahn" ("In service of the Reich's Railway"), and the pilot might have been Waldemar Wübke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldemar_W%C3%BCbke

[Del Davis]

That was my first thought but I could not read the caption well enough. Since I/JG54 was flying the FW-190 at the time, what Staffel did Wübke belong to at this time? 11/JG54?

[sidney]

According to JFV 10/III, Oblt. Wübke was the Staffelkapitaen of 7./JG 54 (i.e., in the west) until at least 31 December 1943.

I see a couple of possibilities here. Firstly, the writing under the cockpit is hard to read, so it might not be "Im Auftrage der Reichsbahn" after all, but only similar in style.

Secondly - the aircraft might not have belonged to I./JG 54, which at that time, supposedly the spring of 1944, was equipped with the Fw 190 A aircraft, but some other unit. If the plane indeed belonged to JG 54, one possible candidate could be IV./JG 54, which until at least until 31 December 1943 did not introduce a Gruppenzeichen on the aft fuselage of its aircraft.

Regards,
Sinisa

[Russ Fahey]

Hello Del & Sinisa,

Del, you got it close! Wübke was flying with IV/JG 54 at the time of the photo (after March 19, 1944), but this was with 12./IV/JG 54, not 11./JG 54 (black numbers). Wübke had taken over as s.k. from Gerhard Koall, who assumed command over IV/JG 54. The still photos of yellow 1 (taken from the Leykauf movie) were most likely filmed at either Dorpat or Idriza airfields.

12./JG 54 had been designated 4.(Jabo)/JG 54 up until late March/April 1944, but it had been under the administrative command of IV/JG 54 since sometime in late 1943. The Staffel had flown FW 190s with white letter markings (probably black in winter), but after March 19,1944, the unit began flying the Me 109 G6, marked with yellow numbers appropriate for the 12th staffel (new designation) of the IVth group.

I'd therefore conclude that the crash-landed Me 109 "yellow 1", with the "Im Auftrage der Reichsbahn" logo, was highly likely to be the regular airplane of Waldemar Wübke, s.k. of 12./JG 54. The timeframe was probably sometime after late March through April, 1944.

Russ

[sidney]

Hello Russ,

Thank you for the exhaustive reply.

Regards,
Sinisa

[Del Davis]

Russ
Thank you for the comprehensive update

[FalkeEins]

there is some super footage on reel 162 with a section entitled Filmtagebuch einer Jagdstaffel featuring one of Leykauf's F-2s and a clip depicting the refuelling of the Kommandeur's machine ( III./JG 54).

[Russell]

Hi

There are lots of further great finds on the site. So far I have looked at II ZG 76 in early 1941, ZG 1 in Russia, JGr 50 with close ups of Graf and Grislawski's 109s, including the removal of the rudder from Grislawski's rudder which he marched off with, presumably the rudder surviving to this day, The is also 10 minutes on Jagd Grup Sud at Cazaux in 1942, and 2 lots of films on KG 51.


More interesting to me are the personalities that appear.

Cheers

Russell

[John Beaman]

Isn't the aircraft perhaps a G-2 or 4? Note where they are refueling--not for the F. Note the heavy windscreen frame and the two scoops visible ahead of the intake.