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Willi Reschke
| Oberfeldwebel Willi Reschke (deceased) One of the outstanding younger Luftwaffe pilots, Willi Reschke was one of the leading members of JG300 Wilde Sau flying the Fw190A in the 'Defence of the Reich'. Towards the latter months of the war he transferred to the Stabsschwarm of JG301, still flying the Fw190A. Awarded the Knight's Crossin April 1945, he was credited with 26 victories - all in the west - including 18 four engined bombers. He died on 5th July 2017. |
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Fw190A-4, Winter 1944 by Ivan Berryman. The Fw190A-4 was introduced in July 1942, and was equipped with the same engine and basic armament as the A-3. A total of 976 A-4s were built between June 1942 and March 1943. Some of the most successful fighter aces of the Luftwaffe flew the Fw190. Otto Kittel scored 267 vicotries, Erich Rudorffer claimed 222 kills, and Walter Nowotny 258 victories. The majority of their kills were scored while flying the Fw190. |
Willi Reschke's Fw190A8 of III./JG301 during October 1944 by Ivan Berryman. No text for this item |
Timber Wolf by Nicolas Trudgian. Leutnant Klaus Bretschneider, Staffelkapitan of 5./JG300 kicks up the dust as he taxies his Fw190 A-8 Red One from its forest hiding place into the sunlight in preparation for take-off. The scene is northern Germany, November 1944. The Staffelkapitan will lead his 190s in a massed sturm intercept upon incoming American bombers. With Allied fighters dominating the skies, Luftwaffe fighter units took desperate measures to conceal their whereabouts. Commonplace were these hurriedly prepared strips, often near dense forests. |
Fw190F Fighters - Winter 1943 by Ivan Berryman. A pair of Fw190F fighters during the winter of 1943. The Fw190F and G had become the Luftwaffes standard fighter-bomber for ground attack. The Fw190F was very effective in this role. Additional armour protection was given to ground-attack variants and the G version also could carry a single 4,000-pound (1,800-kg) bomb or numbers of smaller bombs. The Fw190 was also used as a successful night fighter during the autumn and early winter of 1943-44, using conventional daylight methods to attack RAF bombers after searchlights had illuminated them. |
Hunters at Dawn by Robert Taylor. Those Aces with over 100 victories were exceptional. To reach 200 victories was a spectacular achievement. Yet two men went even further and accomplished a feat that will never be repeated - both of them shot down more than 300 enemy aircraft which placed them in a league of their own. They were the elite of the elite, and their names are legendary - Erich Hartmann and Gerhard Barkhorn. It is no surprise that these iconic Aces scored their victories whilst flying with the legendary fighter wing JG52. Active from the beginning of the war, the unit fought in the Battle of France, but suffered terrible losses during the Battle of Britain before transferring to the Eastern Front at the outset of Operation Barbarossa, and it was here that it solidified its fearsome reputation. Operating the Bf109 throughout the war, the Geschwader boasted some of the greatest Luftwaffe pilots of world war two among its ranks - including the top three Aces of all time. Such renowned pilots as Gunther Rall (275 victories), Wilhelm Batz (237 victories), Hermann Graf (212 victories) and Helmut Lipfert (203 victories) helped this formidable unit notch up more than 10,000 victories, making it the most successful fighter wing in history. Hunters at Dawn features Hptm. Gerhard Barkhorn, Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG52. The great Ace, flying his Bf109 G-6, leads the Stab as they climb out from their base near the Black Sea, early November 1943. The crisp air of day break is temporarily punctuated by the roar of Daimler-Benz engines as the deadly Messerschmitt fighters set off on their daily hunt for Soviet aircraft over the front line. |
Storm Chasers by Nicolas Trudgian. Even the most faithful of Messerschmitt Me 109 pilots that also flew the Focke-Wulf Fw190 grudgingly admitted the well-proportioned and aesthetically pleasing Fw190 was the finest single-seat fighter in the Luftwaffes armoury during World War II. Soon after its arrival on the Channel Front in 1941, when initial bugs were ironed out, this superb fighter came close to fighter design perfection by the standards of the day. Just as the Mk IX Spitfire held the mantle as Britains most outstanding combat fighter of the war, so was the Fw190 regarded by experienced Luftwaffe pilots. Within months of its operational debut the Fw190 was causing widespread consternation among RAF pilots, the new fighter equal to the Mk IX Spitfire in all but its ability in the tightest of turning circles. By 1944 the technically superb Fw190 came into its own in the great air battles against the USAAFs massed daylight raids. The defence of the Reichs western airspace rested on the shoulders of a few Jagdgschwarden who, against steadily increasing odds, were tasked with interception and destruction of the attacking American heavy bombers. Flying alongside the two established Channel fighter wings JG2 Richthofen and JG26 Schlageter, equipped with Fw190s and led by the great fighter ace Oberst Walter Oesau, JG1 joined the battle in defence of northern Germany. Nicolas Trudgians painting Storm Chasers depicts the Fw190As of I./JG1, distinguished by their distinctive black and white striped cowls, scrambling from the snow-covered Dortmund airfield on 10 February 1944 to intercept another inbound American daylight raid. Nicks dramatic view of this technically supreme fighter conveys its true class as it hurtles over the airfield, its undercarriage retracting as the Fw190 accelerates into the climb. Below, sharing the airfield with I./JGI, are the Fw190s of the newly formed Sturmstaffel 1, identified by their black-white-black tail bands, seen taxiing out to join in the interception. Despite bad weather conditions the Luftwaffes defending fighters scored heavily that day, inflicting severe losses on the Americans, claiming 29 bombers and 8 fighters shot down in the action. |
Last Days by David Pentland. Berlin, Germany, 24th April 1945. Following an escort mission near the capital, the Ta152H of Stabsschwarm JG301 encountered a group of Soviet Yak 9s. In the ensuing dogfight, Hauptmann Hermann Stahl was shot sown while Oberfeldwebel Willi Reschke Green 9 and Oberfeldwebel Walter Loos Green 4 claimed 2 Yaks destroyed each. |
Ramraiders by Richard Taylor. Within two days of the D-Day Normandy invasion, on 8 June 1944 Commander of US Air Forces in Europe, General Carl Spaatz, ordered a massive new offensive to halt the supply of oil to the enemy forces. As top priority his bombers would henceforth concentrate their attacks on Germanys oil refineries. Those in range of air bases in England would feel the full force of the Eighth Air Force, while the installations further south in Romania, Hungary, and southern Germany would be attacked by bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy. To add to the pressure, RAF Bomber Command was coordinated to attack the refineries in the Ruhr by night. As the huge mass of American bombers streamed into the daylight skies, the Luftwaffe quickly changed tactics to counter the potentially devastating threat with a new specialist tactic - the Sturmgruppe. Flying their redesigned and heavily armoured Sturmbocke Fw190A-8 heavy fighters, pilots of the newly formed IV Sturm/JG3 Gruppe were urgently assigned the task of attacking the vast bomber streams in an effort to protect the refineries. Escorted into battle by Me 109s to hold off any escorting American fighters, the Fw190s tactic was to make en-masse lightning attacks on carefully selected targets. With the American bomber formations spread over miles of sky, the Sturmgruppe aimed for the less well defended centre of the stream, attacking from the rear with concentrated cannon fire. With the pilots of IV Sturm JG3 sworn on oath to press home their attacks at the closest possible range, even ramming their targets if necessary to ensure a kill, these desperate tactics were to inflict considerable damage to the allied bomber offensive during the final year of the war. |
The Long Short Days by Robert Taylor. It was known as the Jagdverbande, the fighter arm of the Luftwaffe, and by June 1940 it boasted some of the world's greatest fighter pilots. With tactics honed to perfection, these battle-seasoned veterans dominated the skies of Europe. But as the war progressed, the Luftwaffe fighter pilots faced another battle, the increasingly desperate war of attrition as the Allied air forces slowly, but inevitably, ground the German war machine into defeat. By early 1945 Allied air supremacy was overwhelming. And yet despite overwhelming odds, from within their ranks came the most successful air Aces ever to fly in combat - names such as Hans-Joachim Marseille, the top-scoring fighter pilot in the West, the legendary Erich Rudorffer who scored more multiple victories than any other pilot and of course the Fighter General, Adolf Galland, who achieved all of his 104 victories in the West. In total more than 100 Luftwaffe fighter pilots are known to have scored 100 or more victories, and 568 Jagdverbande flyers were holders of the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest awarded military honor. Robert Taylor's stunning painting, beautifully captures a group of Bf109Gs from III./JG26, as they return to their forward base after a long fighter sweep along the Channel coast in early 1944. In his unmistakable style, and with inordinate skill, Robert deftly evokes a moment of rare tranquility amidst the carnage of war as the lengthening sun glints across the frozen landscape during the short days of winter. |
Dawn Eagles Rising by Robert Taylor. September 1940: The Battle of Britain reaches a crescendo as Me109s of the 1./JG52, their bright yellow noses glinting in the sun, gather speed and altitude as they form up after take-off from their base at Coquelles, near Calais. Led by Hauptmann Wolfgang Ewald, the Scharwm settle into their loose, finger-four formation, the pilots alert for danger and ready for yet another raid on England, just a few miles across the Channel. |
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