IV.NJG.1 - Ofw. Paul Gildner - BF-110 (G9+HM) - Febr-Mar '41

[jjp_nl]

Hi everyone,

I’m Jelmer from the Netherlands. One of my hobbies is building scale-models. I’m currently looking into doing a German Night Fighter project, and a fairly ‘specific’ one at that.

I have a bit of a ‘weak spot’ for the German Night Fighters as I happen to live near Leeuwarden Airforce base, which during the war was developed and used by the Germans, going from no more then a strech of grass into an important Fliegerhorst for German Nightfighter operations.

An interesting starting point for a modelling project was to do the night fighter that achieved the first dunkelnachtjagd victory while operating from Leeuwarden.

Off to do some research, fast forward the piecing together of the rough storie and people and planes involved. To summarize things, this is how it looks sofar.

The date of the above mentioned event is the night of 28 Febr-1 March 1941. The German pilot involved was Ofw. Paul Gildner (the soon to become ace that went on to score some 40+ victories until he died in a crash following engine trouble with his BG-110G4 in febr '43)

The nightfighter diaries and other sources put Gildner and his radio operator Rudi Muller at the helm of a 4./NJG.1 BF-110 with registration G9+HM on the night of 28 Febr- 1 March 1941. Patrolling sector 'Löwe' (Lion) Gildner intercepted and shot down a 105 Sqn Blenheim IV that crashed near the eastern outskirts of the city of Groningen. (note: the night fighterdiaries tables mentions a Wellington, whereas the text says it’s a Blenheim)

The Blenheim was a straggler, returning from a raid on Wilhelmshaven, with engine troubles, which made it an obvious target for Gildner. It was a Blenheim MKIV T1895. Only the pilot, Sgt. John S Heape, miraculously survived. According to Heape one of the eniges exploded knocking a large hole in the fuselage near the cockpit. It's through this hole Sgt. Heape in a semi-unconcious state kind of fell/stumbled out of the airplane and somehow managed to open his parachute...and lived to tell the tale.

Sofar, I’ve managed to piece together a pretty plausible story. However, in regard to actually building Gildners BF-110 I’m kind of in the dark (bad choice of words isn't it). Is there any information available about what Gildners plane might have looked like in spring ’41? I did find some profile (that comes with an Owl Decals aftermarket decal set) and a few pic’s of a BF-110 with the registration G9+HM of roughly a year later which turns it into a Bf 110E-2, WrNr 4384 which in early ’42 was flown by Oblt. Wilhelm Herget, and was involved in operation Donnerkeil. Also some pic’s are available of G9-HM lying on some shoreline in Norway/Denmark.

However, I’ve not been able to find any information on what G9-HM (if it’s even the same plane) looked like a year earlier at the time of Gildners victory over the Blenheim. I did find a few night-time close-up pic’s of a BF-110 that are said to be of Gildners plane in spring '41, but other then establish that it was a typical black coloured night fighter that looked pretty scruffy in places (former ZG colors showing through the overall black paint?) nothing can be made of these as far as specific features, marking etc. is concerned (sharks mouth/ID bands etc. etc.) If somebody told me it was Santa's plane, I could have easily believed him too (to give an idea iof how much information can be obtained from these pictures. In addition, these close-up pic's (unclear as they are) suggest that it's a BF-110C, although looking at it I can't say for sure as the shape of the nose isn't very cleary visable.

Any information on this particular BF-110 would be greatly appreciated.

Jelmer