Sunday 6 March 2016

more Russian Front Luftwaffe aces, Uffz Alfred Döllefeld "Gelbe 7", 9./JG 54, 9./ JG 3 ace Lt. Rolf Diergardt


 Bf 109 F-2 WNr.8086 Uffz Alfred Döllefeld "Gelbe 7", 9./JG 54, Notlandung 28.January 1942 at Gr. Machim due to engine damage (damage reported as 30%).Eastern Front, Winter 1941-1942


below; currently on offer via Manuel Rauh here



Zvezda 1:48th kit built by Brettas



Aces of 9./ JG 3, one of the most successful Staffeln in JG 3, from a well-known sequence (cf. Prien/Stemmer Messerschmitt Bf 109 im Einsatz bei der III./ JG 3 pages 215-224 ). Below, Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 ‘Yellow 8’ of 9./JG 3, May 1942. Ofw. Georg Schentke on the wing. III./JG 3 emblem on the cowl and the inscription 'Peterle' under the cockpit. Schentke's nickname.



III./JG 3 ace Georg Schentke had some 43 victories - the same total as his Staffel comrade Ofw. Eberhard von Boremski, as per the rudder scoreboard - when the Staffel left the Russian Front to collect new Friedrich F-4s in Straubing during May 1942. Schentke was later that year one of the leading aces in the Platzschutzstaffel Pitomnik but was shot down (KIA) in the vicinity of Stalingrad on Christmas Day 1942. Currently on offer here

Below; Staffelkapitän 9./JG 3 Oblt. Viktor Bauer in the cockpit of his 'Yellow 7', 'Ellen' was Bauer's wife..


 Below; photo print in my shoebox of another 9./ JG 3 ace Lt. Rolf Diergardt in the cockpit of his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 ‘Yellow 10’ ‘Li - Li - Li’ (WNr. 13324), Straubing, May 1942.  On 21 May, just two days after returning to the front - note the 'luggage' stowed behind his head - Diergardt returned his seventh victory in this machine. On 13 June ‘Yellow 10’‘Li - Li - Li’ was hit by another aircraft on the ground and sustained damages assessed at 20%. Diergardt was KIA on 11 August 1942 in the vicinity of Stalingrad in another Friedrich 'Yellow 10'. He had at least ten victories. The day before Staffelkapitän Bauer himself had been shot down and seriously wounded...