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Herman Schleinhage
| Leutnant Hermann Schleinhage (deceased) Born in 1916 Hermann Schleinhage joined I./JG3 as an Unteroffizier in 1941 before being posted to join II./JG54 Green Hearts in May 1942. He then flew continuously with JG54 through to the end of the war, by which time he was Staffelkapitan of 8./JG54. Flying a total of 484 combat missions, by the end of the war Hermann Schleinhage had reached a total of 98 victories, including 38 Soviet Il-2 Shturmoviks. In February 1945 he was awarded the Knights Cross. |
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Savage Skies by Robert Taylor. The weather on the morning of 31 December, 1944 was already unpleasant. In the Ardennes, hard-pressed German troops were battling Allied ground forces advancing through several inches of snow. Above, darkening skies heralded the arrival of more snow. At 10.45am, in deteriorating weather, a battle formation of 30 Fw190D fighters climbed out of Varrelbusch and headed south over the snowcovered landscape. Under the command of 12./JG54 Staffelkapitan, Oblt. Hans Dortenmann, and initially tasked to provide air cover to their beleaguered comrades below, the group was re-assigned to intercept enemy aircraft in the region of Limburg almost immediately the pilots were airborne. Flying south they ran directly into the oncoming weather, and with visibility dangerously reduced, Dortenmann elected to climb through the solid cloud into clear air. As the Fw190s broke cloud above the area of Koblenz they sighted a formation of nine 2nd Air Division B-24 Liberators and formed up for an attack. Some 6000 feet above, top-cover P-51 Mustangs had watched the Fw190s climbing through the banks of clouds, and turned 180 degrees to position behind the Luftwaffe fighters. Diving in from their height advantage, the Mustang pilots entered the fray and within seconds the sky was filled with swirling dogfights. |
Horrido! by Robert Taylor. Of the many outstanding Luftwaffe fighter Wings of World War II, JG52 became the most successful. Many of the most famous Aces flew with this legendary wing, including one-time Squadron Commander Adolf Galland. JG-52 was home to the only fighter Aces in history to destroy more than 300 enemy aircraft - Erich Hartmann and Gerhard Barkhorn. The wings top ten scoring Aces amassed a staggering 2286 aerial victories and, by the end of the war, JG-52s pilots had recorded over 10,000 aerial victories; sixty-seven of their number were awarded the coveted Knights Cross or higher decorations, but the cost to the Wing was high: 678 of its aircrew perished in combat, while many others were taken prisoner following combat. Appropriately, Robert Taylor has chosen the Me109s of JG52 as his subject to represent the fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe in his tribute to these courageous flyers, with his breathtaking painting Horrido! With the traditional battle cry ringing in their ears, Squadron Commander Hptm Wolfgang Ewald leads pilots of I./JG52 into combat. Based at Coquelles/Calais in September 1940, the JG-52 Me109s hurtle down in a high-speed dive to engage the enemy during the ferociously fought Battle of Britain. Robert eloquently depicts these sleek and deadly fighters high over the Channel, glinting and menacing against an ominous backdrop of heavy cumulous clouds. |
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