Fell out of a box

[grndevil44]

Sorry for the cryptic title of this thread, but I was just in an Antique market this afternoon and spotted some militaria in the cabinet at the till, I spotted the edge of a picture and asked to have a look and was dumbfounded when it turned out to be a Stuka photo,

the guy told me that it had fallen out of a box full of pictures of aircraft and holocaust photo's which he had sold a while back, can only magine what other pictures there were, but managed to pick up this one none the less

So I would think this is from around May 45, I asked him how much and he said I could have it

Cheers

John

[necker]

Very nice and detailed picture however I doubt this is 1945. At that time they weren't flying with Stuka's anymore.

[Jean-Loup]

As far as I know they used Stukas untill the end of the war. I remember seeing footage of that tank buster pilot landing in the american lines with his stuka to surrender.

JL

[Larry deZeng]

J-L is correct. Ju 87 D-5s and G-2s were flown by the Nachtschlachtgruppen to the end of the war, and several Schlachtflieger units also flew them to the end of the war, e.g., 10.(Pz)/SG 2. By 8 May 1945, there were still some 300-350 of them in the hands of operational and Ergänzungs- units.

[grndevil44]

thanks for the information Larry, I suspect this could have been with the Nachtschlachtgruppen as I can see dampners on the exhaust, I am going to see what other info I can find out, there is a book with colour stills form the George Stevens D-Day to Berlin film with a couple of shots of night fighter Me 110's and I am pretty sure Stukas, there is another aicraft in the foreground with letters under the wings and I think a couple more aircraft in the background


cheers

John

[Simon O.]

The flame dampers identify this as a D-7 variant, so would thus belong to one of the nachtschlachtgruppen Larry mentions.

[grndevil44]

hello,
I appreciate your help with the info you guys gave me and with a little more digging I was forwarded this link

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/401Squadron/6.htm



cheers

John

[Geoff Walden]

As far as I know they used Stukas untill the end of the war. I remember seeing footage of that tank buster pilot landing in the american lines with his stuka to surrender.

JL

Jean-Loup is correct. Hans-Ulrich Rudel crash-landed his Stuka at the Kitzingen air field in May 1945 because he had flown west looking for Americans that he could surrender to. When he saw some down below at Kitzingen, he landed his Stuka so as to damage the landing gear so it couldn't be re-used. As the story goes, a GI hopped up on the aircraft and reached in to try to take Rudel's Ritterkreuz, and Rudel slammed the canopy shut on him.

The location was U.S. Army Harvey Barracks up until last year, when it was turned back over to the German government.

Geoff Walden