Bf-109 to identify - III./JG 27

[Henofred]

Hi/Bonjour,

The Museum answered. Unfortunately, they only have a paper-picture, which is cut off at the bottom, so there is no way to read completely what is written.

Best regards,
Frederic

[INM@RLM]

This loss of 19-May-40 is also worth considering.

From Peter Cornwell's Battle of France, Then and Now p.326:
"I./JG1 Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3. Wrecked in forced-landing at St Quentin due to petrol failure. Pilot believed unhurt. Aircraft a write-off.
Confirmed in the table at Prien+Stemmer+Rodeike+Bock: Jagdfliegerverbände Teil 3 p.81 as 75% damaged but the entry above is rather more revealing.

I./JG 1 had only transferred forward from Gymnich near Cologne in the Rhineland to Charleville on the evening of 16th May. Charleville lies at the very edge of the featureless, rolling but almost-flat-as-a-pancake plain stretching from the Ardennes to the French coast. St Quentin sits in the middle part of that plain. Not easy to find your way in a single-seater when you are unfamiliar with such terrain. Either returning alone from a combat mission or the Rottenflieger happened to have been able to use less fuel. Very embarrassing given that the aircraft's back is well and truly broken, but somewhat understandable as to the getting lost.

So circumstantially this looks a reasonably good fit.

The ambulance was not for the pilot. The aircraft has been photographed in the middle of being dismantled, and it is clearly apparent that the wing cannon and the cowling machine guns have already been recovered.

The presence of the ambulance is probably only precautionary; a SOP at every recovery where the aircraft was know to be fitted with 'live' armament. Given the relaxed postures of the individuals in this photo, it probably does not indicate that there had been an accident during removal of the armament and ammunition.

The WNr. is unreadable in this reproduction but there is plentiful evidence of I./JG 1 having on charge in this period multiple examples of Bf 109 E-3s marked in this identical style from the large Erla block W.Nr. 1074 to 1574. The distinctive marking of the Rotring oil filler cap on these aircraft is also clearly apparent here. (Photos in PSRB: Jagdfliegerverbände Teil 3 especially pp.82/5.)

[The Messerschmitt Änderungs Anweisungen Übersicht confirms the sub-type as E-3; Erla E-4s only began with WNr. 1575.]

[Henofred]

Hello/Bonjour INM@RLM,

Very interesting answer with this crossing of information. A big thank you to you for your research to make (or to try) this photography "speak".

Best regards,
Frederic

[INM@RLM]

A pleasure. Picqued my interest.

One other point occurs. On this machine the fuselage Trennlinie for the upper surface colours is very high; just a narrow strip of darker shades down the spine of the aircraft.
In this same period other I./JG 1 aircraft have a noticeably lower Trennlinie that starts from the level of the bottom ledge of the cockpit canopy. Both finishes are evident in photos of the unit's aircraft during their brief sojourn at Charleville, with the majority of those seen having the higher dividing line. (See PSRB Teil 3 pp.78/80.)
Others will have studied this more closely, but the higher Trennlinie seems to have been superseded by the lower version (e.g WNr. 1559, Teil 3 pp.78/80) with that in turn being replaced by a division midway between the two earlier forms, when mottling of the fuselage sides was added at the manufacturer (e.g. WNr. 1609 dated in Aug-40 at Carquebut, Teil 4/I, p.412 top). On the surviving evidence then the high Trennlinie on this aircraft is more suggestive of a May date than one in August.

This photo is as much to do with Brittany as the three photos of a Go 145 hanging down the side of a building in Orléans. (Search the Musée site for Avion Allemands.) These have simply been rescued from photo albums, and the scribbles along the bottom border here are clearly remnants of the owner's handwritten captions in his album.