Set of photos - Cham airfield and others (?) 1945

[ChristianK]

Gentlemen,
a find which many of you will like I am sure:

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/show...t=91600&page=4
http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/show...t=91600&page=3

Visible are some german and hungarian aircraft which were captured by US forces at Cham, according to the owner. This set of photos was unknown to me before.
Page 3 in this forum (the second link) has three additional shots from an unknown airfield, one of them captioned as "Worms". Oddly enough, a similar shot of the same scene was posted here as "Cham" too: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...highlight=cham. This is somehow mysterious, but perhaps some of our members can solve this puzzle.

Regards,
Christian

P.S. Can someone please identify the B-24 and those two DLH Ju 52s? One of them carries the registration D-A.SD, the other D-A..U or D-A..O. Any idea?

[Simon Schatz]

WoW! Christian thank you for the links! Amazing pics from Austria!

The B-24 is a B-24J(44-41108) of 747. BS 456. Bomber Group, 15 AAF. The plane was lost during a raid to Prag (March 25, 1945)

Source: Martin Handig's "Verluste der deutschen Luftwaffe in Österreich September 1943 bis März 1945

I have no idea where cham airfield was. In the mentioned book it's located as Linz Hörsching or maybe Gmunden. If you notice the mountains in the background Gmunden is more realistic.

Cheers, Simon

[ChristianK]

Hi Simon, you're welcome and thanks for the ID of the B-24! Cham is actually located in Upper Palatia/Bavaria, close to the czech border. However, this area also doesn't seem to feature such high mountains as visible in some of the photos. So I guess there is a good possibility that the airfield with the B-24/Ju 52s isn't Cham, albeit the owner says so. On the other hand, I have never visited Cham personally, so others are free to correct me. Is there another photo of this aircraft grouping in Handig's book? Regards, Christian

[Simon Schatz]

In Handig's book are 5 more pics of this area!
4 pics showing the B24 with Ju52 and Bf 109. And the Si 204D from another view is also in the book. All pics come from Crow collection and are signed with Linz Hörsching. (what is wrong in my opinion)

If I remember you have Martin's email. Contact him regarding this new pics. Maybe he knows more.

Cheers,

[ChristianK]

Oh, this evil book - When I heard of it for the first time there was already a new edition announced, so I didn't bother to buy the older one and decided to wait. Now I am waiting dearly and patient since 2010 .

In the meantime it might be a good idea to drop Martin a line. Thanks for the reminder!

Christian

[Martin388]

Our ÖFH Sonderband 30 book was published by Austrian Aircraft Historians (ÖFH) Verein with only a limited number of copies mainly for club members. As it was soon sold out, a decision had to be made to either reprint or wait for an updated extendend version.
The extendend version (The German Lw in Austria-ÖFH Sonderband 31) will be more than twice as large. It is now in a final compilation stage and it contains not only a/c losses (09.43 to 05.45) but also a lists all Luftwaffe units in Austria 1938-45 and some 200 photos of Lw a/c in Austria. It will be published in 2012.

Regarding the Cham(-Michelsdorf)/Oberpfalz aircraft photos (e.g. Beute-B-24, Ju 52s, German and Hungarian Bf 109Gs) I have some doubts. Local Upper Austria aircraft historians claim similar photos (published in Sonderband 30) to be taken at Micheldorf, Oberösterreich/Traunkreis.
see Website: Segelflugverein Micheldorf not Alps in the background:
http://www.micheldorf.at/system/web/...lonr=219414762

Martin

[ChristianK]

Well, this clears things up! Thanks Martin for your comments and your e-mail reply. So this might be the location we are looking for: N 47° 52' 15'', E 14° 07' 30''. When you compare the b/w photos to newer ones it even seems the aviators in Micheldorf still use the same hangar building the Luftwaffe did back in the 1940s. Great info!

This also might explain why the original photo owner on thefirearmsforum.com stated this was Cham. The airfield in Bavaria is named Cham-Michelsdorf, so there was some mix-up with Micheldorf in Upper Austria. It also seems his grandfather paid a visit to both airfields during his wartime career. Confusing but solvable, thanks to you guys.

Regards,
Christian

[S Sheflin]

Hi Christian,

Thank you for your exciting discovery.

Bf109G 18+ - is extremely interesting to me. The old-style canopy lying atop its fuselage initially fooled me. However, after noticing that its Erla 2 canopy is still in place, its small plane number and II. Gruppe bar, and that it sports the deeper Fo 987 oil cooler, I strongly suspect that this may be yet another II./JG52 Bf109G-10.

Steve Sheflin

[ChristianK]

Hi Steve, good spotting, but you missed the Rb camera in the fuselage. You could be right with your II./JG 52 assumption, though. The particular marking style and the location of the airfield surely don't speak against it. Perhaps a recon plane pressed into service with this fighter unit?

Christian

[Marc-André Haldimann]

Hallo Christian!

An amazing and harrowing link you found there; I've never seen such a graphic account of the 1944 - 1945 US drive through Germany.

As for the planes and places chapter, now:

Steve:
- the plain underwing Balkenkreuz, typical for all WNF produced Bf 109 G-10, is a strong pointer for "kleine Schwarze 18" being a WNF built G-10/R2 in the 770xxx W.Nr. range. The small tactical numerals might also indicate a NAGr. unit ?

- I checked out the other Bf 109's to be seen: given the available data published in 2007 by Lynn Ritger, one of them is with high probability a sister ship of Bf 109 G-14 W.Nr. 511 037 "White 9", 1./101, found at war's end in Zeltweg. The plane to be seen in three pics could thus be also a Bf 109 G-14 in the 511xxx W.Nr. range. The unit can be readily identified through the 30 cm yellow cowling band and white tactical markings; it is thus "Fehér 5", 1./101 Vadaszsazad, Hungarian Air Force.

Source: Rittger, L. (2007), The Messerchmitt Bf 109. A comprehensive guide for the modeller. Part 2: "F" to "K" variants, SAM publications, p. 115.

- The second hungarian Bf 109 can't be identified more precisely as only it's front part with torn DB 605 A can be seen...

Thanks again for your tremendous find
Marc