r/WWIIplanes

German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 assault aircraft from the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Close Air Support Group (II./SG2), captured at the Luftwaffe's Chersonesos airfield during the battles for the liberation of Crimea. In the background, a Messerschmitt Bf 109F fighter. Photo is dated 13.05.1944.

After the publication of the recent image, which has drawn much attention, I have decided to change the order of the pictures published by me, to protect the faint hearted and AI-fobic people from unwillingly seeing a colorized and remastered image. Those of you, who are willing to see it, can use the arrow button :)
The second image has been remastered and colorized with the assistance of AI agents.

The third picture shows an overview of the facility with several firing positions as well as the launch rail.

My v father is standing, second from the right, Joseph Evans, navigator. Would like to know the names of the other members of the crew if anyone can help. Thanks.

Missions to Blechhammer are commemorated in an excellent private museum, run by the Blechhammer-1944 Association. It is located in a WWII-era air raid bunker, walking distance to the Blechhammer North complex, in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland.
The missions, the factories, slave labor and POW camps are presented in much detail, and you can see a lot of historical artifacts there.
I have been working with this group since 2000. Back then, they had a lot of info about American crash sites, but could not link them to any particular aircraft. I had a lot of archival documents, but did not know where exactly the American planes went down. This, and the fact they are good people, made it a natural collaboration and friendship between us.

Check their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/18pZ6HK16M/?mibextid=wwXIfr

And subscribe to my substack, and find out more stories about the USAAF over Poland.

https://substack.com/@usaafoverpoland

The Me 410 has jettisoned its canopy for the crew to bail out. Stears accumulated 3.5 victories after October 3, 1943 before he himself was shot down and captured April 9, 1944.

In November 1942, personnel from No. 450 Squadron RAAF captured a serviceable Henschel Hs 126 in the Libyan desert during the Allied advance following the Second Battle of El Alamein. The aircraft had apparently been abandoned by its Luftwaffe crew near Sollum after mechanical trouble or fuel problems.

A recovery party from 450 Squadron travelled to the site on 13 November 1942 and carried out repairs in the field. The aircraft was made airworthy and flown back to the squadron’s base at Gambut shortly afterwards. Australian personnel repainted the aircraft with RAF roundels and the squadron code OK.

The captured Hs 126 was used mainly as a squadron hack aircraft for communications flights, local reconnaissance, and transport duties around North Africa.

More photos here

reuploading as the last version didnt seem to load. this is NOT colorized or upscaled per the original source

The 2nd image shows Navy Seabee Artists Lawrence (rt) and Kantz (2nd from rt) posing with their nose art handiwork, at Tinian, circa 1944-45. Also present are USAAF SGTs William L. Patton and William E. Cunningham (crew chief)

Saw this and was quite interested in the view over the engine or nose of those four aircraft, especially the P38.

So this image started me on a little exploration. None of this is new discoveries. But I am putting it all in one place here. I think for the first time. I think all of this is correct. Hope so anyway. If not please correct me.

So the markings caught my eye and started me on a little research project. The "C" on the fuselage and the red stripe on what is left of the vertical stabilizer are or relevance. The red stripe indicates that the plane has a magnetic anomaly detector for hunting submarines. Unlike the American equivalent the Japanese MAD detector did not need to have any outward visible protuberance (or tail sting). And it was deemed by the Americans after the war to be of equal effectiveness to their own equipment.

Under ideal conditions the Japanese would fly a number of these planes in formation while doing a sweep for enemy submarines. And that is where the "C" marking comes in. It was a visual aid to maintain the proper spacing/formation.

Imagine you are flying in a plane and looking at this one. When you are in the proper position the "C" appears as a circle. So that must mean that the near wing of this plane is in position to fill the gap in the "C." When that happens you are in the correct position and the effectiveness of the combined/multiple MAD detectors on the formation of planes are maximized.

That was the plan. Reality meant that frequently due to shortages of both fuel and such planes they operated alone.

This is a postwar interview of a Japanese officer with knowledge of MAD equipment and history of its use.

Link.

Here is a quite detailed postwar intelligence report on Japanese Magnetic Airborne Detectors.

All you would ever need to know really.

So now when you see a weird "C" on a Japanese plane. That is what it is there for. So that's how I spent part of Victoria Day! Happy Victoria Day everyone!