Photos from the Australian War Memorial Museum 2008.

[necker]

Super pictures, I see the woman with the green shirt, is having a great time!

[Raaf Hornet]

The Me 262 was originaly at the Point Cook RAAF base. During the seventies ( I think ) Adolf Galland came down here and had some publicity shots taken of him in the plane, Jeff

[Bob Lyons]

Great photos, the Memorial is a must see if your ever in the area, although a few items are a bit questionable, I thought that para set up was good, never having laid eyes on a real green early jump smock, but John Hodgin put me straight, it is a repro smock, which really should be labelled as such, but all up a great 'looking' para display. There is some fantastic DAK items in storage there too.

The Me 163 survived in it's original camouflage and markings into the 1970's when it was loaned to the RAAF (Air Force) museum, and whilst there some peanut re-painted it, it is now back with the Memorial in a colour scheme that closely matches the original. The 262 was re-painted after the war (the red portions are original to the aircraft), and the Memorial has carefully taken the postwar paint off and revealed the original colours underneath, including the postwar Allied markings.

The magnificent all original 109 is worth the trip to Canberra just to view this gem, and to quote from the Brett Green book 'Augsburg's Last Eagles' by Eagle Editions (2000):-

"The aircraft was claimed as a war prize by Allied forces, and shipped from Eggebeck airfield in Germany on 4 September 1945. It was eventually delivered to Australia via the United Kingdom. W.Nr. 163824 was sold to a British buyer in 1979, but the Australian Customs Service blocked it's export and confiscated the aircraft. W.Nr. 163824 is probably the last remaining Bf 109 in its almost original condition. It still wears its wartime camouflage and markings, and has survived the last five decades remarkably well."

When that book was written the aircraft was still in storage, and it is now on display at the AWM. as per the posted photos.

Hope the additional info is of interest.

Best wishes

Bob

[Eric JB]

AH,

Thanks for posting these nice photos, fantastic to see those warbirds as orginal as they can be.

The museum does have a great collection.

Bob,

Thank you for the extra information.
So some nuthead "destroyed" the Me163.
Good to hear that the Goverment saved that 109 !

yours friendly

Eric-Jan