12/2024

The Eduard Modeller's Den is an online paid magazine of Czech company Eduard - M. A. designed for enthusiasts of plastic modeling, history, and related subjects. It offers a diverse range of content, including articles on current events, historical articles, museum travel guides, and interviews with notable personalities.

• Strana 1

  CURRENT AFFAIRS – POPPIES

  DOUBLE STRIKE MISSION SCHWEINFURT-REGENSBURG

  MANITOWOC SUBMARINES

  INTERVIEW – FLYING WITH THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH

  WARNING SHOTS – NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2024

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION - TURNING POINT 1942

  BY INFO EDUARD MAGAZINE

  Zero Issue

  December 2024

• Editorial

  Dear Friends, welcome to the inaugural issue of an on-line magazine that certainly has no small ambitions. The Eduard Modeller’s Den magazine is just that...a comfortable den for modellers to escape to, where they can enjoy their passion in the comfort of wherever they are. The aim is not to compete with traditional modelling and historical magazines, but to bring a slightly different perspective and, with its content composition, create a mosaic suitable for both readers from the plastic modelling circle and those who are interested in history, museum travel, interviews with interesting personalities and related topics.

  Dear Friends,

  welcome to the inaugural issue of an on-

  line magazine that certainly has no small

  ambions. The Eduard Modeller’s Den

  magazine is just that...a comfortable den

  for modellers to escape to, where they can

  enjoy their passion in the comfort of wher-

  ever they are. The aim is not to compete

  with tradional modelling and historical

  magazines, but to bring a slightly dierent

  perspecve and, with its content compo-

  sion, create a mosaic suitable for both

  readers from the plasc modelling circle

  and those who are interested in history,

  museum travel, interviews with interest-

  ing personalies and related topics.

  To cover it all, we’ve put together a high-

  quality team of writers, proofreaders, and

  translators who will regularly submit their

  work to you. Then it’s up to you to nd some

  me, stretch out on your favorite couch or

  in your den, and enjoy our magazine.

  When I say that we have created a list of

  authors, it does not mean that we are not

  working on expanding founding resourc-

  es. We are ready to cooperate with other

  researchers and publishers who, through

  EMD, are willing to share with readers the

  topics that fascinate them. The arcles will

  include not only recently uncovered ac-

  counts from the world of aviaon, military

  and naval history and of plasc modeling,

  but also generally known topics, which we

  will examine from dierent, less typical

  perspecves.

  The development of this magazine was

  a long struggle. It began many months ago

  while playing with the noon of a printed

  version of the exisng monthly newsleer,

  which could be ordered and printed on-de-

  mand, through the newsleer’s yearbook

  index with the most interesng arcles,

  to what was the most currently displayed

  edion on the computer screen. Even aer

  the EMD concept was claried, for many

  dierent reasons it took several months

  and suered through a number of delays

  before this premiere issue was ready. Con-

  sider it a taste of what awaits you in the

  future of EMD.

  The central feature of this issue is an ar-

  cle prepared for us by the renowned Lu-

  wae writer Donald Caldwell. The topic

  is the infamous 8th Air Force mission of

  August 17th, 1943, to Regensburg and Sch-

  weinfurt. In recent months, our standard

  monthly newsleer has published several

  arcles specically about this topic, or at

  least in some way touching on it. Mr. Cald-

  well’s work complements them from the

  ‘other side’, from the perspecve of the

  German Luwae. A similar topic includes

  Ma Mabe’s interview with 100th Bomb

  Group veteran John H. ‘Lucky’ Luckadoo.

  Lucky is one of the last living veterans not

  only of the Bloody Hundredth, but also of

  the erce air bales for supremacy over

  the European skies during 1943. We great-

  ly appreciate the permission of my friends

  Ma and Lucky to use their interview.

  In this issue, our museum trip feature

  takes us to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. During

  his visit, Vladimír Sulc, a member of our ed-

  itorial board and frequent newsleer con-

  tributor as well serving as Eduard’s CEO,

  not only collected many impressions and

  photographs with which he wants to intro-

  duce you to this unique museum, but also

  compiled a number of detailed historical

  insights related to the museum’s exhibits

  and the local history.

  A purely modeling secon, mostly gen-

  erated by our external colleague Marian

  Cihon, and which we call ‘Warning Shots’,

  introduces twenty-ve new products from

  the eld of plasc modeling coming out

  mainly in November and December, 2024.

  Do not expect any rangs or reviews in this

  secon. We don’t think it appropriate for

  us to do so or to be within the scope of

  EDITORIAL

  2

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Regensburg, 17 August 1943 by Piotr Forkasiewicz

• Strana 3

  what we are aempng to do. We will try

  very hard to bring modelling news that is

  very, very fresh.

  We have two more regular columns, man-

  aged by our colleague from the editorial

  board, the head of markeng at Eduard and

  also aviaon-history columnist, Jan Bobek.

  While the rst of them will provide a cur-

  rent perspecve, the second is historical

  in nature. But the fact that history is not

  a simple maer in today’s climate is illus-

  trated by both arcles, a concept which the

  editor himself took on in his columns. His-

  tory and the present are quite intertwined

  in them. But I will not provide any spoilers.

  Read the arcles and judge for yourself.

  The nal secon, which we have appro-

  priately dubbed ‘Debrieng’, will be a reg-

  ular feature wrien by Vladimír Sulc, from

  whom you are used to reading the intro-

  ductory editorials to the standard newslet-

  ter. Since I have appropriated this privilege

  for the EMD, Mr. Sulc, or for many of you

  Vlad, will conclude each issue with his own

  thoughts.

  Although the creave team of this maga-

  zine has been responsible for the month-

  ly newsleer Info Eduard for several years

  and has certainly gained some experience,

  the concept of the intended magazine is

  something completely new. It will bring

  new challenges and new soluons. We are

  ready to oer you honest work and fresh,

  well wrien content, but know we do

  not consider ourselves world champions.

  We are learning, so please forgive us for

  any mistakes and imperfecons, because

  we believe that these, as well as your feed-

  back, will move us forward and will allow

  the EMD to evolve and improve.

  Before I conclude my rst column in this

  magazine and invite you to enjoy its con-

  tent at least as much as we enjoyed creat-

  ing it, I would like to thank my colleagues

  on the editorial board, our contribung

  authors, graphic designers, proofreaders

  and translators for their work on the con-

  tent of this issue and all of those coming

  down the pipe. Last but not least, thanks

  go out to Triobo, who grappled with the

  unusual technical requirements for us and

  helped co-create this magazine during its

  long development.

  We will graciously accept any suggesons,

  opinions and comments from you, our val-

  ued readers.

  Jan Zdiarsky

  Chief Editor, EMD

     andtheInfoEduardNewsleer

  2 Editorial

  by the EIC

  5  CurrentAairs

  Poppies by Jan Bobek

  8 Double Strike Mission

  Schweinfurt-Regensburg

  from the Luwae Perspecve

  by Donald Caldwell

  33 Manitowoc Submarines

  Museum Report by Vladimír Šulc

  70 Flying with

  the Bloody Hundredth

  Interview with John H. Luckadoo

  by Ma Mabe

  82 Warning Shots

  Exploring the Plasc Modelling

  Universe and Beyond

  Nov/Dec 2024 by Marian Cihoň

  91 Turning Point

  - November 1942

  Historical Reecon by Jan Bobek

  96 Scale Gallery

  P-51D 1/48 Eduard by Paolo Portuesi

  100 Debrieng

  by Vladimír Šulc

  EDITORIAL

  3

  70 8

  33 91

  CONTENT

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 4

  SUBSCRIPTION RULES AND CONDITIONS

  4

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  EDUARD MODELLER´S DEN

  e-zine,Internetmagazine,paidsupplementtotheInfoEduardNewsleer

  Language: published in two languages – Czech and English

  Layout is friendly for reading on cellphones, tablets and computers.

  Periodicity: published monthly

  Release date: around 10th day in a month

  Reader’sregistraon: during purchase at emd.eduard.com (current Zero Issue is free)

  Subscripon: available while registraon and payment *

  Distribuon: to read and download on the Triobo plaorm (emd.eduard.com)

  A registered user will be able to read content on 4 devices at the same me.

  Registered user can also download a pdf of the issue that he purchased.

  Price: $ 5 USD (or equivalent in EUR or another currency **) means permanent access

  to each purchased single issue (current Zero Issue is free)

  Payments: by a card at Stripe payment gate

  Bonuses: with the purchase of each issue, the customer will receive a one-me coupon

  for a 10% discount when purchasing at the Eduard webstore (www.eduard.com) ***

  Discount bonuses will be available from the rst paid issue of the magazine.

  * Note to the subscripon and one-me purchase:

  - withoutsubscripon, each issue is acvated individually; one-me purchase.

  Then an e-mail with discount coupon will be received

  - monthly-acvatedsubscripon – the payment will be automacally

  acvated aer new issue is released. This new issue will be immediately

  ready for reading. Subsequently an e-mail with a discount coupon will be sent.

  - meperiod - quarter year, half year, a whole year

  Aer release of payment for a me subscripon, an e-mail is received with

  list of discount coupons equal to the paid period, i.e 3, 6 or 12. Those cou-

  pons can be used anyme. For one order only one EMD discount coupon

  can be applied.

  Already paid issues are open to the parcular reader for the future reading

  anyme. The same order way can be also applied to previous issues.

  ** The exchange rate between USD and your currency is determined by your bank

  *** EMD discount coupons can be combined with other discounts provided by

  the Eduard webstore www.eduard.com.

  Combined discounts on Eduard webstore are applied

  as shown in following example:

  Aerparty discount 20%

  EMD discount coupon 10%

  Purchase value $ 100 USD

  1) $ 100 USD – 20% Aerparty = $80 USD

  2) $ 80 USD – 10% EMD = $72 USD

  => Total discount = $ 28 USD = 28 % from the basic price.

  There is not allowed to apply more EMD discount coupons in the same order.

• Current Affair

  Poppies In the Czech Republic, November has long been associated with Veterans Day, symbolized by poppies. Although it is a relatively old tradition, it has found its place in the Czech context only in the last thirty years. The previous, communist, regime glorified the red color in a completely different form (especially in November, which was filled with it), and the poppy flower was not in favor. Today, people contribute to the support of war veterans by purchasing remembrance poppies. For foreign readers, especially those from Commonwealth countries, the adoption of their tradition in the Czech Republic might be surprising. It was our own WWII veterans who introduced us to November 11 and the “poppies” after the fall of communism in 1989, when they returned from the West to a free homeland . The symbol of the poppy began to be used in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. The first official celebration of Veterans Day took place in 2001 at Prague’s Vítkov Hill, and three years later, Veterans Day was defined in legislation as a significant day in the Czech calendar. Since 2014, the poppy has also symbolized the Military Solidarity Fund collection. Our company supports this fund almost every year during Veterans Day celebrations at Náměstí Míru (Peace Square) in Prague by donating proceeds from sales of our plastic kits, posters, and souvenirs.

  In the Czech Republic, November has long

  been associated with Veterans Day, sym-

  bolized by poppies. Although it is a relave-

  ly old tradion, it has found its place in the

  Czech context only in the last thirty years.

  The previous, communist, regime glori-

  ed the red color in a completely dierent

  form (especially in November, which was

  lled with it), and the poppy ower was

  not in favor. Today, people contribute to

  the support of war veterans by purchasing

  remembrance poppies. For foreign read-

  ers, especially those from Commonwealth

  countries, the adopon of their tradion

  in the Czech Republic might be surprising.

  It was our own WWII veterans who intro-

  duced us to November 11 and the “pop-

  pies” aer the fall of communism in 1989,

  when they returned from the West to

  a free homeland . The symbol of the pop-

  py began to be used in the Czech Repub-

  lic in the 1990s. The rst ocial celebra-

  on of Veterans Day took place in 2001 at

  Prague’s Vítkov Hill, and three years later,

  Veterans Day was dened in legislaon

  as a signicant day in the Czech calendar.

  Since 2014, the poppy has also symbolized

  the Military Solidarity Fund collecon. Our

  company supports this fund almost every

  year during Veterans Day celebraons at

  Náměs Míru (Peace Square) in Prague by

  donang proceeds from sales of our plas-

  c kits, posters, and souvenirs.

  The tradion of Veterans Day is stron-

  gest in Great Britain and Commonwealth

  countries but has gradually been adopted

  in other naons. Over the past decade, for

  example, it has been spreading in Ukraine.

  How did the commemoraon of fallen

  soldiers and the support of war veterans

  become linked with poppies? The origin

  of this symbol dates back to Spring 1915

  during the Second Bale of Ypres in Flan-

  ders, Belgium, which lasted from April 22

  to May 25 of that year. The baleeld had

  been turned into a lunar landscape by mas-

  sive arllery re, leaving only stumps of

  trees. Today, sadly similar scenes can be

  seen in footage from the war in Ukraine.

  For soldiers on both sides in the spring of

  POPPIES

  Jan Bobek

  CURRENT AFFAIRS

  5

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 6

  1915, it was a signicant surprise when the

  baleeld was covered with a vast bloom

  of poppies. The soil, ploughed countless

  mes by explosions, was an ideal environ-

  ment for these beauful weeds.

  Aer almost a year of horric war, during

  which chemical weapons were used for

  the rst me in the Second Bale of Ypres,

  the blooming poppies appeared to soldiers

  in the trenches as something from anoth-

  er world. Many sent the owers home in

  leers, and these are now prized arfacts

  in museum collecons. Poppies growing

  on baleelds were already a known phe-

  nomenon during the Napoleonic Wars.

  The foundaon of the poppy tradion

  was laid during the Second Bale of Ypres

  by a Canadian military doctor of Scosh

  descent, Major John McCrae, who served

  with the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Arl-

  lery. Before the war, he worked as a pa-

  thologist and published on the subject, but

  he was also a gied poet. On May 2, 1915,

  his friend Lt. Alexis Helmer was killed by

  an arllery shell. The next day, a burial for

  Helmer’s remains, which were found, was

  held. Deeply aected by his friend’s death

  and the immense number of casuales

  and injuries, McCrae wrote the poem In

  Flanders Fields aer the funeral. I’d like

  to highlight it here, as it remains power-

  ful and meaningful even aer more than

  a century:

  InFlanderselds,thepoppiesblow

  Between the crosses, row on row,

  Thatmarkourplace;andinthesky

  Thelarks,sllbravelysinging,y

  Scarce heard amid the guns below.

  We are the Dead. Short days ago

  Welived,feltdawn,sawsunsetglow,

  Lovedandwereloved,andnowwelie,

  InFlanderselds.

  Takeupourquarrelwiththefoe:

  To you from failing hands we throw

  Thetorch;beyourstoholdithigh.

  If ye break faith with us who die

  Weshallnotsleep,thoughpoppiesgrow

  InFlanderselds.

  Later in 1915, the poem was published

  and became the most popular work of its

  kind on the subject of the ongoing war. It

  was quickly translated into many languages,

  and countless soldiers gratefully saw it as

  an expression of the meaning behind their

  suering and a tribute to their fallen com-

  rades. Sadly, John McCrae passed away in

  early 1918 and did not live to see the pub-

  licaon of his poetry collecon, aptly tled

  In Flanders Fields.

  In 1921, remembrance poppies spread

  among the Allies as a symbol worn on la-

  pels on Armisce Day. The tradion grew

  CURRENT AFFAIRS

  6

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Poppies

• Strana 7

  so widely that a factory was even estab-

  lished to produce the remembrance pop-

  pies. This act of honoring the memory of

  Allied soldiers who fell in World War I and

  later conicts connues to inspire arsc

  works to this day. However, the topic of

  poppies has not been without controver-

  sy. Debates have arisen over their arsc

  design and the legimacy of selling this

  symbol. In connecon with certain military

  operaons, some segments of the public

  have deemed its use inappropriate. Occa-

  sionally, the poppy is depicted in white as

  a symbol of peace.

  Returning to the Czech Republic: When

  the armisce came into eect on Novem-

  ber 11, 1918, at 11 a.m. Paris me, more

  than a million Czech-speaking men from

  the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were

  serving in the Austro-Hungarian army.

  At the same me, over 100,000 of their

  compatriots were ghng with the Czecho-

  slovak Legions on the Allied side. These

  legionnaires served in the French, Italian,

  Serbian, and, unl 1917, Russian armies.

  About a hundred of their compatriots even

  fought in Brish uniforms.

  It’s unlikely that anyone on either side

  of the war could have imagined that,

  a hundred years later, the sacrices of war

  veterans in their homeland would be com-

  memorated by the ower of the poppy—

  a symbol whose story began on the elds

  of Flanders and whose commemorave

  tradion was born overseas. The poppy, as

  a symbol of sacrice and support for war

  veterans, connues to evolve, and I be-

  lieve this is good news for veterans and

  their families.

  CURRENT AFFAIRS

  7

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Poppies

• DOUBLE STRIKE

  This article details the Luftwaffe defense against the 8th Air Force combined raid on Schweinfurt and Regensburg on August 17, 1943. Schweinfurt, which contained much of the German ball bearing industry, and Regensburg, the principal production site for Messerschmitt fighters, were two of the top targets on the Allies’ Combined Bomber Offensive list. Both cities were far beyond the range of American escorts, but the 8th Air Force under MGen. Ira Eaker was under pressure from Washington to show immediate results, and the staff of MGen. Fred Anderson’s VIII Bomber Command devised an ambitious plan to bomb both targets on a single day. The three long-range B-24 Groups were still in the Mediterranean theater from the Ploiești raid, so this would have to be an all-B-17 mission. In the final version, the smaller, newer 4th Bomb Wing would take off first and head to Regensburg on the most direct route, escorted as far as the German border by all of the available P-47s. After bombing, it would continue south over the Alps and land in North Africa. The larger, more experienced 1st Bomb Wing would follow fifteen minutes later, bomb Schweinfurt, and return to England; these B-17s would be seen home by the entire escort force, flying its second sortie. It was expected that the novelty and complexity of the combined mission would confuse the German controllers and exhaust their pilots. The greatest flaw in the plan, apart from its dependence on perfect weather and exact timing, arose from the limited range of the bombers of the 1st Bomb Wing, which forced them to take the most direct route to the target and return; this was a near-duplicate of the route to Regensburg as far as Schweinfurt. The German controllers would thus have to deal with three bomber formations flying on the same route on the same day, which would hardly stretch their capabilities. The Reichsluftverteidigung [RLV, Air Defense of the Reich] was slowly increasing in strength. A few fighter units had been brought back from the eastern front and the Mediterranean and after rebuilding, began training to combat American heavy bombers.

  DOUBLE STRIKE

  SCHWEINFURT-REGENSBURG MISSION

  FROM THE LUFTWAFFE

  PERSPECTIVE

  by Donald Caldwell

  HISTORY

  8

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 9

  The RLV sta had drawn up plans in the pre-

  vious months to concentrate the defending

  ghters along any deep-penetraon course.

  German pilots were now given briengs

  and maps describing the airelds to look for

  at the end of long one-way combat ights,

  and these airelds had been equipped to

  service them. This would facilitate second

  sores by ghters arriving in the bale zone

  from the most distant bases.

  The English weather turned what was

  already a quesonable mission into a di-

  saster. The weather over western Europe

  was perfect this morning—except over the

  B-17 bases, which were fogged in. Plans

  were hasly changed. The 4th Bomb Wing

  needed daylight to land on unfamiliar elds

  in North Africa, and could thus only wait

  an hour, but would take o then. The es-

  cort plan was apparently changed at this

  me; only two P-47 groups went with the

  4th Wing, while the other two waited for

  the 1st. The 1st Bomb Wing, which was in-

  adequately trained in bad-weather take-

  os, delayed their mission for three and

  one-half hours, as long as they could wait

  and sll return to England before darkness.

  However, this was sll not enough me for

  the P-47 escorts to return from their rst

  mission, refuel and reload, and thus escort

  of the large outbound Schweinfurt force

  was le to only two P-47 groups, plus the

  short-range RAF Spiires. Two P-47 groups,

  the 56th and the new 353rd, managed to

  y two missions, supporng the outbound

  Regensburg and the returning Schweinfurt

  forces. Most of the German Jagdgruppen

  ThisarcledetailstheLuwaedefenseagainstthe8thAirForcecombined

  raid on Schweinfurt and Regensburg on August 17, 1943. Schweinfurt, which

  contained much of the German ball bearing industry, and Regensburg, the prin-

  cipalproduconsiteforMesserschmighters,weretwoofthetoptargets

  ontheAllies’CombinedBomberOensivelist.Bothcieswerefarbeyondthe

  range of American escorts, but the 8th Air Force under MGen. Ira Eaker was

  underpressurefromWashingtontoshowimmediateresults,andthestaof

  MGen.FredAnderson’sVIIIBomberCommanddevisedanambiousplanto

  bombbothtargetsonasingleday.Thethreelong-rangeB-24Groupsweresll

  intheMediterraneantheaterfromthePloieșraid,sothiswouldhavetobean

  all-B-17mission.Inthenalversion,thesmaller,newer4thBombWingwould

  takeorstandheadtoRegensburgonthemostdirectroute,escortedasfar

  astheGermanborderbyalloftheavailableP-47s.Aerbombing,itwould

  connuesouthovertheAlpsandlandinNorthAfrica.Thelarger,moreexpe-

  rienced1stBombWingwouldfolloweenminuteslater,bombSchweinfurt,

  andreturntoEngland;theseB-17swouldbeseenhomebytheenreescort

  force,yingitssecondsore.Itwasexpectedthatthenoveltyandcomplexity

  ofthecombinedmissionwouldconfusetheGermancontrollersandexhaust

  theirpilots.Thegreatestawintheplan,apartfromitsdependenceonperfect

  weatherandexactming,arosefromthelimitedrangeofthebombersofthe

  DOUBLE STRIKE

  SCHWEINFURT-REGENSBURG MISSION

  FROM THE LUFTWAFFE PERSPECTIVE

  1st Bomb Wing, which forced them to take the most direct route to the target

  and return; this was a near-duplicate of the route to Regensburg as far as Sch-

  weinfurt. The German controllers would thus have to deal with three bomb-

  erformaonsyingonthesamerouteonthesameday,whichwouldhardly

  stretchtheircapabilies.

  TheReichsluverteidigung[RLV,AirDefenseoftheReich]wasslowlyincreas-

  inginstrength.Afewghterunitshadbeenbroughtbackfromtheeastern

  frontandtheMediterraneanandaerrebuilding,begantrainingtocombat

  American heavy bombers.

  Adapted from the author’s The Luwae over Germany: Defense of the Reich (with Richard

  Muller) and Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich: A War Diary 1942-1945. All photos provided

  by the author, unless otherwise noted.

  by Donald Caldwell

  HISTORY

  9

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 10

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

  [ghter groups] would have lile diculty

  ying two or even three missions.

  The pre-dawn radio tesng at the B-17

  bases gave the German ghter controllers

  ample warning of a full-strength deep-pen-

  etraon raid. The Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet,

  [ghter control unit or commander, Hol-

  land-Ruhr region] Oberst Walter Grab-

  mann, operang from a villa near Arnhem,

  brought his seven Jagdgruppen to full read-

  iness at 0800. He scrambled Hptm. Karl

  Borris’s I./JG 26 from Woensdrecht at 1048.

  The best descripon of Borris’s mission is

  that found in Jörg Kiefner’s unpublished

  memoir. Kiefner was a commissioned re-

  placement pilot who had just joined Bor-

  ris’s Gruppe. His report of his mission can

  stand for the many. Kiefner:

  “We drove to the 3. Stael dispersal at

  dawnonamotorcyclewithmyboss,Hptm.

  Hermichenandasidecarofveorsixpeo-

  ple. At this me, I. /JG 26 was based at

  Woensdrecht aireld near the mouth of

  theScheldt,southeastofAntwerp.

  Our Focke Wulf Fw 190 ghter planes

  were just being warmed up; long light

  blue ames were shoong out of the ex-

  haustpipesoftheroaringenginesrunning

  atfullthrole.Thecrewchiefreported3

  machines Startklar [ready for takeo.] All

  thepilotshadgathered;Iwasassignedto

  the“Yellow2”,aformerKommodoreplane

  (henceafastone)asKaczmarek[wingman]

  totheboss.PeterAhrens’planewasalso

  clearandsothethreeofusweresupposed

  toleadthe“waroftheday”.Thedaybefore

  Ihadachievedmyrstkillwiththeendgül-

  genVernichtung[eV, nal destrucon] of

  a B 17 bomber. Dressed ready to go with

  life jackets, are pistols and ammunion

  in every conceivable pocket of the Chan-

  nelCombinaon,welaydowninthenext

  roomofthebarracks.Somorningmusic,

  mostlyfromBBCLondon,wasplayingon

  the radio. As soon as it was daylight, or-

  derliescameandsetupthecoeetablefor

  theghterpilots’breakfast.Alfonswasal-

  readyclaeringthe dishes. Wecouldget

  started; it was sll slightly hazy outside;

  anicedaywasexpected;therewouldprob-

  ably be something to do soon.

  At around 0800 the loudspeaker on the

  command system crackled for the rst

  me:livelyassemblyacvitywasdetected

  overEngland!Aha,it’sstarng!

  More reports kept coming. Formaons

  were sll circling over the island. it took

  averylongmetodayunl“Theheadofthe

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 410054, Oberst Walter

  Grabmann, Jagdiegerführer Holland

  & 3. Jagddivision, 1943-1944

  Eduard kit No. 1144

  TheFw190AofOberstGrabmann,theJafü

  Holland-Ruhrgebiet,wholedtheLuwae

  defense against the Schweinfurt-Regensburg

  mission.

  Walter Grabmann (1905 - 1992)

  One of the most procient and inuenal

  RLV Jafü and Divisionkommandeure. Grab-

  mann learned to y in the German police

  force and received a commission in the new-

  ly formed Luwae. He soon became the

  commander of one of JG 26’s predecessor

  units. Aer a tour in Spain as commander of

  the Condor Legion’s ghter component, he

  transferred to the new Zerstörer force, and

  commanded ZG 76 during the French cam-

  paign and the Bale of Britain, for which ser-

  vice he was awarded the Knight’s Cross. He

  became Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet in August

  1942 and in November 1943 was given com-

  mand of Jagddivision 3, a posion he retained

  unl the last chaoc month of the war. His

  last rank was Generalmajor. Aer the war he

  was a principal author of the USAF Historical

  Studies on the German Air Force.

  HISTORY

  10

• Strana 11

  formaonhasnowsetoonaneastward

  course”; there obviously had to be large

  groupsofdickenAutos[fat cars; Luwae

  code for heavy bombers.] Radio communi-

  caonmeans4-enginebombers,act!The

  ordertotakeohadtocomeimmediately,

  asweweredirectlyintheapproachpath

  ofthereportedunits.Sowewouldbethe

  rsttomeetthem!At1048wegottheor-

  der to scramble.

  Duetotheconstantsituaonreports,the

  tension had risen to the point where it

  was unbearable, now it was nally me!

  As I ran to the machine, my mechanic was

  alreadystandingnexttothebirdwithmy

  parachute, straps on, safety slider in the

  lockingmechanism,upontothewingand

  in one swing into the seat, starter lever

  switchedon,bellystrapsoverandfolded

  together,leandrightshoulderstrapsinto

  thepluglock,headcoverwithFT[radio]put

  on, which the mechanic had in the mean-

  mekeptreadytohand.Ignionon,start-

  errevvedup,handlepulledandthegood

  BMW 801 double radial engine started, ini-

  allyemingabluecloudofsmoke.The

  frontisclear,thebrakepadsareremoved,

  theFT buonsontheradio intercomare

  pressedin,theacceleratorisappliedand

  theplanetaxistotheedgeoftheeld,just

  totherightofHermichen.Analwaveat

  my mechanic; his thoughts for the next

  hourwouldbeon“hisbird”andhispilot!

  Then the aircra of the sta Schwarm

  [ight of four aircra] swept across the

  eldfromtheright;assoonastheypassed

  us,ourcrewchiefred“red”,thethreeof

  uspushedtheirthrolesinand thatwas

  where the wild hunt began. I don’t remem-

  berhowmanyaircrahadtakenoinin

  ourGruppe.Thereweren’tmany,atmost

  twelve.Hermichenwasintheleadbutfor

  me,the“youngbunny”,Ihadtosckwith

  it, keep my posion as clean as possible

  and be careful. We climbed prey quick-

  ly. There was deafening chaos in the FT

  between orders and announcements from

  theformaonleaders.”

  I./JG 26 scrambled just as the Regensburg

  force had nished crossing the English coast.

  Within ve minutes it was apparent that the

  B-17s were headed directly for the Dutch

  coast, and Hptm. Klaus Mietusch’s III./JG 26

  was ordered to take o from Schiphol.

  Several Bf 110 night ghters from I./NJG 1

  and II./NJG 1 scrambled, under orders to

  hunt down any stragglers. II./JG 1 was kept

  on the ground at Woensdrecht while the

  B-17s passed directly overhead, probably

  because less than half of the American

  bombers had as yet been located. Borris

  began climbing to the east to gain a good

  KarlBorris,seenhereasanOberleutnant

  in1942.Theonlypre-warJG26pilotsll

  yingwithJG26onV-EDay,MajorBorris

  commandedtheI.Gruppeforalmosttwo

  full years.

  Hptm.RolfHermichen,theI./JG11Kom-

  mandeur,ishoistedfromhisairplane,

  abrand-newFw190A-7,aerasuccess-

  ful early1944 mission. The Focke-Wulf

  appearstobepaintedinanoverallHell-

  grau (light gray) scheme, common for

  Bf109high-altudeghtersbutnot

  Fw190s.Hermichenwasthe3./JG26

  KapitänduringtheSchweinfurt-Regens-

  burg mission.

  HISTORY

  11

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 12

  aack posion; Mietusch’s men would al-

  ready have the morning sun at their backs

  when they reached the bomber formaon.

  The oncoming formaon comprised 146

  B-17s in a long formaon of three combat

  wings, with a small escort comprising two

  353rd Fighter Group squadrons. Borris

  was waing up-sun and slightly above the

  bombers as they approached, in perfect

  posion for an immediate head-on bounce.

  The skimpy ghter escort was apparent-

  ly concentrated around the rst combat

  wing; no P-47 pilot saw the Focke-Wulfs

  as they swept around in a le turn and

  hurtled toward the second combat wing.

  Aer ying through it, they hit the trailing

  wing and then broke away in all direcons.

  Borris’s own target, the last aircra in the

  94th Bomb Group box, burst into ames,

  sheered from the formaon and dove to

  earth—the rst loss of the day for either

  side. Several B-17s in the rear combat

  wing began to smoke from damaged en-

  gines. One Focke-Wulf was hit and dropped

  away to make a forced landing on Venlo.

  No other German ghter was seriously

  damaged during this aack.

  Jörg Kiefner recalled: “Wepopupthrough

  athincloudlayer,andsuddenlyspotalarge

  number of Messers, small brothers from

  ourIII.Gruppe,asitturnedoutlater.Iwas

  tooinexperiencedtomakemuchsenseofit

  all.Weclimbfurtheruptoaround8000m,

  sweepingoutinawidearc.Thensuddenly

  the dicken Autos [fat cars], the four-engine

  ones!!!Firstcloudsofakandthenthick

  clusters of bombers in between, below us

  tothele!Wecatchupabit,withapar-

  allel course well ahead of the four-engines,

  about 150 of them! And then we turn in

  at the front, we follow—resolutely stuck

  toposion!—anddive,forthesecondme

  on four engines for me.

  Diagonallyfromthefront,weaackfrom

  aslightelevaon;extremelyquicklythegi-

  antaircra,iniallyonlyvisibleaslines,be-

  comebigger,thicker.Nowpullahead,aim

  at the fuselage and right engines then shoot,

  shoot,lightningboltswithinthegroupand

  straight through the middle of the whole

  bunch, a fantasc moment, these boxes

  are huge, some are already burning, in

  afraconofasecondIseethehouse-sized

  sharknsoftheirtailswiththelarge,black

  markings. I quickly turn—there was my

  [Staelkapitän] Hermichen.Ijoinup—heis

  already banking toward two lone Boeings

  thathadbeenshotup(byus?)andwere

  turningbacktowardEngland.Aackfrom

  lowrear,pressin,pullup—infrontofme

  istheboss—hewasn’tgoingtoleavethe

  Boeing.Ipressinclose,ringbelowandbe-

  sidehimatouropponent,whonowhungin

  the air in front of us as large as a barn door.

  Theairplaneissoonburningbrightlyfrom

  ourre,fromthefuselageandtherighten-

  gines.Aerpullingototheright,webank

  inagain,inaschool-bookposiontoaack

  fromtherear.“Ceasering!”fromHermi-

  chen over the radio. The bomber is burn-

  ingbrightlyalongitsenrefuselage—5-6

  crewmenhavealreadybailedout.Nowour

  Boeingdivesnose-rsttowardtheground,

  where it crashes—an unforgeable sight.

  IcloseuponHermichenagain;PeterAhrens

  wasalsointhearea,havingshotdownthe

  secondBoeing.Itcrashedinmanypieces

  betweenAntwerpandoureldatWoens-

  drecht.”

  Hptm.MietuschscramblinghisIII./JG26

  fromanorthGermanaireldinJuly1943,

  before its return to The Netherlands.

  HISTORY

  12

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 13

  Borris did not aempt to re-form his

  Gruppe for a second pass, but was content

  to let his pilots search for stragglers while

  awaing landing orders from the Jafü. Kief-

  ner connues his story:

  “Thethreeofusbuzzoureld,whichhad

  been directly below us, Hermichen and

  Ahrenswagglingtheirwings.Tracpaern,

  landinggeardown,oatin,land,rollpast

  the command post; many people, enthu-

  siascwaving,furtherintothepits,ready,

  engine switched o! Joyful excitement at

  theberth!Outofthemill,totheboss,who

  was already talking with his hands and feet,

  tellingthestory.Reporngback,machine

  wasclearandeveryoneaskstogether,how

  wasit,diditworkne,how?Iwastheenvy

  ofeveryoneforthishoteort:theycould

  andhadwatchedfromtheeld!

  Hermichen and Ahrens headed for the

  Gefechtsstand [command post], the for-

  mer somewhat embarrassed. His crew

  chiefhadtoldhimthathiscannonsllhad

  thetapeonthemandhadnotbeenred.

  H. had already claimed his Abschuß [shoot-

  down (air victory)], but immediately signed

  acombatreportasawitnesstoaHerauss-

  chuss [HSS, separaon from formaon]

  toAhrens,andtheendgülgeVernichtung

  [eV, nal destrucon] to me, since I had

  ownandredsoclosetohim.”

  Mietusch’s Gruppe was the next to aack.

  Upon its arrival it bored in on the rear of

  the bomber stream, which was totally un-

  Oblt.KlausMietusch,photographed

  besidethetailofhis7./JG26Fw190A-3

  insummer1942.

  The8./JG26Fw190A-7“Black16”,showingitsunusualpersonalmarking,abloodybird.

  Unfortunatelythemechanicwhosuppliedthephotodidnotrecallthecircumstances.

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 15367, Oblt. Herwig

  Zuzic, CO of 8./JG 1, Leeuwarden,

  the Netherlands, July 1943

  Eduard kit No. 84201

  HISTORY

  13

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  protected by ghters. The Messerschmis

  formed up, turned, and aacked the rear

  wing head-on. Only one bomber was

  forced from the formaon by this inial at-

  tack, but the German pilots came back in

  repeatedly over the next een minutes.

  Mietusch’s combat philosophy was unlike

  that of the cauous Borris; he had ordered

  his pilots to keep up the aack unl forced

  by damage, low fuel, or low ammunion

  to break o. They concentrated on the rear

  two combat wings. Three more damaged

  Fortresses dropped back, but bomber re

  hit and killed one Messerschmi pilot and

  forced a second to belly-land with wounds.

  A third bailed out without injury aer

  a spectacular cartwheel through the rear

  B-17 Pulk.

  One of the four B-17s that had dropped

  back from the 4th Bomb Wing’s rear box

  was shot down by Fw. Werner Kra of the

  9. Stael, who pulled alongside the crip-

  pled bomber to look it over and was

  then shot down by the right waist gunner,

  Sgt. William Binnebose, who met Kra that

  evening in a Belgian hospital.

  The other three damaged B-17s were shot

  down by JG 26 Focke-Wulfs and Messer-

  schmis and the lurking NJG 1 Bf 110s.

  A close examinaon of the claims micro-

  lms shows how complicated the book-

  keeping could become for even a rela-

  vely simple combat. Eight B-17s le the

  formaon before the German border was

  reached. One of these was denitely shot

  down by Flak, according to the surviving

  crewmen. Of the other seven, I./JG 26 was

  credited with three full victories; III./JG 26

  was credited with one, plus two more that

  were awarded “jointly with” NJG 1—alt-

  hough in theory the Luwae did not ac-

  cept joint claims—and NJG 1 crews were

  TheFw190A-5ofOblt.RüdigervonKirchmayer,TechnicalOcerofII./JG1,photogra-

  phedinmid-1943.Itcarriesthechevron-circleemblemoftheTO,andaredTazelwurm

  [dragon-worm,acreaturefromNordicfolklore]onthecowlingtodesignatetheGruppe

  Stab.

  Fw 190A-4, WNr. 140581, own by Lt. E. Burath, Stab I./JG 1,

  Deelen, the Netherlands, April 1943

  Eduard kit No. R0016

  Bf 110G-4, own by Lt. Heinz-Wolfgang

  Schnaufer, II./NJG 1, Saint-Trond, Belgium,

  April/May 1943 Eduard kit No. 8208

  HISTORY

  14

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  given full credit for three, although all of

  their vicms had already le their forma-

  ons and according to the rules should

  have been only “nal destrucons”. The

  record is silent with respect to sharing any

  of these claims with JG 26.

  The 56th Fighter Group relieved the 353rd

  on schedule; its pilots saw only one Ger-

  man ghter. The German controller had

  seen the new ghters coming and whisked

  his own ghters away and back to their

  bases. When the last P-47 turned back

  at Eupen, the way was clear for new Jafü

  Holland-Ruhrgebiet ghter units to conn-

  ue the aacks without hindrance. I./JG 1

  and III./JG 1 made contact at 1150, near

  Aschaenburg. The I. Gruppe claimed

  three full victories and three separaons,

  for no losses. The III. Gruppe Kommandeur,

  Hptm. Robert Olejnik, had taken o late

  with a bad radio and could not reach his

  Gruppe, but followed a B-17 formaon for

  35 minutes before aacking and claimed

  one nal destrucon; the rest of his Gruppe

  made no claims, and lost one Bf 109. Next

  to arrive were the Messerschmis of I./

  JG 3, which claimed three B 17s for the loss

  of two ghters. Oberst Grabmann’s other

  two units, II./JG 1 and III./JG 3, were scram-

  bled but failed to make contact, and land-

  ed at Woensdrecht to await the bombers’

  return.

  Fw190A-6“Red5”of5./JG1,shownhereatRheineinsummer1943,

  waslostonanightmissionon27Septemberwhilebeingownbyanightpilot.

  Apilotof5./JG1runsuphisenginepriortotakeoinJuly1943.

  Hisnameisdierentindierentsources.Theyellowundercowlisatheatermarking;

  ThecowlringandGruppeTatzelwurmareinthe5.Staelcolor,red.

  HISTORY

  15

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  Hermann Graf

  (1912 - 1988)

  The rst ghter pilot

  to claim 200 air victo-

  ries, and the h man

  to be awarded the

  Wehrmacht’s highest

  award for valor, the

  Knight’s Cross with

  Oak Leaves, Swords

  and Diamonds. Graf

  was grounded aer his

  202nd Eastern Front

  victory and returned

  to Germany, where

  this poorly educated

  son of a baker became

  a favourite of the Nazi

  propaganda machine.

  He was eventually re-

  stored to combat sta-

  tus and commanded

  JG 50, JG 1, and JG 11

  in the RLV before he re-

  quested and obtained

  permission to return

  to the Eastern Front to

  command his old unit,

  JG 52. On VE-Day he at-

  tempted to surrender

  to the Americans, but

  as a prominent mem-

  ber of an Osront unit

  he was turned over to

  the Soviet Army. During

  his four-year capvity

  in Russia he apparent-

  ly signed documents

  accepng Nazi Ger-

  many’s guilt for begin-

  ning the war. For this

  transgression he was

  denounced by the Ger-

  man veterans’ associa-

  ons aer his return to

  West Germany, and re-

  mained a controversial

  gure unl his death.

  Targetstrikephoto

  of the Regensburg

  Messerschmi

  factory,captured

  on August 17, 1943,

  by the crew of

  B-17F42-30250

  ‚Yank‘ from the

  385thBombGroup.

  HISTORY

  16

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  As soon as it became apparent that the

  bombers were on course for a target in

  western or southern Germany, Jafü Hol-

  land-Ruhrgebiet requested support from

  Jafü Deutsche Bucht, Jafü 2, and Jafü

  3. There was sll no formal coordinaon

  of the defenses, but such help was rare-

  ly withheld. JG 11 was ordered southwest

  from its north German bases to the Neth-

  erlands; JG 2 moved east from its bases in

  western France. All were too late to inter-

  B-17F-85-BO 42-30066, Lt. Charles B. Cruikshank crew, Maj. John C. Egan, 418th BS, 100th BG,

  Thorpe Abbos, United Kingdom, 17 August 1943

  Eduard kit No. 11183

  BombersoftheRegensburgTaskForceheadingsouthaerstrikingtheirtarget.

  [Photo:NARA]

  Fw.JosefKehle’sBf109G-6“Black7”of8./JG1,photographedatLeeuwardeninthe

  summerof1943.Theplanehasastandardmolenish,ared/whitespiralspinner,

  andtwonitbadges,theStaelbadgeandoneofKehle’sRoe[twoaircra.]

  HISTORY

  17

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  cept the incoming bombers and landed to

  refuel on airelds near the assumed with-

  drawal route, which was usually near the

  incoming route.

  The bombers entered the territory of Jafü

  Süddeutschland, which had only one day

  ghter unit, Major Hermann Graf’s JG 50,

  under its command. The well-known Graf

  was the highest-scoring pilot now serving

  with a combat unit, but he did not lead

  their two missions today. That task fell

  to Oblt. Alfred Grislawski, Kapitän of the

  1. Stael. The bombers came within twen-

  ty miles of its base at Wiesbaden-Erben-

  heim; all of its 26 Bf 109s were scrambled,

  and were joined by the Einsatzschwärme

  [operaonal ights] of nearby operaon-

  al training units. They began their head-on

  aacks at around noon, and connued un-

  l 1250, aer the bombers had complet-

  ed their nal turn toward Regensburg at

  the Inial Point. Only now was the target

  known. The Regensburg Industrieschutz-

  stael [factory protecon squadron] quick-

  ly scrambled its 12 Bf 109s. Oblt. Stemmler

  downed one B-17 before the bomb run

  while the other eleven Messerschmi pi-

  lots dove away. Stemmler was quoted as

  saying that while the idea of the lile unit

  was a good one, test pilots were not neces-

  sarily good combat pilots. Grislawski’s men

  and the training unit pilots were credited

  with eight bombers; their own losses on

  ReichsmarschallGöringspeakstoOblt.AlfredGrislawskiduringaninspeconofJG50

  atErbenheiminlate1943.BehindGöringistheKommodore,MajorHermannGraf;

  tothelerearisGenobst.BrunoLörzer.

  Hptm.Wilhelm-FerdinandGalland,

  KommandeurofII./JG26.Thesecond

  GallandbrothertodieintheGeschwader,

  “Wutz”waskilledon17August1943

  by56thFighterGroupP-47sescorng

  the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid.

  Bf 109G-6, Oblt. Alfred Grislawski, CO of 1./JG 50,

  Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany, September 1943

  Eduard kit No. 2144

  HISTORY

  18

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  MajorGeneralCursE.LeMay(1906-1990)

  by Jan Zdiarský

  Curs LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio.

  When the United States was aacked at Pearl

  Harbor, he, with the rank of Major, command-

  ed the newly formed 305th Bomb Group. His

  group would become one of the rst American

  heavy bomber units in Europe less than a year

  later and he led it unl May, 1943. During this

  inial period, the US bomber force not only ac-

  cumulated its rst tools with which to ply its

  trade, but at the cost of heavy losses also ex-

  plored much that ended up as dead ends, and

  was able to develop its taccs through expe-

  rience in modern air warfare. Curs LeMay

  played a major role in this, whose prominent

  role lies in the development of strategic bomb-

  ing standards, the composion of combat for-

  maons and the logiscs of bombing missions.

  He le the 305th BG in May 1943 and became

  commander of the provisional 4th Bombard-

  ment Wing and later the 3rd Bombardment

  Division, which the wing transformed into.

  He also led this unit over Regensburg on Au-

  gust 17th, 1943. In his style, he showed himself

  to be a very tough and principled command-

  er, and many of his approaches are sll con-

  sidered controversial today. In August, 1944,

  LeMay was transferred to the Far East with the

  rank of Major General, where he commanded

  the XX and later XXI Bomber Command. Here

  he rened strategic bombing taccs specical-

  ly for the use of B-29 deployments over Japan

  and advocated bombing Japanese cies with

  incendiary bombs in night raids.

  LeMay also commanded subsequent B-29

  missions against Japan, including massive at-

  tacks on dozens of Japanese cies that did not

  leave out Tokyo on the night of March 9–10,

  1945, which ranks as the most devastang

  bombing of the war. Of this operaon, General

  LeMay declared ‘the US nally stopped swat-

  ng at ies and gone aer the manure pile’.

  To the debates about the controversies of the

  bombing of Japanese cies, it is necessary to

  add informaon about the leaets that Gen.

  LeMay let rain over Japan. The text in Japa-

  nese said, ‘Unfortunately, bombs have no eyes.

  So, in accordance with America’s humanitarian

  policies, the American Air Force, which does

  not wish to injure innocent people, now gives

  you warning to evacuate the cies named and

  save your lives.’

  Aer the war, he worked at the Pentagon on

  the research and development sta, where he

  became interested in the idea of the element

  of deterrence, which became a major aspect

  of the tug-of-war between the US and the So-

  viet Union in the later years of the Cold War.

  In 1947, he returned to Europe, where he com-

  manded the USAFE and, among other things,

  led a humanitarian operaon to supply West

  Berlin, surrounded by occupaon troops of the

  Soviet Union. From 1948 he worked for the

  Strategic Air Command, and later as Chief of

  Sta of the United States Air Force. He rered

  in 1965 and became involved in polics. Here,

  too, his uncompromising and very hard posi-

  ons on the possible use of nuclear weapons

  and views on America’s powerful adversaries

  globally were oen heard. Among other things,

  he was among those who advocated quick and

  decisive acon during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

  In 1968, he ran for vice president of the USA.

  Although unsuccessful, the American Inde-

  pendent Party, for which he ran, obtained an

  unusually high result for a third party showing.

  Four-star General Curs LeMay died on Octo-

  ber 1st, 1990 at the age of 84. His story will be

  covered in more detail in the form of a sepa-

  rate arcle in one of the future issues of this

  magazine.

  B-17F-30-VE, 42-5867, Lt. William D. DeSanders crew,

  350th BS, 100th BG, Thorpe Abbos, United Kingdom, 17 August 1943

  Eduard kit No. 11183

  HISTORY

  19

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  this mission are unknown. The last ght-

  ers ordered up were from NJG 101, a night

  ghter training unit. They were ordered to

  search out stragglers, and did succeed in

  downing two—a third claim was not con-

  rmed—but most orbited north of the city

  waing for the B-17s to complete their

  bomb run and reassemble for the return

  trip to England.

  The 4th Bomb Wing nished bombing

  at 1307 and then, much to the Germans’

  surprise, turned south, where no defens-

  es existed. The Americans were now en

  route to North Africa, and had to contend

  only with their previous damage, naviga-

  onal dicules, and their fuel supplies.

  They lost a total of 24 B 17s; of this num-

  ber, 14 were shot down over the Con-

  nent, two force-landed in Switzerland, four

  crash-landed in southern Europe, and four

  ditched in the Mediterranean o Tunisia.

  Fiy more were damaged. All of Col. Le-

  May’s bomb groups were awarded the

  Presidenal Unit Citaon for the mission,

  which was judged a success; reconnais-

  sance photos showed that serious damage

  had been done to the Messerschmi plant.

  The Jafü 2 and Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet

  controllers were puzzled by the non-arriv-

  al of the larger part of the B-17 force; the

  two American bombardment wings had

  always in the past coordinated their at-

  tacks to split the defenses, and the earlier

  radio tests indicated that the other bomb-

  ers were coming today. But they couldn’t

  worry about them now. The B-26 and RAF

  diversion raids that ordinarily preced-

  ed the heavy bombers were now report-

  ed in the Channel. The enemy was com-

  ing across at such widely-spaced intervals

  today that these secondary forces, which

  were usually ignored, could be aacked.

  Five Allied formaons headed for the Pas

  de Calais, where the three Staeln of the

  JG 26 Geschwadergruppe [headquarters

  group] were waing. The intercepon was

  not a success; only one Typhoon was shot

  down, for the loss of one Messerschmi

  and one Focke-Wulf to the Spiire escorts.

  The Spiires also encountered part of II./

  JG 2, probably en route to its base for the

  aernoon mission, and lost one pilot to

  the Richthofen ghters.

  II./JG 26, which was commanded by Major

  Wihelm-Ferdinand “Wutz” Galland, broth-

  er of Adolf Galland, the General der Jagd-

  ieger [General of the Fighter Pilots], was

  based on several elds around Beauvais.

  The Gruppe was scrambled before noon,

  possibly just to clear their airelds in case

  of a B 26 aack. It was not vectored to

  a target, and landed forty-ve minutes lat-

  er to prepare for future acon. The Gruppe

  was next ordered to y from Beauvais to

  Lille-Nord. The reason for this move is un-

  known. Lille-Nord was closer to the pre-

  sumed path of the next heavy bomber raid,

  sll assembling over England, but it was

  a ny eld that usually held only a single

  Stael, and was already hosng the JG 26

  Geschwadergruppe. II. Gruppe landed at

  1430, shortly aer the B-17s began cross-

  ing the English coast, but could not be re-

  fueled in me to play a role in the inter-

  cepon of the incoming Schweinfurt force.

  AghtB-17formaonisescortedbya4thFighterGroupP-47.

  ThisisprobablythemissiontoStugarton6September,1943.

  HISTORY

  20

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• Strana 21

  Even without it, Oberst Grabmann was in

  good condion to meet the long-delayed

  second B-17 force—which was following

  exactly in the track of the rst. Thirteen

  Gruppen of single-engine ghters had been

  assembled along the Regensburg bombers’

  assumed return route; it was the largest

  defensive force yet seen over Europe. Now

  the eort would not go to waste.

  The rst radar report of the 230 B-17s of

  the Schweinfurt force reached the control-

  lers at 1426. This formaon had a larger

  ghter escort than its predecessor. Eight

  squadrons of Spiires would accompany

  the B-17s as far as Antwerp. There they

  were to be relieved by two groups of P-47s,

  which could stay with the bombers as far as

  Eupen, on the Belgian side of the German

  border. Woensdrecht was once again on

  the bombers’ path. The Focke-Wulfs of II./

  JG 1 and I./JG 26 had been reinforced with

  the underwing cannon-armed Bf 109G-6s

  of III./JG 3, ying their rst RLV mission.

  These Messerschmis began taking to the

  air at 1430, and were the rst to contact

  the bombers. The controller’s orders took

  them over the North Sea, directly beneath

  the Spiires of No. 222 Sqd. These prompt-

  ly aacked, downing three Messerschmis

  Wilhelm-FerdinandGalland’spassbookportrait.

  HisKnight’sCrosshasbeenpaintedonto

  thephotograph.

  Wilhelm-Ferdinand “Wutz” Galland

  (1914 – 1943)

  The third son of a Westphalian land manag-

  er of Huguenot ancestry, joined the Luwae

  in 1935, originally in the anaircra arllery.

  He was successful there, being awarded the

  Iron Cross First Class early in World War II, but

  requested pilot training and a transfer to the

  Jagdwae [ghter force.] He joined two of his

  brothers in Jagdgeschwader 26 in June 1941.

  This could have been considered neposm (his

  brother Adolf was Kommodore) but he soon

  proved himself to be an excellent combat pilot

  and formaon leader, some said the best in

  the family. He was promoted to Kapitän of the

  5. Stael in June 1942, and to Kommandeur of

  the II. Gruppe in January 1943.

  Galland’s career was followed with great in-

  terest by the RAF radio intercept operators

  across the Cnannel. His radio “handle” (Wutz,

  pronounced “Vootz”) was the most disncve

  on the Channel coast, his aggressiveness and

  the rough tone he used with the leaders of fel-

  low Jagdwae units was noted, and “The dy-

  namic leader of the Vitry Wing” got more ink

  in the RAF intelligence reports than any other

  Luwae personality.

  On 17 August 1943 Galland’s II./JG 26 ew

  two transfer ights with no contact, but was

  up in force against the returning Schweinfurt

  aackers. The Gruppe made one success-

  ful head-on aack on the B-17s, but while

  re-forming for a second pass was surprised

  from the rear by the P-47s of the 8th US Army

  Air Force’s 56th Fighter Group. Galland was

  shot down and killed early in this dogght.

  He remained missing for two months, unl his

  body was found buried with his aircra in the

  so soil of northern France. He was credited

  with 55 aerial victories in 186 combat missions,

  all in the West.

  The death of the popular and gied Wutz

  Galland was a serious blow to the Geschwad-

  er and the Jagdwae. In his eight months as

  Gruppenkommandeur he had gained a repu-

  taon in the Luwae (and to the Allies) as

  one of the best formaon leaders in the West.

  The surviving pilots of his Gruppe, who called

  themselves his “Cavaliers”, spoke of him in

  aeconate terms, and were convinced that

  under his leadership they had once again be-

  come the best unit on the Kanalfront [Channel

  Front.]

  HISTORY

  21

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

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  and dispersing the German formaon be-

  yond recovery. Hptm. Walther Dahl, the

  Gruppenkommandeur, furiously blamed

  the Jafü, but the error was at least partly

  due to the unit’s own inexperience in the

  western cauldron.

  Lt. Kiefner of I./JG 26 looked forward to

  his second mission of the day with great

  ancipaon. He recalls:

  “Around midday, three to four Gruppen,

  mostlyMe109aircra,landedoneaerthe

  other.Wearrivedatourdispersal,whichwas

  now surrounded by closely packed ghter

  planes. A powerful sight—but we weren’t

  feeling very good, the birds could only be

  camouagedtoaverysmallextent.

  Then, shortly aer 2 p.m., Erhöhte Auf-

  merksamkeit [Increased Aenon]. Soon

  aer, Sitzbereitscha! [Cockpit Readi-

  ness!] The aireld was full of of ght-

  ers-the Beulen [Bf 109G-6s] took o rst,

  then the Focke-Wulfs. We were the last.

  Aerawhilethethreeplanesof3./JG26

  (PeterAhrens,MaxMunch,andI)became

  the Holzauge-Kee [cover detachment]

  abovethewholegiganchordeof75ght-

  ers.I’dneverseenussostrongandcouldn’t

  get over a feeling of perfect condence

  andsecurity.”

  Fw. Peter Ahrens was leading the 3. Staf-

  fel trio, and tried to reach the bombers be-

  fore the Spiires turned back. Jörg Kiefner

  connues,

  “We were at 5000 meters when the dicken

  Autos came into sight—well below them,

  and in no kind of aack posion. To the

  right of us were about 180 bombers like

  threeghtlypackedbunchesofgrapes.Yell-

  ingintheradio,“Watchout!Escortght-

  ersaround!”Peter[Ahrens] sheeredoto

  the right, just under the lowest Pulk, in or-

  dertocomeupontheotherside,tomake

  an undisturbed aack on the big Haufen

  [heap of bombers]. We were now ying

  alongsidetheBoeings—anerve-wracking

  experience. A glance up to the le, and

  Hptm.WaltherDahl,KommandeurofIII./JG3,stridesforwardtocongratulate7./JG3pilots

  aertheirsuccessful14Octoberight,againstthe2ndUSAAFSchweinfurtmission.

  Bf109G-6“White6”bearsfullmarkings:theGeschwaderemblemonthecowling,

  theGruppevercalbar,andawhitecometdenongtheStael.

  AWGr21mortartube,standardequipmentinthisStael,canbeseenbeneaththewing.

  Bf 109G-6, 7./JG 3, Bad Wörishofen,

  Germany, October 1943

  Eduard kit No. BFC055

  HISTORY

  22

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  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

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  I shouted over the radio, “Aufpassen, In-

  dianer!” Three Spiires were pointed at

  us. I shouted again, “Peter, they’re coming

  down!”asheick-rolledlightning-quickto

  his le. Münch followed. I banked to the

  le,tooslowly—mycratewassooncoming

  apart.Iscarcelynocedalightblowtomy

  leknee.Mywingssproutedcauliowers;

  bothaileronsoppedupanddown;Ifound

  myselfinaatspin,whichmymovement

  ofthesckcouldn’tcontrol.Soout!Ifonly

  itwassosimple...Iwasplasteredontothe

  right side of the cockpit, scarcely able to

  movemyarms.SomehowIpulledthecan-

  opyleverandrippedomyharness.Iwas

  sllinadamnedspin.Iwasnowat1500

  meters—WithalastpushIcamefree,and

  seconds later the wonderful white cloud

  blossomedaboveme.”

  Kiefner’s knee contained a .303” machine

  gun bullet, and he had hit his head on his

  airplane’s tail when bailing out. Aer land-

  ing, he was taken to an Antwerp hospital

  by two Belgian farmers. Aer a brief con-

  valescence; a briefer home leave; a stop

  at Kurheim Florida, the ghter pilots’ rest

  home; and a tour in an operaonal train-

  ing unit; he returned to the Gruppe in late

  December.

  Josef “Pips” Priller

  (1915 – 1961)

  He joined the Luwae in 1936 and by the

  Second World War was a ghter pilot in JG 51.

  He was very successful in the Bale of Britain

  and was awarded the Knight’s Cross in Octo-

  ber 1940. Adolf Galland, JG 26 Geschwader-

  kommodore, was able of get him transferred

  into his own unit in November 1940, where he

  became Kapitän of the 1. Stael. He was pro-

  moted to Kommandeur of the III. Gruppe on

  6 December 1941, and became Kommodore

  on 10 January 1943.

  Priller was twenty-seven years old when he

  took over JG 26. He was the top-scoring pilot

  then in the Geschwader, and had thus prov-

  en himself by combat, the main requirement

  for promoon in the Jagdwae. He was also

  an excellent formaon leader and taccian.

  He was a notable bon vivant, displaying an

  outgoing, eervescent personality in public.

  However, he took the responsibilies of com-

  mand seriously. He was always concerned for

  the welfare of his men, who responded by

  holding him in great respect and aecon.

  He became famous because of his Focke-

  Wulf’s single strang pass aack on Sword

  Beach on D-Day, accompanied by his wing-

  man. This act was rst brought to the world’s

  aenon by the book, and then the lm,

  The Longest Day.

  Oberst Priller le Jagdgeschwader 26 in Jan-

  uary 1945. Aer ve connuous years on the

  Western front, his tour of combat duty had -

  nally ended. He had scored 101 aerial victories

  in 307 combat sores. He became Inspector

  of Day Fighters (West), a sinecure which kept

  him from further combat ying.

  Priller did not return to ying aer the war

  but became general manager of the brew-

  ery owned by his wife. He died suddenly on

  20 May 1961 from a heart aack.

  MajorPrillerinightinFw190A-5W.Nr.7298,

  hisregularaircraduringmid-1943.

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 0157 298, own by Maj. Josef Priller,

  CO of JG 26, Lille - Vendeville, France, May 1943

  Eduard kit No. 82143

  HISTORY

  23

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 24

  The Spiires turned back at Antwerp. One

  of the two P-47 groups, the 4th, missed ren-

  dezvous, and never reached its assigned

  posion over the leading combat wings.

  The other unit, the 78th Fighter Group, car-

  ried out its escort of the rear B-17 wings

  exactly as ordered. It saw lile combat,

  as the two Focke-Wulf Gruppen had al-

  ready found the unprotected van of the

  bomber stream. They were able to pre-

  pare well-coordinated head-on aacks in

  the undisturbed air ahead of the forma-

  on. Once the cohesiveness of the leading

  wing had been broken, successive aacks

  sought out the least well-defended part of

  the bomber stream, in accord with the usu-

  al German paern. Other preferred targets

  were bombers in the highest or lowest po-

  sions in the box formaons, which were

  not as well covered by neighboring gunners.

  The American crews gave the name “cof-

  n corner” to the low squadron posion in

  a low box.

  Borris’s I./JG 26 stayed with the bomb-

  ers far longer than on their earlier mission,

  and claimed four bombers before break-

  ing away with low fuel; two claims were

  conrmed. Their only casuales were Kief-

  ner and a brand-new pilot who ew as

  far as Koblenz before running out of fuel;

  he was killed aempng to make a dead-

  sck landing. II./JG 1 rst aacked head-

  on by Schwärme in order of Staeln, and

  then made repeated follow-up aacks.

  It claimed six B-17s downed and separat-

  ed from formaon; three claims were con-

  rmed. It lost four Fw 190s in crashes or

  crash-landings; one pilot suered serious

  injuries.

  Examinaon of II./JG 1 Abschussmel-

  dungen [shootdown reports] from this bat-

  tle shows the diculty of assigning victory

  credits. Uz. Schönrock shot down a 91st

  BG B-17 near Mayen-Andernach, visited

  its surviving crew that night, and led an

  Abschussmeldung. JG 1 downgraded it to

  an eV; its ulmate disposion is unknown.

  Uz. Scharler last saw his target in a steep

  dive, but did not see it crash. He submit-

  ted a claim for an HSS, but JG 1 rejected it.

  Lt. Heinz Schwarz shot a B-17 from forma-

  on and later saw it under aack by three

  ghters and spinning down. He submied

  a claim for an HSS, which was rejected by

  JG 1.

  Oberst Grabmann med the approach

  of most of his defenders so that they con-

  tacted the bombers immediately aer the

  Bf 109G-6, WNr. 18807, Flown by Ofw. Alfred

  Surau, 9./JG 3, Bad Wörishofen, September,

  1943 Eduard kit No. 8268

  Obfw.AlfredSurausitsonthewheelofhisBf109G-6“Yellow6”atBadWörishofen

  inthefallof1943.The9./JG3ghtercarriesafullsetofmarkings:theGeschwader

  emblemonthecowling;ayellowspinner,machinegun“bump”andaircranumber,

  alongwithalargeeyeonthebump,allforthe9.Stael;avercalblackIII.Gruppe

  bar;andblackvictorybarsonayellowrudder.

  HISTORY

  24

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  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 25

  P-47s turned back at the German bor-

  der, as expected. For the next two hours,

  the bombers were baered by ghters

  from ten Jagdgruppen, an intensity of at-

  tack far in excess of anything previously ex-

  perienced. Mietusch’s III./JG 26 is typical.

  It took o from Schiphol at 1439 under

  orders to head southeast, toward Germa-

  ny. They reached the bomber stream near

  Aachen and stayed in contact for thirty

  minutes, claiming four conrmed victo-

  ries. One Messerschmi was shot down,

  and three sustained damage, but none of

  their pilots were injured. Other units claim-

  ing victories were I./JG 1, III./JG 1, I./JG 3,

  Stab/JG 11, I./JG 11, II./JG 11, III./JG 11,

  JG 50, and NJG 101. The most successful

  were I./JG 11 and JG 50, each of which was

  awarded six victory conrmaons. Several

  Staeln carried underwing WGr 21 rockets,

  which were extremely tricky to use in the

  briefed head-on aacks. Oblt. Heinz Knoke

  led his 5./JG 11 in a head-on rocket aack

  on a low box—probably the 92nd Bomb

  Group—in a rear combat wing. Knoke was

  hit in the wing by defensive re, causing

  one rocket to re prematurely. He missed

  with the other, and dove away to examine

  his damage. The rest of his Stael claimed

  two direct hits, but their targets did not

  leave their formaons, and the claims were

  not led.

  The ghter aacks slackened when the

  B-17s began their bomb run on Schwein-

  furt. JG 50, which was the single-engine

  unit closest to its home base, was proba-

  bly the last to break contact. Bombs were

  dropped from 1559 to 1611. For a variety

  of reasons that need not be addressed

  here, no bomb group hit its target, even in

  condions of cloudless skies and light ak.

  Overall results were characterized as “very

  poor”. Three B-17s from low groups were

  damaged suciently by the Flak to leave

  their formaons; none reached England.

  The night ghters did an eecve job of

  hunng down stragglers, receiving credit

  for ve. A reconnaissance pilot joined the

  hunt and was credited with one B-17.

  The surviving bombers re-formed their

  defensive boxes and took up a return

  course slightly to the north of their in-

  bound route. The Americans credited this

  route with confusing the defenders; only

  a few ghters were seen by the bomber

  crews unl they neared the Belgian border.

  In reality, the Germans were as exhausted

  as the Americans. Aacks by single-engine

  units ying their second or third sores

  TheBf109G-6oftheII./JG3Kommandeur,MajorKurtBrändle,whichwasnotyet

  acveintheRLVonthedayoftheSchweinfurt-Regensburgmission.Hewaskilled

  inthisaircraonNovember3.ThewhiteruddermarksBrändleasaformaonleader.

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 2700, 2./JG 11, Husum,

  Germany, August 1943

  Eduard kit No. 84118

  HISTORY

  25

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 26

  were weak in strength and tentave. I./

  JG 1 claimed three victories in this period;

  two were conrmed. I./JG 3 also claimed

  two. II./NJG 6 scrambled six Bf 110s from

  Mainz-Finthen, under orders to aack in-

  tact combat boxes rather than stragglers.

  One Kee made a formaon aack on the

  trailing, low 303rd Bomb Group from six

  o’clock low, approaching to close range,

  as was customary when aacking RAF night

  bombers. They were sing ducks for the

  B-17 tail and ball turret gunners, who shot

  all three down; only two of the six crew-

  men survived. The other Kee approached

  the 379th Bomb Group more gingerly; they

  shot down one previously-damaged B-17,

  while losing one of their number.

  Formaon leaders who had landed away

  from their own bases to refuel were under

  orders to improvise aack units from the

  pilots they found there. Oblt. Knoke had

  landed his damaged Bf 109 on Bonn-Hange-

  lar, where it was diagnosed as having

  a cracked main wing spar. He gathered

  a small band of Bf 109 and Fw 190 pilots

  and led them up in his damaged ghter to

  nd the bomber stream. He concentrated

  on stragglers, and the maneuvers of his

  crippled bird were cauous enough to be

  noced by the crew of his target, a 305th

  Bomb Group B-17. He was able to shoot

  it down, but was himself hit; his engine quit

  at low altude, and he was forced to make

  a crash-landing that according to Knoke

  le “nothing intact but the tail wheel.”

  One of his sleeves was blood-soaked from

  a shrapnel wound, but he returned to Je-

  ver the following day in the Gruppe ulity

  airplane.

  The controllers were counng heavi-

  ly on the aack of the only fresh Gruppe

  le in the area, Wutz Galland’s II./JG 26.

  At 1650 Galland led his three Staeln up

  from Lille-Nord and ew southeast, along

  the reciprocal of the bombers’ return

  course. Obstlt. Priller, the JG 26 Geschwad-

  erkommodore [CO] also scrambled with

  the JG 26 Stabsschwarm and the 8. Stael,

  but Galland, who led the larger unit, prob-

  ably held the taccal command. They met

  the bomber stream head-on, just east of

  the Belgian border, and aacked the third

  of the three combat wings. Priller’s target

  began to burn. Galland then re-formed as

  much of his Gruppe as he could and led it

  toward the front of this half of the forma-

  on, for a second head-on aack.

  At this moment the Germans were stunned

  by ghters aacking from their rear—from

  the direcon of Germany. Colonel Hub Zem-

  ke had led his “Wolfpack”, the P-47s of the

  56th Fighter Group, farther east than they

  had ever own before, een miles be-

  yond the German border. He had reached

  the rendezvous point exactly on me and

  course, but had then overown the B-17

  formaon, unobserved by the German at-

  tackers, who were thus set up for a surprise

  aack. Wutz Galland disappeared aer the

  inial Thunderbolt bounce; the screamed

  warning of his wingman Uz. Heinz Go-

  mann could not save him. Gomann’s

  B-17Fs/n42-29978„Hell‘sAngel“ofthe381stBombGroup,

  lost on Schweinfurt mission, August 17, 1943

  HISTORY

  26

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 27

  Hubert „Hub“ Zemke

  by Jan Bobek

  The 56th Fighter Group, led by

  Col. Zemke and equipped with P-47

  Thunderbolts was an American ght-

  er unit that played a signicant role

  in the ght against the Luwae on

  August 17, 1943. One of its mem-

  bers shot down and killed Major Wil-

  helm-Ferdinand Galland, considered

  the best German ghter commander

  on the Western Front at the me.

  Hubert Zemke was born on March

  14, 1914, in Missoula, Montana,

  to a family of German immigrants.

  He began his ight training with

  the armed forces in February 1936.

  A year later, he was assigned to the

  36th PS, 8th PG, and earned his pi-

  lot qualicaon in August 1939.

  In 1940, Zemke was sent to Great

  Britain to study RAF taccs, and in

  May 1941, he joined the HQ squad-

  ron of the 56th Pursuit Group (later

  56th Fighter Group). In 1941, while

  the U. S. was sll neutral, he was

  sent to the Soviet Union to help train

  Soviet pilots on Curss P-40s, there

  he even had visual contact with Ger-

  man aircra.

  It is likely that one of his cousins

  was already serving in the Luwae,

  possibly Uz. Egon Zemke, who

  ew Fw 190 A aircra with 2. /JG 54

  “Green Heart” on the Western Front

  in 1944.

  Aer being promoted to Captain

  in the rst half of 1942, he briey

  served with the 89th FS, 80th FG.

  By September 1942, he returned to

  the 56th FG, was promoted to Lieu-

  tenant Colonel, and took command

  of the unit. Aer intense training and

  modicaons to the P-47 aircra in

  the U. S. , the 56th FG was deployed

  to Europe at the beginning of 1943.

  Under the leadership of Zemke and

  other ocers, the 56th FG quickly

  became one of the elite units on the

  European baleeld. They mastered

  the Thunderbolt deployment tac-

  cs so well that, with 664 victories,

  the 56th FG became the most suc-

  cessful American ghter unit in the

  European theater. Unlike other units

  that switched to Mustangs, the 56th

  FG kept the P-47 unl the end of the

  war. Zemke systemacally focused

  on developing combat mission strat-

  egies over occupied Europe and in-

  troduced a tacc for distant ghter

  escort combined with systemac

  enemy area reconnaissance, which

  became known as the “Zemke´s Fan.“

  In August 1944, Hubert Zemke

  was appointed commander of the

  479th Fighter Group, ying P-51s,

  and achieved several more victo-

  ries, bringing his score to 17. 75 con-

  rmed kills, with an addional two

  probable kills and nine aircra dam-

  aged. He also destroyed 6.5 aircra

  on the ground. One of his victories

  happened on August 17, 1943, while

  escorng bombers back from the

  Schweinfurt mission, in the ensuing

  dogght he shot down a Bf 110 night

  ghter near St Trond.

  During a combat mission on Octo-

  ber 30, 1944, he was captured due

  to serious damage to his aircra.

  In the POW camp Stalag Lu I, he as-

  sumed the posion of Senior Allied

  Ocer in December 1944, ulmate-

  ly responsible for about 9,000 pris-

  oners. Zemke became the main liai-

  son between the prisoners and their

  captors, signicantly improving the

  prisoners’ living condions and se-

  curity in the nal months of the war.

  Aer the war, Zemke command-

  ed the 36th FW and the 31st SFW.

  He rered in July 1966 and went on

  to write three books. Hubert Zem-

  ke passed away on August 30, 1994,

  in Oroville, California.

  [Photo: Fold3]

  HISTORY

  27

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 28

  Robert B. Williams (1901-1977)

  by Jan Zdiarský

  Robert B. Williams was born in Albany, Texas,

  where he joined the Army Air Force in 1923.

  Aer compleng his training, he worked as an

  aerial instructor in photo-reconnaissance units

  in the early 1930s. He later held command po-

  sions in bomber units and as an experienced

  pilot ew several long-haul ights, including

  a seven-bomber mission from Langley Field,

  VA to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the beginning of

  World War II, he worked as a military observ-

  er in Great Britain. Aer returning to the US,

  he held command posions within the bomb-

  er air force, before being assigned to the

  8th Air Force in Great Britain in

  June, 1943 with the rank of Brig-

  adier General. He subsequently

  took command of its 1st Bomb Di-

  vision. He personally led several

  important missions with this unit.

  The rst of them was the tragic raid

  on Schweinfurt on August 17th,

  1943. Under the leadership of this

  mission, Gen. Williams received

  the DSC. He was promoted to Major

  General in May, 1944 and returned

  to the US in October, 1944 to parc-

  ipate in the Manhaan Project at Los Alamos.

  As commander of the Second Air Force, he was

  responsible for the training of heavy bomb-

  er crews and the development of techniques

  for dropping special weapons. He rered in

  June, 1946 and moved to San Antonio, Texas.

  Among his major military awards are the Dis-

  nguished Service Cross, Disnguished Ser-

  vice Medal, American Defense Service Medal,

  American Theater Medal, WWII Victory Medal,

  European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign

  Medal, and the Brazilian Order of the South-

  ern Cross. General Williams died at the age of

  76 on February 10th, 1977. His story will be

  covered in more detail in a separate arcle in

  a future issue of this magazine.

  ghter was also hit. He managed to jump

  out, but got hung up on his plane’s tail;

  he broke free just above the ground and

  was knocked out when he landed. Aer

  regaining consciousness, he found that he

  had suered only “slight injuries”, but was

  nevertheless granted three weeks’ home

  leave to recover. A third member of Gal-

  land’s Stabsschwarm was damaged on the

  same pass, and put down on Brussels-Ev-

  ere; two more II./JG 26 pilots force-land-

  ed with damage. Galland’s remains were

  found two months later, buried with the

  wreckage of his aircra twelve feet deep

  in the so soil near Maastricht.

  The disappearance of the popular and

  gied Wutz Galland was a serious blow to

  the Geschwader and the Jagdwae [ghter

  Brig.GeneralRobertB.Williamstalks

  withCol.J.J.Nazzaro,CO,381stBG,

  England,12Sept1943.

  [Photo:U.S.ArmyAirForces]

  ReichsmarschallHerrmannGöringindiscussionwithGeneralAdolfGalland,General

  derJagdieger.

  HISTORY

  28

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 29

  force.] In his eight months as Gruppen-

  kommandeur he had gained a reputaon

  in the Luwae (and to the Allies) as one

  of the best formaon leaders in the West.

  The surviving pilots of his Gruppe spoke of

  him in aeconate terms, and were con-

  vinced that under his leadership they had

  once again become the best unit on the

  Kanalfront [Channel Front.]

  One of the three JG 2 Gruppen reached

  the bomber stream at this me and made

  a successful aack. This was Hptm. Kurt

  Bühligen’s II./JG 2, which was credited

  with four B-17s, one of them shared. How-

  ever, Zemke’s sudden arrival broke up the

  aacks of several more German forma-

  ons that were forced to turn on the Thun-

  derbolts. Aer the prolonged bale the

  56th returned to England claiming 7-0-1

  Fw 190s, 4-1-1 Bf 109s, and 5-0-7 twin-en-

  gine ghters, while losing three P 47s and

  pilots. The Focke-Wulfs were from I./JG 1

  as well as II./JG 26. One Bf 109 was from

  JG 50. The twin-engine ghters were all

  Bf 110 night ghters from II./NJG 1, which

  lost four to the Thunderbolts and one to

  Spiires. Two of the lost P-47s were en-

  gaged in an aack on the Bf 110s when they

  were bounced by III./JG 3 Bf 109s and shot

  down; Hptm. Dahl’s pilots claimed three

  Thunderbolts, redeeming themselves aer

  their failure against the Spiires on their

  previous mission. The third P 47 lost was

  ying high cover when it was bounced

  from above and downed by a pair of Ger-

  man ghters that dove away.

  When the 56th Group was relieved by

  the 353rd aer the most successful es-

  cort mission to date by an American ght-

  er group, there were no large Luwae

  formaons in the area; the remaining

  German ghters were scaered far and

  wide, searching for stragglers. Obfw. Ad-

  olf “Addi” Glunz of II./JG 26 was the last

  German pilot to make a successful aack

  on the bomber stream aer the arrival of

  the escort. Calmly scking to his orders

  despite the chaos around him, he main-

  tained contact with the bombers, and

  nally shot down a 305th Bomb Group

  B-17 northwest of Diest, aacking “alone,

  head-on, and with a P-47 on his ass”,

  in the words of Ed Burford, an admiring

  B-17 crewman. Another II./JG 26 pilot and

  one from III./JG 3 downed straggling For-

  tresses near the coast, ending the day’s

  conrmed victories against the Viermots

  [four-engine bombers].

  Obfw.Glunzstands

  besidehisII./JG26

  Fw190A-7aerhis

  bestdayasaghter

  pilot–oneP-47

  and three B-17s shot

  down, and two B-17s

  drivenfromtheir

  formaon–Cambrai

  -Epinoy,early1944.

  HISTORY

  29

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 30

  Major General Frederick L. Anderson

  by Jan Bobek

  When the U.S. Air Force command evaluated

  the results of the raid on Regensburg and Sch-

  weinfurt, one of the ocers bearing respon-

  sibility for the mission’s outcomes and losses

  was Major General Frederick Lewis Anderson.

  Anderson was born on October 4, 1905,

  in Kingston, New York. He graduated from the

  United States Military Academy at West Point

  in June 1928 and was commissioned as a Sec-

  ond Lieutenant in the Cavalry. Later that year,

  however, he began pilot training at Brooks

  Field, Texas, which he completed the follow-

  ing year at Kelly Field, Texas. He transferred to

  the Army Air Corps and served in various roles

  over the following years. In the mid-1930s,

  he joined bomber units in California and Colo-

  rado. In 1934, he skillfully piloted his burning

  aircra away from San Francisco and bailed out

  over the bay, earning the Disnguished Flying

  Cross for his acons. Aer compleng training

  at the Air Corps Taccal School at Maxwell Field,

  Alabama, in 1940, Anderson remained on the

  instruconal sta as the head of bombardier

  training. In the spring of 1941, he was trans-

  ferred to the oce of the Chief of the Army Air

  Corps in Washington, D.C., where he served as

  Deputy Director of Bombardment in the Train-

  ing and Operaons Division. That same year,

  Anderson headed the Bombardment Taccs

  Board, a team of ocers sent to Great Britain

  by General H. H. “Hap” Arnold to observe the

  bombing methods of the Royal Air Force.

  In early 1943, Anderson joined General Ira

  C. Eaker’s sta to help dra the Combined

  Bomber Oensive plan. In April, he assumed

  command of the 4th Bombardment Wing of

  the Eighth Air Force, receiving the Silver Star

  for gallantry in acon while leading the wing

  on four separate combat missions over Europe

  from March to May 1943. He also parcipated

  in other combat ights during this period and

  aerward.

  By July, Anderson had become command-

  er of the VIII Bomber Command. He planned

  “Blitz Week” at the end of July, which involved

  aacks on Hamburg as part of Operaon Go-

  morrah. Several weeks later he planned the

  well-known aacks on Schweinfurt and Re-

  gensburg (Operaon Double Strike). He was

  among the commanders who advocated for

  deep raids into Germany without ghter es-

  cort, despite increasingly robust German de-

  fenses.

  Before the U.S. bombing formaons took

  o for their August 17, 1943 raid on Regens-

  burg and Schweinfurt, Anderson was under

  exceponal pressure. He had to decide weth-

  er to cancel or not the mission due to unfa-

  vorable morning weather condions. Howev-

  er, Gen. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the U.S.

  Air Force, was especially keen on carrying out

  the raid. Aer tense discussions within the

  8th Air Force command, Anderson ulmately

  decided to send crews from LeMay’s 4th Bomb

  Wing ahead of the 1st Bomb Wing, whose pi-

  lots were not trained for low-visibility takeos.

  LeMay’s bombers had to reach Africa before

  sunset, so their departure could not be de-

  layed further. The ve-hour gap between the

  two wing’s takeos contributed to the loss of

  60 bombers and more than 500 crew mem-

  bers.

  In November 1943, Anderson was promot-

  ed to (temporary) Major General, becoming

  the youngest American ocer to hold that

  rank during the war. When the United States

  Strategic Air Forces in Europe was established

  under General Carl A. Spaatz in January 1944,

  Anderson was appointed Deputy Commander

  for Operaons (A-3).

  Aer the war, Anderson served for two years

  as Assistant Chief of Air Sta for Personnel be-

  fore rering from acve duty in 1947 to pursue

  a business career. In March 1952, he became

  the U.S. Deputy Special Representave to the

  Mutual Security Agency, and in April 1953,

  he assumed the role of U.S. Deputy Represen-

  tave to the North Atlanc Treaty Organizaon

  (NATO) Council. Anderson co-founded Draper,

  Gaither & Anderson, one of the rst venture

  capital rms in what would later become Sili-

  con Valley.

  In 1956, Anderson served on the Rockefel-

  ler Brothers Fund Special Studies Project Pan-

  el on United States Internaonal Objecves

  and Strategy, and he was also a member of

  the Hoover Commiee on the Reorganizaon

  of the Federal Government. Anderson passed

  away on March 2, 1969, in Houston, Texas, and

  was buried at Arlington Naonal Cemetery.

  [Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces]

  HISTORY

  30

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 31

  As soon as the reconnaissance pho-

  tographs were received on the eve-

  ning of the 17th, Generals Eaker and

  Anderson knew that the Schweinfurt

  raid had been a failure. The excellent

  results at Regensburg were but small

  consolaon for the loss of 60 B-17s,

  16% of those dispatched. The loss-

  es could not be hidden from USAAF

  headquarters or the US press, but the

  results of the bombing were exagger-

  ated, and the poor operaonal plan

  that guaranteed the high losses was

  well disguised in the aer-mission

  reports. No general lost his job from

  the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mis-

  sion. The lessons learned were mixed.

  Everyone who ew the mission

  stressed the importance of the es-

  corts in reducing losses; the planners

  grasped only that Schweinfurt would

  have to be bombed again, soon,

  in another deep penetraon, unes-

  corted mission.

  The lessons learned by the defend-

  ers were also mixed. Based purely on

  the numbers, the ghters of the RLV

  had scored an outstanding success.

  The OKW communiqué claimed 101

  heavy bombers and ve ghters shot

  down. Claims for 87 bombers and sev-

  en ghters were ulmately conrmed,

  somewhat above the Allies’ true

  losses, but close enough to prevent

  any misinterpretaon of the results.

  As usual, performance of the various

  units making up the RLV varied wide-

  ly. JG 26 had one of its best days of

  the war, with 15 conrmed B-17 and

  two conrmed ghter claims, against

  ve pilots KIA and six WIA. JG 50, with

  less than one-third of the pilot estab-

  lishment of JG 26, did almost as well,

  with 12 conrmed B-17 claims for the

  loss of two pilots killed. (Of course,

  Graf’s unit had had the advantage

  of aacking unescorted formaons.)

  Other units were enrely shut out.

  I./JG 2 and III./JG 2 reached the bat-

  tle area in strength, but then disap-

  peared. And Priller and Hptm. Förster

  of NJG 1 led a formal complaint with

  the oce of the General der Jagd-

  ieger denouncing the pilots of III./

  JG 1 as Leichenedderei [corpse-loot-

  ers] for failing to make a single con-

  certed aack. Aer reaching the

  bomber stream, these pilots had im-

  mediately split up to look for stragglers.

  HISTORY

  31

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Strana 32

  The dierence between the good and

  the poor-performing units can be sum-

  marized as combat leadership and ex-

  perience. Unfortunately for Germany,

  the RLV was always short of both.

  The defenders lost about 40 ght-

  ers on the 17th, nine of which were

  night ghters, which would soon be

  leaving the day order of bale, re-

  placed by the Zerstörergeschwader

  [heavy ghter wings] equipped with

  twin-engine Bf 110 and Me 410 day

  ghters. These had powerful weap-

  ons that would increase the killing

  power of the RLV. The success of

  these slow, heavy ghters would be

  dependent on the absence of Amer-

  ican ghters. They could either stay

  outside the range of the P 47s or

  operate under an escort umbrella

  provided by single-engine German

  ghters. The Bf 109 and Fw 190 units

  being added to the RLV were intend-

  ed as bomber destroyers. Escorng

  the heavy units violated current doc-

  trine, as did any menon of baling

  Allied ghters at the expense of max-

  imum-strength aacks on the bomb-

  er stream. Future success of the Re-

  ich defenses was thus predicated on

  the assumpon that USAAF escorts

  had already reached their maximum

  range. When Adolf Galland tried to

  tell Göring that Thunderbolts had

  crossed the German border on the

  17th, the proof being several crashes

  near Aachen, Göring cursed the re-

  port as “HirngespinsteschlapperDe-

  faisten” [ranngs of a worn-out de-

  feast] and gave Galland an “order”

  that Allied ghters had never pene-

  trated German airspace. A raonal

  defensive strategy was impossible

  under such a commander-in-chief.

  August 17, 1943 marked the high

  point of the RLV day defenses. While

  Germany could produce great num-

  bers of (mostly obsolescent) ght-

  ers unl the nal breakdown in late

  1944, they could not train enough pi-

  lots or formaon leaders. The USAAF

  simply outperformed it—more air-

  cra, longer-ranged ghters, more

  and beer trained pilots, and aer

  a change in commanders in January

  1944, the right taccs to defeat the

  Jagdwae before the Western Allies

  invaded France in June, 1944.

  HISTORY

  32

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Double Strike: Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission

• Submarines at Manitowoc

  The city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, lies on the west coast of Lake Michigan, some eighty miles north of Milwaukee. The city is bisected by a river of the same name, the Manitowoc River, and off its north bank at the mouth of the river, the Gato Class submarine USS Cobia is docked in front of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

  The city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, lies on the west coast

  of Lake Michigan, some eighty miles north of Milwaukee.

  The city is bisected by a river of the same name, the Mani-

  towocRiver,andoitsnorthbankatthemouthoftheriver,

  the Gato Class submarine USS Cobia is docked in front of the

  WisconsinMarimeMuseum.

  TheWisconsinMarimeMuseumisnotlarge,butitsdisplays

  in a modern building environment are very impressive. It has

  severalsecons,anditisdiculttosaywhichisthemost

  interesngandtheyareallquitebreathtaking.Wewerenot

  preparedforwhatwewouldndatthemuseum,reallyjust

  going there to see a submarine. We ended up being very

  pleasantly surprised.

  Manitowoc

  Submarines

  by Vladimír Šulc

  MUSEUM REPORT

  33

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 34

  The exhibits are dedicated to the histo-

  ry of shipping on Lake Michigan, the his-

  tory of Wisconsin shipbuilding in general

  and Manitowoc in parcular, shipwrecks

  in Lake Michigan, and the exploraon of

  shipwrecks o the Wisconsin

  coast, where there are more

  than seven hundred alone.

  This is a surprisingly high number, especial-

  ly when you consider that the Wisconsin

  coast includes only a poron of the Great

  Lakes region, in which thousands of ships

  of various types and sizes have sailed over

  the past two centuries, from small boats

  and yachts, through to passenger ships

  and ferries, and on up to large Great Lakes

  Model of the City of Midland 41 ferry.

  Thetriple-acngsteamenginefromtheSSChiefWawatam.Itsdesignisverysimilar

  (virtuallyidencal)tothesteamenginespoweringthelegendaryTitanic.

  Photoonpreviouspage:TheManitowocMarimeMuseumbuildingwiththesubmarine

  USSCobia(SS245)mooredonthelebankoftheManitowocRiver.Photographedfrom

  therightbankoftheriver.TheGatoclasssubmarinesare95metres(3118in)long.

  More about the

  colleconcan

  be found here:

  www.

  wisconsinmarime.

  org/collecons/

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  34

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 35

  freighters transporng goods and raw ma-

  terials such as oil and iron ore. Some of

  the wrecks are old ships, abandoned and

  intenonally sunk in coastal waters at the

  end of their service lives. However, a large

  number of the sunken ships had a much

  more dramac fate and sank as the result

  of accident or any number of other rea-

  sons, common denominators in ship disas-

  ters, such as navigaonal error, storms or,

  especially in older cases, res. These were

  a very common cause of disasters with fa-

  tal consequences in the nineteenth cen-

  tury, exacerbated by the insucient life

  saving equipment carried

  by ships of that me. It was

  worse than on the Titanic;

  ships on the Great Lakes in

  the mid-nineteenth centu-

  ry praccally never had enough lifeboats,

  to say nothing of other life-saving equip-

  ment such as life jackets.

  The most common cause of shipwrecks

  on Lake Michigan, and the Great Lakes in

  general, were storms, especially in the fall

  months of October and November, which

  bring strong weather systems, the famous

  “Gales of November”, accompanied by high

  gales, high waves, freezing rain and bliz-

  Apontoonfor

  transporng

  submarines from

  Manitowoc to

  New Orleans in

  acontemporary

  photograph.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  35

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

  More on the

  shipwrecks

  of Lake Mich-

  igan can be

  found here:

  hps://wisconsinship-

  wrecks.org/Learn/

  ShipwrecksEverywhere

  I

• Strana 36

  zards. The most dangerous area is consid-

  ered to be the Death’s Door Strait between

  the upper Door Peninsula and Washing-

  ton Island, connecng Lake Michigan with

  Green Bay in the northwest of Lake Michi-

  gan. This was the busy route used by cargo

  ships carrying iron ore, coal and other min-

  erals from the port of Escanaba in northern

  Michigan, where iron ore was transferred

  from trains to cargo ships, typical for the

  transportaon of minerals across the Great

  Lakes.

  The exhibion hall displaying ship mod-

  els is located next to another, which hous-

  es a reconstructed and funconing three-

  stroke steam engine from the ferry SS

  Chief Wawatam. The exhibion explains

  the funcon of the steam engine, and it is

  possible to start it and observe its opera-

  on. The same type of steam engine was

  installed on the legendary Titanic.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  36

  ThemodeloftheSSPhoenix

  TheBaeryPhoenix,painngbyWisconsinarstWilliamJCoelpin(1938–1996),oiloncanvas.

  THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PHOENIX

  At 3:30am on November 21st, 1847, a rap-

  idly spreading re broke out on the Phoenix,

  a wooden steamship sailing from Sheboygan

  to Manitowoc, 29 miles (46 km) away. Thir-

  ty-one passengers and crew members were

  rescued in two lifeboats. Two crew members

  and one passenger were pulled from the wa-

  ter. Another 180 passengers and crew mem-

  bers died in the ames or in the freezing wa-

  ters of Lake Michigan. The destrucon of the

  Phoenix, the fate of the passengers, and the

  story of the discovery and exploraon of the

  wreck are very well documented by the mu-

  seum’s exhibit. It is a very revealing window

  into history, showing, among other things,

  the ethnic composion of the passengers

  and capturing part of the story of the sele-

  ment of Wisconsin. In the nineteenth century,

  it was seled largely by immigrants from

  northwestern Europe, Germany, Scandinavia,

  and the Benelux countries (comprising Bel-

  gium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), with

  a signicant Czech footprint as well.

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 37

  ICE BREAKER FERRY CHIEF WAWATAM

  The SS Chief Wawatam was a train and car

  ferry icebreaker built in 1911 by the Tole-

  do Shipbuilding Company in Toledo, Ohio.

  The 103-meter-long ship, with a displacement

  of 2,990 tons, was equipped with three steam

  boilers and powered by three steam engines

  with a total output of 4,500 hp (3.36 MW).

  She had three propellers, two at the stern and

  one at the bow. She carried up to twenty-six

  railroad cars on three parallel tracks.

  The Chief Wawatam, nicknamed ‘the Chief’,

  connected Mackinaw City and Saint Ignace,

  Michigan, on opposite shores of the Straits of

  Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron,

  unl 1984. The ship provided full service to

  passengers and crew, as the journey across the

  frozen ve-mile-wide strait could take several

  hours in winter. The massive ice barriers that

  form in this area of the lake in winter were the

  reason why the Chief was built as an icebreak-

  er, and as an icebreaker it was able to funcon

  reliably for decades. To break up the ice, it used

  its forward propeller, which, in addion to pro-

  pelling the ship and helping it maneuver, was

  able to suck water from under the ice sheet,

  causing it to break up by gravity under its own

  weight. In 1944, she was replaced in this role by

  the modern, six-diesel-pow-

  ered Coast Guard icebreaker

  USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-

  83), which then served in

  the northern Great Lakes for

  another 62 years, unl 2006.

  Chief Wawatam, which re-

  ceived a rudder and steering

  gear from a destroyer aer a

  1945 conversion, ceased pas-

  senger service in 1957 with the opening of the

  Mackinac Bridge. However, she connued to

  carry trains across the Straits of Mackinac un-

  l 1984. She was the last steamship with hand-

  red boilers on the Great Lakes. She was sold

  in 1989, converted to a freighter, and scrapped

  in 2009.

  The USS POTOMAC

  In addion to submarines, the Manitowoc

  Shipbuilding Company built a number of other

  interesng ships. Among the most interesng

  is President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presiden-

  al yacht, the USS Potomac. Today, it is one of

  two surviving presidenal yachts. You can visit

  it in Oakland, California.

  It was built in Manitowoc in 1934 as the Coast

  Guard submarine chaser USCGC Elektra. At the

  me, the presidenal yacht was the USS Se-

  quoia, a small wooden yacht. The Secret Ser-

  vice deemed it a re hazard and unsuitable for

  President Roosevelt. The President’s phobia

  of re may have played a role, as he had wit-

  nessed the tragic death of his aunt in a house

  re ignited by a kerosene lamp as a child. The

  USS Sequoia is the second presidenal yacht

  to survive.

  The Elektra was chosen for the conversion,

  which entered service in 1936 under the new

  name USS Potomac. It was very modern and

  luxuriously equipped, was wheelchair-accessi-

  ble and adapted to the needs of the President,

  who was parally dependent on a wheelchair.

  A rarity was the false rear funnel, in which

  an elevator was installed that could take the

  president on board in a wheelchair. Security

  was also taken into account during the con-

  version, the ship had bulletproof glass and an

  an-aircra machine gun was installed when

  the President was on board. However, the ad-

  dional equipment shied the ship’s center of

  gravity upwards and caused it to be unstable,

  lisng up to 48 degrees when the waves hit it.

  The President, as a former acve sailor, Assis-

  tant Secretary of the Navy in the administra-

  on of President W. Wilson and later Acng

  Secretary of the Navy, was not at all excited

  about it, but it did cause his visitors some dis-

  tress from me to me. The ship’s modica-

  ons cost 60,000 dollars.

  President Roosevelt oen and happily used

  the yacht for both recreaon and polical

  meengs, and the ship, called the Floang

  White House, also played a signicant role in

  historical events. In 1939, Roosevelt hosted

  Brish King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on

  it during the rst ever visit by a Brish mon-

  arch to an American president. In August 1941,

  it was used as a real espionage operaon,

  when President Roosevelt sailed along the

  coast of Massachuses, met and shed with

  Norwegian Crown Princess Martha and oth-

  er guests along the way, and then transferred

  to the cruiser USS Augusta in Vineyard Sound,

  on board which he sailed to Newfoundland,

  to meet with Brish Prime Minister Winston

  Churchill, with whom he signed the Atlanc

  Charter. You probably know what it is, but if

  not, follow this link:

  While Roosevelt and Churchill were negoat-

  ing in Newfoundland, the Potomac slowly sailed

  back along the Massachuses coast under the

  presidenal ag. On board for

  the duraon of the voyage was

  a Secret Service agent, disguised

  as the president, in an eort

  to confuse suspected German

  agents who were monitoring

  the President’s acvies. He

  must have enjoyed himself.

  What the German agents reported about this

  remains unknown.

  The Potomac’s golden era as a presidenal

  yacht ended with Roosevelt’s death. President

  Truman had her replaced by the larger USS Wil-

  liamsburg. Legend has it that as an avid pianist,

  he wanted to have a classical piano on board

  the yacht, but the Potomac could not accom-

  modate one. But perhaps he simply did not

  like the ship, and as a non-sailor he tolerated

  its characteriscs less well than his predeces-

  sor. The Potomac returned to the Coast Guard,

  and unl 1960 served with the Maryland Tide-

  water Fisheries Commission to control shing.

  Then it was sold to private ownership, ocially

  serving as a ferry, but more likely it was used

  to operate illegal gambling acvies at sea.

  It later changed hands, briey owned by Elvis

  Presley in 1964, and was seized by Customs in

  1980 during a raid on Mexican drug smugglers.

  The ship was towed to Treasure Island, where it

  sank, allegedly due to rusng of the hull. Aer

  two weeks, it was raised and sold for $15,000

  to the only bidder, the Port of Oakland.

  Between 1983 and 1993, the ship was re-

  stored at a cost of $2.5 million by the non-prof-

  it Associaon for the Preservaon of the Pres-

  idenal Yacht Potomac. Today, the Potomac is

  a major aracon in Oakland and is used for

  cruises on San Francisco Bay. The Potomac also

  starred in the 2011 lm ‘The Master’, starring

  Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Homan and

  Amy Adams.

  Nolessinteresngis

  thisarclecovering

  the ship’s successor,

  the USCGC Mackinaw:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/USCGC_

  Mackinaw_(WAGB-83)

  hps://en.wiki-

  pedia.org/

  wiki/Atlan-

  c_Charter

  More on the SS

  Chief Wawatam

  here:

  hps://en.wiki-

  pedia.org/wiki/

  SS_Chief_Wawatam

  More on the USS

  Potomac here:

  hps://en.wikipe-

  dia.org/wiki/USS_

  Potomac_(AG-25)

  I

  I

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  37

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 38

  WARTIME PRODUCTION

  The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company,

  founded in 1902, was a major shipyard that

  built ships for use on the Great Lakes and

  inland rivers. It primarily built ferries, tug-

  boats, and cargo ships. It became involved

  in warme producon during World War

  I, building cargo ships known as Design

  1044 under contract to the United States

  Shipping Board (USSB) from 1917 to 1920,

  among many other projects.

  The company also became involved in

  warme producon during World War

  II. As early as 1939, company president

  Charles C. West proposed to the Govern-

  ment Bureau of Construcon and Repair

  (BuC&R) agency the building of destroy-

  ers for the US Navy. Although his propos-

  al was rejected by the Navy, the compa-

  ny was awarded a contract on September

  9th, 1940, to build ten Gato-class subma-

  rines, becoming one of four shipyards to

  build Gato and Balao Class subs during the

  war. Manitowoc produced fourteen of the

  77 Gato Class submarines built in 1942 and

  1943, and fourteen of the 120 Balao Class

  subs built between 1943 and 1945. During

  the war, 7,000 workers and technicians

  worked three shis in the shipyards, oper-

  ang seven days a week.

  The Manitowoc built USS Rasher sank

  eighteen Japanese ships during eight com-

  Memorialplaquetothosewhobuiltandservedonsubmarines,unveiledonthecentenni-

  aloftheUnitedStatesNavySubmarineService.

  MemorialplaquetothecrewofthesubmarineUSSLagarto,sunkduringhersecond

  warpatrolonMay3,1945.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  38

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 39

  bat cruises, totaling 99,901 GRT, making

  her either the second or third most suc-

  cessful American sub of World War II, de-

  pending on the actual score of the USS

  Flasher. The problem is that the USS Flash-

  er would actually hold down second place

  with 100,231 tons sunk. However, there

  is some doubt to take into

  account about her sinking

  a Japanese destroyer, and

  if that tonnage is subtract-

  ed from USS Flasher’s score,

  Rasher takes second place

  in terms of sunk tonnage.

  Four Manitowoc-built submarines were

  lost during the war in combat: USS Golet,

  USS Kete (both Gato Class), USS Lagarto,

  and USS Robalo (both Balao Class). A to-

  tal of 336 ocers and crew members died

  during these losses.

  The Manitowoc shipyard was the only one

  of the four American facilies that produced

  submarines to be located inland. And very

  deep inland, at that. The submarines got to

  sea in an interesng way. They were load-

  ed onto a oang dock and towed to Chi-

  cago, and from there went through the Illi-

  nois-Mississippi waterway, the Illinois River

  and by way of a system of canals to the Mis-

  sissippi River and on down

  to New Orleans, where they

  were ouied, armed and

  handed over to the US Navy.

  Producon at the shipyard connued af-

  ter the war, ending in 1972 when the Man-

  itowoc Shipbuilding Company moved pro-

  ducon to Sturgeon Bay. However, boat

  producon did not end there, as produc-

  on connues at the Burger Boat Compa-

  ny, where 330 employees produce an av-

  erage of three luxury yachts per year.

  The USS COBIA

  The museum’s largest, most important,

  and most interesng exhibit, commemo-

  rang the warme producon of subma-

  rines at Manitowoc, the USS Cobia, was

  not built in Manitowoc. But that doesn’t

  maer at all.

  Built in 1943 by the Electric Boat Compa-

  ny in Groton, Conneccut, her keel was laid

  down on March 17th, 1943, launched on

  November 28th, 1943, and commissioned

  by the US Navy as SS-245

  on March 29th, 1944. Lieu-

  tenant Commander Albert

  L. Becker was appointed

  as her rst captain and commanded her

  on ve of her six combat patrols. During

  these patrols, Cobia sank eleven Japanese

  ships totaling 16,835 GRT, for which she

  was awarded four Bale Stars. During her

  fourth patrol, Cobia suered her only loss

  of life when Ralph C. Hudson, the 20mm

  gun loader, was killed by return re from

  a Japanese freighter on February 26th,

  1945. Cobia completed her nal combat

  cruise on August 22nd, 1945, returning to

  Saipan, from where she sailed aer the war

  via Pearl Harbor, Washington, and New

  York to the New London Submarine Base

  in Groton, Conneccut. There, she was

  decommissioned on May 22nd, 1946 and

  USSCobiaconningtowerfromportside

  More on the USS

  Rasher here:

  hps://en.wiki-

  pedia.org/wiki/

  USS_Rasher

  More on the USS

  Flasher here:

  hps://en.wiki-

  pedia.org/wiki/

  USS_Flash

  er_(SS-249)

  I

  More on

  Manitowoc

  produconhere:

  hps://content.wiscon-

  sinhistory.org/digital/

  collecon/tp/id/66326

  I

  I

  More about

  Albert L. Becker

  here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/Albert_L._

  Becker

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  39

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 40

  placed in a US Navy Atlanc Fleet storage

  facility. She returned to service on July 6th,

  1951 as a training vessel for the develop-

  ment of US Navy reservists and students

  of the Naval Submarine School (NAVSUB-

  SCOL) and the Naval Enlisted Sub School.

  On October 29th, 1953, she

  sailed for an overhaul at Ports-

  mouth Naval Shipyard in Kit-

  tery, Maine. Aer the overhaul,

  she returned to New London

  and was placed back in storage

  on the 19th of March 1954.

  In 1959, the Navy deemed

  Cobia obsolete and trans-

  ferred her to the Wiscon-

  sin Naval Reserve Center

  in Milwaukee, where she

  served as an auxiliary sub-

  marine under the designa-

  tion AGSS-245 for the next

  eleven years as a stationary

  training base for US Navy re-

  servists. Thanks to this, like

  many other preserved Gato

  and Balao Class submarines

  in the United States, she has

  survived to this day, as most

  of these preserved exhibits

  have completed their service

  in this role. A total of 58 of

  these training submarines for weekend

  exercises of US Navy reservists were an-

  chored at various locations around the

  United States. They were stationary train-

  ing ships and did not leave their points of

  anchor. They were used to practice the

  movement of the crews aboard ship and

  the operation of onboard weapons and

  systems and other similar naval activities.

  In the 1970s, they were decommissioned

  by the USN, and most of them were un-

  fortunately scrapped. Some even more

  recently, like the USS Clamagore (SS 343,

  Balao Class), which was moored along-

  side the USS Yorktown at Patriot Point

  in Charleston, South Carolina, and was

  scrapped just last year.

  On July 1st, 1970, the Navy

  struck the Cobia from its

  Naval Registry. The subma-

  rine was towed to Manito-

  woc, where it served as In-

  ternaonal Submarine Memorial. In 1986,

  it became part of the Manitowoc Marime

  Museum, was declared a Naonal Historic

  Landmark, and was listed on the Naonal

  Register of Historic Places.

  In 1996, the USS Cobia underwent a ma-

  jor overhaul in dry dock for half a million

  dollars and is maintained in excellent con-

  dion, one of the best of the six preserved

  Gato-class submarines in the United States.

  Two of her four diesels are in operang con-

  dion, and has a funconing radio and radar.

  The laer being probably the oldest working

  radar in the world. True, the Reichenberg

  radar at the observatory in Ondřejov in the

  Czech Republic can compete with it in terms

  of age, but it is likely a few months newer,

  and it only serves as a passive receiver of

  radio waves from deep space. The SJ-1 ra-

  dar on another museum Ga-

  to-class submarine, the USS

  Cod in Cleveland, Ohio, is also

  in working order.

  In addion to standard tours, you can pay

  for an overnight program with a sleepover

  on Cobia. It costs 50 dollars, there is no

  food, and you need to have your own sleep-

  ing bag. If you go for it, I wish you a nice

  experience. I missed this opportunity, and

  for me it is one of the reasons why I would

  like to return to Wisconsin and Manitowoc

  someday.

  More about the

  SJ radar here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/SJ_radar

  More about

  the Enlisted

  Submarine

  School here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/Basic_

  Enlisted_Submarine

  _School

  Further reading

  on USS Cobia’s

  Second World

  War service can

  be found here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/USS_Cobia

  I

  I

  I

  Forwardtorpedoroom

  MUSEUM REPORT

  40

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 41

  Galley

  Forwardtorpedoroomcontroldesk

  Forwardtorpedoroomtorpedostore

  Restroom

  MUSEUM REPORT

  41

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 42

  The crew

  quarters

  Dining room

  Shower

  Waterproofbulkhead

  MUSEUM REPORT

  42

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 43

  Captain

  quarter

  Oce

  Galley

  Pey

  ocers

  quarters

  MUSEUM REPORT

  43

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 44

  Control room

  Divingstaon

  MUSEUM REPORT

  44

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 45

  Washroom

  Restroom

  Dining room

  Waterproofbulkhead

  MUSEUM REPORT

  45

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 46

  Engineroom,GeneralMotorsModel16-248V16dieselengine

  MUSEUM REPORT

  46

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 47

  Engineroom,GeneralMotorsModel16-248V16dieselengine

  Somelever:-)

  MUSEUM REPORT

  47

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 48

  Detailsoftheinstrumentaon

  Mechanicsworkshop

  MUSEUM REPORT

  48

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 49

  Detailsoftheinstrumentaon

  MUSEUM REPORT

  49

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 50

  Detailsoftheinstrumentaon

  MUSEUM REPORT

  50

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 51

  Mechanicsoce

  Restroom

  MUSEUM REPORT

  51

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 52

  Aertorpedoroomtorpedostore Broom

  MUSEUM REPORT

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  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 53

  Aertorpedoroom

  Torpedolauncher

  MUSEUM REPORT

  53

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  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 54

  Conning tower back side The bow with the Jack of the United States Detail of conning tower with radar antenna

  andperiscope

  MUSEUM REPORT

  54

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 55

  Conning tower back side Detailofdeckwithbollardandmooringrope

  MUSEUM REPORT

  55

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 56

  GERMAN SUBS IN THE GREAT LAKES

  U-505

  In addion to the museum’s Gato-class

  submarines, you can nd one unique ves-

  sel in the Great Lakes region that was also in

  US Navy possession at the end of its career,

  but hails from the dark side of the Second

  World War. It is the German submarine U-505,

  which is one of only two Type IXC U-Boats

  in the world that are currently preserved.

  The other is U-534 at the Western Approach-

  es Museum in Liverpool, UK.

  U-505 was launched on May 24th, 1941

  and accepted into the Kriegsmarine on Au-

  gust 26th, 1941. On her twelh combat

  cruise on June 4th, 1944, under the com-

  mand of Oberleutnant zur See Harald Lange,

  U-505 was discovered by Task Force 22.3,

  consisng of the aircra carrier USS Gua-

  dalcanal and the destroyers Pillsbury, Pope,

  Flaherty, Chatelain and Jenks, about 150

  naucal miles west of the coast of Rio de

  Oro (Western Sahara). The submarine was

  aacked by the destroyers and by aircra

  from the USS Guadalcanal. The subma-

  rine was damaged, surfaced, and her crew

  opened the oodgates and abandoned ship.

  TF 22.3 Commander Daniel V. Gallery or-

  dered an eight-man team from the destroy-

  er Piillsbury, led by Lt. Junior Grade Albert

  David, to board the submarine. While the

  destroyers Chaelain and Jenks rescued

  the submarine’s crew, all but one of whom

  survived the bale, Lt. David’s team closed

  the oodgates and stopped the submarine

  from sinking. The semi-submerged subma-

  rine was then towed 1,700 naucal miles

  across the Atlanc Ocean by the aircra

  carrier USS Guadalcanal to Great Sound,

  Bermuda.

  The capture of U-505 was not planned and

  was basically the result of acons taken by

  Captain Gallery. The submarine was exam-

  ined in Bermuda by Navy technical teams,

  but its capture was kept a secret. The rea-

  son was the fear that if the enemy discov-

  ered that the submarine had been captured

  with the Enigma encrypon device intact,

  they would change the codes used, mak-

  ing it impossible for the Allies to decipher

  German messages. These had already been

  successfully decoded by the previously cap-

  tured Enigma machines from submarines

  U-110 in 1941 and U-559 in 1942. The crew

  of the submarine was therefore held in iso-

  laon in a prison camp in Ruston, Louisiana,

  unl 1947, when all 58 crew members re-

  turned to Germany, where they were de-

  clared dead in 1944. As part of the secrecy,

  the submarine was painted like an Ameri-

  can submarine and renamed the USS Nemo.

  It was not unl aer the end of the war in

  Europe that it was introduced to the public

  and included in the program to promote the

  sales of war bonds. During a tour of Ameri-

  can ports, it visited New York, Philadelphia,

  and Balmore, and was stored at the Ports-

  mouth Navy Yard in Kiery, Maine aer the

  war. The Navy wanted to use it as a training

  U-505connigtowerwitharmament,a3.7cmSKC/30

  an-aircragunandtwotwin2cmFlaK30

  an-aircraguns.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  56

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 57

  TherstthingthevisitorseeswhenenteringthemainhallofU-505exhibitisthesubmarine’sbowwiththeupperbowtorpedo

  tubesopenandthetorpedolaunchedfromthestarboardupperbowtorpedotube.Formanyvisitors,thiscreatesawoweect

  and the feeling that they are seeing the world’s largest submarine, or at least the world’s largest World War Second submarine.

  Butthat’sjustanillusion.TheGato-classsubmarines,whichdonotusuallyimpressvisitorsinthisway,wereinfactnearlytwenty

  metreslongerthantheTypeIXCsubmarines.TheGatowas95metresinlength,whiletheTypeIXCU-Boatmeasured76.76metres.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  57

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 58

  target, but by then Rear Admiral Gallery was

  already ghng to save it. His brother, Father

  John Gallery, contacted Lenox Mohr, president

  of the Chicago Museum of Science and Indus-

  try, and convinced him to have the museum

  negoate with the Navy about donang the

  submarine to it. The long negoaons were

  ulmately successful, and the Navy did indeed

  donate the submarine to the museum in 1954.

  U-505 was towed to Chicago via the Great

  Lakes with a stop in Detroit in July, 1954, pulled

  ashore at Navy Pier and taken to the museum

  in a parade with great fanfare. It became part

  of the exhibion on September 25th, 1954.

  However, it was in no condion to serve as an

  exhibit, everything removable from the exte-

  rior and interior having been dismantled and

  most of the parts lost. The ship was placed in

  the museum yard for many years, exposed to

  the elements and gradually deteriorated. Nev-

  ertheless, its story has a happy ending, and y

  years aer its arrival in Chicago, U-505 received

  a complete reconstrucon and its own display

  pavilion. In 2004, it was moved to the foun-

  daons of a new air-condioned building that

  was built around the submarine. The result of

  a long and demanding restoraon, where the

  enre project cost a respectable 35 million dol-

  lars, the vessel is in absolutely mint condion

  and one of the most comprehensive and beau-

  ful museum specimens dedicated to a single

  ship that can be found anywhere in the world.

  UC-97

  U-505 was not the rst German submarine to

  nd itself in the Great Lakes. That honor goes

  to UC-97, a mine laying submarine launched

  in Hamburg in March, 1918. It was one of six

  German submarines acquired by the United

  States in early 1919. A group of twelve ocers

  and 120 sailors, called the Ex-German Sub-

  marine Expedionary Force, was sent to Eu-

  rope to transport the submarines to the Unit-

  ed States. Four of them sailed from Britain in

  April, 1919 and arrived in New York via the

  Azores and Bermuda. They were assigned to

  the Liberty Bonds campaign. UC-97, under the

  command of Lt. Commander Charles A. Lock-

  wood, who later commanded the Pacic Fleet

  submarines during World War II (and thus the

  Manitowoc-built submarines as well), was

  sent to the Great Lakes region. She arrived in

  Chicago in August, 1919 and was assigned to

  the 9th Naval District. She was rst moored at

  Navy Pier, then moved to the Chicago Lake-

  front near Grant Park.

  She served as a tourist aracon unl 1921.

  Then the peace conference decided that all

  German ships in Allied possession would be

  destroyed by July 1st, 1921. UC-97 was towed

  to Lake Michigan, and on June 7th, 1921, she

  was sunk by a baery of four-inch guns from

  the gunboat USS Wilmee. The ring began at

  11:45 a.m., with naval reservists taking turns

  at the guns. The rst shot was red by gunner

  J. O. Sabin of Iowa, and the eighteenth and -

  nal one, een minutes later, by A. H. Ander-

  son, the man who had red the rst American

  torpedo at a German submarine a few years

  earlier, during World War I. UC-97 sank to the

  boom of Lake Michigan, where it rests to this

  day. Her sinking was ordered by none other

  than the acng Secretary of the Navy, Franklin

  Delano Roosevelt.

  The gunboat Wilmee was also a ship with

  an interesng fate. Originally built in 1903 as

  the cargo steamer SS Eastland, it was subse-

  quently converted into a cruise ship. On July

  24th, 1915, it was chartered by Western Elec-

  tric to take its employees to a picnic venue

  in Michigan City, Indiana. Shortly aer set-

  ng sail, while sll in the dock on the Chica-

  go River, the ship capsized and sank parally

  on its side to a depth of six meters (18 feet).

  The cause was a malfuncon of the ballast tanks,

  which shied the center of gravity of the ship

  upward and caused the ship to become unsta-

  ble. A large number of the 3,000 passengers

  crowded onto the starboard side of the ves-

  sel to wave to their loved ones on the shore,

  then ran to the port side in an aempt to even

  out the list of the ship, but she capsized onto

  her port side. 844 people died in the disaster,

  of whom 220 were of Czech origin. Most of

  the Czech vicms of this disaster are buried at

  the Czech Naonal Cemetery in Chicago.

  The ship was raised and sold

  to the US Navy that same year,

  serving as USS Wilmee unl

  the 1940s. In 1941, she was re-

  classied as auxiliary ship IX-29,

  and scrapped in 1947.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  58

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

  More on the

  catastrophe

  of the SS East-

  land here:

  hps://cs.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/SS_Eastland

  I

• Strana 59

  Aviewofthesubmarinefromtheportsidewiththevisitorexitopen.Mostmuseum

  submarineshaveentryholescutintothehullordeckforeasyvisitoraccess.

  Oneofthefewmuseumsubmarinesthatdoesnothavetheseentrancesand

  issllinitsoriginalcombatconguraonistheUSSCodinCleveland,Ohio.

  TheU-505doesnothaveaperiscopeinstalledinthetower.Itisdisplayedseparatelyin

  theexposionandallowsvisitorstotryobservingwiththeperiscope.It’sabitofacheat,

  thereisnoopcsintheperiscope,butacamera.Butitdoesn’tmaer.Theperiscope

  itselfalsohasaninteresngfate.Aerthewar,theNavydismantledit,likevirtuallyall

  submarineequipment,andplaceditattheArccSubmarineLaboratoryatPointLoma

  nearSanDiego,California.Aerthelabwasclosedanddemolishedin2003,theUSNavy

  donatedtheperiscopetothemuseum,allowingittobepartoftheexhibitattheMuseum

  of Science and Industry.

  Further reading

  about Point Loma

  Laboratory:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/Arcc_Sub-

  marine_Laboratory

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  59

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 60

  MUSEUM REPORT

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  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 61

  The galley.

  Thecrewquartersintheforwardtorpedoroom

  Ocers’quarters,withtwobunkbedsoneachsideofthepassage

  MUSEUM REPORT

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  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 62

  Thesoundroom,whereanoperatormonitoredthesoundsaround

  a submerged submarine.

  The radio room. The brown case on the right desk

  isthewoodenboxforanEnigmamachine.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  62

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 63

  Controlroom.Thecirculardevicewiththeredframeonthe

  topleandintheblackandwhitephotoistheboardtele-

  graphfortransmingorderstotheengineroom.

  Charttableatthenavigaonocer’sstaonin

  the control room area (starboard side).

  MUSEUM REPORT

  63

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 64

  Passage from the control romm to the engine room

  Engine room with two MAN nine-cylinder diesel engines

  Pracovištěradisty

  MUSEUM REPORT

  64

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 65

  Electricmotorcontrolpanel.Totheleoftheupperlecorner

  ofthepassageisatelegraphfortransmingcommands

  to the engine room.

  The engine room The engine room

  Relief of a lion’s head on the frame of the electric case

  in the engine room of the electric motors.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  65

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 66

  MemorialplaquededicatedtoTaskGroup22.3

  Theaertorpedoroom.

  MUSEUM REPORT

  66

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

• Strana 67

  SUBMARINES ON THE GREAT LAKES

  The USS Cobia is not the only submarine

  that can be found in the Great Lakes region.

  On the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Mus-

  kegon, Michigan, one of the most successful

  American submarines of World War II, the USS

  Silversides, has been docked since 1987. It is

  a ship with a very interesng history, as you

  can read by following the aached link. In its

  more recent history, the USS Silversides ap-

  peared in the 2002 horror producon ‘Below’.

  It was towed onto Lake Michigan for the lm-

  ing, where it was used to portray

  the conal submarine USS Ti-

  ger Shark.

  In Bualo, New York, on Lake

  Erie, the Bualo and Erie Coun-

  ty Naval & Military Park exhibits

  the USS Croaker, which in 1953

  underwent modernizaon and conversion

  into an aack submarine (Hunter-Killer Sub-

  marine), designed to aack enemy subs.

  In as good a condion as the USS Cobia, if not

  even beer, is the USS Cod, docked in Cleve-

  land, Ohio. In 2021, its hull underwent a $1.1

  million overhaul in dry dock at the Donjon

  Shipbuilding & Repair facility in Erie, Pennsyl-

  vania. The Cod is also interesng and authen-

  c in that, as probably the only museum US

  Navy submarine, it does not have entrances

  cut into the hull with stairs installed for visitors,

  and is accessed through her original hatches

  and along the original ladders. I think this sub-

  marine is worth a visit for that alone. It also

  has all four of its diesel engines working, as

  well as a backup. They were manufactured at

  the General Motors Cleveland Diesel Engine

  Division in the west part of Cleveland.

  The museum also has two other GM Cleve-

  land Model 16-248 V16 engines from the

  submarine USS Sngray. The Mark IV torpe-

  do computer, J-5 radar, on-board telephone

  and on-board radio are also fully funconal.

  The USS Cod, as does the Cobia, has an ama-

  teur radio set installed, which carries the call

  sign W8COD.

  The USS Cod is another of the museum spec-

  imens that have parcipated in lmmaking,

  and really quite a star among them. The USS

  Cod rst appeared in the 1958 NBC series ‘The

  Silent Service’ in S2 E13 ‘The USS Cod’s Lost

  Boarding Party’.

  In 2015, the USS Cod was used for exterior

  and interior lming for the Smithsonian Chan-

  nel documentary ‘Hell Below’. The Cod played

  the role of the American submarine USS Tang

  and the German subs U-99 and U-100 in the

  lm. The documentary aired in 2016.

  The USS Cod is also the sub-

  ject of a two-part documenta-

  ry on the ‘World of Warships’

  YouTube channel, in the epi-

  sode ‘Naval Legends: USS Cod’, released in July,

  2019.

  The Cod again portrayed German U-boats in

  the 2022 Dolph Lundgren lm ‘Operaon Sea-

  wolf’.

  More on the USS

  Croaker here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/USS_Croaker

  More on the USS

  Silversides here:

  hps://en.wiki-

  pedia.org/wiki/USS_

  Silversides_(SS-236)

  More on this

  fascinang

  vessel here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/USS_Cod

  I

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  67

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

  USSCroaker[NavalHistoryandHeritageCommand]

  USSCod[NavalHistoryandHeritageCommand]

• Strana 68

  The USS Cavalla and the USS Drum then round

  out the lisng of Gato Class submarines in the

  possession of museums. The USS Cavalla is dis-

  played on land at Seawolf Park in Galveston,

  Texas, home to another major aracon, the

  USS Steward, an Edsall Class escort destroyer.

  The park is named aer the USS Seawolf, a Sar-

  go Class sub, and features a number of other

  aracons.

  The USS Drum is part of the collecon at the

  Baleship Alabama Memorial Park in Mobile,

  Alabama. It is also mounted on-shore, some-

  what to the side of the main exhibit, the mas-

  sive baleship USS Alabama. The USS Alabama

  is one of the museum’s ships that is kept in ex-

  cellent condion and is worthy of a dedicated

  arcle in and of itself, which I hope will hap-

  pen one day, so no spoilers here…

  LCT 5 and YO

  In addion to submarines, the shipyard also

  produced 36 LCT-5 landing cra, the produc-

  on of which is the subject of one of the mu-

  seum’s exhibits. Nine LCTs built in Manitowoc

  were sunk in World War II. The shipyard also

  produced YO (self-propelled fuel oil barge)

  harbor cargo boats, used to supply ships in

  port with fuel and other materials.

  The SS EDMUND FITZGERALD

  Perhaps the most famous shipping disaster

  on the Great Lakes occurred on Lake Superior

  on November 10th , 1975, when the 729-foot

  (222 m) iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald,

  bound for Detroit, Michigan, broke up in ex-

  tremely rough seas with 36-foot (11 m) waves

  and hurricane-force winds shortly aer 7:00

  p.m. She disappeared very quickly into the

  depths with all 29 on board, so quickly that

  no distress signal had been sent. The last ra-

  dio message was sent by her captain Ernest M.

  McSorely at 7:10 pm, and read ‘We are hold-

  ing our own’. The broken wreckage was found

  by a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion reconnaissance air-

  cra four days later, on November 14th, in Ca-

  nadian waters, thirteen naucal miles (24 km)

  west of Deadman’s Cave, Ontario, and een

  naucal miles northwest of the entrance to

  Whitesh Bay. The disaster led to signicant

  changes in the regulaons of shipping on the

  Great Lakes, including mandatory lifesaving

  equipment and inspecons of vessels, and

  became a part of popular culture through the

  1976 folk anthem ‘The Wreck of the Edmund

  Fitzgerald’ by Canadian singer/

  songwriter Gordon Lighoot.

  Ocialaudio

  of the song

  on Youtube:

  hps://www.youtube.

  com/watch?

  v=FuzTkGyxkYI

  Further reading

  about the Gato

  Class Subs:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/Gato-class

  _submarine

  I

  I

  The successor to the WWII sub-

  marineUSSCavalla(SS-244)was

  the Srugeon-class submarine of

  thesamename(SSN-684),com-

  missionedin1973andinservice

  unl1998.[NavalHistory

  and Heritage Command]

  SS Edmund Fitzgerald

  [GreatLakesHistoricalSociety]

• Strana 69

  THE IRON TRANSPORTATION

  One of the museum’s exhibits is

  dedicated to models of ships asso-

  ciated with the Great Lakes. A mod-

  el of a loading dock for transferring

  iron ore from trains of the Chicago &

  Northwestern Railroad to cargo ships,

  called self-unloading bulk carriers of

  the American Steamship Company,

  is an example of the fascinang indus-

  trial history of the American Midwest,

  now known as the Rust Belt. Opera-

  ons on the Chicago & Northwestern

  Railroad line and the loading docks in

  Escanaba were disconnued in Au-

  gust 2016, ending a 165-year histo-

  ry of transporng cargo from ports

  in northern Michigan south to Chi-

  cago and further to the industrial re-

  gions of Illinois and Indiana.

  The model of the iron ore freighter,

  called the self-unloader SS Adam E.

  Cornelius

  Author of the arcle

  at the USS Cobia’s bell

  Model of a pier for transferring iron ore from Chicago & Northwestern Railroads trains

  to American Steamship Company freighters at Escanaba, in northern Michigan.

  More on

  the Adam E.

  Cornelius here:

  hps://en.wikipedia.

  org/wiki/Adam_E._

  Cornelius_(1959_ship)

  I

  MUSEUM REPORT

  69

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Manitowoc Submarines

  SOURCES:

  Manitowoc. (Manitowoc, Wis.: The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, 1948); online facsimile at hp://www.

  wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1241

  hps://www.wisconsinmarime.org/

  Wisconcin´s Great Lakes shipwrecks hps://wisconsinshipwrecks.org/Home#anchor3

  hp://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08245.htm

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitowoc_Shipbuilding_Company#Post_World_War_2

  U-505 The nal journey, James E.Wise Jr, Naval Instute Press, Anapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN I-59114-967-3

  hps://www.burgerboat.com/

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Chief_Wawatam

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gato-class_submarine

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balao-class_submarine

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cobia

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_Boat_Company

  hps://www.facebook.com/CNWOREDIVISION/

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Chief_Wawatam

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-505

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_IX_submarine#Type_IXC/40

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Potomac_(AG-25)

  hps://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland

  hps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland

  hps://www.lidovky.cz/svet/parnik-eastland-havaroval-presne-pred-

  100-lety-mezi-844-obetmi-byli-i-cesi.A150724_193406_ln_zahranici_ELE

• Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

  John H. “Lucky” Luckadoo Interview by Matt Mabe

  Flying with

  the Bloody Hundredth

  JohnH.“Lucky”LuckadooInterviewbyMaMabe

  Photos:JohnH.Luckadoo,100thBGArchives,tleartworkbyPiotrForkasiewicz,SquadronSignal

  INTERVIEW

  70

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 71

  MATT

  Well Lucky I‘ll thank you again for taking

  a few minutes to talk with us. It is a rare

  honor and a privilege to get to talk with

  you and learn more about your me in

  the 100th Bomb Group. I knowyou have

  alotofuniqueexperiencestoshare,having

  been there during some of the early days

  ofthegroup.ButI‘llstartbackatthebe-

  ginning, where it started for you, and that

  you joined the US Army Air Forces shortly

  aerPearlHarbor,andIwaswonderingif

  you could talk a bit about what it was like

  totrainasanaviaoncadet?

  LUCKY

  Sure. Well, I joined up almost immediately

  following Pearl Harbor. The Army Air Forc-

  es had a tremendous inux of personnel

  and as a result when I joined the aviaon

  cadets, they accepted me,

  but put me on leave and said

  ‘Well we‘ll call you when we

  can put you into the pipe-

  line’. So they did and I actu-

  ally joined up… I think my

  date of enlistment is some-

  me in January of 42 and

  in March they noed me

  that I would be sent to Max-

  well Field in Montgomery,

  Alabama for my pre-ight.

  And I reported there on the

  1st of May. One of the rst

  things they did was … there

  were four thousand cadets

  and they marched us out to

  a parade ground and select-

  ed a few of us to, I guess try

  out to be appointed as the

  wing adjutant. And the try-

  out was to stand in the mid-

  dle of the eld and scream

  as loud as you could ‘pass

  in review’. I won. So, I guess

  Lucky during

  the basic training.

  John Luckadoo

  &MaMabe

  INTERVIEW

  71

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 72

  maybe my hard-calling days back in Ten-

  nessee came into play there. I don‘t know,

  but I was fortunate enough to have been

  selected as the Wing Adjutant, who was ac-

  tually the second in command of the cadet

  corps of that class. And this was to prove

  later on to be a disnct advantage to me

  and I‘ll tell you about that in a moment. But

  the commander of the regiment, the cadet

  who was selected, was a young man by

  the name of Bert Shaber. He was not very

  tall, not very impressive at all, rather quiet

  guy, but he was selected as the cadet com-

  mander of the enre 4 000 cadet corps,

  all the way through ying training, and

  I didn‘t see him because once we nished

  our pre-ight training, which was nine

  weeks, we were di-

  vided up into groups

  of about 100 and

  sent out to various

  air bases for our pri-

  mary training. I was

  sent to Avon Park,

  Florida, learned to

  y the PT-17, the Stearman Cadet and it

  was, I guess, sort of automacally - be-

  cause I‘d been a Cadet Ocer in pre-ight,

  I was designated as the cadet captain of

  my class. Graduang from primary, I was

  sent to Shaw Field in Sumter, South Car-

  olina, for my basic training and that was

  a big step up because from a biplane of 225

  horsepower we were thrown into a bulky

  vibrator, a BT-13 which was 450 horsepow-

  er and quite a bit larger low wing airplane

  with retractable gear and aps and a lot of

  other things, that we had to learn how to

  operate. You were allowed 12 hours of dual

  training and if you were unable to solo at

  the end of that 12 hours, you were washed

  out. Well, I was having diculty really mas-

  tering that big leap up from the primary

  trainer to the basic trainer. I was a Cadet

  Captain of my class there as well and had

  a military ocer, a second lieutenant Wes

  Poynter, who was my instructor, and he was

  not able to really in-

  struct me. He could

  y the airplane him-

  self, but he certainly

  wasn‘t imparng any

  instrucon to me as

  to how to handle the

  aircra. And I was

  on the verge of the brink of actually being

  washed out and I think the fact that I was

  the cadet captain of the class gave them

  some second thoughts because I learned

  later that a civilian instructor had heard

  about the fact that I was about to be washed

  out and he said ‘Well it‘s going to be a bad

  morale factor if the captain of class gets

  washed out, so let me take him for 30 min-

  utes and if I can‘t solo him then you can

  wash him out’. So he approached me and

  told me to go out and get in an airplane

  and he got in the back seat. We ew out to

  an auxiliary eld, landed and he got out on

  the wing, and he said -I‘mgengahead

  of myself, he‘d taken me up and really run

  the airplane out. He showed me how to

  stall, how to recover from stalls, and how

  to loop it, and he had over 6,000 hours in

  the airplane so he was really able to make

  it do anything he wanted to, and he could

  y the airplane. And he taught me more

  in that 30 minutes than I‘d learned in 10

  hours of instrucon from that lieutenant.

  Lt. John H. Luckadoo

  “... if you were unable to

  solo at the end of that 12

  hours, you were washed

  out...“

  INTERVIEW

  72

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 73

  So he climbed out on the wing of the plane

  and he said ‘Now Luckadoo, if you can take

  thisairplaneoandyitaroundthepat-

  ternandlanditthreemeswhileIgoover

  and sit under that tree and smoke a ciga-

  ree,youpass’. So, he gets out and goes

  over and sits under the tree and I very gin-

  gerly take the thing o and y around the

  paern and make three landings. I don‘t

  recall how good they were or bad, but at

  any rate he comes back

  and gets in the airplane

  he says ‘let‘s go back

  to the base’. So, we y

  back to the base and

  he gets out and starts

  walking into the ready

  room and turns around and just gives me

  a thumbs up. So that‘s how I kept from be-

  ing washed out in the middle of my train-

  ing. I was very grateful to him because he

  really saved my neck. I went ahead and

  completed basic and then was sent down

  to Valdosta, Georgia, for advanced training

  on twin engines. When I got to Valdosta,

  they also had a conngent of single engine

  pilots, who were going to be ghter pilots,

  on the same base, going through at the

  same me, and Bert Shaber was the cap-

  tain of the single engine class, and I was

  the captain of the twin engine class. Well,

  at graduaon in February of 43 he was not

  in aendance. That puzzled me greatly. But

  I was so glad to have goen my wings and

  my commission that I didn‘t think a whole

  lot about it. Only to nd out some months

  later that they had discovered while he

  was going through training that he was

  a German plant and they allowed him to

  get all the way through to graduaon be-

  fore they lowered the

  boom on him. But he

  had immigrated with

  his family at 15 from

  Germany, Schaber was

  a German name of

  course and that sort of,

  I guess, caused some suspicions to cause

  to start with, but anyway it was quite

  a shock and a surprise to learn that that

  he was a mole and so he didn‘t graduate

  with us. But as you know, upon graduaon,

  40 of my classmates from twin engine ight

  school and I were sent to Kearney, Nebras-

  ka, to join the 100th Bomb Group, immedi-

  ately out of ying school. And we were of

  course designed as co-pilots to replace all

  of the co-pilots in the group. Now that was

  one of the most mysterious things to hap-

  pen I think during World War II, as to why in

  the world, just before the group was about

  to be sent overseas, would they sudden-

  ly remove all the co-pilots and replace us,

  replace them with us, newly admied pi-

  lots who‘d never been in a B-17. Heck we‘d

  never seen anything as large as a four-en-

  gine airplane in our lives and here we were

  stuck in the right-hand seat second in com-

  mand of a 10-man crew to learn how to

  y B-17s not with any combat instrucon

  but only from the pilot we were assigned

  to. And that was an extremely hazardous

  and unfortunate thing to have had occur.

  So far as we‘ve been able to determine,

  it didn‘t happen in any other group. And

  why it happened to the Hundredth Group

  is sll to this day unknown.

  MATT

  That‘s denitely an interesng way of

  coming into the Hundredth. And one thing

  Indsofascinang-youknowwewatch

  “...we‘d never seen

  anything as large as

  a four-engine airplane

  in our lives...“

  INTERVIEW

  73

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 74

  moviesthesedaysandthepeopleportray-

  ingWorldWarIIveteransareprobablyin

  their 30s in real life, but you guys, you were

  inyourearly20sandIknowinyourcase

  if my math is right you

  were 21 as a Second

  Lieutenant when you

  started ying combat

  missions in 1943. And

  I was wondering if you

  could tell us a bit about the weight on your

  shouldersasapilot,butalsoaleaderwith-

  in the crew.

  LUCKY

  Well, I will menon of course that, as re-

  placement co-pilots, we were not always

  welcomed by the crews that we were as-

  signed to. It so happened that in the crew

  that I was assigned to, the navigator and

  the bombardier were very fond of their

  co-pilot. They buddied with him and hung

  out with him, and they were cresall-

  en when he was removed. And they pro-

  ceeded to make my life hell, because they

  resented the fact, that I didn‘t know any-

  thing about the B-17 and I was thrust into

  their crew, forced down their throats and

  so they were really prey resenul and

  hurt by this move. And

  it was sort of juvenile

  on their part to make

  my life miserable be-

  cause, aer all, I was

  second in command of

  the crew and if anything incapacitated the

  pilot I was to take over. And sure enough

  that happened when we hit Newfoundland

  enroute to our overseas base. I don‘t know

  whether you‘re aware or not but when we

  got to Newfoundland we had to await the

  tailwind or well we couldn‘t make it all the

  way to Scotland, even with our addion-

  al fuel tanks and carrying extra fuel in the

  bomb bays. While we were waing, the pi-

  lot I was assigned to, misbehaved and went

  across the base one night, while we were

  cooling our heels waing in the winds to

  be favorable, and managed to get himself

  involved with a Brish WAAF, that infected

  PagefromJohnH.Luckadoo‘sphotoalbum–thecrewofLt.GlennW.Dyeaer

  compleng25missions,September1943.‘Lucky’standsonthefarright,

  withpilotLt.Dyenexttohim,followedbySquadronLeaderOllieTurner.

  “...as replacement

  co-pilots, we were not

  always welcomed by

  the crews...“

  INTERVIEW

  74

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 75

  him and he got thrown in the hospital with

  a raging case of VD. And the whole group

  proceeded to combat while we sat there

  for two addional weeks, waing for him

  to recover. And then it became prey obvi-

  ous to this navigator and bombardier, that

  had been so hosle to me and hadn‘t real-

  ly welcomed me into the to the fraternity

  of the crew, that I was

  going to have to y the

  airplane because when

  he was nally released

  aer having been treat-

  ed with sulfa, which was

  the only thing that they had in those days,

  he was so weak, he couldn‘t stand up and

  they actually had to load him into the air-

  plane and he said ‘Well Lucky you‘re going

  tohavetoybutI‘llmonitortheengines

  andtheinstrumentsandhelpyouasmuch

  as I can’, but he was so weak, he could hard-

  ly talk, much less walk or funcon. And we

  took o. Before we did, I called the navi-

  gator and bombardier and I said ‘You guys

  have made my life miserable but you‘ve

  nowgottodependonmetogetustocom-

  bat’ and I pointed to the navigator and

  I said ‘Nowyoulileso-and-so,ifyoudon‘t

  hitlandfallonthenoseI‘mpersonallygo-

  ingtothrowyourbuoutoftheairplane

  withoutaparachute’.So that leveled the

  playing eld, and from then on, things were

  a lile bit more comfortable among us. But

  sure enough, he was a good navigator and

  he did hit the landfall on the nose and so

  we got the combat. But as you probably

  are aware when the group arrived in En-

  gland, our base at Thorpe Abbos was not

  completed and they

  were sent instead of

  to Thorpe Abbos

  to Podington, where

  they stayed for several

  days and then, by the

  me we arrived two weeks later, they had

  moved into Thorpe Abbos and we ew

  directly from Prestwick to Thorpe Abbos

  and joined the group. But they had already

  been on some pracce missions, hadn‘t

  own combat as yet, because we ew the

  rst combat missions that the 100th ew.

  And because of the embarrassment of his

  escapade at Newfoundland I think my pi-

  lot was determined that he was going to

  redeem himself by compleng a tour as

  rapidly as possible and geng back home

  to his family, which he did, as you probably

  are aware, he ended as the rst pilot in the

  100th Bomb Group to complete a 25 mis-

  sion tour.

  AAFStaonNo.139ThorpeAbbos,Norfolkshire,England.

  Homeofthe100thBombardment(H)Group,1943-1945

  “...but sure enough,

  he was a good

  navigator...“

  INTERVIEW

  75

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 76

  MATT

  It‘sdenitelyaninteresngturnofevents

  thatgotyouguysthereandputyouinthe

  captain‘s chair early. That‘s interesng.

  I know one thing we had talked about be-

  fore,Imenonedtoyoumyinterestinthe

  topicofleadershipandyoumenonedthat

  youhadalotofadmiraonandrespectfor

  JackKiddasaleader.AndIknowheoen

  faced a lot of tough mes in that leader-

  shipposionin100thandIwaswondering

  if you could elaborate on what it was you

  respectedaboutJackKiddasaleader.

  LUCKY

  Sure, we met a lot of people, dierent

  people of dierent characteriscs and die-

  rent abilies in the service. And some

  you learned to have some respect for and

  others you didn‘t. When the group went

  to England, originally Jack Kidd was the

  Commander of the 351st Squadron and

  in route he was relieved and designated

  as the Group Operaons Ocer and Ol-

  lie Turner succeeded him as the Squadron

  Commander of the 351st which we were

  assigned to. It was not long aerwards that

  I became aware of a Major Kidd‘s tremen-

  dous talent, because he funconed as the

  group operaons ocer in an exemplary

  fashion by not only handling the personnel

  maers of the various crews and Squad-

  ron Commanders, he was responsible for

  appoinng those as well, but also as an air

  leader, because he took on the worst mis-

  sions that we ew. He ew to Regensburg,

  he ew to Bremen… he ew to … on all of

  the worst missions and of course the one to

  Bremen, which turned out to be my worst

  mission, and his as well. He was ying with

  the 418th, with Ev Blakely and led that mis-

  sion. And I also observed, that from a lead-

  ership standpoint he was highly regarded

  by the commanding ocer who was then

  Chick Harding, but also very much respect-

  ed by General LeMay, when he came down

  from 3rd Division. So, in retrospect I think

  that probably he was deserving and should

  have been promoted to a group command

  or even higher during his combat expe-

  rience. He was calm, cool and collected.

  And I know how he funconed from Harry

  Crosby‘s account of ying with him, par-

  cularly on that Bremen mission, where

  they lost two engines and crash landed in

  back in England, barely making it back. But

  their crew went through a very traumac

  experience of being shot out of the forma-

  on on the bomb run, and how he han-

  dled himself under those condions and

  handled the crew, and how highly they re-

  garded him and respected him. It certain-

  ly embellished my opinion of him… But

  I think, my greatest respect for him came

  aer my original crew had nished up and

  I ew the Bremen mission, which was my

  rst mission aer they le. Ollie Turner

  came to me one night while I was in the of-

  cers’ club and tapped

  me on the shoulder

  and told me to go get

  some sleep because

  I was ying the next

  day. I should add, that

  when I got back from the Bremen mission

  on October the 8th 43, because the lead

  ship in my squadron, which was the low

  squadron, consisng of Tom Murphy and

  Al Barker, Barker was the operaons of-

  cer for the 351st and I was leading the

  second element of the low squadron with

  a brand new crew I‘d never own with be-

  fore of course, but when I landed, because

  I had seen Tom Murphy‘s plane explode

  and reported that I didn‘t think there were

  any survivors... when Turner met me on

  landing, I was sll a Second Lieutenant and

  he immediately appointed me to replace

  Barker as the operaons ocer for the

  351st Squadron. Well,

  I told him that that was

  an awkward, he was

  pung me in an awk-

  ward posion, because

  as the Second Lieu-

  tenant I would be ordering Captains and

  Majors and crew members around as to

  where they would y in the formaon and

  whether they would y or not and he said

  ‘Don‘tworryaboutit,we‘llpromoteyouas

  rapidly as possible’ and I‘d already been

  “...I had seen Tom

  Murphy‘s plane

  explode...“

  B-17F-120-BO 42-30796, Capt. Glenn W. Dye crew,

  351st BS, 100th BG, Thorpe Abbos,

  United Kingdom, September 1943

  Eduard kit No. 11183

  INTERVIEW

  76

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 77

  put in for my First Lieutenancy and it did

  come through at the end of that month.

  But the following month, the end of No-

  vember, I had one more mission to y.

  I had 24 missions under my belt, and I was

  in the ocers club one evening, and Turn-

  er walked up to me, walked up behind me

  and put his hand on my

  shoulder and he said

  ‘Lucky you could bet-

  ter go get some sleep

  because you‘re ying

  tomorrow.’ And I said

  ‘well, how so?’ and he

  said ‘well, we‘re leading the group and

  Iwantyoutoyascommandpilot.’And he

  named the crew, and I don‘t recall exactly

  who that was, but at any rate I said ‘Well

  Ollieifwe‘releadingthegroupyouought

  tobeyingandit‘syourresponsibility’he

  said ‘I know but I want you to take this mis-

  sion.’

  So I didn‘t think any more about it, went

  to bed and then got up the next morning

  and went to brieng and discovered that

  something was up, because here came

  General LeMay and he had never been

  to our group at a brieng before, and he

  got up on the stage and said ‘Gentlemen

  IhavetotellyouthatI’vewaitedmyenre

  militarycareertoyingamissionlikethis,

  butGeneralArnoldhasforbiddenmefrom

  leadingorgenginanairplanetodayor

  he‘llcourt-maralme’.Buthesays‘Inall

  honestyIhavetotellyouthat ifweonly

  get one plane over the target, we‘ll con-

  sider this mission a suc-

  cess’. Well, they pulled

  back the curtain and it

  was a straight line to

  Berlin and that would

  have been the inial

  daylight bombing raid

  of Berlin by the Eighth Air Force. He said

  ‘TheHundredthistheonlygroupgoingand

  insteadofbombingattheusualaltudeof

  25to29,000feetbecausethe meteorolo-

  gistsayswe‘vegotasolidcloudcoverover

  allofEuropeuptotenthousandfeet,we

  wantyoutogoinat12,000andwhenyou

  turnontheinialpoint,startonyourbomb

  run,youdivethroughthecloudsandbreak

  outat6,000feetoverBerlinathighnoon

  in broad daylight and bomb the Reichstag’.

  Well, I looked across the room at Turner

  and gave him the nger and aer the brief-

  ing I looked him up and I said ‘You yellow

  son of a gun, you knew what this mission

  was,andyouputmeinthisposion,when

  you‘re supposed to y it. But,’ I said ‘I‘m

  gonna come back from it and when I do, if

  I see your ugly face, I‘ll kill you’. Of course

  that was rank insubordinaon, but if he

  court-maraled me he had to y the mis-

  sion so he didn‘t open his mouth. We took

  o and climbed up and formed up and got

  to the enemy coast … and they scrubbed

  the mission. So, we came back and landed

  and I no sooner got out of the airplane and

  I went straight to Jack Kidd and explained

  to him what had happened and I said

  ‘IcannotserveunderOllieTurneronemore

  minute.Pleasegivemeatransfer.’And he

  said ‘Well I can‘t blame you Lucky, but it so

  happensIneedanOperaonsOcerover

  in Bucky Elton’s squadron, in the 350th,

  wouldyoutakethatjob?’

  “...I’ve waited my en-

  tire military career to

  ying a mission like

  this...“

  INTERVIEW

  77

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 78

  And I said ‘I‘m on my way.’ So I moved

  out of the 351st, and of course thanked

  Jack Kidd for his consideraon and reas-

  signment, and had even more respect for

  him than I already had. That was a good

  example of how and why I held him in

  such high regard. He was an exemplary of-

  cer. Of course, as you probably are aware,

  he stayed in the Air Force and was later

  a Major General. But he also became a ra-

  bid an-war zealot and he used to make

  lectures constantly about how feudal war

  was and how useless it was there weren‘t

  any victors, they were only vicms.

  MATT

  Icandenitelyunderstandfromthat,you

  know the vignees you shared, why you

  hadalotofrespectforJackKidd.Iknowit

  was a success in itself to get back from just

  a single mission but you‘re one of the lucky

  fewthatsurvived25missionsandyoudid

  it early in the war as well. I don‘t know how

  much you recall about your last mission in

  February 44, but I was wondering if you‘d

  talkalilebitaboutthesheerfeelingofre-

  lief and what it was like on that last mission

  youew.

  LUCKY

  I had served for about three months as

  Bucky Elton‘s Operaons Ocer in the

  350th with one mission sll to y. And

  Bucky got sent to the rest home, the ak

  house, and he was o the base and this mis-

  sion came up in mid-February of 44, that

  I certainly wanted to complete my missions

  and live through it, and so did Bill Desand-

  ers. Bill was a lead pilot in the 350th and

  I knew him prey well and I said ‘Billyou‘ve

  got one to y and so do I, and this is it’.

  John Luckadoo and William DeSanders

  aercomplengtheircombattours

  on February 13, 1944, with the

  B-17GAlicefromDallasII.

  CitaonfortheDisnguishedFlyingCrossawardedtoCapt.Luckadooaercompleng

  his combat tour.

  INTERVIEW

  78

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 79

  It was what we called a no ball target.

  We thought it would be a milk run be-

  cause we were tasked to bomb V2 rock-

  et bases right on the shore on the coast

  of France and we thought we would just

  duck in and drop our bombs and scoot

  home and that would be it. As it turned

  out the Germans were alerted to us and

  they came halfway across the channel

  to meet us and shot us up prey well.

  But we did manage to strike our targets

  and get back. And of course, it was such

  a tremendous release to nally realize

  that we had survived a 25 mission tour,

  because so darn few of the members

  did, parcularly of the original group

  and DeSanders was also of the original

  group as well.

  The relief and the realizaon that we‘d

  been lucky enough to complete our tour,

  it was just indescribable, it was like li-

  ing a heavy load o your shoulders, be-

  cause psyching yourself up to get back in

  that airplane parcularly aer a rough

  dose was a dicult thing to do. And

  I get asked frequently how we did it

  and I have to confess, I don‘t actual-

  ly know. We‘ve had to stay focused on

  our job and that was what we were sent

  there to do, and we intended to com-

  plete it as best we could and we did, but

  it was just a maer of dumb luck as to

  whether or not you

  managed to do it. In

  those days it parc-

  ularly was. Inially

  we had no ghter

  escort to protect us

  and we were going out in broad daylight

  and of course we were completely igno-

  rant of the fact that the Brish were ad-

  amant against daylight bombing. They

  tried it and had been cut to ribbons by

  the Luwae. And they begged General

  Eaker, the Commander of the Eighth Air

  Force, to abandon daylight bombing al-

  together and join them in just nighme

  bombing. Eaker wouldn‘t do it and so

  Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the head of the

  RAF bomber force, prevailed upon Chur-

  chill to try to convince president Roos-

  evelt to order us to stop daylight bomb-

  ing. And President Roosevelt said no, he

  had faith in his Air Force commanders

  knowing what they were doing and he

  refused. So we kept going out every day

  we could and the Brish kept bomb-

  ing at night. So, it was sort of round the

  clock harassment of the of the Third Re-

  ich. And I think that was eecve. I have

  some misgivings about the fact that Eak-

  er even refused to give nighme bomb-

  ing a fair trial. I‘m not saying that that

  it was superior to

  daylight bombing but

  certainly from high

  altude we had our

  dicules because of

  the tremendous cold

  and the diculty of funconing at high

  altude, where the Brish were going in

  at 12 to 15, 000 feet at night and they

  weren‘t enduring anything like those

  dicult condions, but it was a dier-

  ent type of ying and it wouldn‘t have

  involved a formaon ying either, which

  we prided ourselves on and felt like we

  could oer some mutual protecon

  for other people in the formaon. And

  I think to a degree that was valid and it

  did work out that way, but the Luwae

  was so experienced, and they were so

  pracced and had such good equipment

  and excellent training, that they inict-

  ed horric damage on us because they

  developed new and beer techniques

  of how to approach us and at least dam-

  ages enough either with an-aircra or

  Onthe100thBGReunion,

  Savannah,GA,2023

  “...British were

  adamant against

  daylight bombing....“

  INTERVIEW

  79

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 80

  with ghter re, to force us out of the

  formaon. And then, if you‘re out by

  yourself, while you‘re a sing duck, and

  that‘s when they picked us o at leisure.

  MATT

  I‘m amazed by all the stories I hear

  abouthowdicultitwasatthemesto

  make it back from missions but there‘s

  just an incredible amount of courage and

  braverythatyouhearwhenitcomesto

  some of these guys who against all odds

  managed a crippled B-17 back. There

  are incredible stories of bravery but

  it‘sanincredibleairplaneaswell.And

  I know you‘ve spoken about your love

  ofthe B-17. And you had aunique ex-

  periencebackin2013,Iknow,youwere

  able to take the helm of a B-17 once

  again.70-plusyearsaerthewarand

  I was wondering what was itlike to get

  backinthecockpitintheairofaB-17

  for you.

  LUCKY

  Well Ma, I tried for three years to

  get somebody to let me prove that a 92

  year old guy could sll handle the B-17

  and when I got down to the nal anal-

  ysis there was always some reason that

  they wouldn‘t allow them to do that.

  But when we went to Savannah for our

  Reunion in 2013, Mike Faley called me

  and said that they were going to make

  this documentary called ‚Masters of the

  Air‘ about the 100th Bomb Group and

  the author of the book, Donald Miller,

  wanted to interview me if I would come

  to Savannah. And I was not at that me

  aending very many reunions. I was

  sort of disappointed

  in those that I did at-

  tend because there

  were so few people

  that I knew. Nearly

  all of the people that

  I encountered at the reunions of course

  were people that came in and ew aer

  I did, and literally ew a dierent war,

  a dierent me period, and had dier-

  ent opposion and dierent experienc-

  es than I did. But there were so few of the

  original group parcularly that were sll

  alive, that it was rather disappoinng.

  So I wasn‘t aending many reunions.

  But Mike prevailed me to come and

  be interviewed and he said ‘If you do,

  we‘rebringinginThe[movie]Memphis

  Belleandwe‘llgiveyouaride’, and I said

  ‘Mike, I don‘t want to ride on The Mem-

  phis Belle, I want to y it’, and there

  was this dead silence on the other end

  of the line.

  Finally he said ‘Okay we‘ll let you do

  that’ and I said ‘Now look I don‘t want

  togetthereandgetdisappointed,and

  I‘vebeendisappointedbeforeandIdon‘t

  wantthattohappen’,

  and he said ‘Well

  don‘t worry about it,

  you‘vegotmyword

  we‘ll let you y it’

  and so I showed

  up with my wife at Savannah and they

  booked me for my interview with Don-

  ald Miller on a Friday. I set up the ight

  for 11:15 on a Saturday morning at the

  airport. I was to be interviewed Friday

  aernoon late and they just postponed

  it to Friday night and I said ‘Look, I don‘t

  give a damn, I‘m going to y that air-

  plane, I‘m going to be at the airport at

  11:15. I don‘t care whether I do the in-

  terview or not’.

  They kept delaying it and sure enough

  because Miller was running behind and

  his interviews were running over me

  Luckyand100thBombGrouphistorian

  MichaelP.FaleyvisingThorpeAbbos.

  “...I don‘t want to ride

  on The Memphis Belle,

  I want to y it...!“

  INTERVIEW

  80

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

• Strana 81

  The mission of the 100thBombGroupFoundaon

  is to preserve and disseminate rst-hand historical

  accounts of the men, missions, and machines that

  fought in the skies over Europe during WWII.

  Contacts:

  www.100thbg.com

  www.facebook.com/100thBGFoundaon

  www.instagram.com/100thbgf

  100th BG® and Bloody Hundredth® are registered

  trademarks of the 100th Bomb Group Foundaon,

  Inc. Century Bombers, the square D logo, and 100th Bomb Group Foundaon

  logo, amongst other marks, are trademarks of the 100th Bomb Group Founda-

  on, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  and eventually they scheduled me for Sat-

  urday aernoon to be interviewed. But

  I said ‘That‘s good enough, I‘m going to be

  at the airport at 11:15, so I darn sure was

  there’. And there were six of us that they

  took up on that ight. We took o and as

  soon as we got in the air, the pilot gets out

  of his seat, he says ‘Lucky it‘s yours’. I said

  ‘You mean it?’, he said ‘Absolutely’.

  So, I sat down and everything came back

  just like riding a bicycle. The old sensaons,

  the feel, the responses of the airplane,

  and I loved ying the B-17. I thought it was

  the most graceful thing for a four-engine

  bomber to be as beaufully designed as it

  was and, of course, I had a healthy respect

  for its structural integrity to withstand the

  sort of bale damage, that I sustained on

  many of my missions and sll got home.

  So, one of the rst things I did, when I did

  get back, was to go buy some Boeing

  stock because I appreciated the integ-

  rity of their product, so that I thought

  I‘d put in with them. But it was such

  a thrill to really get the sensaons and

  feel the responses of the airplane and,

  I guess, the most pleasant thing was that

  I wasn‘t being shot at while I was doing it.

  But I ew it for about 30 minutes all

  around Savannah and was extremely

  grateful for that privilege, because it was

  a privilege. They wouldn‘t let me land it or

  take it o because that was ‘verboten’ but at

  least just geng my hands on the controls

  and feeling it again was, as I described it,

  a ‘pants weer‘, it was a real thrill…

  AtthepremiereofMastersoftheAirinJanuary2024.Fromletoright:

  HenryCervantes(349thBS),StevenSpielberg,JohnH.Luckadoo(351st,

  350th BS), Robert H. Wolf (418th BS), and James R. Rasmussen (349th BS).

  More about the

  100th Bomb Group

  history can be found

  in the Info Eduard

  magazine, special

  issue The Bloody

  Hundredth 1943,

  June 2024.

  info.eduard.com/en/

  06-2024-special-en

  INTERVIEW

  81

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Lucky Luckadoo: Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

  IncockpitofaB-17G.TheMightyEight

  NaonalMuseum,Savannah,2023.

• WARNING SHOTS

  F-35C 1/48 Tamiya

  When Tamiya presented the F-35A Light-

  ning II in 1/48 scale at the 60th annual

  Hobby World in 2022, there was a bit of

  an expectaon that we’d see the F-35B

  version in the future, despite other manu-

  facturers having oered both the A and B

  versions for some me. The reason is sim-

  ple—the Japanese Self-Defense Forces use

  both variants. And exactly one year later,

  this expectaon was met.

  The release of the F-35C was less certain,

  as the substanal structural dierenc-

  es would require an almost enrely new

  model, with minimal shared parts. Fortu-

  nately, the manufacturer le nothing to

  chance and seized the opportunity to re-

  lease this third variant, complete with fea-

  tures like pre-cut RAM masks, fully mech-

  anized wings with an opon to build them

  in the folded posion, an extended aeri-

  al refueling probe, an open weapon bay,

  and a wide array of the ordnance. We can

  expect this model by December of this year.

  (MC)

  Z-37A 1/32 Hph

  Had someone told me a few years ago

  that we’d be building planes like the

  Z-126/226/526, commonly seen in the

  Eastern Bloc ying clubs, I wouldn’t have

  believed it. But to have the Z-37 on the mar-

  ket in three dierent scales—luxury that

  even some popular WWII designs don’t re-

  ceive—was beyond my imaginaon.

  The latest addion to the “Čmelák” family

  is a 1/32 scale model from the Czech man-

  ufacturer Hph. This model is primarily res-

  in, complemented by 3D-printed details,

  machined landing gear struts, and photo

  etched parts. A universal decal sheet allows

  for building of the most Czech/Czecho-

  slovak and East German markings. (MC)

  [Photo: Miroslav Odložilík]

  PZL M18B Dromader 1/48 IBG Models

  To add even more crop-dusng aircra

  to the mix, Polish company IBG Models,

  in collaboraon with Greek Grand Mod-

  els, is introducing the PZL M18B Dromader.

  This marks IBG Models’ debut in the 1/48

  scale. By 2025 both single- and two-seat

  versions of the Dromader will be release

  in crop-dusng, reghng, or military air-

  cra sub-types.

  November / December 2024

  WARNING SHOTS

  82

  ExploringthePlascModellingUniverseandBeyond

  byMarianCihoň&Comp.

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 83

  But this won’t be the end of the Dromad-

  ers. Fans of the type can also look forward

  to a 1/72 scale model, this me from An-

  swer Plasc Kits. (MC)

  B-26B Marauder “Flak-Bait” 1/48 ICM

  202 combat missions over Nazi Germa-

  ny and over 1,000 hits—this is the legend-

  ary “Flak Bait,” the B-26B-25-MA Maraud-

  er, which earned its fame and resilience

  with the 449th Bombardment Squadron,

  332nd Bombardment Group, and has now

  been released as a second boxing by the

  Ukrainian company ICM. The actual air-

  cra, which this model is based on, is dis-

  played in the Naonal Air and Space Mu-

  seum, Washington DC. The manufacturer

  plans to launch the sales as of November

  18, 2024. (MC)

  PBJ-1J and A-20B/C Early 1/48

  HK Models

  HK Models connues downsizing their

  Havoc and Mitchell lines, now with the Ma-

  rine Corps special edions announced in To-

  kyo: the PBJ-1J and early-series of A-20B/C

  Boston. While the PBJ-1J is expected to

  be similar to the B-25J release that’s been

  available for three years—a repackaging

  with minor adjustments—the smaller A-20

  is an enrely new kit, though the manufac-

  turer has only shown the test sprues so far.

  The PBJ-1J is scheduled to be available for

  the Christmas market, with the A-20 likely

  arriving in 2025. (MC)

  A6M5 Zero 1/48 Fine Molds

  Japanese Zeros have recently ooded the

  market, with Fine Molds now releasing the

  A6M5. Known for high-quality sprues and

  unique engineering Fine Molds maintains

  its reputaon with this Zero, featuring

  a mul-part canopy and an unconvenon-

  al, vercally split fuselage. The kit oers

  two canopy opons: single piece one and

  mul-piece one consisng of the frame

  and individual glass secons. The fuselage

  division is based on the actual aircra’s

  design. These unique design choices bring

  specic challenges both in molding and as-

  sembly. Fine Molds will oer two boxings

  represenng A6M5 built by Mitsubishi as

  well as Nakajima factories. (MC)

  83

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 84

  A6M2 1/35 Border Model

  To add even more Zeros, Border Model

  from China is releasing their A6M2

  Zero in the unusual 1/35 military scale.

  The Zero will come in two kits: a standalone

  model of the Okinawa 1945 A6M2 and

  a diorama kit with part of the Akagi car-

  rier’s deck and bridge from around 1942.

  (MC)

  He-111 H-6 1/35 Border Model

  In addion to the Zero, Border Model’s

  test sprues of the German Heinkel He-111

  medium bomber have drawn aenon.

  The kit features detailed paneling with both

  raised and recessed rivets and stressed

  skin eect on the fuselage and wings. This

  feature wasn’t obvious from the inial 3D

  renders, making it an excing discovery for

  modelers who enjoy intricate surface work.

  (MC)

  [Photo: Fan Chengbin]

  84

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 85

  Nieuport XI 1/32 Copper State Models

  Copper State Models has pleased WWI

  aviaon fans with test sprues of their in-

  jected Nieuport XI model, available in

  at least two edions—Early and Late.

  The kit includes a range of 3D-printed ac-

  cessories, such as the Le Rhone 9C engine,

  wheels, map holder, ammo storage, carbu-

  retor intake, seat backrest, and cockpit in-

  struments. (MC)

  [Photo: Filip Rząsa]

  Fokker D.VII 1/32 Gothaforce

  A newcomer to the scale model mar-

  ket, Gothaforce, has announced a fully

  3D-printed Fokker D.VII model at the 2024

  Scale Model Challenge in Eindhoven, Neth-

  erlands, showcasing its high-quality prints

  and intricate details. The kit will feature

  seven aracve camo schemes dedicat-

  ed to WWI German pilots like Ernst Udet,

  Walter Blume, and Wilhelm Leusch. How-

  ever, the premium nature of this non-in-

  jected model comes with a hey price tag

  of around 250 Euros / 6500 Czech crowns,

  which may discourage some potenal buy-

  ers. (MC)

  [Photo: Kamil Trembacz]

  Bloch MB 210 1/72

  Special Hobby / Azur-Frrom

  The collaboraon between French compa-

  ny Azur-Frrom and Czech manufacturer Spe-

  cial Hobby brings the new 1/72 scale Bloch

  MB 210 bomber. This elegant successor to

  the historically popular MB 200 will oer

  three camouage schemes for French air-

  cra, along with several photo-etched parts

  and 3D-printed exhausts. (MC)

  Hercules 1/144 GWH

  Shanghai-based Great Wall Hobby usually

  focused on 1/48 scale aircra, has turned

  to large airplanes in 1/144 scale. Follow-

  ing the B-52G and Brish V-bombers (Vic-

  tor, Valiant, and Vulcan), modelers will now

  be able to build a C-130H Hercules. Despite

  the small scale, this model includes intri-

  cate details such as fully equipped cargo

  bay, with opons for an open rear ramp or

  side doors. Builders can create a version

  85

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 86

  with four-bladedpropellers (as operated by

  Japanese Self-Defense Air Force) or with the

  newer, eight-bladed propellers used by the

  USAF. (MC)

  SnsonL-5Sennel1/48Sword

  Aer Special Hobby‘s successful release of

  the iconic L-4 Grasshopper liaison and train-

  ing plane, Czech manufacturer Sword Mod-

  els is launching the second most signicant

  plane of this category and class, L-5 Sennel.

  This quality short-run model will come in two

  versions: L-5A/OY-1/Sennel Mk.I and L-5B/

  OY-2/Sennel Mk.II. More details are yet to

  be announced. (MC)

  Lancia Stratos 1/12 Italeri

  As usual, modelers treat themselves to

  holiday gis, and this year’s selecon

  from Tamiya and Italeri presents an op-

  portunity. In addion to the re-release of

  the Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16v Sanre-

  mo 1989, Italeri introduces a completely

  new kit of another legend, the Lancia Stra-

  tos HF Gr.4 Montecarlo 1977 in 1/12 scale.

  The kit features a full interior, open hood,

  and detailed engine compartment. (MC)

  Porsche GT3 RS 1/24 Tamiya

  For those with less space, Tamiya oers

  the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS 992 in 1/24

  scale. (MC)

  MiG-29AS Tiger on Tail 1/72 GWH

  The fans of the Slovak Air Force will appre-

  ciate the release of the MiG-29A in the dig-

  ital camouage with a ger head design on

  the tail ns. This special issue called „Dig-

  ital Camouage Tiger on Tail, 2014/2015

  Special Painng“, will be available in the

  1/72 scale. (MC)

  86

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 87

  P-40E 1/48 Eduard

  If you‘ve been keeping up with Eduard,

  you know it‘s me to start building those

  stashed kits from Mauve, Arii, and espe-

  cially Hasegawa, because a new P-40 is

  coming early next year. Eduard is naliz-

  ing the molds, which are almost complete,

  and producon is starng. Pre-orders will

  open in November, with the Royal Class edi-

  on launching rst. For those interested in

  seeing the inial test sprues, they were on

  display on November 30th at Plasc Win-

  ter in Braslava. (MC)

  PZLTS-8Bies1/72AnswerPlascKits

  The „holy trinity“ for Polish modelers—

  Iskra, Wilga, and Bies—is now complete

  with the 1/72 scale TS-8 Bies from An-

  swer Plasc Kits. Inially released in two

  versions—one represenng the Indone-

  sian Air Force and one from the rst pro-

  ducon run from WSK Okęcie—the line-

  up will expand by the end of October with

  two more opons: a standard military BII

  and models used in lm with aracve

  schemes featuring red stars or crosses. As

  in previous releases, the kit includes gray

  plasc sprues, photo-etched side panels,

  and 3D-printed parts. Modelers can enhance

  their Bies builds further with pre-paint-

  ed etched instrument panels from Yahu.

  Answer also plans a 1/48 scale version in

  the near future. (MC)

  Ammo Lock’N Load

  Watercolor Pencils

  There can never be enough model acces-

  sories and weathering products, and Mig

  Jimenez’s team is keeping up with the de-

  mand. Their latest release is a set of 12

  watercolor pencils designed to depict dirt,

  dust, rust, and other weathering eects.

  Unlike compeng products, these pencils

  can be re-lled, working much like the clas-

  sic mechanical pencils. (MC)

  87

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 88

  P-40E 1/48 Eduard

  for the Second Time!

  The Eduard P-40E in 1/48 scale is nearing

  the compleon really fast and I would like

  to share with the readers a behind-the-

  scenes look at the work on its nalizaon.

  Last week, we had the rst mold on the

  press and tested the rst frame. The test

  exceeded the expectaons, and almost all

  the parts were successfully cast in the rst

  aempts. The introducon of 3D scanning

  technology, and subsequent comparison of

  the scans with 3D rendering of the molds

  helped us immensely to ne-tune the new

  molds. The coming weeks at Eduard‘s tool

  shop will be focused on compleng the

  whole set of P-40 molds! Simultaneously,

  we are also working on all the detail sets.

  We approached the design of the engine

  from the Brassin series dierently than in

  previous projects and decided to depict

  it fully open, including the radiator below

  the engine block. The enre engine as-

  sembly will be produced using 3D prinng

  technology, as it has become a standard

  lately. We are also working on the two ver-

  sions of the wheel wells. The reason for it

  is that they were mostly covered with fab-

  ric which could be removed. In this manner

  the modelers will be able to choose how

  they want to depict the bays. We are also

  working on the radio, weapon bays, cock-

  pit, dierent types of wheels, exhausts, and

  seats with integrated 3D-printed harness-

  es that are very popular among modelers.

  Photo-etched aps and the SPACE set will

  also be available as a standard. In short,

  the coming months at Eduard will be dedi-

  cated to the P-40, and it is sure to be quite

  a ride! (JN)

  88

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 89

  SpiireMk.Vb1/32KotareModels

  The New Zealanders from WingNu...ehm,

  Kotare, have already won over modelers

  with their very well-craed Spiire Mk.Ia

  model. The arrangement of parts in the

  sprues suggested that they wouldn’t stop at

  just one version. This has been conrmed,

  and modelers can now pre-order the lat-

  est Spiire kit, this me in the Mk.Vb ver-

  sion. In addion to 141 gray plasc parts,

  38 of which are enrely new compared to

  the Mk.I, the kit will include exhaust prints

  for this type and a poster by the box art’s

  creator. Builders will have the opon to

  choose from three camouage schemes –

  RAF, USAAF, and a Polish aircra.

  Bf 109K-4 1/32 Kotare Models

  Since neither manufacturers nor mod-

  elers live by Spiires alone, Kotare’s next

  full-edged new release will be none oth-

  er than a classic bestseller – the Bf 109K-4.

  While modelers have never lacked Kurfürsts,

  the Hasegawa version has been around

  for quite a while, and Trumpeter’s version

  isn’t without aws either. With Kotare, we

  should expect a well-craed rendion –

  the K-4 is in the nal stages of 3D model-

  ing, and the kit should hit the market by

  middle of the next year.

  Aichi D3A2 Val 1/48 Wingsy Kits

  Japanese aircra are no strangers to

  Ukraine’s Wingsy Kits. However, accord-

  ing to Vitaliy, the Aichi Val wasn’t a proj-

  ect he jumped into as enthusiascally as

  Japanese pilots once dove onto the Amer-

  ican ships in the Pacic. Yet, customer de-

  mand prevailed, and even the challenging

  domesc situaon didn’t hinder the kit’s

  preparaon. 3D modeling is complete and

  the manufacturer is currently working on

  selecng camouage schemes. From the

  renders, we can see that the Val, like pre-

  vious models from this manufacturer, will

  feature fully riveted surfaces and pho-

  to-etched details.

  89

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Strana 90

  CurssHawk1/72ArmaHobby

  Before P-40 became famous, its prede-

  cessor, Hawk 75 alongside Hurricanes and

  Spiires, resisted the inial German and

  Russian oensives in Europe and the Jap-

  anese in China. Not much is known about

  the model yet; Arma Hobby from Poland

  has only shown one colored render so far.

  According to their website, the kit is ex-

  pected to go on pre-sale this December

  and should reach modelers’ mailboxes in

  early 2025. Addionally, we can expect

  Arma Hobby to oer several accessories

  for the model, which modelers will be able

  to print themselves.

  Ki-43 II Hayabusa 1/72 Arma Hobby

  While we know lile about the Hawk,

  Arma Hobby has revealed much more

  about their second new product in 1/72

  scale – the Ki-43 Hayabusa. The mod-

  el was ocially revealed at Tokyo Hobby

  Show, and in mid-November, the man-

  ufacturer presented the rst test shots.

  The kit consists of three sprues – two in

  gray styrene, one with clear parts, camou-

  age schemes represenng aircra from

  New Guinea, the Kurile Islands, and Japan,

  as well as cockpit masks. Modelers will

  also be able to add self-printed parts, such

  as exhausts, radiators, gun barrels, and pi-

  lot seats. For those without a 3D printer,

  pre-orders will have these printed parts in-

  cluded

  Chevy Blazer Hopper Stranger

  Things 1/24 Revell

  Have you felt a chill during the past few

  winters when the Christmas tree lights

  started blinking? If so, you might suspect

  what that means for the protagonists

  of the successful mystery series Strang-

  er Things and why it’s good to have Police

  Chief Jim Hopper nearby. Even if you are

  not that familiar with the classic American

  SUVs but you like them, we are happy to

  announce that soon Revell will be releasing

  a brand-new police 1985 Chevrolet Blazer

  in 1/24 scale. The Mind Flayer on the box

  art apparently won’t be included in the kit,

  but maybe a Demogorgon will be.

  90

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  November / December 2024 News

  WARNING SHOTS

• Turning Point

  This month marks the 82nd anniversary of events that signified a turning point in World War II. Since September 1939, Nazi Germany had been conquering Europe, aiming to reclaim territories lost during World War I and expand further. Germany's war economy depended on access to natural resources, industrial plants, and labor. Adolf Hitler’s personal decisions largely guided the war strategy. Under his leadership, his subordinates, fueled by beliefs in racial superiority, implemented oppression, imprisonment, and the genocide of Jews and other ethnic or social groups. This culminated in unprecedented massacres in Eastern Europe and systematic exterminations in concentration camps.

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION

  91

  TURNING POINT

  November 1942

  Jan Bobek

  WrieninPrague,November23,2024

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Strana 92

  This month marks the 82nd anniversary

  of events that signied a turning point in

  World War II. Since September 1939, Nazi

  Germany had been conquering Europe,

  aiming to reclaim territories lost during

  World War I and expand further. Germa-

  ny’s war economy depended on access

  to natural resources, industrial plants,

  and labor. Adolf Hitler’s personal decisions

  largely guided the war strategy. Under his

  leadership, his subordinates, fueled by be-

  liefs in racial superiority, implemented op-

  pression, imprisonment, and the genocide

  of Jews and other ethnic or social groups.

  This culminated in unprecedented massa-

  cres in Eastern Europe and systemac ex-

  terminaons in concentraon camps.

  In June 1941, Hitler, convinced of his ge-

  nius, aacked his communist rival and for-

  mer ally, the Soviet Union. The invasion

  targeted Leningrad, Moscow, and the Cau-

  casus oil elds. The primary goal of Op-

  eraon Barbarossa was to annihilate the

  Red Army and penetrate deep into Soviet

  territory, with a strategic line envisioned

  from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. The Ural

  Mountains were an even more distant ob-

  jecve. Simultaneously, Germany and its

  European allies sought to dominate the

  Mediterranean, aiming to control the Suez

  Canal and establish a foothold in Syria and

  Iraq. Meanwhile, air bales raged over the

  coastline of Western Europe and air raids

  against Britain connued. Hitler’s dream

  of a Greater Germanic Reich and its dom-

  inance over a vast economic sphere was

  unfolding.

  However, public morale in the resisng

  naons, especially the Great Britain (but

  also the sll neutral United States), was

  agging aer years of war. Victory seemed

  distant, and many policians preferred ne-

  goang with Hitler. Strikes even erupted

  in Britain’s warme industries.

  Aer years of conquering Chinese territo-

  ry, Japan also entered World War II during

  December 7 and 8, 1941, when it aacked

  American, Brish, and Dutch forces in Ha-

  waii, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION

  92

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Turning Point - November 1942

• Strana 93

  Aer Germany and Italy declared war on

  the U.S., nothing stood in the way of Japan’s

  colonial ambions, dened in the plan of

  “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

  This imperialist project was planned to ex-

  ploit conquered territories. The Axis pow-

  ers envisioned dividing Europe, Africa,

  and the Middle East, with Japan aiming

  to conquer India, Soviet Asia, including

  a dra of a plan even to colonize Australia

  with two millions of Japanese selers.

  The Japanese blitzkrieg, however, suf-

  fered signicant setbacks in the Bale of

  the Coral Sea and, most notably, the Bat-

  tle of Midway. The advance of Japanese

  ground forces in southern New Guinea

  faced successful Allied resistance for the

  rst me, while Guadalcanal became the

  second decisive barrier that halted Japan’s

  southward expansion. Dreams of the Axis

  powers—Berlin, Rome, Tokyo—were shat-

  tered in November 1942.

  In North Africa, during the Second Bale

  of El Alamein (October 23 – November 11,

  1942), Brish forces under the command

  of General Bernard Montgomery defeat-

  ed the German-Italian forces led by Erwin

  Rommel. The Allies thus halted the Axis

  advance in North Africa and forced them

  to retreat into Libya. The bale was crucial

  for maintaining control over the Suez Ca-

  nal.

  In Morocco and Algeria, U.S.-Brish forc-

  es successfully carried out an amphibious

  landing during Operaon Torch (Novem-

  ber 8–16, 1942), capturing key ports and

  territories controlled by the French collab-

  oraonist Vichy government. This estab-

  lished a new Allied front in North Africa,

  forcing German and Italian forces to split

  their resources and retreat. As a result of

  these two major military victories, along

  with Malta’s robust air defenses, German

  forces abandoned their prolonged eorts

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION

  93

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Turning Point - November 1942

• Strana 94

  to blockade and eventually capture this

  “unsinkable aircra carrier” in November.

  During the Bale of Stalingrad (now

  Volgograd), the Soviet counteroensive,

  Operaon Uranus, was launched on No-

  vember 19, 1942. This operaon encircled

  the German 6th Army under Friedrich Pau-

  lus, signicantly weakening German forc-

  es on the Eastern Front. The encirclement

  ulmately led to Paulus’ forces surrender

  in February 1943. By this me, the Soviets

  were already beneng from Western ma-

  terial and military support provided under

  the Lend-Lease Agreement.

  In mid-November 1942, the Kokoda Trail

  Campaign in New Guinea (July 21–No-

  vember 16, 1942) reached its conclusion.

  In late September and early October 1942,

  the Japanese were halted within sight of

  Port Moresby. Capturing this base in the

  island’s southeast would have signicantly

  advanced Japanese plans for an invasion

  of Australia. However, supply shortages,

  exhauson, and the arrival of Australian

  reinforcements forced them to retreat.

  The Kokoda Trail Campaign marked the

  rst me Allied ground forces successfully

  stopped a Japanese advance. It highlight-

  ed the resilience of Australian soldiers un-

  der extraordinarily harsh condions and

  boosted Allied morale. The next Australian

  oensive targeted the Buna and Gona air-

  elds in November 1942.

  Today, the Kokoda Trail Campaign holds

  considerable historical and symbolic im-

  portance in Australia as a pivotal bale to

  defend the homeland and achieve victory

  against a formidable enemy.

  In mid-November 1942, the naval Bale

  of Guadalcanal (November 13–15) took

  place, during which the U.S. Navy defeated

  Japanese forces. This bale was pivotal in

  halng Japanese expansion in the Pacic,

  disrupng their supply lines to the island,

  and marking the Allies’ transion to the

  oensive. Aer six months of intense ght-

  ing, the Japanese ulmately lost the Bale

  of Guadalcanal in early February 1943.

  November 1942 was therefore a turn-

  ing point, as the “Great” Axis—the Ber-

  lin-Rome-Tokyo alliance—lost the iniave

  on several major fronts. In the subsequent

  period, it focused primarily on defend-

  ing its occupied territories. The only area

  where an Axis force connued to advance

  unl the end of the war was southern Chi-

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION

  94

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Turning Point - November 1942

• Strana 95

  na. Even there, however, Japanese

  troops were forced to surrender

  following Japan’s capitulaon in

  August 1945.

  At the end of World War II, the

  United States, with its immense

  military-industrial capacity, was re-

  ferred to as the “Arsenal of Democ-

  racy.” The role of the U.S. in this re-

  gard was one of the key factors in

  the Allied victory. Aer the Second

  World War, the Western victorious

  powers transformed their former

  arch-enemies into new allies to

  prevent a recurrence of the scenar-

  ios that led to the First and Second

  World Wars.

  The last global conict was fol-

  lowed by the Cold War, during

  which the Soviet Union eventually

  collapsed. The Kremlin lost vast ter-

  ritories that had been part of the

  Soviet Union and relinquished con-

  trol over Eastern European coun-

  tries it had once dominated or oc-

  cupied. Russia had faced a similar

  situaon at the end of World War I,

  losing Finland, parts of present-day

  Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and oth-

  er regions.

  As history in the 20th century

  shows, dictators oen seek to re-

  claim lost inuence and territory.

  Unfortunately, it appears that such

  ambions are not conned to the

  past, and the 21st century is not

  spared from similar plans.

  In November 2024, 1,000 days

  had passed since the Russian

  armed forces invaded Ukraine.

  Through this aggressive conquest,

  Pun aims to restore parts of the

  former Soviet Union, gain access to

  Ukraine’s natural and industrial re-

  sources, and bolster the stability of

  his regime. He has openly declared

  his intenon to reshape the world

  order. Whether he succeeds with

  his strategy of terror and scorched

  earth remains to be seen, but histo-

  ry suggests that dictators with sim-

  ilar ambions have been defeated

  before.

  I rmly believe that the “Arsenal

  of Democracy,” in collaboraon

  with its partners, must act swily

  to build new producon capacity.

  HISTORICAL REFLECTION

  95

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Turning Point - November 1942

• Strana 96

  POSTAVENÝ MODEL

  SCALE GALLERY

  96

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  P-51D-5 s/n 44-13897, 357th Fighter Group

  Eduard 1/48

  by Paolo Portuesi

• Strana 97

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Daddy Rabbit - P-51D-5 1/48

  SCALE GALLERY

  97

  Used Eduard products:

  82101 - P-51D-5 ProPACK edion kit 1/48

  D48077 - P-51D-5 “357th FG“ 1/48 decal sheet

  6481001 - P-51B/C 108gal drop tanks PRINT 1/48

  6481041 - P-51B/C seat w/ integral belts Type 3 PRINT 1/48

  648511 - P-51D wheels diamond tread 2 1/48

• Strana 98

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Daddy Rabbit - P-51D-5 1/48

  SCALE GALLERY

  98

• Strana 99

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

  Daddy Rabbit - P-51D-5 1/48

  SCALE GALLERY

  99

• DEBRIEFING

  Dear Friends If you have read this far, you have probably formed a clear opinion as to whether our new online magazine, the Eduard Modeller´s Den, is worth your time, your interest, and ultimately your hard earned money. We will do everything to make it worth your while. Our effort is, and will continue to be, to create a quality periodical with valuable articles, credible and up-to-date information, interesting interviews with interesting people, and also with serious opinions of its contributors.

  Dear Friends,

  if you have read this far, you have

  probably formed a clear opinion

  as to whether our new online mag-

  azine, the Eduard Modeller´s Den,

  is worth your me, your interest, and

  ulmately your hard earned money.

  We will do everything to make it worth

  your while. Our eort is, and will con-

  nue to be, to create a quality peri-

  odical with valuable arcles, credible

  and up-to-date informaon, interest-

  ing interviews with interesng peo-

  ple, and also with serious opinions of

  its contributors.

  The concept of the EMD virtual

  magazine is based on the concept

  and style of the company newsleer,

  which has been published regular-

  ly for more than ten years. Naturally,

  it has much in common with it, but

  in many ways it develops the concept

  further, and to be a viable enty, dif-

  fers in many of its elements and ap-

  proaches. The main dierence be-

  tween EMD and the newsleer is in its

  approach to adversing. The Eduard

  newsleer is primarily a markeng

  tool, and as such, it places the main

  emphasis on informaon surround-

  ing Eduard products, especially new

  releases, with the goal of introduc-

  ing these new products to customers

  in the best and most comprehensive

  way possible. Historical and technical

  arcles, although making up a large

  part of the content of the newsleer,

  are a secondary component within it,

  the aim of which is to aract the cus-

  tomer’s aenon, provide a broad-

  er insight into the background of the

  creaon of company products, and

  also acquaint customers with the his-

  torical and technical background of

  the company’s product designs.

  Within EMD, the opposite is more

  true. In it, arcles, interviews, re-

  ports on industry-wide developments,

  as well as comments and editorials,

  will be the primary product. The ad-

  versing part will play a secondary

  role. Eduard adversing will be min-

  imal, and if it even does appear, will

  not be adversing our products such

  as kits or accessories, but rather will

  promote events such as E-day, the

  Eduard ‘y-in’ at Líne, the annual Iron

  Bunny compeon and other similar

  events. Menon of new releases will

  be limited to basic informaon about

  some kits, which will be in the indus-

  try news secon we are appropriately

  calling ‘Warning Shots’ and would not

  be, in our opinion, complete without

  said menon, in an eort to preserve

  the context of the secon.

  Another fundamental dierence be-

  tween the Eduard monthly newsleer

  and EMD is availability. While the con-

  tent of the Eduard newsleer is and

  will remain free, EMD will be (or rath-

  er, aer the rst introductory issue)

  a paid resource. EMD will be pub-

  lished, much like the Eduard news-

  leer, on the Triobo plaorm. Unlike

  the newsleer, though, EMD will be

  accessible only to registered users

  and for a small fee. This fee will be

  compensated for by a discount cou-

  pon with a unique code, which will

  allow readers to make very good use

  of their investment in the EMD when

  shopping at the Eduard e-shop.

  Dear readers, modelers and history

  enthusiasts, consider today’s inaugu-

  ral issue of Eduard’s Modeller’s Den

  as our Christmas gi and a taste of

  what we have in store for you in the

  next issues. We look forward to see-

  ing you and promise to do our best to

  keep you informed and entertained

  not only throughout the coming year,

  but for many years to come!

   VladimirSulc

  Eduard CEO

  and Member of EMD

    EditorialSta

  DEBRIEFING

  100

  Eduard Modeller‘s Den No. 0 - December 2024

• Editorial

  Dear Friends,

  welcome to the inaugural issue of an on-line magazine that certainly has no small ambitions. The Eduard Modeller’s Den magazine is just that...a comfortable den for modellers to escape to, where they can enjoy their passion in the comfort of wherever they are. The aim is not to compete with traditional modelling and historical magazines, but to bring a slightly different perspective and, with its content composition, create a mosaic suitable for both readers from the plastic modelling circle and those who are interested in history, museum travel, interviews with interesting personalities and related topics.

  To cover it all, we've put together a high-quality team of writers, proofreaders, and translators who will regularly submit their work to you. Then it's up to you to find some time, stretch out on your favorite couch or in your den, and enjoy our magazine.

  When I say that we have created a list of authors, it does not mean that we are not working on expanding founding resources. We are ready to cooperate with other researchers and publishers who, through EMD, are willing to share with readers the topics that fascinate them. The articles will include not only recently uncovered accounts from the world of aviation, military and naval history and of plastic modeling, but also generally known topics, which we will examine from different, less typical perspectives.

  The development of this magazine was a long struggle. It began many months ago while playing with the notion of a printed version of the existing monthly newsletter, which could be ordered and printed on-demand, through the newsletter’s yearbook index with the most interesting articles, to what was the most currently displayed edition on the computer screen. Even after the EMD concept was clarified, for many different reasons it took several months and suffered through a number of delays before this premiere issue was ready. Consider it a taste of what awaits you in the future of EMD.

  The central feature of this issue is an article prepared for us by the renowned Luftwaffe writer Donald Caldwell. The topic is the infamous 8th Air Force mission of August 17th, 1943, to Regensburg and Schweinfurt. In recent months, our standard monthly newsletter has published several articles specifically about this topic, or at least in some way touching on it. Mr. Caldwell’s work complements them from the ‘other side’, from the perspective of the German Luftwaffe. A similar topic includes Matt Mabe’s interview with 100th Bomb Group veteran John H. ‘Lucky’ Luckadoo. Lucky is one of the last living veterans not only of the Bloody Hundredth, but also of the fierce air battles for supremacy over the European skies during 1943. We greatly appreciate the permission of my friends Matt and Lucky to use their interview.

  In this issue, our museum trip feature takes us to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. During his visit, Vladimír Sulc, a member of our editorial board and frequent newsletter contributor as well serving as Eduard’s CEO, not only collected many impressions and photographs with which he wants to introduce you to this unique museum, but also compiled a number of detailed historical insights related to the museum's exhibits and the local history.

  A purely modeling section, mostly generated by our external colleague Marian Cihon, and which we call ‘Warning Shots’, introduces twenty-five new products from the field of plastic modeling coming out mainly in November and December, 2024. Do not expect any ratings or reviews in this section. We don’t think it appropriate for us to do so or to be within the scope of what we are attempting to do. We will try very hard to bring modelling news that is very, very fresh.

  We have two more regular columns, managed by our colleague from the editorial board, the head of marketing at Eduard and also aviation-history columnist, Jan Bobek. While the first of them will provide a current perspective, the second is historical in nature. But the fact that history is not a simple matter in today’s climate is illustrated by both articles, a concept which the editor himself took on in his columns. History and the present are quite intertwined in them. But I will not provide any spoilers. Read the articles and judge for yourself.

  The final section, which we have appropriately dubbed ‘Debriefing’, will be a regular feature written by Vladimír Sulc, from whom you are used to reading the introductory editorials to the standard newsletter. Since I have appropriated this privilege for the EMD, Mr. Sulc, or for many of you Vlad, will conclude each issue with his own thoughts.

  Although the creative team of this magazine has been responsible for the monthly newsletter Info Eduard for several years and has certainly gained some experience, the concept of the intended magazine is something completely new. It will bring new challenges and new solutions. We are ready to offer you honest work and fresh, well written content, but know we do not consider ourselves world champions. We are learning, so please forgive us for any mistakes and imperfections, because we believe that these, as well as your feedback, will move us forward and will allow the EMD to evolve and improve.

  Before I conclude my first column in this magazine and invite you to enjoy its content at least as much as we enjoyed creating it, I would like to thank my colleagues on the editorial board, our contributing authors, graphic designers, proofreaders and translators for their work on the content of this issue and all of those coming down the pipe. Last but not least, thanks go out to Triobo, who grappled with the unusual technical requirements for us and helped co-create this magazine during its long development.

   

  We will graciously accept any suggestions, opinions and comments from you, our valued readers.

   

  Jan Zdiarsky

  Chief Editor, EMD and the Info Eduard Newsletter

• Current Affairs

  
  

  Poppies

  Text: Jan Bobek

   

  In the Czech Republic, November has long been associated with Veterans Day, symbolized by poppies. Although it is a relatively old tradition, it has found its place in the Czech context only in the last thirty years. The previous, communist, regime glorified the red color in a completely different form (especially in November, which was filled with it), and the poppy flower was not in favor. Today, people contribute to the support of war veterans by purchasing remembrance poppies. For foreign readers, especially those from Commonwealth countries, the adoption of their tradition in the Czech Republic might be surprising. It was our own WWII veterans who introduced us to November 11 and the “poppies” after the fall of communism in 1989, when they returned from the West to a free homeland . The symbol of the poppy began to be used in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. The first official celebration of Veterans Day took place in 2001 at Prague’s Vítkov Hill, and three years later, Veterans Day was defined in legislation as a significant day in the Czech calendar. Since 2014, the poppy has also symbolized the Military Solidarity Fund collection. Our company supports this fund almost every year during Veterans Day celebrations at Náměstí Míru (Peace Square) in Prague by donating proceeds from  sales of our plastic kits, posters, and souvenirs.

  The tradition of Veterans Day is strongest in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries but has gradually been adopted in other nations. Over the past decade, for example, it has been spreading in Ukraine.

  How did the commemoration of fallen soldiers and the support of war veterans become linked with poppies? The origin of this symbol dates back to Spring 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres in Flanders, Belgium, which lasted from April 22 to May 25 of that year. The battlefield had been turned into a lunar landscape by massive artillery fire, leaving only stumps of trees. Today, sadly  similar scenes can be seen in footage from the war in Ukraine. For soldiers on both sides in the spring of 1915, it was a significant surprise when the battlefield was covered with a vast bloom of poppies. The soil, ploughed countless times by explosions, was an ideal environment for these beautiful weeds.

  After almost a year of horrific war, during which chemical weapons were used for the first time in the Second Battle of Ypres, the blooming poppies appeared to soldiers in the trenches as something from another world. Many sent the flowers home in letters, and these are now prized artifacts in museum collections. Poppies growing on battlefields were already a known phenomenon during the Napoleonic Wars.

  The foundation of the poppy tradition was laid during the Second Battle of Ypres by a Canadian military doctor of Scottish descent, Major John McCrae, who served with the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. Before the war, he worked as a pathologist and published on the subject, but he was also a gifted poet. On May 2, 1915, his friend Lt. Alexis Helmer was killed by an artillery shell. The next day, a burial for Helmer’s remains, which were found, was held. Deeply affected by his friend’s death and the immense number of casualties and injuries, McCrae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields after the funeral. I’d like to highlight it here, as it remains powerful and meaningful even after more than a century:

  
  

  In Flanders fields, the poppies blow

  Between the crosses, row on row,

  That mark our place; and in the sky

  The larks, still bravely singing, fly

  Scarce heard amid the guns below.

   

  We are the Dead. Short days ago

  We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

  Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

  In Flanders fields.

   

  Take up our quarrel with the foe:

  To you from failing hands we throw

  The torch; be yours to hold it high.

  If ye break faith with us who die

  We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

  In Flanders fields.

  
  

  Later in 1915, the poem was published and became the most popular work of its kind on the subject of the ongoing war. It was quickly translated into many languages, and countless soldiers gratefully saw it as an expression of the meaning behind their suffering and a tribute to their fallen comrades. Sadly, John McCrae passed away in early 1918 and did not live to see the publication of his poetry collection, aptly titled In Flanders Fields.

  In 1921, remembrance poppies spread among the Allies as a symbol worn on lapels on Armistice Day. The tradition grew so widely that a factory was even established to produce the remembrance poppies. This act of honoring the memory of Allied soldiers who fell in World War I and later conflicts continues to inspire artistic works to this day. However, the topic of poppies has not been without controversy. Debates have arisen over their artistic design and the legitimacy of selling this symbol. In connection with certain military operations, some segments of the public have deemed its use inappropriate. Occasionally, the poppy is depicted in white as a symbol of peace.

  Returning to the Czech Republic: When the armistice came into effect on November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m. Paris time, more than a million Czech-speaking men from the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were serving in the Austro-Hungarian army. At the same time, over 100,000 of their compatriots were fighting with the Czechoslovak Legions on the Allied side. These legionnaires served in the French, Italian, Serbian, and, until 1917, Russian armies. About a hundred of their compatriots even fought in British uniforms.

   It’s unlikely that anyone on either side of the war could have imagined that, a hundred years later, the sacrifices of war veterans in their homeland would be commemorated by the flower of the poppy—a symbol whose story began on the fields of Flanders and whose commemorative tradition was born overseas. The poppy, as a symbol of sacrifice and support for war veterans, continues to evolve, and I believe this is good news for veterans and their families.

  
  

• Profile Grabmann

  Walter Grabmann (1905 - 1992)

  One of the most proficient and influential RLV Jafü and Divisionkommandeure. Grabmann learned to fly in the German police force and received a commission in the newly formed Luftwaffe. He soon became the commander of one of JG 26's predecessor units. After a tour in Spain as commander of the Condor Legion's fighter component, he transferred to the new Zerstörer force, and commanded ZG 76 during the French campaign and the Battle of Britain, for which service he was awarded the Knight's Cross. He became Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet in August 1942 and in November 1943 was given command of Jagddivision 3, a position he retained until the last chaotic month of the war. His last rank was Generalmajor. After the war he was a principal author of the USAF Historical Studies on the German Air Force.

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 410054, Oberst Walter Grabmann, Jagdfliegerführer Holland & 3. Jagddivision, 1943-1944   Eduard kit No. 1144

  The Fw 190A of Oberst Grabmann, the Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet, who led the Luftwaffe defense against the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission. 

• Profile Graff

  Hermann Graf (1912 - 1988). 

  The first fighter pilot to claim 200 air victories, and the fifth man to be awarded the Wehrmacht's highest award for valor, the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Graf was grounded after his 202nd Eastern Front victory and returned to Germany, where this poorly educated son of a baker became a favourite of the Nazi propaganda machine. He was eventually restored to combat status and commanded JG 50, JG 1, and JG 11 in the RLV before he requested and obtained permission to return to the Eastern Front to command his old unit, JG 52. On VE-Day he attempted to surrender to the Americans, but as a prominent member of an Ostfront unit he was turned over to the Soviet Army. During his four-year captivity in Russia he apparently signed documents accepting Nazi Germany's guilt for beginning the war. For this transgression he was denounced by the German veterans' associations after his return to West Germany, and remained a controversial figure until his death.

  Major Hermann Graf, the Kommodore of JG 50, poses beside the tail of his highly-decorated Bf 109G-6 “Red 1” In late 1943.

• Profile LeMay

  Major General Curtis E. LeMay (1906-1990)

   

  Curtis LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio. When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, he, with the rank of Major, commanded the newly formed 305th Bomb Group. His group would become one of the first American heavy bomber units in Europe less than a year later and he led it until May, 1943. During this initial period, the US bomber force not only accumulated its first tools with which to ply its trade, but at the cost of heavy losses also explored much that ended up as dead ends, and was able to develop its tactics through experience in modern air warfare. Curtis LeMay played a major role in this, whose prominent role lies in the development of strategic bombing standards, the composition of combat formations and the logistics of bombing missions. He left the 305th BG in May 1943 and became commander of the provisional 4th Bombardment Wing and later the 3rd Bombardment Division, which the wing transformed into. He also led this unit over Regensburg on August 17th, 1943. In his style, he showed himself to be a very tough and principled commander, and many of his approaches are still considered controversial today. In August, 1944, LeMay was transferred to the Far East with the rank of Major General, where he commanded the XX and later XXI Bomber Command. Here he refined strategic bombing tactics specifically for the use of B-29 deployments over Japan and advocated bombing Japanese cities with incendiary bombs in night raids.

  LeMay also commanded subsequent B-29 missions against Japan, including massive attacks on dozens of Japanese cities that did not leave out Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, which ranks as the most devastating bombing of the war. Of this operation, General LeMay declared ‘the US finally stopped swatting at flies and gone after the manure pile’. To the debates about the controversies of the bombing of Japanese cities, it is necessary to add information about the leaflets that Gen. LeMay let rain over Japan. The text in Japanese said, ‘Unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives.’ After the war, he worked at the Pentagon on the research and development staff, where he became interested in the idea of ​​the element of deterrence, which became a major aspect of the tug-of-war between the US and the Soviet Union in the later years of the Cold War. In 1947, he returned to Europe, where he commanded the USAFE and, among other things, led a humanitarian operation to supply West Berlin, surrounded by occupation troops of the Soviet Union. From 1948 he worked for the Strategic Air Command, and later as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. He retired in 1965 and became involved in politics. Here, too, his uncompromising and very hard positions on the possible use of nuclear weapons and views on America’s powerful adversaries globally were often heard. Among other things, he was among those who advocated quick and decisive action during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1968, he ran for vice president of the USA. Although unsuccessful, the American Independent Party, for which he ran, obtained an unusually high result for a third party showing. Four-star General Curtis LeMay died on October 1st, 1990 at the age of 84. His story will be covered in more detail in the form of a separate article in one of the future issues of this magazine.

  B-17F-30-VE, 42-5867, Lt. William D. DeSanders crew, 350th BS, 100th BG, Thorpe Abbotts, United Kingdom, 17 August 1943   Eduard kit No. 11183

• Profile Galland

  Wilhelm-Ferdinand “Wutz” Galland (1914 – 1943)

  The third son of a Westphalian land manager of Huguenot ancestry, joined the Luftwaffe in 1935, originally in the antiaircraft artillery. He was successful there, being awarded the Iron Cross First Class early in World War II, but requested pilot training and a transfer to the Jagdwaffe [fighter force.] He joined two of his brothers in Jagdgeschwader 26 in June 1941. This could have been considered nepotism (his brother Adolf was Kommodore) but he soon proved himself to be an excellent combat pilot and formation leader, some said the best in the family. He was promoted to Kapitän of the 5. Staffel in June 1942, and to Kommandeur of the II. Gruppe in January 1943.

  Galland’s career was followed with great interest by the RAF radio intercept operators across the Cnannel. His radio “handle” (Wutz, pronounced “Vootz”) was the most distinctive on the Channel coast, his aggressiveness and the rough tone he used with the leaders of fellow Jagdwaffe units was noted, and “The dynamic leader of the Vitry Wing” got more ink in the RAF intelligence reports than any other Luftwaffe personality.

  On 17 August 1943 Galland’s II./JG 26 flew two transfer flights with no contact, but was up in force against the returning Schweinfurt attackers. The Gruppe made one successful head-on attack on the B-17s, but while reforming for a second pass was surprised from the rear by the P-47s of the 8th US Army Air Force’s 56th Fighter Group. Galland was shot down and killed early in this dogfight. He remained missing for two months, until his body was found buried with his aircraft in the soft soil of northern France. He was credited with 55 aerial victories in 186 combat missions, all in the West.

  The death of the popular and gifted Wutz Galland was a serious blow to the Geschwader and the Jagdwaffe. In his eight months as Gruppenkommandeur he had gained a reputation in the Luftwaffe (and to the Allies) as one of the best formation leaders in the West. The surviving pilots of his Gruppe, who called themselves his “Cavaliers”, spoke of him in affectionate terms, and were convinced that under his leadership they had once again become the best unit on the Kanalfront [Channel Front.]

  Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland’s passbook portrait. His Knight’s Cross has been painted onto the photograph.

• Profile Priller

  Josef “Pips” Priller (1915 – 1961)

  
  

  He joined the Luftwaffe in 1936 and by the Second World War was a fighter pilot in JG 51. He was very successful in the Battle of Britain and was awarded the Knight’s Cross in October 1940. Adolf Galland, JG 26 Geschwaderkommodore, was able of get him transferred into his own unit in November 1940, where he became Kapitän of the 1. Staffel. He was promoted to Kommandeur of the III. Gruppe on 6 December 1941, and became Kommodore on 10 January 1943.

  Priller was twenty-seven years old when he took over JG 26. He was the top-scoring pilot then in the Geschwader, and had thus proven himself by combat, the main requirement for promotion in the Jagdwaffe. He was also an excellent formation leader and tactician. He was a notable bon vivant, displaying an outgoing, effervescent personality in public. However, he took the responsibilities of command seriously. He was always concerned for the welfare of his men, who responded by holding him in great respect and affection.

  He became famous because of his Focke-Wulf's  single strafing pass attack on Sword Beach on D-Day, accompanied by his wingman. This act was first brought to the world's attention by the book, and then the film, The Longest Day. 

  Oberst Priller left Jagdgeschwader 26 in January 1945. After five continuous years on the Western front, his tour of combat duty had finally ended. He had scored 101 aerial victories in 307 combat sorties. He became Inspector of Day Fighters (West), a sinecure which kept him from further combat flying.

  Priller did not return to flying after the war but became general manager of the brewery owned by his wife. He died suddenly on 20 May 1961 from a heart attack.

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 0157 298, flown by Maj. Josef Priller, CO of JG 26, Lille - Vendeville, France, May 1943    Eduard kit No. 82143

  Major Priller in flight in Fw 190A-5 W.Nr. 7298, his regular aircraft during mid-1943

• Profile Zemke

  Hubert „Hub“ Zemke

  
  

  The 56th Fighter Group, led by Col. Zemke and equipped with P-47 Thunderbolts was an American fighter unit that played a significant role in the fight against the Luftwaffe on August 17, 1943. One of its members shot down and killed Major Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, considered the best German fighter commander on the Western Front at the time.

  Hubert Zemke was born on March 14, 1914, in Missoula, Montana, to a family of German immigrants. He began his flight training with the armed forces in February 1936. A year later, he was assigned to the 36th PS, 8th PG, and earned his pilot qualification in August 1939. In 1940, Zemke was sent to Great Britain to study RAF tactics, and in May 1941, he joined the HQ squadron of the 56th Pursuit Group (later 56th Fighter Group). In 1941, while the U. S. was still neutral, he was sent to the Soviet Union to help train Soviet pilots on Curtiss P-40s, there he even had visual contact with German aircraft. It is likely that one of his cousins was already serving in the Luftwaffe, possibly Uffz. Egon Zemke, who flew Fw 190 A aircraft with 2. /JG 54 "Green Heart" on the Western Front in 1944.

  After being promoted to Captain in the first half of 1942, he briefly served with the 89th FS, 80th FG. By September 1942, he returned to the 56th FG, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and took command of the unit. After intense training and modifications to the P-47 aircraft in the U. S. , the 56th FG was deployed to Europe at the beginning of 1943. Under the leadership of Zemke and other officers, the 56th FG quickly became one of the elite units on the European battlefield. They mastered the Thunderbolt deployment tactics so well that, with 664 victories, the 56th FG became the most successful American fighter unit in the European theater. Unlike other units that switched to Mustangs, the 56th FG kept the P-47 until the end of the war. Zemke systematically focused on developing combat mission strategies over occupied Europe and introduced a tactic for distant fighter escort combined with systematic enemy area reconnaissance, which became known as the "Zemke´s Fan. "

  In August 1944, Hubert Zemke was appointed commander of the 479th Fighter Group, flying P-51s, and achieved several more victories, bringing his score to 17. 75 confirmed kills, with an additional two probable kills and nine aircraft damaged. He also destroyed 6. 5 aircraft on the ground. One of his victories happened on August 17, 1943, while escorting bombers back from the Schweinfurt mission, in the ensuing dogfight he shot down a Bf 110 night fighter near St Trond.

  During a combat mission on October 30, 1944, he was captured due to serious damage to his aircraft. In the POW camp Stalag Luft I, he assumed the position of Senior Allied Officer in December 1944, ultimately responsible for about 9,000 prisoners. Zemke became the main liaison between the prisoners and their captors, significantly improving the prisoners' living conditions and security in the final months of the war.

  After the war, Zemke commanded the 36th FW and the 31st SFW. He retired in July 1966 and went on to write three books. Hubert Zemke passed away on August 30, 1994, in Oroville, California. [Photo: Fold3]

  
  

• Profile Williams

  Robert B. Williams (1901-1977)

  
  

  Robert B. Williams was born in Albany, Texas, where he joined the Army Air Force in 1923. After completing his training, he worked as an aerial instructor in photo-reconnaissance units in the early 1930s. He later held command positions in bomber units and as an experienced pilot flew several long-haul flights, including a seven-bomber mission from Langley Field, VA to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the beginning of World War II, he worked as a military observer in Great Britain. After returning to the US, he held command positions within the bomber air force, before being assigned to the 8th Air Force in Great Britain in June, 1943 with the rank of Brigadier General. He subsequently took command of its 1st Bomb Division. He personally led several important missions with this unit. The first of them was the tragic raid on Schweinfurt on August 17th, 1943. Under the leadership of this mission, Gen. Williams received the DSC. He was promoted to Major General in May, 1944 and returned to the US in October, 1944 to participate in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. As commander of the Second Air Force, he was responsible for the training of heavy bomber crews and the development of techniques for dropping special weapons. He retired in June, 1946 and moved to San Antonio, Texas. Among his major military awards are the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, American Defense Service Medal, American Theater Medal, WWII Victory Medal, European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross. General Williams died at the age of 76 on February 10th, 1977. His story will be covered in more detail in a separate article in a future issue of this magazine.

  Brig. General Robert B. Williams talks with Col. J. J. Nazzaro, CO, 381st BG, England, 12 Sept 1943. [Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces]

• Profile Anderson

  Major General Frederick Lewis Anderson

  
  

  When the U.S. Air Force command evaluated the results of the raid on Regensburg and Schweinfurt, one of the officers bearing responsibility for the mission’s outcomes and losses was Major General Frederick Lewis Anderson.

  Anderson was born on October 4, 1905, in Kingston, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1928 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Cavalry. Later that year, however, he began pilot training at Brooks Field, Texas, which he completed the following year at Kelly Field, Texas. He transferred to the Army Air Corps and served in various roles over the following years. In the mid-1930s, he joined bomber units in California and Colorado. In 1934, he skillfully piloted his burning aircraft away from San Francisco and bailed out over the bay, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions.

  After completing training at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, in 1940, Anderson remained on the instructional staff as the head of bombardier training. In the spring of 1941, he was transferred to the office of the Chief of the Army Air Corps in Washington, D.C., where he served as Deputy Director of Bombardment in the Training and Operations Division. That same year, Anderson headed the Bombardment Tactics Board, a team of officers sent to Great Britain by General H. H. “Hap” Arnold to observe the bombing methods of the Royal Air Force.

  In early 1943, Anderson joined General Ira C. Eaker’s staff to help draft the Combined Bomber Offensive plan. In April, he assumed command of the 4th Bombardment Wing of the Eighth Air Force, receiving the Silver Star for gallantry in action while leading the wing on four separate combat missions over Europe from March to May 1943. He also participated in other combat flights during this period and afterward.

  By July, Anderson had become commander of the VIII Bomber Command. He planned “Blitz Week” at the end of July, which involved attacks on Hamburg as part of Operation Gomorrah. Several weeks later he planned the well-known attacks on Schweinfurt and Regensburg (Operation Double Strike). He was among the commanders who advocated for deep raids into Germany without fighter escort, despite increasingly robust German defenses.

  Before the U.S. bombing formations took off for their August 17, 1943 raid on Regensburg and Schweinfurt, Anderson was under exceptional pressure. He had to decide wether to cancel or not the mission due to unfavorable morning weather conditions. However, Gen. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the U.S. Air Force, was especially keen on carrying out the raid. After tense discussions within the 8th Air Force command, Anderson ultimately decided to send crews from LeMay’s 4th Bomb Wing ahead of the 1st Bomb Wing, whose pilots were not trained for low-visibility takeoffs. LeMay’s bombers had to reach Africa before sunset, so their departure could not be delayed further. The five-hour gap between the two wing's takeoffs contributed to the loss of 60 bombers and more than 500 crew members.

  In November 1943, Anderson was promoted to (temporary) Major General, becoming the youngest American officer to hold that rank during the war. When the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe was established under General Carl A. Spaatz in January 1944, Anderson was appointed Deputy Commander for Operations (A-3).

  After the war, Anderson served for two years as Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Personnel before retiring from active duty in 1947 to pursue a business career. In March 1952, he became the U.S. Deputy Special Representative to the Mutual Security Agency, and in April 1953, he assumed the role of U.S. Deputy Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council. Anderson co-founded Draper, Gaither & Anderson, one of the first venture capital firms in what would later become Silicon Valley.

  In 1956, Anderson served on the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Special Studies Project Panel on United States International Objectives and Strategy, and he was also a member of the Hoover Committee on the Reorganization of the Federal Government. Anderson passed away on March 2, 1969, in Houston, Texas, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

  [Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces]

• DOUBLE STRIKE

  
  

  SCHWEINFURT-REGENSBURG MISSION FROM THE LUFTWAFFE PERSPECTIVE

   by Donald Caldwell

   

  Adapted from the author’s The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich (with Richard Muller) and Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich: A War Diary 1942-1945. All photos provided by the author, unless otherwise noted.

  
  

  This article details the Luftwaffe defense against the 8th Air Force combined raid on Schweinfurt and Regensburg on August 17, 1943. Schweinfurt, which contained much of the German ball bearing industry, and Regensburg, the principal production site for Messerschmitt fighters, were two of the top targets on the Allies’ Combined Bomber Offensive list. Both cities were far beyond the range of American escorts, but the 8th Air Force under MGen. Ira Eaker was under pressure from Washington to show immediate results, and the staff of MGen. Fred Anderson’s VIII Bomber Command devised an ambitious plan to bomb both targets on a single day. The three long-range B-24 Groups were still in the Mediterranean theater from the Ploiești raid, so this would have to be an all-B-17 mission. In the final version, the smaller, newer 4th Bomb Wing would take off first and head to Regensburg on the most direct route, escorted as far as the German border by all of the available P-47s. After bombing, it would continue south over the Alps and land in North Africa. The larger, more experienced 1st Bomb Wing would follow fifteen minutes later, bomb Schweinfurt, and return to England; these B-17s would be seen home by the entire escort force, flying its second sortie. It was expected that the novelty and complexity of the combined mission would confuse the German controllers and exhaust their pilots. The greatest flaw in the plan, apart from its dependence on perfect weather and exact timing, arose from the limited range of the bombers of the 1st Bomb Wing, which forced them to take the most direct route to the target and return; this was a near-duplicate of the route to Regensburg as far as Schweinfurt. The German controllers would thus have to deal with three bomber formations flying on the same route on the same day, which would hardly stretch their capabilities. The Reichsluftverteidigung [RLV, Air Defense of the Reich] was slowly increasing in strength. A few fighter units had been brought back from the eastern front and the Mediterranean and after rebuilding, began training to combat American heavy bombers.  

  
  

  The RLV staff had drawn up plans in the previous months to concentrate the defending fighters along any deep-penetration course. German pilots were now given briefings and maps describing the airfields to look for at the end of long one-way combat flights, and these airfields had been equipped to service them. This would facilitate second sorties by fighters arriving in the battle zone from the most distant bases.

  The English weather turned what was already a questionable mission into a disaster. The weather over western Europe was perfect this morning—except over the B-17 bases, which were fogged in. Plans were hastily changed. The 4th Bomb Wing needed daylight to land on unfamiliar fields in North Africa, and could thus only wait an hour, but would take off then. The escort plan was apparently changed at this time; only two P-47 groups went with the 4th Wing, while the other two waited for the 1st. The 1st Bomb Wing, which was inadequately trained in bad-weather takeoffs, delayed their mission for three and one-half hours, as long as they could wait and still return to England before darkness. However, this was still not enough time for the P‑47 escorts to return from their first mission, refuel and reload, and thus escort of the large outbound Schweinfurt force was left to only two P-47 groups, plus the short-range RAF Spitfires. Two P-47 groups, the 56th and the new 353rd, managed to fly two missions, supporting the outbound Regensburg and the returning Schweinfurt forces. Most of the German Jagdgruppen [fighter groups] would have little difficulty flying two or even three missions.

  The pre-dawn radio testing at the B-17 bases gave the German fighter controllers ample warning of a full-strength deep-penetration raid. The Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet, [fighter control unit or commander, Holland-Ruhr region] Oberst Walter Grabmann, operating from a villa near Arnhem, brought his seven Jagdgruppen to full readiness at 0800. He scrambled Hptm. Karl Borris’s I./JG 26 from Woensdrecht at 1048. The best description of Borris’s mission is that found in Jörg Kiefner’s unpublished memoir. Kiefner was a commissioned replacement pilot who had just joined Borris’s Gruppe. His report of his mission can stand for the many. Kiefner:

   

  “We drove to the 3. Staffel dispersal at dawn on a motorcycle with my boss, Hptm. Hermichen and a sidecar of five or six people. At this time, I. /JG 26 was based at Woensdrecht airfield near the mouth of the Scheldt, southeast of Antwerp.

  Our Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighter planes were just being warmed up; long light blue flames were shooting out of the exhaust pipes of the roaring engines running at full throttle. The crew chief reported 3 machines Startklar [ready for takeoff.] All the pilots had gathered; I was assigned to the "Yellow 2", a former Kommodore plane (hence a fast one) as Kaczmarek [wingman] to the boss. Peter Ahrens’ plane was also clear and so the three of us were supposed to lead the "war of the day". The day before I had achieved my first kill with the endgültigen Vernichtung [eV, final destruction] of a B 17 bomber. Dressed ready to go with life jackets, flare pistols and ammunition in every conceivable pocket of the Channel Combination, we lay down in the next room of the barracks. Soft morning music, mostly from BBC London, was playing on the radio. As soon as it was daylight, orderlies came and set up the coffee table for the fighter pilots' breakfast. Alfons was already clattering the dishes. We could get started; it was still slightly hazy outside; a nice day was expected; there would probably be something to do soon.

  At around 0800 the loudspeaker on the command system crackled for the first time: lively assembly activity was detected over England! Aha, it's starting!

  More reports kept coming. Formations were still circling over the island. it took a very long time today until “The head of the formation has now set off on an eastward course"; there obviously had to be large groups of dicken Autos [fat cars; Luftwaffe code for heavy bombers.] Radio communication means 4-engine bombers, act! The order to take off had to come immediately, as we were directly in the approach path of the reported units. So we would be the first to meet them! At 1048 we got the order to scramble.

  Karl Borris, seen here as an Oberleutnant in 1942. The only pre-war JG 26 pilot still flying with JG 26 on V-E Day, Major Borris commanded the I. Gruppe for almost two full years.

  
  

  Due to the constant situation reports, the tension had risen to the point where it was unbearable, now it was finally time! As I ran to the machine, my mechanic was already standing next to the bird with my parachute, straps on, safety slider in the locking mechanism, up onto the wing and in one swing into the seat, starter lever switched on, belly straps over and folded together, left and right shoulder straps into the plug lock, head cover with FT [radio] put on, which the mechanic had in the meantime kept ready to hand. Ignition on, starter revved up, handle pulled and the good BMW 801 double radial engine started, initially emitting a blue cloud of smoke. The front is clear, the brake pads are removed, the FT buttons on the radio intercom are pressed in, the accelerator is applied and the plane taxis to the edge of the field, just to the right of Hermichen. A final wave at my mechanic; his thoughts for the next hour would be on “his bird” and his pilot!

  Then the aircraft of the staff Schwarm [flight of four aircraft] swept across the field from the right; as soon as they passed us, our crew chief fired "red", the three of us pushed their throttles in and that was where the wild hunt began. I don't remember how many aircraft had taken off in in our Gruppe. There weren't many, at most twelve. Hermichen was in the lead but for me, the "young bunny", I had to stick with it, keep my position as clean as possible and be careful. We climbed pretty quickly. There was deafening chaos in the FT between orders and announcements from the formation leaders.”

   

  I./JG 26 scrambled just as the Regensburg force had finished crossing the English coast. Within five minutes it was apparent that the B-17s were headed directly for the Dutch coast, and Hptm. Klaus Mietusch’s III./JG 26 was ordered to take off from Schiphol. Several Bf 110 night fighters from I./NJG 1 and II./NJG 1 scrambled, under orders to hunt down any stragglers. II./JG 1 was kept on the ground at Woensdrecht while the B-17s passed directly overhead, probably because less than half of the American bombers had as yet been located. Borris began climbing to the east to gain a good attack position; Mietusch’s men would already have the morning sun at their backs when they reached the bomber formation.

  Hptm. Rolf Hermichen, the I./ JG 11 Kommandeur, is hoisted from his airplane, a brand-new Fw 190A-7, after a successful early 1944 mission. The Focke-Wulf appears to be painted in an overall Hellgrau (light gray) scheme, common for Bf 109 high-altitude fighters but not Fw 190s. Hermichen was the 3./JG 26 Kapitän during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.

  
  

  The oncoming formation comprised 146 B-17s in a long formation of three combat wings, with a small escort comprising two 353rd Fighter Group squadrons. Borris was waiting up-sun and slightly above the bombers as they approached, in perfect position for an immediate head-on bounce. The skimpy fighter escort was apparently concentrated around the first combat wing; no P-47 pilot saw the Focke-Wulfs as they swept around in a left turn and hurtled toward the second combat wing. After flying through it, they hit the trailing wing and then broke away in all directions. Borris's own target, the last aircraft in the 94th Bomb Group box, burst into flames, sheered from the formation and dove to earth—the first loss of the day for either side. Several B-17s in the rear combat wing began to smoke from damaged engines. One Focke-Wulf was hit and dropped away to make a forced landing on Venlo. No other German fighter was seriously damaged during this attack. Jörg Kiefner recalled:

   

  “We pop up through a thin cloud layer, and suddenly spot a large number of Messers, small brothers from our III. Gruppe, as it turned out later. I was too inexperienced to make much sense of it all. We climb further up to around 8000 m, sweeping out in a wide arc. Then suddenly the dicken Autos [fat cars], the four-engine ones!!! First clouds of flak and then thick clusters of bombers in between, below us to the left! We catch up a bit, with a parallel course well ahead of the four-engines, about 150 of them! And then we turn in at the front, we follow—resolutely stuck to position!—and dive, for the second time on four engines for me.

  Diagonally from the front, we attack from a slight elevation; extremely quickly the giant aircraft, initially only visible as lines, become bigger, thicker. Now pull ahead, aim at the fuselage and right engines then shoot, shoot, lightning bolts within the group and straight through the middle of the whole bunch, a fantastic moment, these boxes are huge, some are already burning, in a fraction of a second I see the house-sized shark fins of their tails with the large, black markings. I quickly turn—there was my [Staffelkapitän] Hermichen. I join up—he is already banking toward two lone Boeings that had been shot up (by us?) and were turning back toward England. Attack from low rear, press in, pull up—in front of me is the boss—he wasn’t going to leave the Boeing. I press in close, firing below and beside him at our opponent, who now hung in the air in front of us as large as a barn door. The airplane is soon burning brightly from our fire, from the fuselage and the right engines. After pulling off to the right, we bank in again, in a school-book position to attack from the rear. “Cease firing!” from Hermichen over the radio. The bomber is burning brightly along its entire fuselage—5-6 crewmen have already bailed out. Now our Boeing dives nose-first toward the ground, where it crashes—an unforgettable sight. I close up on Hermichen again; Peter Ahrens was also in the area, having shot down the second Boeing. It crashed in many pieces between Antwerp and our field at Woensdrecht.”

   Hptm. Mietusch scrambling his III./JG 26 from a north German airfield in July 1943, before its return to The Netherlands.

  Oblt. Klaus Mietusch, photographed beside the tail of his 7./JG 26 Fw 190A-3 in summer 1942.

  
  

  Borris did not attempt to re-form his Gruppe for a second pass, but was content to let his pilots search for stragglers while awaiting landing orders from the Jafü. Kiefner continues his story:

   

  “The three of us buzz our field, which had been directly below us, Hermichen and Ahrens waggling their wings. Traffic pattern, landing gear down, float in, land, roll past the command post; many people, enthusiastic waving, further into the pits, ready, engine switched off! Joyful excitement at the berth! Out of the mill, to the boss, who was already talking with his hands and feet, telling the story. Reporting back, machine was clear and everyone asks together, how was it, did it work fine, how? I was the envy of everyone for this hot effort: they could and had watched from the field!

  Hermichen and Ahrens headed for the Gefechtsstand [command post], the former somewhat embarrassed. His crew chief had told him that his cannon still had the tape on them and had not been fired. H. had already claimed his Abschuß [shootdown (air victory)], but immediately signed a combat report as a witness to a Herausschuss [HSS, separation from formation] to Ahrens, and the endgültige Vernichtung [eV, final destruction] to me, since I had flown and fired so close to him.”

   The 8./JG 26 Fw 190A-7 “Black 16”, showing its unusual personal marking, a bloody bird. Unfortunately the mechanic who supplied the photo did not recall the circumstances.

  Bf 109G-6/R6, WNr. 15367, Oblt. Herwig Zuzic, CO of 8./JG 1, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, July 1943   Eduard kit No. 84201

  
  

  Mietusch’s Gruppe was the next to attack. Upon its arrival it bored in on the rear of the bomber stream, which was totally unprotected by fighters. The Messerschmitts formed up, turned, and attacked the rear wing head-on. Only one bomber was forced from the formation by this initial attack, but the German pilots came back in repeatedly over the next fifteen minutes. Mietusch’s combat philosophy was unlike that of the cautious Borris; he had ordered his pilots to keep up the attack until forced by damage, low fuel, or low ammunition to break off. They concentrated on the rear two combat wings. Three more damaged Fortresses dropped back, but bomber fire hit and killed one Messerschmitt pilot and forced a second to belly-land with wounds. A third bailed out without injury after a spectacular cartwheel through the rear B-17 Pulk.

  The Fw 190A-5 of Oblt. Rüdiger von Kirchmayer, Technical Officer of II./JG 1, photographed in mid-1943. It carries the chevron-circle emblem of the TO, and a red Tazelwurm [dragon-worm, a creature from Nordic folklore] on the cowling to designate the Gruppe Stab.

  Fw 190A-4, WNr. 140581, flown by Lt. E. Burath, Stab I./JG 1, Deelen, the Netherlands, April 1943    Eduard kit No. R0016

  
  

  One of the four B-17s that had dropped back from the 4th Bomb Wing's rear box was shot down by Fw. Werner Kraft of the 9. Staffel, who pulled alongside the crippled bomber to look it over and was then shot down by the right waist gunner, Sgt. William Binnebose, who met Kraft that evening in a Belgian hospital.

  The other three damaged B-17s were shot down by JG 26 Focke-Wulfs and Messerschmitts and the lurking NJG 1 Bf 110s. A close examination of the claims microfilms shows how complicated the bookkeeping could become for even a relatively simple combat. Eight B-17s left the formation before the German border was reached. One of these was definitely shot down by Flak, according to the surviving crewmen. Of the other seven, I./JG 26 was credited with three full victories; III./JG 26 was credited with one, plus two more that were awarded “jointly with” NJG 1—although in theory the Luftwaffe did not accept joint claims—and NJG 1 crews were given full credit for three, although all of their victims had already left their formations and according to the rules should have been only “final destructions”. The record is silent with respect to sharing any of these claims with JG 26.

  Bf 110G-4,  flown by Lt. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, II./NJG 1, Saint-Trond, Belgium, April/May 1943   Eduard kit No. 8208

  
  

  The 56th Fighter Group relieved the 353rd on schedule; its pilots saw only one German fighter. The German controller had seen the new fighters coming and whisked his own fighters away and back to their bases. When the last P-47 turned back at Eupen, the way was clear for new Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet fighter units to continue the attacks without hindrance. I./JG 1 and III./JG 1 made contact at 1150, near Aschaffenburg. The I. Gruppe claimed three full victories and three separations, for no losses. The III. Gruppe Kommandeur, Hptm. Robert Olejnik, had taken off late with a bad radio and could not reach his Gruppe, but followed a B-17 formation for 35 minutes before attacking and claimed one final destruction; the rest of his Gruppe made no claims, and lost one Bf 109. Next to arrive were the Messerschmitts of I./JG 3, which claimed three B‑17s for the loss of two fighters. Oberst Grabmann’s other two units, II./JG 1 and III./JG 3, were scrambled but failed to make contact, and landed at Woensdrecht to await the bombers’ return.

  Fw 190A-6 “Red 5” of 5./JG 1, shown here at Rheine in summer 1943, was lost on a night mission on 27 September while being flown by a night pilot.

  A pilot of 5./JG 1 runs up his engine prior to takeoff in July 1943. His name is different in different sources. The yellow undercowl is a theater marking; The cowl ring and Gruppe Tatzelwurm are in the 5. Staffel color, red.

  
  

  As soon as it became apparent that the bombers were on course for a target in western or southern Germany, Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet requested support from Jafü Deutsche Bucht, Jafü 2, and Jafü 3. There was still no formal coordination of the defenses, but such help was rarely withheld. JG 11 was ordered southwest from its north German bases to the Netherlands; JG 2 moved east from its bases in western France. All were too late to intercept the incoming bombers and landed to refuel on airfields near the assumed withdrawal route, which was usually near the incoming route.

  Bombers of the Regensburg Task Force heading south after striking their target.

  B-17F-85-BO 42-30066, Lt. Charles B. Cruikshank crew, Maj. John C. Egan, 418th BS, 100th BG, Thorpe Abbotts, United Kingdom, 17 August 1943  Eduard kit No. 11183

  Fw.Josef Kehle’s Bf 109G-6 “Black 7” of 8./JG 1, photographed at Leeuwarden in the summer of 1943. The plane has a standard mottle finish, a red/white spiral spinner, and two unit badges, the Staffel badge and one of Kehle’s Rotte [two aircraft.]

  
  

  The bombers entered the territory of Jafü Süddeutschland, which had only one day fighter unit, Major Hermann Graf’s JG 50, under its command. The well-known Graf was the highest-scoring pilot now serving with a combat unit, but he did not lead their two missions today. That task fell to Oblt. Alfred Grislawski, Kapitän of the 1. Staffel. The bombers came within twenty miles of its base at Wiesbaden-Erbenheim; all of its 26 Bf 109s were scrambled, and were joined by the Einsatzschwärme [operational flights] of nearby operational training units. They began their head-on attacks at around noon, and continued until 1250, after the bombers had completed their final turn toward Regensburg at the Initial Point. Only now was the target known. The Regensburg Industrieschutzstaffel [factory protection squadron] quickly scrambled its 12 Bf 109s. Oblt. Stemmler downed one B-17 before the bomb run while the other eleven Messerschmitt pilots dove away. Stemmler was quoted as saying that while the idea of the little unit was a good one, test pilots were not necessarily good combat pilots. Grislawski’s men and the training unit pilots were credited with eight bombers; their own losses on this mission are unknown. The last fighters ordered up were from NJG 101, a night fighter training unit. They were ordered to search out stragglers, and did succeed in downing two—a third claim was not confirmed—but most orbited north of the city waiting for the B-17s to complete their bomb run and reassemble for the return trip to England.

  Bf 109G-6, Oblt. Alfred Grislawski, CO of 1./JG 50, Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany, September 1943   Eduard kit No. 2144

  Reichsmarschall Göring speaks to Oblt. Alfred Grislawski during an inspection of JG 50 at Erbenheim in late 1943. Behind Göring is the Kommodore, Major Hermann Graf; to the left rear is Genobst. Bruno Lörzer.

  Hptm. Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, Kommandeur of II./JG 26. The second Galland brother to die in the Geschwader, “Wutz” was killed on 17 August 1943 by 56th Fighter Group P-47s escorting the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid. 

  
  

  The 4th Bomb Wing finished bombing at 1307 and then, much to the Germans’ surprise, turned south, where no defenses existed. The Americans were now en route to North Africa, and had to contend only with their previous damage, navigational difficulties, and their fuel supplies. They lost a total of 24 B‑17s; of this number, 14 were shot down over the Continent, two force-landed in Switzerland, four crash-landed in southern Europe, and four ditched in the Mediterranean off Tunisia. Fifty more were damaged. All of Col. LeMay’s bomb groups were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for the mission, which was judged a success; reconnaissance photos showed that serious damage had been done to the Messerschmitt plant.

  The Jafü 2 and Jafü Holland-Ruhrgebiet controllers were puzzled by the non-arrival of the larger part of the B-17 force; the two American bombardment wings had always in the past coordinated their attacks to split the defenses, and the earlier radio tests indicated that the other bombers were coming today. But they couldn’t worry about them now. The B-26 and RAF diversion raids that ordinarily preceded the heavy bombers were now reported in the Channel. The enemy was coming across at such widely-spaced intervals today that these secondary forces, which were usually ignored, could be attacked. Five Allied formations headed for the Pas de Calais, where the three Staffeln of the JG 26 Geschwadergruppe [headquarters group] were waiting. The interception was not a success; only one Typhoon was shot down, for the loss of one Messerschmitt and one Focke-Wulf to the Spitfire escorts. The Spitfires also encountered part of II./JG 2, probably en route to its base for the afternoon mission, and lost one pilot to the Richthofen fighters.

  A tight B-17 formation is escorted by a 4th Fighter Group P-47.  This is probably the mission to Stuttgart on 6 September, 1943.

  
  

  II./JG 26, which was commanded by Major Wihelm-Ferdinand “Wutz” Galland, brother of Adolf Galland, the General der Jagdflieger [General of the Fighter Pilots], was based on several fields around Beauvais. The Gruppe was scrambled before noon, possibly just to clear their airfields in case of a B‑26 attack. It was not vectored to a target, and landed forty-five minutes later to prepare for future action. The Gruppe was next ordered to fly from Beauvais to Lille-Nord. The reason for this move is unknown. Lille-Nord was closer to the presumed path of the next heavy bomber raid, still assembling over England, but it was a tiny field that usually held only a single Staffel, and was already hosting the JG 26 Geschwadergruppe. II. Gruppe landed at 1430, shortly after the B-17s began crossing the English coast, but could not be refueled in time to play a role in the interception of the incoming Schweinfurt force.

  Even without it, Oberst Grabmann was in good condition to meet the long-delayed second B-17 force—which was following exactly in the track of the first. Thirteen Gruppen of single-engine fighters had been assembled along the Regensburg bombers' assumed return route; it was the largest defensive force yet seen over Europe. Now the effort would not go to waste.

  The first radar report of the 230 B-17s of the Schweinfurt force reached the controllers at 1426. This formation had a larger fighter escort than its predecessor. Eight squadrons of Spitfires would accompany the B-17s as far as Antwerp. There they were to be relieved by two groups of P-47s, which could stay with the bombers as far as Eupen, on the Belgian side of the German border. Woensdrecht was once again on the bombers’ path. The Focke-Wulfs of II./JG 1 and I./JG 26 had been reinforced with the underwing cannon-armed Bf 109G-6s of III./JG 3, flying their first RLV mission. These Messerschmitts began taking to the air at 1430, and were the first to contact the bombers. The controller's orders took them over the North Sea, directly beneath the Spitfires of No. 222 Sqd. These promptly attacked, downing three Messerschmitts and dispersing the German formation beyond recovery. Hptm. Walther Dahl, the Gruppenkommandeur, furiously blamed the Jafü, but the error was at least partly due to the unit’s own inexperience in the western cauldron.

  Bf 109G-6, 7./JG 3, Bad Wörishofen, Germany, October 1943 Eduard kit No. BFC055

  Hptm. Walther Dahl, Kommandeur of III./JG 3, strides forward to congratulate 7./JG 3 pilots after their successful 14 October flight, against the 2nd USAAF Schweinfurt mission.  Bf 109G-6 “White 6” bears full markings: the Geschwader emblem on the cowling,  the Gruppe vertical bar, and a white comet denoting the Staffel.  A WGr 21 mortar tube, standard equipment in this Staffel, can be seen beneath the wing.

  
  

  Lt. Kiefner of I./JG 26 looked forward to his second mission of the day with great anticipation. He recalls:

   

  “Around midday, three to four Gruppen, mostly Me 109 aircraft, landed one after the other. We arrived at our dispersal, which was now surrounded by closely packed fighter planes. A powerful sight—but we weren't feeling very good, the birds could only be camouflaged to a very small extent.

  Then, shortly after 2 p.m., Erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit [Increased Attention]. Soon after, Sitzbereitschaft! [Cockpit Readiness!] The airfield was full of of fighters-the Beulen [Bf 109G-6s] took off first, then the Focke-Wulfs. We were the last. After a while the three planes of 3./JG 26 (Peter Ahrens, Max Munch, and I) became the Holzauge-Kette [cover detachment] above the whole gigantic horde of 75 fighters. I'd never seen us so strong and couldn't get over a feeling of perfect confidence and security.”

   

  Fw. Peter Ahrens was leading the 3. Staffel trio, and tried to reach the bombers before the Spitfires turned back. Jörg Kiefner continues,

   

  “We were at 5000 meters when the dicken Autos came into sight—well below them, and in no kind of attack position. To the right of us were about 180 bombers like three tightly packed bunches of grapes. Yelling in the radio, “Watch out! Escort fighters around!” Peter [Ahrens] sheered off to the right, just under the lowest Pulk, in order to come up on the other side, to make an undisturbed attack on the big Haufen [heap of bombers]. We were now flying alongside the Boeings—a nerve-wracking experience. A glance up to the left, and I shouted over the radio, “Aufpassen, Indianer!” Three Spitfires were pointed at us. I shouted again, “Peter, they're coming down!” as he flick-rolled lightning-quick to his left. Münch followed. I banked to the left, too slowly—my crate was soon coming apart. I scarcely noticed a light blow to my left knee. My wings sprouted cauliflowers; both ailerons flopped up and down; I found myself in a flat spin, which my movement of the stick couldn't control. So out! If only it was so simple... I was plastered onto the right side of the cockpit, scarcely able to move my arms. Somehow I pulled the canopy lever and ripped off my harness. I was still in a damned spin. I was now at 1500 meters—With a last push I came free, and seconds later the wonderful white cloud blossomed above me.”

   

  Kiefner’s knee contained a .303” machine gun bullet, and he had hit his head on his airplane’s tail when bailing out. After landing, he was taken to an Antwerp hospital by two Belgian farmers. After a brief convalescence; a briefer home leave; a stop at Kurheim Florida, the fighter pilots’ rest home; and a tour in an operational training unit; he returned to the Gruppe in late December.

  The Spitfires turned back at Antwerp. One of the two P-47 groups, the 4th, missed rendezvous, and never reached its assigned position over the leading combat wings. The other unit, the 78th Fighter Group, carried out its escort of the rear B-17 wings exactly as ordered. It saw little combat, as the two Focke-Wulf Gruppen had already found the unprotected van of the bomber stream. They were able to prepare well-coordinated head-on attacks in the undisturbed air ahead of the formation. Once the cohesiveness of the leading wing had been broken, successive attacks sought out the least well-defended part of the bomber stream, in accord with the usual German pattern. Other preferred targets were bombers in the highest or lowest positions in the box formations, which were not as well covered by neighboring gunners. The American crews gave the name “coffin corner” to the low squadron position in a low box.

  Bf 109G-6, WNr. 18807, Flown by Ofw. Alfred Surau, 9./JG 3, Bad Wörishofen, September, 1943  Eduard kit No. 8268

  Obfw. Alfred Surau sits on the wheel of his Bf 109G-6 “Yellow 6” at Bad Wörishofen in the fall of 1943. The 9./JG 3 fighter carries a full set of markings: the Geschwader emblem on the cowling; a yellow spinner, machine gun “bump” and aircraft number, along with a large eye on the bump, all for the 9. Staffel; a vertical black III. Gruppe bar; and black victory bars on a yellow rudder. 

  
  

  Borris’s I./JG 26 stayed with the bombers far longer than on their earlier mission, and claimed four bombers before breaking away with low fuel; two claims were confirmed. Their only casualties were Kiefner and a brand-new pilot who flew as far as Koblenz before running out of fuel; he was killed attempting to make a dead-stick landing. II./JG 1 first attacked head-on by Schwärme in order of Staffeln, and then made repeated follow-up attacks. It claimed six B-17s downed and separated from formation; three claims were confirmed. It lost four Fw 190s in crashes or crash-landings; one pilot suffered serious injuries.

  Examination of II./JG 1 Abschussmeldungen [shootdown reports] from this battle shows the difficulty of assigning victory credits. Uffz. Schönrock shot down a 91st BG B-17 near Mayen-Andernach, visited its surviving crew that night, and filed an Abschussmeldung. JG 1 downgraded it to an eV; its ultimate disposition is unknown. Uffz. Scharler last saw his target in a steep dive, but did not see it crash. He submitted a claim for an HSS, but JG 1 rejected it. Lt. Heinz Schwarz shot a B-17 from formation and later saw it under attack by three fighters and spinning down. He submitted a claim for an HSS, which was rejected by JG 1.

  Oberst Grabmann timed the approach of most of his defenders so that they contacted the bombers immediately after the P-47s turned back at the German border, as expected. For the next two hours, the bombers were battered by fighters from ten Jagdgruppen, an intensity of attack far in excess of anything previously experienced. Mietusch’s III./JG 26 is typical. It took off from Schiphol at 1439 under orders to head southeast, toward Germany. They reached the bomber stream near Aachen and stayed in contact for thirty minutes, claiming four confirmed victories. One Messerschmitt was shot down, and three sustained damage, but none of their pilots were injured. Other units claiming victories were I./JG 1, III./JG 1, I./JG 3, Stab/JG 11, I./JG 11, II./JG 11, III./JG 11, JG 50, and NJG 101. The most successful were I./JG 11 and JG 50, each of which was awarded six victory confirmations. Several Staffeln carried underwing WGr 21 rockets, which were extremely tricky to use in the briefed head-on attacks. Oblt. Heinz Knoke led his 5./JG 11 in a head-on rocket attack on a low box—probably the 92nd Bomb Group—in a rear combat wing. Knoke was hit in the wing by defensive fire, causing one rocket to fire prematurely. He missed with the other, and dove away to examine his damage. The rest of his Staffel claimed two direct hits, but their targets did not leave their formations, and the claims were not filed.

  The fighter attacks slackened when the B-17s began their bomb run on Schweinfurt. JG 50, which was the single-engine unit closest to its home base, was probably the last to break contact. Bombs were dropped from 1559 to 1611. For a variety of reasons that need not be addressed here, no bomb group hit its target, even in conditions of cloudless skies and light flak. Overall results were characterized as “very poor”. Three B-17s from low groups were damaged sufficiently by the Flak to leave their formations; none reached England. The night fighters did an effective job of hunting down stragglers, receiving credit for five. A reconnaissance pilot joined the hunt and was credited with one B-17.

  Fw 190A-5, WNr. 2700, 2./JG 11, Husum, Germany, August 1943

  Eduard kit No.84118

  The Bf 109G-6 of the II./JG 3 Kommandeur, Major Kurt Brändle, which was not yet active in the RLV on the day of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission. He was killed in this aircraft on November 3. The white rudder marks Brändle as a formation leader.

  
  

  The surviving bombers re-formed their defensive boxes and took up a return course slightly to the north of their inbound route. The Americans credited this route with confusing the defenders; only a few fighters were seen by the bomber crews until they neared the Belgian border. In reality, the Germans were as exhausted as the Americans. Attacks by single-engine units flying their second or third sorties were weak in strength and tentative. I./JG 1 claimed three victories in this period; two were confirmed. I./JG 3 also claimed two. II./NJG 6 scrambled six Bf 110s from Mainz-Finthen, under orders to attack intact combat boxes rather than stragglers. One Kette made a formation attack on the trailing, low 303rd Bomb Group from six o’clock low, approaching to close range, as was customary when attacking RAF night bombers. They were sitting ducks for the B-17 tail and ball turret gunners, who shot all three down; only two of the six crewmen survived. The other Kette approached the 379th Bomb Group more gingerly; they shot down one previously-damaged B-17, while losing one of their number.

  B-17F s/n 42-29978 “Hell‘s Angel“ of the 381st Bomb Group, lost on Schweinfurt mission, August 17, 1943

  
  

  Formation leaders who had landed away from their own bases to refuel were under orders to improvise attack units from the pilots they found there. Oblt. Knoke had landed his damaged Bf 109 on Bonn-Hangelar, where it was diagnosed as having a cracked main wing spar. He gathered a small band of Bf 109 and Fw 190 pilots and led them up in his damaged fighter to find the bomber stream. He concentrated on stragglers, and the maneuvers of his crippled bird were cautious enough to be noticed by the crew of his target, a 305th Bomb Group B-17. He was able to shoot it down, but was himself hit; his engine quit at low altitude, and he was forced to make a crash-landing that according to Knoke left “nothing intact but the tail wheel.” One of his sleeves was blood-soaked from a shrapnel wound, but he returned to Jever the following day in the Gruppe utility airplane.

  The controllers were counting heavily on the attack of the only fresh Gruppe left in the area, Wutz Galland's II./JG 26. At 1650 Galland led his three Staffeln up from Lille-Nord and flew southeast, along the reciprocal of the bombers' return course. Obstlt. Priller, the JG 26 Geschwaderkommodore [CO] also scrambled with the JG 26 Stabsschwarm and the 8. Staffel, but Galland, who led the larger unit, probably held the tactical command. They met the bomber stream head-on, just east of the Belgian border, and attacked the third of the three combat wings. Priller’s target began to burn. Galland then re-formed as much of his Gruppe as he could and led it toward the front of this half of the formation, for a second head-on attack.

  At this moment the Germans were stunned by fighters attacking from their rear—from the direction of Germany. Colonel Hub Zemke had led his “Wolfpack”, the P-47s of the 56th Fighter Group, farther east than they had ever flown before, fifteen miles beyond the German border. He had reached the rendezvous point exactly on time and course, but had then overflown the B-17 formation, unobserved by the German attackers, who were thus set up for a surprise attack. Wutz Galland disappeared after the initial Thunderbolt bounce; the screamed warning of his wingman Uffz. Heinz Gomann could not save him. Gomann’s fighter was also hit. He managed to jump out, but got hung up on his plane’s tail; he broke free just above the ground and was knocked out when he landed. After regaining consciousness, he found that he had suffered only "slight injuries", but was nevertheless granted three weeks' home leave to recover. A third member of Galland’s Stabsschwarm was damaged on the same pass, and put down on Brussels-Evere; two more II./JG 26 pilots force-landed with damage. Galland's remains were found two months later, buried with the wreckage of his aircraft twelve feet deep in the soft soil near Maastricht.

  Reichsmarschall Herrmann Göring in discussion with General Adolf Galland, General der Jagdflieger.

  
  

  The disappearance of the popular and gifted Wutz Galland was a serious blow to the Geschwader and the Jagdwaffe [fighter force.] In his eight months as Gruppenkommandeur he had gained a reputation in the Luftwaffe (and to the Allies) as one of the best formation leaders in the West. The surviving pilots of his Gruppe spoke of him in affectionate terms, and were convinced that under his leadership they had once again become the best unit on the Kanalfront [Channel Front.]

   One of the three JG 2 Gruppen reached the bomber stream at this time and made a successful attack. This was Hptm. Kurt Bühligen’s II./JG 2, which was credited with four B-17s, one of them shared. However, Zemke's sudden arrival broke up the attacks of several more German formations that were forced to turn on the Thunderbolts. After the prolonged battle the 56th returned to England claiming 7-0-1 Fw 190s, 4-1-1 Bf 109s, and 5-0-7 twin-engine fighters, while losing three P‑47s and pilots. The Focke-Wulfs were from I./JG 1 as well as II./JG 26. One Bf 109 was from JG 50. The twin-engine fighters were all Bf 110 night fighters from II./NJG 1, which lost four to the Thunderbolts and one to Spitfires. Two of the lost P-47s were engaged in an attack on the Bf 110s when they were bounced by III./JG 3 Bf 109s and shot down; Hptm. Dahl’s pilots claimed three Thunderbolts, redeeming themselves after their failure against the Spitfires on their previous mission. The third P‑47 lost was flying high cover when it was bounced from above and downed by a pair of German fighters that dove away.

  Obfw. Glunz stands beside his II./JG 26 Fw 190A-7 after his best day as a fighter pilot – one P-47 and three B-17s shot down, and two B-17s driven from their formation – Cambrai-Epinoy, early 1944.

  
  

  When the 56th Group was relieved by the 353rd after the most successful escort mission to date by an American fighter group, there were no large Luftwaffe formations in the area; the remaining German fighters were scattered far and wide, searching for stragglers. Obfw. Adolf “Addi” Glunz of II./JG 26 was the last German pilot to make a successful attack on the bomber stream after the arrival of the escort. Calmly sticking to his orders despite the chaos around him, he maintained contact with the bombers, and finally shot down a 305th Bomb Group B-17 northwest of Diest, attacking “alone, head-on, and with a P-47 on his ass”, in the words of Ed Burford, an admiring B-17 crewman. Another II./JG 26 pilot and one from III./JG 3 downed straggling Fortresses near the coast, ending the day’s confirmed victories against the Viermots [four-engine bombers].

  As soon as the reconnaissance photographs were received on the evening of the 17th, Generals Eaker and Anderson knew that the Schweinfurt raid had been a failure. The excellent results at Regensburg were but small consolation for the loss of 60 B-17s, 16% of those dispatched. The losses could not be hidden from USAAF headquarters or the US press, but the results of the bombing were exaggerated, and the poor operational plan that guaranteed the high losses was well disguised in the after-mission reports. No general lost his job from the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission. The lessons learned were mixed. Everyone who flew the mission stressed the importance of the escorts in reducing losses; the planners grasped only that Schweinfurt would have to be bombed again, soon, in another deep penetration, unescorted mission.

  
  

  The lessons learned by the defenders were also mixed. Based purely on the numbers, the fighters of the RLV had scored an outstanding success. The OKW communiqué claimed 101 heavy bombers and five fighters shot down. Claims for 87 bombers and seven fighters were ultimately confirmed, somewhat above the Allies’ true losses, but close enough to prevent any misinterpretation of the results. As usual, performance of the various units making up the RLV varied widely. JG 26 had one of its best days of the war, with 15 confirmed B-17 and two confirmed fighter claims, against five pilots KIA and six WIA. JG 50, with less than one-third of the pilot establishment of JG 26, did almost as well, with 12 confirmed B-17 claims for the loss of two pilots killed. (Of course, Graf’s unit had had the advantage of attacking unescorted formations.) Other units were entirely shut out. I./JG 2 and III./JG 2 reached the battle area in strength, but then disappeared. And Priller and Hptm. Förster of NJG 1 filed a formal complaint with the office of the General der Jagdflieger denouncing the pilots of III./JG 1 as Leichenfledderei [corpse-looters] for failing to make a single concerted attack. After reaching the bomber stream, these pilots had immediately split up to look for stragglers. The difference between the good and the poor-performing units can be summarized as combat leadership and experience. Unfortunately for Germany, the RLV was always short of both.

  The defenders lost about 40 fighters on the 17th, nine of which were night fighters, which would soon be leaving the day order of battle, replaced by the Zerstörergeschwader [heavy fighter wings] equipped with twin-engine Bf 110 and Me 410 day fighters. These had powerful weapons that would increase the killing power of the RLV. The success of these slow, heavy fighters would be dependent on the absence of American fighters. They could either stay outside the range of the P‑47s or operate under an escort umbrella provided by single-engine German fighters. The Bf 109 and Fw 190 units being added to the RLV were intended as bomber destroyers. Escorting the heavy units violated current doctrine, as did any mention of battling Allied fighters at the expense of maximum-strength attacks on the bomber stream. Future success of the Reich defenses was thus predicated on the assumption that USAAF escorts had already reached their maximum range. When Adolf Galland tried to tell Göring that Thunderbolts had crossed the German border on the 17th, the proof being several crashes near Aachen, Göring cursed the report as "Hirngespinste schlapper Defaitisten" [rantings of a worn-out defeatist] and gave Galland an “order” that Allied fighters had never penetrated German airspace. A rational defensive strategy was impossible under such a commander-in-chief.

              August 17, 1943 marked the high point of the RLV day defenses. While Germany could produce great numbers of (mostly obsolescent) fighters until the final breakdown in late 1944, they could not train enough pilots or formation leaders. The USAAF simply outperformed it—more aircraft, longer-ranged fighters, more and better trained pilots, and after a change in commanders in January 1944, the right tactics to defeat the Jagdwaffe before the Western Allies invaded France in June, 1944.

  
  

• Museum report - BOX 1

  THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PHOENIX

  At 3:30am on November 21st, 1847, a rapidly spreading fire broke out on the Phoenix, a wooden steamship sailing from Sheboygan to Manitowoc, 29 miles (46 km) away. Thirty-one passengers and crew members were rescued in two lifeboats. Two crew members and one passenger were pulled from the water. Another 180 passengers and crew members died in the flames or in the freezing waters of Lake Michigan. The destruction of the Phoenix, the fate of the passengers, and the story of the discovery and exploration of the wreck are very well documented by the museum's exhibit. It is a very revealing window into history, showing, among other things, the ethnic composition of the passengers and capturing part of the story of the settlement of Wisconsin. In the nineteenth century, it was settled largely by immigrants from northwestern Europe, Germany, Scandinavia, and the Benelux countries (comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), with a significant Czech footprint as well.

  The model of the SS Phoenix

  The Battery Phoenix, painting by Wisconsin artist William J Coelpin (1938 – 1996), oil on canvas.

• Museum report - Box 2 and 3

  ICE BREAKER FERRY CHIEF WAWATAM

  The SS Chief Wawatam was a train and car ferry icebreaker built in 1911 by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company in Toledo, Ohio. The 103-meter-long ship, with a displacement of 2,990 tons, was equipped with three steam boilers and powered by three steam engines with a total output of 4,500 hp (3.36 MW). She had three propellers, two at the stern and one at the bow. She carried up to twenty-six railroad cars on three parallel tracks.

  The Chief Wawatam, nicknamed ‘the Chief’, connected Mackinaw City and Saint Ignace, Michigan, on opposite shores of the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron, until 1984. The ship provided full service to passengers and crew, as the journey across the frozen five-mile-wide strait could take several hours in winter. The massive ice barriers that form in this area of the lake in winter were the reason why the Chief was built as an icebreaker, and as an icebreaker it was able to function reliably for decades. To break up the ice, it used its forward propeller, which, in addition to propelling the ship and helping it maneuver, was able to suck water from under the ice sheet, causing it to break up by gravity under its own weight. In 1944, she was replaced in this role by the modern, six-diesel-powered Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83), which then served in the northern Great Lakes for another 62 years, until 2006. Chief Wawatam, which received a rudder and steering gear from a destroyer after a 1945 conversion, ceased passenger service in 1957 with the opening of the Mackinac Bridge. However, she continued to carry trains across the Straits of Mackinac until 1984. She was the last steamship with hand-fired boilers on the Great Lakes. She was sold in 1989, converted to a freighter, and scrapped in 2009.

   

  The USS POTOMAC

  In addition to submarines, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built a number of other interesting ships. Among the most interesting is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential yacht, the USS Potomac. Today, it is one of two surviving presidential yachts. You can visit it in Oakland, California.

  It was built in Manitowoc in 1934 as the Coast Guard submarine chaser USCGC Elektra. At the time, the presidential yacht was the USS Sequoia, a small wooden yacht. The Secret Service deemed it a fire hazard and unsuitable for President Roosevelt. The President's phobia of fire may have played a role, as he had witnessed the tragic death of his aunt in a house fire ignited by a kerosene lamp as a child. The USS Sequoia is the second presidential yacht to survive.

  The Elektra was chosen for the conversion, which entered service in 1936 under the new name USS Potomac. It was very modern and luxuriously equipped, was wheelchair-accessible and adapted to the needs of the President, who was partially dependent on a wheelchair. A rarity was the false rear funnel, in which an elevator was installed that could take the president on board in a wheelchair. Security was also taken into account during the conversion, the ship had bulletproof glass and an anti-aircraft machine gun was installed when the President was on board. However, the additional equipment shifted the ship's center of gravity upwards and caused it to be unstable, listing up to 48 degrees when the waves hit it. The President, as a former active sailor, Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the administration of President W. Wilson and later Acting Secretary of the Navy, was not at all excited about it, but it did cause his visitors some distress from time to time. The ship's modifications cost 60,000 dollars.

  President Roosevelt often and happily used the yacht for both recreation and political meetings, and the ship, called the Floating White House, also played a significant role in historical events. In 1939, Roosevelt hosted British King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on it during the first ever visit by a British monarch to an American president. In August 1941, it was used as a real espionage operation, when President Roosevelt sailed along the coast of Massachusetts, met and fished with Norwegian Crown Princess Martha and other guests along the way, and then transferred to the cruiser USS Augusta in Vineyard Sound, on board which he sailed to Newfoundland, to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with whom he signed the Atlantic Charter. You probably know what it is, but if not, follow this link:

  While Roosevelt and Churchill were negotiating in Newfoundland, the Potomac slowly sailed back along the Massachusetts coast under the presidential flag. On board for the duration of the voyage was a Secret Service agent, disguised as the president, in an effort to confuse suspected German agents who were monitoring the President's activities. He must have enjoyed himself. What the German agents reported about this remains unknown.

  The Potomac's golden era as a presidential yacht ended with Roosevelt's death. President Truman had her replaced by the larger USS Williamsburg. Legend has it that as an avid pianist, he wanted to have a classical piano on board the yacht, but the Potomac could not accommodate one. But perhaps he simply did not like the ship, and as a non-sailor he tolerated its characteristics less well than his predecessor. The Potomac returned to the Coast Guard, and until 1960 served with the Maryland Tidewater Fisheries Commission to control fishing. Then it was sold to private ownership, officially serving as a ferry, but more likely it was used to operate illegal gambling activities at sea. It later changed hands, briefly owned by Elvis Presley in 1964, and was seized by Customs in 1980 during a raid on Mexican drug smugglers. The ship was towed to Treasure Island, where it sank, allegedly due to rusting of the hull. After two weeks, it was raised and sold for $15,000 to the only bidder, the Port of Oakland.

  Between 1983 and 1993, the ship was restored at a cost of $2.5 million by the non-profit Association for the Preservation of the Presidential Yacht Potomac. Today, the Potomac is a major attraction in Oakland and is used for cruises on San Francisco Bay. The Potomac also starred in the 2011 film ‘The Master’, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams.

• Museum report

  The Manitowoc Maritime Museum building with the submarine USS Cobia (SS 245) moored on the left bank of the Manitowoc River. Photographed from the right bank of the river. The Gato class submarines are 95 metres (311 ft 8 in) long.

  Submarines at Manitowoc

   Text: Vladimír Šulc

  
  

  The city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, lies on the west coast of Lake Michigan, some eighty miles north of Milwaukee. The city is bisected by a river of the same name, the Manitowoc River, and off its north bank at the mouth of the river, the Gato Class submarine USS Cobia is docked in front of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

  The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is not large, but its displays in a modern building environment are very impressive. It has several sections, and it is difficult to say which is the most interesting and they are all quite breathtaking. We were not prepared for what we would find at the museum, really just going there to see a submarine. We ended up being very pleasantly surprised.

   

  The exhibits are dedicated to the history of shipping on Lake Michigan, the history of Wisconsin shipbuilding in general and Manitowoc in particular, shipwrecks in Lake Michigan, and the exploration of shipwrecks off the Wisconsin coast, where there are more than seven hundred alone. This is a surprisingly high number, especially when you consider that the Wisconsin coast includes only a portion of the Great Lakes region, in which thousands of ships of various types and sizes have sailed over the past two centuries, from small boats and yachts, through to passenger ships and ferries, and on up to large Great Lakes freighters transporting goods and raw materials such as oil and iron ore. Some of the wrecks are old ships, abandoned and intentionally sunk in coastal waters at the end of their service lives. However, a large number of the sunken ships had a much more dramatic fate and sank as the result of accident or any number of other reasons, common denominators in ship disasters, such as navigational error, storms or, especially in older cases, fires. These were a very common cause of disasters with fatal consequences in the nineteenth century, exacerbated by the insufficient life saving equipment carried by ships of that time. It was worse than on the Titanic; ships on the Great Lakes in the mid-nineteenth century practically never had enough lifeboats, to say nothing of other life-saving equipment such as life jackets.

  Model of the City of Midland 41 ferry.

  
  

  The most common cause of shipwrecks on Lake Michigan, and the Great Lakes in general, were storms, especially in the fall months of October and November, which bring strong weather systems, the famous "Gales of November", accompanied by high gales, high waves, freezing rain and blizzards. The most dangerous area is considered to be the Death's Door Strait between the upper Door Peninsula and Washington Island, connecting Lake Michigan with Green Bay in the northwest of Lake Michigan. This was the busy route used by cargo ships carrying iron ore, coal and other minerals from the port of Escanaba in northern Michigan, where iron ore was transferred from trains to cargo ships, typical for the transportation of minerals across the Great Lakes.

  The exhibition hall displaying ship models is located next to another, which houses a reconstructed and functioning three-stroke steam engine from the ferry SS Chief Wawatam. The exhibition explains the function of the steam engine, and it is possible to start it and observe its operation. The same type of steam engine was installed on the legendary Titanic.

   Steam engine from the SS Chief Wawatam.

  A pontoon for transporting submarines from Manitowoc to New Orleans in a contemporary photograph.

  
  

  WARTIME PRODUCTION

   The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, founded in 1902, was a major shipyard that built ships for use on the Great Lakes and inland rivers. It primarily built ferries, tugboats, and cargo ships. It became involved in wartime production during World War I, building cargo ships known as Design 1044 under contract to the United States Shipping Board (USSB) from 1917 to 1920, among many other projects.

  The company also became involved in wartime production during World War II. As early as 1939, company president Charles C. West proposed to the Government Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) agency the building of destroyers for the US Navy. Although his proposal was rejected by the Navy, the company was awarded a contract on September 9th, 1940, to build ten Gato-class submarines, becoming one of four shipyards to build Gato and Balao Class subs during the war. Manitowoc produced fourteen of the 77 Gato Class submarines built in 1942 and 1943, and fourteen of the 120 Balao Class subs built between 1943 and 1945. During the war, 7,000 workers and technicians worked three shifts in the shipyards, operating seven days a week.

  The Manitowoc built USS Rasher sank eighteen Japanese ships during eight combat cruises, totaling 99,901 GRT, making her either the second or third most successful American sub of World War II, depending on the actual score of the USS Flasher. The problem is that the USS Flasher would actually hold down second place with 100,231 tons sunk. However, there is some doubt to take into account about her sinking a Japanese destroyer, and if that tonnage is subtracted from USS Flasher's score, Rasher takes second place in terms of sunk tonnage.

  Four Manitowoc-built submarines were lost during the war in combat: USS Golet, USS Kete (both Gato Class), USS Lagarto, and USS Robalo (both Balao Class). A total of 336 officers and crew members died during these losses.

  The Manitowoc shipyard was the only one of the four American facilities that produced submarines to be located inland. And very deep inland, at that. The submarines got to sea in an interesting way. They were loaded onto a floating dock and towed to Chicago, and from there went through the Illinois-Mississippi waterway, the Illinois River and by way of a system of canals to the Mississippi River and on down to New Orleans, where they were outfitted, armed and handed over to the US Navy.

  Production at the shipyard continued after the war, ending in 1972 when the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company moved production to Sturgeon Bay. However, boat production did not end there, as production continues at the Burger Boat Company, where 330 employees produce an average of three luxury yachts per year.

   Memorial plaque to those who built and served on submarines, unveiled on the centennial of the United States Navy Submarine Service.

   Memorial plaque to the crew of the submarine USS Lagarto, sunk during her second war patrol on May 3, 1945.

  
  

  The USS COBIA

   The museum's largest, most important, and most interesting exhibit, commemorating the wartime production of submarines at Manitowoc, the USS Cobia, was not built in Manitowoc. But that doesn't matter at all.

  Built in 1943 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, her keel was laid down on March 17th, 1943, launched on November 28th, 1943, and commissioned by the US Navy as SS-245 on March 29th, 1944. Lieutenant Commander Albert L. Becker was appointed as her first captain and commanded her on five of her six combat patrols. During these patrols, Cobia sank eleven Japanese ships totaling 16,835 GRT, for which she was awarded four Battle Stars. During her fourth patrol, Cobia suffered her only loss of life when Ralph C. Hudson, the 20mm gun loader, was killed by return fire from a Japanese freighter on February 26th, 1945. Cobia completed her final combat cruise on August 22nd, 1945, returning to Saipan, from where she sailed after the war via Pearl Harbor, Washington, and New York to the New London Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut. There, she was decommissioned on May 22nd, 1946 and placed in a US Navy Atlantic Fleet storage facility. She returned to service on July 6th, 1951 as a training vessel for the development of US Navy reservists and students of the Naval Submarine School (NAVSUBSCOL) and the Naval Enlisted Sub School.

  On October 29th, 1953, she sailed for an overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. After the overhaul, she returned to New London and was placed back in storage on the 19th of March 1954.

  In 1959, the Navy deemed Cobia obsolete and transferred her to the Wisconsin Naval Reserve Center in Milwaukee, where she served as an auxiliary submarine under the designation AGSS-245 for the next eleven years as a stationary training base for US Navy reservists. Thanks to this, like many other preserved Gato and Balao Class submarines in the United States, she has survived to this day, as most of these preserved exhibits have completed their service in this role. A total of 58 of these training submarines for weekend exercises of US Navy reservists were anchored at various locations around the United States. They were stationary training ships and did not leave their points of anchor. They were used to practice the movement of the crews aboard ship and the operation of onboard weapons and systems and other similar naval activities. In the 1970s, they were decommissioned by the USN, and most of them were unfortunately scrapped. Some even more recently, like the USS Clamagore (SS 343, Balao Class), which was moored alongside the USS Yorktown at Patriot Point in Charleston, South Carolina, and was scrapped just last year.

  USS Cobia conning tower from portside.

  
  

  On July 1st, 1970, the Navy struck the Cobia from its Naval Registry. The submarine was towed to Manitowoc, where it served as International Submarine Memorial. In 1986, it became part of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum, was declared a National Historic Landmark, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

  In 1996, the USS Cobia underwent a major overhaul in dry dock for half a million dollars and is maintained in excellent condition, one of the best of the six preserved Gato-class submarines in the United States. Two of her four diesels are in operating condition, and has a functioning radio and radar. The latter being probably the oldest working radar in the world. True, the Reichenberg radar at the observatory in Ondřejov in the Czech Republic can compete with it in terms of age, but it is likely a few months newer, and it only serves as a passive receiver of radio waves from deep space. The SJ-1 radar on another museum Gato-class submarine, the USS Cod in Cleveland, Ohio, is also in working order.

   In addition to standard tours, you can pay for an overnight program with a sleepover on Cobia. It costs 50 dollars, there is no food, and you need to have your own sleeping bag. If you go for it, I wish you a nice experience. I missed this opportunity, and for me it is one of the reasons why I would like to return to Wisconsin and Manitowoc someday.

• Museum report - Box 4

  GERMAN SUBS IN THE GREAT LAKES

  U-505

   

  In addition to the museum's Gato-class submarines, you can find one unique vessel in the Great Lakes region that was also in US Navy possession at the end of its career, but hails from the dark side of the Second World War. It is the German submarine U-505, which is one of only two Type IXC U-Boats in the world that are currently preserved. The other is U-534 at the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool, UK.

  U-505 was launched on May 24th, 1941 and accepted into the Kriegsmarine on August 26th, 1941. On her twelfth combat cruise on June 4th, 1944, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Harald Lange, U-505 was discovered by Task Force 22.3, consisting of the aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal and the destroyers Pillsbury, Pope, Flaherty, Chatelain and Jenks, about 150 nautical miles west of the coast of Rio de Oro (Western Sahara). The submarine was attacked by the destroyers and by aircraft from the USS Guadalcanal. The submarine was damaged, surfaced, and her crew opened the floodgates and abandoned ship. TF 22.3 Commander Daniel V. Gallery ordered an eight-man team from the destroyer Piillsbury, led by Lt. Junior Grade Albert David, to board the submarine. While the destroyers Chattelain and Jenks rescued the submarine's crew, all but one of whom survived the battle, Lt. David's team closed the floodgates and stopped the submarine from sinking. The semi-submerged submarine was then towed 1,700 nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean by the aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal to Great Sound, Bermuda.

  U-505 connig tower with armament, a 3.7 cm SK C/30 anti-aircraft gun and two twin 2 cm FlaK 30 anti-aircraft guns.

  
  

  The capture of U-505 was not planned and was basically the result of actions taken by Captain Gallery. The submarine was examined in Bermuda by Navy technical teams, but its capture was kept a secret. The reason was the fear that if the enemy discovered that the submarine had been captured with the Enigma encryption device intact, they would change the codes used, making it impossible for the Allies to decipher German messages. These had already been successfully decoded by the previously captured Enigma machines from submarines U-110 in 1941 and U-559 in 1942. The crew of the submarine was therefore held in isolation in a prison camp in Ruston, Louisiana, until 1947, when all 58 crew members returned to Germany, where they were declared dead in 1944. As part of the secrecy, the submarine was painted like an American submarine and renamed the USS Nemo. It was not until after the end of the war in Europe that it was introduced to the public and included in the program to promote the sales of war bonds. During a tour of American ports, it visited New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and was stored at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine after the war. The Navy wanted to use it as a training target, but by then Rear Admiral Gallery was already fighting to save it. His brother, Father John Gallery, contacted Lenox Mohr, president of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and convinced him to have the museum negotiate with the Navy about donating the submarine to it. The long negotiations were ultimately successful, and the Navy did indeed donate the submarine to the museum in 1954.

  U-505 was towed to Chicago via the Great Lakes with a stop in Detroit in July, 1954, pulled ashore at Navy Pier and taken to the museum in a parade with great fanfare. It became part of the exhibition on September 25th, 1954. However, it was in no condition to serve as an exhibit, everything removable from the exterior and interior having been dismantled and most of the parts lost. The ship was placed in the museum yard for many years, exposed to the elements and gradually deteriorated. Nevertheless, its story has a happy ending, and fifty years after its arrival in Chicago, U-505 received a complete reconstruction and its own display pavilion. In 2004, it was moved to the foundations of a new air-conditioned building that was built around the submarine. The result of a long and demanding restoration, where the entire project cost a respectable 35 million dollars, the vessel is in absolutely mint condition and one of the most comprehensive and beautiful museum specimens dedicated to a single ship that can be found anywhere in the world.

   The first thing the visitor sees when entering the main hall of U-505 exhibit is the submarine's bow with the upper bow torpedo tubes open and the torpedo launched from the starboard upper bow torpedo tube. For many visitors, this creates a wow effect and the feeling that they are seeing the world's largest submarine, or at least the world's largest World War Second submarine. But that's just an illusion. The Gato-class submarines, which do not usually impress visitors in this way, were in fact nearly twenty metres longer than the Type IXC submarines. The Gato was 95 metres in length, while the Type IXC U-Boat measured 76.76 metres.

  
  

  UC-97

  U-505 was not the first German submarine to find itself in the Great Lakes. That honor goes to UC-97, a mine laying submarine launched in Hamburg in March, 1918. It was one of six German submarines acquired by the United States in early 1919. A group of twelve officers and 120 sailors, called the Ex-German Submarine Expeditionary Force, was sent to Europe to transport the submarines to the United States. Four of them sailed from Britain in April, 1919 and arrived in New York via the Azores and Bermuda. They were assigned to the Liberty Bonds campaign. UC-97, under the command of Lt. Commander Charles A. Lockwood, who later commanded the Pacific Fleet submarines during World War II (and thus the Manitowoc-built submarines as well), was sent to the Great Lakes region. She arrived in Chicago in August, 1919 and was assigned to the 9th Naval District. She was first moored at Navy Pier, then moved to the Chicago Lakefront near Grant Park.

  She served as a tourist attraction until 1921. Then the peace conference decided that all German ships in Allied possession would be destroyed by July 1st, 1921. UC-97 was towed to Lake Michigan, and on June 7th, 1921, she was sunk by a battery of four-inch guns from the gunboat USS Wilmette. The firing began at 11:45 a.m., with naval reservists taking turns at the guns. The first shot was fired by gunner J. O. Sabin of Iowa, and the eighteenth and final one, fifteen minutes later, by A. H. Anderson, the man who had fired the first American torpedo at a German submarine a few years earlier, during World War I. UC-97 sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan, where it rests to this day. Her sinking was ordered by none other than the acting Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

  The gunboat Wilmette was also a ship with an interesting fate. Originally built in 1903 as the cargo steamer SS Eastland, it was subsequently converted into a cruise ship. On July 24th, 1915, it was chartered by Western Electric to take its employees to a picnic venue in Michigan City, Indiana. Shortly after setting sail, while still in the dock on the Chicago River, the ship capsized and sank partially on its side to a depth of six meters (18 feet). The cause was a malfunction of the ballast tanks, which shifted the center of gravity of the ship upward and caused the ship to become unstable. A large number of the 3,000 passengers crowded onto the starboard side of the vessel to wave to their loved ones on the shore, then ran to the port side in an attempt to even out the list of the ship, but she capsized onto her port side. 844 people died in the disaster, of whom 220 were of Czech origin. Most of the Czech victims of this disaster are buried at the Czech National Cemetery in Chicago.

  The ship was raised and sold to the US Navy that same year, serving as USS Wilmette until the 1940s. In 1941, she was reclassified as auxiliary ship IX-29, and scrapped in 1947.

  The U-505 does not have a periscope installed in the tower. It is displayed separately in the exposition and allows visitors to try observing with the periscope. It's a bit of a cheat, there is no optics in the periscope, but a camera. But it doesn't matter. The periscope itself also has an interesting fate. After the war, the Navy dismantled it, like virtually all submarine equipment, and placed it at the Arctic Submarine Laboratory at Point Loma near San Diego, California. After the lab was closed and demolished in 2003, the US Navy donated the periscope to the museum, allowing it to be part of the exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.

• Museum report - Box 5

  SUBMARINES ON THE GREAT LAKES

  The USS Cobia is not the only submarine that can be found in the Great Lakes region. On the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Muskegon, Michigan, one of the most successful American submarines of World War II, the USS Silversides, has been docked since 1987. It is a ship with a very interesting history, as you can read by following the attached link. In its more recent history, the USS Silversides appeared in the 2002 horror production ‘Below’. It was towed onto Lake Michigan for the filming, where it was used to portray the fictional submarine USS Tiger Shark.

  In Buffalo, New York, on Lake Erie, the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park exhibits the USS Croaker, which in 1953 underwent modernization and conversion into an attack submarine (Hunter-Killer Submarine), designed to attack enemy subs.

  In as good a condition as the USS Cobia, if not even better, is the USS Cod, docked in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2021, its hull underwent a $1.1 million overhaul in dry dock at the Donjon Shipbuilding & Repair facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Cod is also interesting and authentic in that, as probably the only museum US Navy submarine, it does not have entrances cut into the hull with stairs installed for visitors, and is accessed through her original hatches and along the original ladders. I think this submarine is worth a visit for that alone. It also has all four of its diesel engines working, as well as a backup. They were manufactured at the General Motors Cleveland Diesel Engine Division in the west part of Cleveland. The museum also has two other GM Cleveland Model 16-248 V16 engines from the submarine USS Stingray. The Mark IV torpedo computer, J-5 radar, on-board telephone and on-board radio are also fully functional. The USS Cod, as does the Cobia, has an amateur radio set installed, which carries the call sign W8COD.

  USS Croaker [Naval History and Heritage Command] 

  The USS Cod is another of the museum specimens that have participated in filmmaking, and really quite a star among them. The USS Cod first appeared in the 1958 NBC series ‘The Silent Service’ in S2 E13 ‘The USS Cod's Lost Boarding Party’.

  In 2015, the USS Cod was used for exterior and interior filming for the Smithsonian Channel documentary ‘Hell Below’. The Cod played the role of the American submarine USS Tang and the German subs U-99 and U-100 in the film. The documentary aired in 2016.

  USS Cod [Naval History and Heritage Command]

  
  

  The USS Cod is also the subject of a two-part documentary on the ‘World of Warships’ YouTube channel, in the episode ‘Naval Legends: USS Cod’, released in July, 2019.

  The Cod again portrayed German U-boats in the 2022 Dolph Lundgren film ‘Operation Seawolf’.

  The USS Cavalla and the USS Drum then round out the listing of Gato Class submarines in the possession of museums. The USS Cavalla is displayed on land at Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas, home to another major attraction, the USS Steward, an Edsall Class escort destroyer. The park is named after the USS Seawolf, a Sargo Class sub, and features a number of other attractions.

  The USS Drum is part of the collection at the Battleship Alabama Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama. It is also mounted on-shore, somewhat to the side of the main exhibit, the massive battleship USS Alabama. The USS Alabama is one of the museum's ships that is kept in excellent condition and is worthy of a dedicated article in and of itself, which I hope will happen one day, so no spoilers here…

  USS Cavalla [Naval History and Heritage Command]

  
  

  LCT 5 and YO

  In addition to submarines, the shipyard also produced 36 LCT-5 landing craft, the production of which is the subject of one of the museum's exhibits. Nine LCTs built in Manitowoc were sunk in World War II. The shipyard also produced YO (self-propelled fuel oil barge) harbor cargo boats, used to supply ships in port with fuel and other materials.

  
  

  The SS EDMUND FITZGERALD 

  Perhaps the most famous shipping disaster on the Great Lakes occurred on Lake Superior on November 10th , 1975, when the 729-foot (222 m) iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, bound for Detroit, Michigan, broke up in extremely rough seas with 36-foot (11 m) waves and hurricane-force winds shortly after 7:00 p.m. She disappeared very quickly into the depths with all 29 on board, so quickly that no distress signal had been sent. The last radio message was sent by her captain Ernest M. McSorely at 7:10 pm, and read ‘We are holding our own’. The broken wreckage was found by a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion reconnaissance aircraft four days later, on November 14th, in Canadian waters, thirteen nautical miles (24 km) west of Deadman's Cave, Ontario, and fifteen nautical miles northwest of the entrance to Whitefish Bay. The disaster led to significant changes in the regulations of shipping on the Great Lakes, including mandatory lifesaving equipment and inspections of vessels, and became a part of popular culture through the 1976 folk anthem ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot.

  SS Edmund Fitzgerald [Great Lakes Historical Society]

• Museum report - box 6

  THE IRON TRANSPORTATION

  One of the museum's exhibits is dedicated to models of ships associated with the Great Lakes. A model of a loading dock for transferring iron ore from trains of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad to cargo ships, called self-unloading bulk carriers of the American Steamship Company, is an example of the fascinating industrial history of the American Midwest, now known as the Rust Belt. Operations on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad line and the loading docks in Escanaba were discontinued in August 2016, ending a 165-year history of transporting cargo from ports in northern Michigan south to Chicago and further to the industrial regions of Illinois and Indiana.

  Model of a pier for transferring iron ore from Chicago & Northwestern Railroads trains to American Steamship Company freighters at Escanaba, in northern Michigan.

  The model of the iron ore freighter,  called the self-unloader SS Adam E.  Cornelius

• Interview

  
  

  Flying with the Bloody Hundredth

  John H. “Lucky” Luckadoo Interview by Matt Mabe

   

  Photos: John H. Luckadoo, 100th BG Archives, title artwork by: Piotr Forkasiewicz, Squadron Signal

   

   

  MATT

  Well Lucky I'll thank you again for taking a few minutes to talk with us. It is a rare honor and a privilege to get to talk with you and learn more about your time in the 100th Bomb Group. I know you have a lot of unique experiences to share, having been there during some of the early days of the group. But I'll start back at the beginning, where it started for you, and that you joined the US Army Air Forces shortly after Pearl Harbor, and I was wondering if you could talk a bit about what it was like to train as an aviation cadet?

  Lucky Luckadoo & Matt Mabe.

  
  

  LUCKY

  Sure. Well, I joined up almost immediately following Pearl Harbor. The Army Air Forces had a tremendous influx of personnel and as a result when I joined the aviation cadets, they accepted me, but put me on leave and said ‘Well we'll call you when we can put you into the pipeline’. So they did and I actually joined up… I think my date of enlistment is sometime in January of 42 and in March they notified me that I would be sent to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama for my pre-flight. And I reported there on the 1st of May. One of the first things they did was … there were four thousand cadets and they marched us out to a parade ground and selected a few of us to, I guess try out to be appointed as the wing adjutant. And the tryout was to stand in the middle of the field and scream as loud as you could ‘pass in review’. I won. So, I guess maybe my hard-calling days back in Tennessee came into play there. I don't know, but I was fortunate enough to have been selected as the Wing Adjutant, who was actually the second in command of the cadet corps of that class. And this was to prove later on to be a distinct advantage to me and I'll tell you about that in a moment. But the commander of the regiment, the cadet who was selected, was a young man by the name of Bert Shaber. He was not very tall, not very impressive at all, rather quiet guy, but he was selected as the cadet commander of the entire 4 000 cadet corps, all the way through flying training, and I didn't see him because once we finished our pre-flight training, which was nine weeks, we were divided up into groups of about 100 and sent out to various air bases for our primary training. I was sent to Avon Park, Florida, learned to fly the PT-17, the Stearman Cadet and it was, I guess, sort of automatically - because I'd been a Cadet Officer in pre-flight, I was designated as the cadet captain of my class.

   Lt. John H. Luckadoo

  Graduating from primary, I was sent to Shaw Field in Sumter, South Carolina, for my basic training and that was a big step up because from a biplane of 225 horsepower we were thrown into a bulky vibrator, a BT-13 which was 450 horsepower and quite a bit larger low wing airplane with retractable gear and flaps and a lot of other things, that we had to learn how to operate. You were allowed 12 hours of dual training and if you were unable to solo at the end of that 12 hours, you were washed out. Well, I was having difficulty really mastering that big leap up from the primary trainer to the basic trainer. I was a Cadet Captain of my class there as well and had a military officer, a second lieutenant Wes Poynter, who was my instructor, and he was not able to really instruct me. He could fly the airplane himself, but he certainly wasn't imparting any instruction to me as to how to handle the aircraft. And I was on the verge of the brink of actually being washed out and I think the fact that I was the cadet captain of the class gave them some second thoughts because I learned later that a civilian instructor had heard about the fact that I was about to be washed out and he said ‘Well it's going to be a bad morale factor if the captain of class gets washed out, so let me take him for 30 minutes and if I can't solo him then you can wash him out’. So he approached me and told me to go out and get in an airplane and he got in the back seat. We flew out to an auxiliary field, landed and he got out on the wing, and he said  -I'm getting ahead of myself, he'd taken me up and really run the airplane out. He showed me how to stall, how to recover from stalls, and how to loop it, and he had over 6,000 hours in the airplane so he was really able to make it do anything he wanted to, and he could fly the airplane. 

  
  

  And he taught me more in that 30 minutes than I'd learned in 10 hours of instruction from that lieutenant. So he climbed out on the wing of the plane and he said  ‘Now Luckadoo, if you can take this airplane off and fly it around the pattern and land it three times while I go over and sit under that tree and smoke a cigarette, you pass’. So, he gets out and goes over and sits under the tree and I very gingerly take the thing off and fly around the pattern and make three landings. I don't recall how good they were or bad, but at any rate he comes back and gets in the airplane he says ‘let's go back to the base’. So, we fly back to the base and he gets out and starts walking into the ready room and turns around and just gives me a thumbs up. So that's how I kept from being washed out in the middle of my training. I was very grateful to him because he really saved my neck. I went ahead and completed basic and then was sent down to Valdosta, Georgia, for advanced training on twin engines. When I got to Valdosta, they also had a contingent of single engine pilots, who were going to be fighter pilots, on the same base, going through at the same time, and Bert Shaber was the captain of the single engine class, and I was the captain of the twin engine class. Well, at graduation in February of 43 he was not in attendance. That puzzled me greatly. But I was so glad to have gotten my wings and my commission that I didn't think a whole lot about it. Only to find out some months later that they had discovered while he was going through training that he was a German plant and they allowed him to get all the way through to graduation before they lowered the boom on him. But he had immigrated with his family at 15 from Germany, Schaber was a German name of course and that sort of, I guess, caused some suspicions to cause to start with, but anyway it was quite a shock and a surprise to learn that that he was a mole and so he didn't graduate with us. But as you know, upon graduation, 40 of my classmates from twin engine flight school and I were sent to Kearney, Nebraska, to join the 100th Bomb Group, immediately out of flying school. And we were of course designed as co-pilots to replace all of the co-pilots in the group. Now that was one of the most mysterious things to happen I think during World War II, as to why in the world, just before the group was about to be sent overseas, would they suddenly remove all the co-pilots and replace us, replace them with us, newly admitted pilots who'd never been in a B-17. Heck we'd never seen anything as large as a four-engine airplane in our lives and here we were stuck in the right-hand seat second in command of a 10-man crew to learn how to fly B-17s not with any combat instruction but only from the pilot we were assigned to. And that was an extremely hazardous and unfortunate thing to have had occur. So far as we've been able to determine, it didn't happen in any other group. And why it happened to the Hundredth Group is still to this day unknown.

   Lucky during the basic training.

  
  

  MATT

  That's definitely an interesting way of coming into the Hundredth. And one thing I find so fascinating - you know we watch movies these days and the people portraying World War II veterans are probably in their 30s in real life, but you guys, you were in your early 20s and I know in your case if my math is right you were 21 as a Second Lieutenant when you started flying combat missions in 1943. And I was wondering if you could tell us a bit about the weight on your shoulders as a pilot, but also a leader within the crew.

   

  LUCKY

  Well, I will mention of course that, as replacement co-pilots, we were not always welcomed by the crews that we were assigned to. It so happened that in the crew that I was assigned to, the navigator and the bombardier were very fond of their co-pilot. They buddied with him and hung out with him, and they were crestfallen when he was removed. And they proceeded to make my life hell, because they resented the fact, that I didn't know anything about the B-17 and I was thrust into their crew, forced down their throats and so they were really pretty resentful and hurt by this move. And it was sort of juvenile on their part to make my life miserable because, after all, I was second in command of the crew and if anything incapacitated the pilot I was to take over. 

  Page from John H. Luckadoo's photo album – the crew of Lt. Glenn W. Dye after completing 25 missions, September 1943. ‘Lucky’ stands on the far right, with pilot Lt. Dye next to him, followed by Squadron Leader Ollie Turner.

  
  

  And sure enough that happened when we hit Newfoundland enroute to our overseas base. I don't know whether you're aware or not but when we got to Newfoundland we had to await the tailwind or well we couldn't make it all the way to Scotland, even with our additional fuel tanks and carrying extra fuel in the bomb bays. While we were waiting, the pilot I was assigned to, misbehaved and went across the base one night, while we were cooling our heels waiting in the winds to be favorable, and managed to get himself involved with a British WAAF, that infected him and he got thrown in the hospital with a raging case of VD. And the whole group proceeded to combat while we sat there for two additional weeks, waiting for him to recover. And then it became pretty obvious to this navigator and bombardier, that had been so hostile to me and hadn't really welcomed me into the to the fraternity of the crew, that I was going to have to fly the airplane because when he was finally released after having been treated with sulfa, which was the only thing that they had in those days, he was so weak, he couldn't stand up and they actually had to load him into the airplane and he said ‘Well Lucky you're going to have to fly but I'll monitor the engines and the instruments and help you as much as I can’, but he was so weak, he could hardly talk, much less walk or function. And we took off. Before we did, I called the navigator and bombardier and I said ‘You guys have made my life miserable but you've now got to depend on me to get us to combat’ and I pointed to the navigator and I said ‘Now you little so-and-so, if you don't hit landfall on the nose I'm personally going to throw your butt out of the airplane without a parachute’. So that leveled the playing field, and from then on, things were a little bit more comfortable among us. But sure enough, he was a good navigator and he did hit the landfall on the nose and so we got the combat. But as you probably are aware when the group arrived in England, our base at Thorpe Abbotts was not completed and they were sent instead of to Thorpe Abbotts to Podington, where they stayed for several days and then, by the time we arrived two weeks later, they had moved into Thorpe Abbotts and we flew directly from Prestwick to Thorpe Abbotts and joined the group. But they had already been on some practice missions, hadn't flown combat as yet, because we flew the first combat missions that the 100th flew. And because of the embarrassment of his escapade at Newfoundland I think my pilot was determined that he was going to redeem himself by completing a tour as rapidly as possible and getting back home to his family, which he did, as you probably are aware, he ended as the first pilot in the 100th Bomb Group to complete a 25 mission tour.

   AAF Station No. 139 Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolkshire, England. Home of the 100th Bombardment (H) Group, 1943 - 1945

  
  

  MATT

  It's definitely an interesting turn of events that got you guys there and put you in the captain's chair early. That's interesting. I know one thing we had talked about before, I mentioned to you my interest in the topic of leadership and you mentioned that you had a lot of admiration and respect for Jack Kidd as a leader. And I know he often faced a lot of tough times in that leadership position in 100th and I was wondering if you could elaborate on what it was you respected about Jack Kidd as a leader.

   

  LUCKY

  Sure, we met a lot of people, different people of different characteristics and different abilities in the service. And some you learned to have some respect for and others you didn't. When the group went to England, originally Jack Kidd was the Commander of the 351st Squadron and in route he was relieved and designated as the Group Operations Officer and Ollie Turner succeeded him as the Squadron Commander of the 351st which we were assigned to. It was not long afterwards that I became aware of a Major Kidd's tremendous talent, because he functioned as the group operations officer in an exemplary fashion by not only handling the personnel matters of the various crews and Squadron Commanders, he was responsible for appointing those as well, but also as an air leader, because he took on the worst missions that we flew.

   B-17F-120-BO 42-30796, Capt. Glenn W. Dye crew, 351st BS, 100th BG, Thorpe Abbotts,

  United Kingdom, September 1943

  Eduard kit No. 11183

  
  

  He flew to Regensburg, he flew to Bremen… he flew to … on all of the worst missions and of course the one to Bremen, which turned out to be my worst mission, and his as well. He was flying with the 418th, with Ev Blakely and led that mission. And I also observed, that from a leadership standpoint he was highly regarded by the commanding officer who was then Chick Harding, but also very much respected by General LeMay, when he came down from 3rd Division. So, in retrospect I think that probably he was deserving and should have been promoted to a group command or even higher during his combat experience. He was calm, cool and collected. And I know how he functioned from Harry Crosby's account of flying with him, particularly on that Bremen mission, where they lost two engines and crash landed in back in England, barely making it back. But their crew went through a very traumatic experience of being shot out of the formation on the bomb run, and how he handled himself under those conditions and handled the crew, and how highly they regarded him and respected him. It certainly embellished my opinion of him… But I think, my greatest respect for him came after my original crew had finished up and I flew the Bremen mission, which was my first mission after they left. Ollie Turner came to me one night while I was in the officers’ club and tapped me on the shoulder and told me to go get some sleep because I was flying the next day. I should add, that when I got back from the Bremen mission on October the 8th 43, because the lead ship in my squadron, which was the low squadron, consisting of Tom Murphy and Al Barker, Barker was the operations officer for the 351st and I was leading the second element of the low squadron with a brand new crew I'd never flown with before of course, but when I landed, because I had seen Tom Murphy's plane explode and reported that I didn't think there were any survivors... when Turner met me on landing, I was still a Second Lieutenant and he immediately appointed me to replace Barker as the operations officer for the 351st Squadron. Well, I told him that that was an awkward, he was putting me in an awkward position, because as the Second Lieutenant I would be ordering Captains and Majors and crew members around as to where they would fly in the formation and whether they would fly or not and he said ‘Don't worry about it, we'll promote you as rapidly as possible’ and I'd already been put in for my First Lieutenancy and it did come through at the end of that month. But the following month, the end of November, I had one more mission to fly. I had 24 missions under my belt, and I was in the officers club one evening, and Turner walked up to me, walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder and he said ‘Lucky you could better go get some sleep because you're flying tomorrow.’ And I said ‘well, how so?’ and he said ‘well, we're leading the group and I want you to fly as command pilot.’ And he named the crew, and I don't recall exactly who that was, but at any rate I said ‘Well Ollie if we're leading the group you ought to be flying and it's your responsibility’ he said ‘I know but I want you to take this mission.’ So I didn't think any more about it, went to bed and then got up the next morning and went to briefing and discovered that something was up, because here came General LeMay and he had never been to our group at a briefing before, and he got up on the stage and said ‘Gentlemen I have to tell you that I’ve waited my entire military career to flying a mission like this, but General Arnold has forbidden me from leading or getting in an airplane today or he'll court-martial me’. But he says ‘In all honesty I have to tell you that if we only get one plane over the target, we'll consider this mission a success’. Well, they pulled back the curtain and it was a straight line to Berlin and that would have been the initial daylight bombing raid of Berlin by the Eighth Air Force. He said ‘The Hundredth is the only group going and instead of bombing at the usual altitude of 25 to 29,000 feet because the meteorologist says we've got a solid cloud cover over all of Europe up to ten thousand feet, we want you to go in at 12,000 and when you turn on the initial point, start on your bomb run, you dive through the clouds and break out at 6,000 feet over Berlin at high noon in broad daylight and bomb the Reichstag’.

  Well, I looked across the room at Turner and gave him the finger and after the briefing I looked him up and I said ‘You yellow son of a gun, you knew what this mission was, and you put me in this position, when you're supposed to fly it. But,’ I said ‘I'm gonna come back from it and when I do, if I see your ugly face, I'll kill you’. Of course that was rank insubordination, but if he court-martialed me he had to fly the mission so he didn't open his mouth. We took off and climbed up and formed up and got to the enemy coast … and they scrubbed the mission. So, we came back and landed and I no sooner got out of the airplane and I went straight to Jack Kidd and explained to him what had happened and I said ‘I cannot serve under Ollie Turner one more minute. Please give me a transfer.’ And he said ‘Well I can't blame you Lucky, but it so happens I need an Operations Officer over in Bucky Elton’s squadron, in the 350th, would you take that job?’

  And I said ‘I'm on my way.’ So I moved out of the 351st, and of course thanked Jack Kidd for his consideration and reassignment, and had even more respect for him than I already had. That was a good example of how and why I held him in such high regard. He was an exemplary officer. Of course, as you probably are aware, he stayed in the Air Force and was later a Major General. But he also became a rabid anti-war zealot and he used to make lectures constantly about how feudal war was and how useless it was there weren't any victors, they were only victims.

   John Luckadoo and William DeSanders after completing their combat tours on February 13, 1944, with the B-17G Alice from Dallas II.

  
  

  MATT

  I can definitely understand from that, you know the vignettes you shared, why you had a lot of respect for Jack Kidd. I know it was a success in itself to get back from just a single mission but you're one of the lucky few that survived 25 missions and you did it early in the war as well. I don't know how much you recall about your last mission in February 44, but I was wondering if you'd talk a little bit about the sheer feeling of relief and what it was like on that last mission you flew.

  
  

  LUCKY

  I had served for about three months as Bucky Elton's Operations Officer in the 350th with one mission still to fly. And Bucky got sent to the rest home, the flak house, and he was off the base and this mission came up in mid-February of 44, that I certainly wanted to complete my missions and live through it, and so did Bill Desanders. Bill was a lead pilot in the 350th and I knew him pretty well and I said ‘Bill you've got one to fly and so do I, and this is it’. It was what we called a no ball target. We thought it would be a milk run because we were tasked to bomb V2 rocket bases right on the shore on the coast of France and we thought we would just duck in and drop our bombs and scoot home and that would be it. As it turned out the Germans were alerted to us and they came halfway across the channel to meet us and shot us up pretty well. But we did manage to strike our targets and get back. And of course, it was such a tremendous release to finally realize that we had survived a 25 mission tour, because so darn few of the members did, particularly of the original group and DeSanders was also of the original group as well.

  Citation for the Distinguished Flying Cross awarded to Capt. Luckadoo after completing his combat tour.

  
  

  The relief and the realization that we'd been lucky enough to complete our tour, it was just indescribable, it was like lifting a heavy load off your shoulders, because psyching yourself up to get back in that airplane particularly after a rough dose was a difficult thing to do. And I get asked frequently how we did it and I have to confess, I don't actually know. We've had to stay focused on our job and that was what we were sent there to do, and we intended to complete it as best we could and we did, but it was just a matter of dumb luck as to whether or not you managed to do it. In those days it particularly was. Initially we had no fighter escort to protect us and we were going out in broad daylight and of course we were completely ignorant of the fact that the British were adamant against daylight bombing. They tried it and had been cut to ribbons by the Luftwaffe. And they begged General Eaker, the Commander of the Eighth Air Force, to abandon daylight bombing altogether and join them in just nighttime bombing. Eaker wouldn't do it and so Arthur “Bomber” Harris, the head of the RAF bomber force, prevailed upon Churchill to try to convince president Roosevelt to order us to stop daylight bombing. And President Roosevelt said no, he had faith in his Air Force commanders knowing what they were doing and he refused. So we kept going out every day we could and the British kept bombing at night. So, it was sort of round the clock harassment of the of the Third Reich. And I think that was effective. I have some misgivings about the fact that Eaker even refused to give nighttime bombing a fair trial. I'm not saying that that it was superior to daylight bombing but certainly from high altitude we had our difficulties because of the tremendous cold and the difficulty of functioning at high altitude, where the British were going in at 12 to 15, 000 feet at night and they weren't enduring anything like those difficult conditions, but it was a different type of flying and it wouldn't have involved a formation flying either, which we prided ourselves on and felt like we could offer some mutual protection for other people in the formation. And I think to a degree that was valid and it did work out that way, but the Luftwaffe was so experienced, and they were so practiced and had such good equipment and excellent training, that they inflicted horrific damage on us because they developed new and better techniques of how to approach us and at least damages enough either with anti-aircraft or with fighter fire, to force us out of the formation. And then, if you're out by yourself, while you're a sitting duck, and that's when they picked us off at leisure.

   On the 100th BG Reunion, Savannah, GA, 2023

  
  

  MATT

  I'm amazed by all the stories I hear about how difficult it was at the times to make it back from missions but there's just an incredible amount of courage and bravery that you hear when it comes to some of these guys who against all odds managed a crippled B-17 back. There are incredible stories of bravery but it's an incredible airplane as well. And I know you've spoken about your love of the B-17. And you had a unique experience back in 2013, I know, you were able to take the helm of a B-17 once again. 70-plus years after the war and I was wondering what was itlike to get back in the cockpit in the air of a B-17 for you.

   

  LUCKY

  Well Matt, I tried for three years to get somebody to let me prove that a 92 year old guy could still handle the B-17 and when I got down to the final analysis there was always some reason that they wouldn't allow them to do that.

  But when we went to Savannah for our Reunion in 2013, Mike Faley called me and said that they were going to make this documentary called 'Masters of the Air' about the 100th Bomb Group and the author of the book, Donald Miller, wanted to interview me if I would come to Savannah. And I was not at that time attending very many reunions. I was sort of disappointed in those that I did attend because there were so few people that I knew. Nearly all of the people that I encountered at the reunions of course were people that came in and flew after I did, and literally flew a different war, a different time period, and had different opposition and different experiences than I did. But there were so few of the original group particularly that were still alive, that it was rather disappointing. 

  Lucky and 100th Bomb Group historian Michael P. Faley visiting Thorpe Abbotts.

  
  

  So I wasn't attending many reunions. But Mike prevailed me to come and be interviewed and he said ‘If you do, we're bringing in The [movie] Memphis Belle and we'll give you a ride’, and I said ‘Mike, I don't want to ride on The Memphis Belle, I want to fly it’, and there was this dead silence on the other end of the line. Finally he said ‘Okay we'll let you do that’ and I said ‘Now look I don't want to get there and get disappointed, and I've been disappointed before and I don't want that to happen’, and he said ‘Well don't worry about it, you've got my word we'll let you fly it’ and so I showed up with my wife at Savannah and they booked me for my interview with Donald Miller on a Friday. I set up the flight for 11:15 on a Saturday morning at the airport. I was to be interviewed Friday afternoon late and they just postponed it to Friday night and I said ‘Look, I don't give a damn, I'm going to fly that airplane, I'm going to be at the airport at 11:15. I don't care whether I do the interview or not’. They kept delaying it and sure enough because Miller was running behind and his interviews were running over time and eventually they scheduled me for Saturday afternoon to be interviewed. But I said ‘That's good enough, I'm going to be at the airport at 11:15, so I darn sure was there’. And there were six of us that they took up on that flight. We took off and as soon as we got in the air, the pilot gets out of his seat, he says ‘Lucky it's yours’. I said ‘You mean it?’, he said ‘Absolutely’. 

  At the premiere of Masters of the Air in January 2024. From left to right: Henry Cervantes (349th BS), Steven Spielberg, John H. Luckadoo (351st, 350th BS), Robert H. Wolf (418th BS), and James R. Rasmussen (349th BS).

  
  

  So, I sat down and everything came back just like riding a bicycle. The old sensations, the feel, the responses of the airplane, and I loved flying the B-17. I thought it was the most graceful thing for a four-engine bomber to be as beautifully designed as it was and, of course, I had a healthy respect for its structural integrity to withstand the sort of battle damage, that I sustained on many of my missions and still got home. So, one of the first things I did, when I did get back, was to go buy some Boeing stock because I appreciated the integrity of their product, so that I thought I'd put in with them. But it was such a thrill to really get the sensations and feel the responses of the airplane and, I guess, the most pleasant thing was that I wasn't being shot at while I was doing it. But I flew it for about 30 minutes all around Savannah and was extremely grateful for that privilege, because it was a privilege. They wouldn't let me land it or take it off because that was ‘verboten’ but at least just getting my hands on the controls and feeling it again was, as I described it, a 'pants wetter', it was a real thrill… 

  In cockpit of a B-17G – The Mighty Eight National Museum, Savannah, 2023

  
  

  The mission of the 100th Bomb Group Foundation is to preserve and disseminate first-hand historical accounts of the men, missions, and machines that fought in the skies over Europe during WWII. Contacts:

  
  

  - www.100thbg.com 

  - www.facebook.com/100thBGFoundation 

  - www.instagram.com/100thbgf

  
  

  100th BG® and Bloody Hundredth® are registered trademarks of the 100th Bomb Group Foundation, Inc. Century Bombers, the square D logo, and 100th Bomb Group Foundation logo, amongst other marks, are trademarks of the 100th Bomb Group Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved

   

  More about the 100th Bomb Group history can be found in the Info Eduard magazine, special issue The Bloody Hundredth 1943, June 2024 release.

  info.eduard.com/en/06-2024-special-en

• Warning shots

   WARNING SHOTS November / December 2024

   Text: Marian Cihoň

  
  

  F-35C 1/48 Tamiya

   When Tamiya presented the F-35A Lightning II in 1/48 scale at the 60th annual Hobby World in 2022, there was a bit of an expectation that we’d see the F-35B version in the future, despite other manufacturers having offered both the A and B versions for some time. The reason is simple—the Japanese Self-Defense Forces use both variants. And exactly one year later, this expectation was met.

   The release of the F-35C was less certain, as the substantial structural differences would require an almost entirely new model, with minimal shared parts. Fortunately, the manufacturer left nothing to chance and seized the opportunity to release this third variant, complete with features like pre-cut RAM masks, fully mechanized wings with an option to build them in the folded position, an extended aerial refueling probe, an open weapon bay, and a wide array of the ordnance. We can expect this model by December of this year. (MC)

   

  Z-37A 1/32 Hph

   Had someone told me a few years ago that we’d be building planes like the Z-126/226/526, commonly seen in the Eastern Bloc flying clubs, I wouldn’t have believed it. But to have the Z-37 on the market in three different scales—luxury that even some popular WWII designs don’t receive—was beyond my imagination.

   The latest addition to the “Čmelák” family is a 1/32 scale model from the Czech manufacturer Hph. This model is primarily resin, complemented by 3D-printed details, machined landing gear struts, and photo etched parts. A universal decal sheet allows for building of the most Czech/Czechoslovak and East German markings. (MC)

   

  PZL M18B Dromader 1/48, IBG Models

   To add even more crop-dusting aircraft to the mix, Polish company IBG Models, in collaboration with Greek Grand Models, is introducing the PZL M18B Dromader. This marks IBG Models’ debut in the 1/48 scale. By 2025 both single- and two-seat versions of the Dromader will be release in crop-dusting, firefighting, or military aircraft sub-types.

   But this won’t be the end of the Dromaders. Fans of the type can also look forward to a 1/72 scale model, this time from Answer Plastic Kits. (MC)

   

  
  

  B-26B Marauder “Flak-Bait” 1/48 ICM

   202 combat missions over Nazi Germany and over 1,000 hits—this is the legendary “Flak Bait,” the B-26B-25-MA Marauder, which earned its fame and resilience with the 449th Bombardment Squadron, 332nd Bombardment Group, and has now been released as a second boxing by the Ukrainian company ICM. The actual aircraft, which this model is based on, is displayed in the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC. The manufacturer plans to launch the sales as of November 18, 2024. (MC)

   

  
  

  PBJ-1J and A-20B/C Early 1/48 HK Models

   HK Models continues downsizing their Havoc and Mitchell lines, now with the Marine Corps special editions announced in Tokyo: the PBJ-1J and early-series of A-20B/C Boston. While the PBJ-1J is expected to be similar to the B-25J release that’s been available for three years—a repackaging with minor adjustments—the smaller A-20 is an entirely new kit, though the manufacturer has only shown the test sprues so far. The PBJ-1J is scheduled to be available for the Christmas market, with the A-20 likely arriving in 2025. (MC)

   

  A6M5 Zero 1/48 Fine Molds

   Japanese Zeros have recently flooded the market, with Fine Molds now releasing the A6M5. Known for high-quality sprues and unique engineering Fine Molds maintains its reputation with this Zero, featuring a multi-part canopy and an unconventional, verttically split fuselage. The kit offers two canopy options: single piece one and multi-piece one consisting of the frame and individual glass sections. The fuselage division is based on the actual aircraft’s design. These unique design choices bring specific challenges both in molding and assembly. Fine Molds will offer two boxings representing A6M5 built by Mitsubishi as well as Nakajima factories. (MC)

   

  A6M2 1/35 Border Model

   To add even more Zeros, Border Model from China is releasing their A6M2 Zero in the unusual 1/35 military scale. The Zero will come in two kits: a standalone model of the Okinawa 1945 A6M2 and a diorama kit with part of the Akagi carrier’s deck and bridge from around 1942.

   

  He-111 H-6 1/35 Border Model

   In addition to the Zero, Border Model’s test sprues of the German Heinkel He-111 medium bomber have drawn attention. The kit features detailed paneling with both raised and recessed rivets and stressed skin effect on the fuselage and wings. This feature wasn’t obvious from the initial 3D renders, making it an exciting discovery for modelers who enjoy intricate surface work. (MC)

   

  Nieuport XI 1/32 Copper State Models

   Copper State Models has pleased WWI aviation fans with test sprues of their injected Nieuport XI model, available in at least two editions—Early and Late. The kit includes a range of 3D-printed accessories, such as the Le Rhone 9C engine, wheels, map holder, ammo storage, carburetor intake, seat backrest, and cockpit instruments. (MC)

   

  Fokker D.VII 1/32 Gothaforce

   A newcomer to the scale model market, Gothaforce, has announced a fully 3D-printed Fokker D.VII model at the 2024 Scale Model Challenge in Eindhoven, Netherlands, showcasing its high-quality prints and intricate details. The kit will feature seven attractive camo schemes dedicated to WWI German pilots like Ernst Udet, Walter Blume, and Wilhelm Leusch. However, the premium nature of this non-injected model comes with a hefty price tag of around 250 Euros / 6500 Czech crowns, which may discourage some potential buyers. (MC)

   

   Bloch MB 210 1/72 Special Hobby / Azur-Frrom

   The collaboration between French company Azur-Frrom and Czech manufacturer Special Hobby brings the new 1/72 scale Bloch MB 210 bomber. This elegant successor to the historically popular MB 200 will offer three camouflage schemes for French aircraft, along with several photo-etched parts and 3D-printed exhausts. (MC)

   

  Stinson L-5 Sentinel 1/48 Sword

   After Special Hobby's successful release of the iconic L-4 Grasshopper liaison and training plane, Czech manufacturer Sword Models is launching the second most significant plane of this category and class, L-5 Sentinel. This quality short-run model will come in two versions: L-5A/OY-1/Sentinel Mk.I and L-5B/OY-2/Sentinel Mk.II. More details are yet to be announced. (MC)

   

  Hercules 1/144 GWH

   Shanghai-based Great Wall Hobby usually focused on 1/48 scale aircraft, has turned to large airplanes in 1/144 scale. Following the B-52G and British V-bombers (Victor, Valiant, and Vulcan), modelers will now be able to build a C-130H Hercules. Despite the small scale, this model includes intricate details such as fully equipped cargo bay, with options for an open rear ramp or side doors. Builders can create a version with four-bladed propellers (as operated by Japanese Self-Defense Air Force) or with the newer, eight-bladed propellers used by the USAF. (MC)

   

  Lancia Stratos 1/12 Italeri

   As usual, modelers treat themselves to holiday gifts, and this year’s selection from Tamiya and Italeri presents an opportunity. In addition to the re-release of the Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16v Sanremo 1989, Italeri introduces a completely new kit of another legend, the Lancia Stratos HF Gr.4 Montecarlo 1977 in 1/12 scale. The kit features a full interior, open hood, and detailed engine compartment. (MC)

   

  Porsche GT3 RS 1/24 Tamiya

  For those with less space, Tamiya offers the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS 992 in 1/24 scale. (MC)

   

  MiG-29AS Tiger on Tail 1/72 GWH

   The fans of the Slovak Air Force will appreciate the release of the MiG-29A in the digital camouflage with a tiger head design on the tail fins. This special issue called „Digital Camouflage Tiger on Tail, 2014/2015 Special Painting“, will be available in the 1/72 scale. (MC)

   

  PZL TS-8 Bies 1/72 Answer Plastic Kits

   The "holy trinity" for Polish modelers—Iskra, Wilga, and Bies—is now complete with the 1/72 scale TS-8 Bies from Answer Plastic Kits. Initially released in two versions—one representing the Indonesian Air Force and one from the first production run from WSK Okęcie—the lineup will expand by the end of October with two more options: a standard military BII and models used in film with attractive schemes featuring red stars or crosses. As in previous releases, the kit includes gray plastic sprues, photo-etched side panels, and 3D-printed parts. Modelers can enhance their Bies builds further with pre-painted etched instrument panels from Yahu. Answer also plans a 1/48 scale version in the near future. (MC)

   

  P-40E 1/48 Eduard

   If you've been keeping up with Eduard, you know it's time to start building those stashed kits from Mauve, Arii, and especially Hasegawa, because a new P-40 is coming early next year. Eduard is finalizing the molds, which are almost complete, and production is starting. Pre-orders will open in November, with the Royal Class edition launching first. For those interested in seeing the initial test sprues, they’ll be on display on November 30th at Plastic Winter in Bratislava. (MC)

   

  Ammo Lock’N Load Watercolor Pencils

   There can never be enough model accessories and weathering products, and Mig Jimenez’s team is keeping up with the demand. Their latest release is a set of 12 watercolor pencils designed to depict dirt, dust, rust, and other weathering effects. Unlike competing products, these pencils can be re-filled, working much like the classic mechanical pencils. (MC)

    

  P-40E 1/48 Eduard for the Second Time!

  The Eduard P-40E in 1/48 scale is nearing the completion really fast and I would like to share with the readers a behind-the-scenes look at the work on its finalization. Last week, we had the first mold on the press and tested the first frame. The test exceeded the expectations, and almost all the parts were successfully cast in the first attempts. The introduction of 3D scanning technology, and subsequent comparison of the scans with 3D rendering of the molds helped us immensely to fine-tune the new molds. The coming weeks at Eduard's tool shop will be focused on completing the whole set of P-40 molds!

  Simultaneously, we are also working on all the detail sets. We approached the design of the engine from the Brassin series differently than in previous projects and decided to depict it fully open, including the radiator below the engine block. The entire engine assembly will be produced using 3D printing technology, as it has become a standard lately. We are also working on the two versions of the wheel wells. The reason for it is that they were mostly covered with fabric which could be removed. In this manner the modelers will be able to choose how they want to depict the bays. We are also working on the radio, weapon bays, cockpit, different types of wheels, exhausts, and seats with integrated 3D-printed harnesses that are very popular among modelers. Photo-etched flaps and the SPACE set will also be available as a standard. In short, the coming months at Eduard will be dedicated to the P-40, and it is sure to be quite a ride! (JN)

   

   

  Spitfire Mk.Vb 1/32 Kotare Models

   The Australians from WingNu...ehm, Kotare, have already won over modelers with their very well-crafted Spitfire Mk.Ia model. The arrangement of parts in the sprues suggested that they wouldn’t stop at just one version. This has been confirmed, and modelers can now pre-order the latest Spitfire kit, this time in the Mk.Vb version. In addition to 141 gray plastic parts, 38 of which are entirely new compared to the Mk.I, the kit will include exhaust prints for this type and a poster by the box art's creator. Builders will have the option to choose from three camouflage schemes – RAF, USAAF, and a Polish aircraft.

  
  

  Bf 109K-4 1/32 Kotare Models

   Since neither manufacturers nor modelers live by Spitfires alone, Kotare’s next full-fledged new release will be none other than a classic bestseller – the Bf 109K-4. While modelers have never lacked Kurfürsts, the Hasegawa version has been around for quite a while, and Trumpeter’s version isn’t without flaws either. With Kotare, we should expect a well-crafted rendition – the K-4 is in the final stages of 3D modeling, and the kit should hit the market by middle of the next year. 

  
  

   Aichi D3A2 Val 1/48 Wingsy Kits

   Japanese aircraft are no strangers to Ukraine's Wingsy Kits. However, according to Vitaliy, the Aichi Val wasn’t a project he jumped into as enthusiastically as Japanese pilots once dove onto the American ships in the Pacific. Yet, customer demand prevailed, and even the challenging domestic situation didn’t hinder the kit's preparation. 3D modeling is complete and the manufacturer is currently working on selecting camouflage schemes. From the renders, we can see that the Val, like previous models from this manufacturer, will feature fully riveted surfaces and photo-etched details.

   

  Curtiss Hawk 1/72 Arma Hobby

   Before P-40 became famous, its predecessor, Hawk 75 alongside Hurricanes and Spitfires, resisted the initial German and Russian offensives in Europe and the Japanese in China. Not much is known about the model yet; Arma Hobby from Poland has only shown one colored render so far. According to their website, the kit is expected to go on pre-sale this December and should reach modelers' mailboxes in early 2025. Additionally, we can expect Arma Hobby to offer several accessories for the model, which modelers will be able to print themselves.

   

  Ki-43 II Hayabusa 1/72 Arma Hobby

   While we know little about the Hawk, Arma Hobby has revealed much more about their second new product in 1/72 scale – the Ki-43 Hayabusa. The model was officially revealed at Tokyo Hobby Show, and in mid-November, the manufacturer presented the first test shots. The kit consists of three sprues – two in gray styrene, one with clear parts, camouflage schemes representing aircraft from New Guinea, the Kurile Islands, and Japan, as well as cockpit masks. Modelers will also be able to add self-printed parts, such as exhausts, radiators, gun barrels, and pilot seats. For those without a 3D printer, pre-orders will have these printed parts included

   

  Chevy Blazer Hopper Stranger Things 1/24 Revell

   Have you felt a chill  during the past few winters when the Christmas tree lights started blinking? If so, you might suspect what that means for the protagonists of the successful mystery series Stranger Things and why it’s good to have Police Chief Jim Hopper nearby. Even if you are not that familiar with the classic American SUVs but you like them, we are happy to announce that soon Revell will be releasing a brand-new police 1985 Chevrolet Blazer in 1/24 scale. The Mind Flayer on the box art apparently won’t be included in the kit, but maybe a Demogorgon will be.

   

• Historical reflection

  
  

  Turning Point

  November 1942

  Text: Jan Bobek

   

  This month marks the 82nd anniversary of events that signified a turning point in World War II. Since September 1939, Nazi Germany had been conquering Europe, aiming to reclaim territories lost during World War I and expand further. Germany's war economy depended on access to natural resources, industrial plants, and labor. Adolf Hitler’s personal decisions largely guided the war strategy. Under his leadership, his subordinates, fueled by beliefs in racial superiority, implemented oppression, imprisonment, and the genocide of Jews and other ethnic or social groups. This culminated in unprecedented massacres in Eastern Europe and systematic exterminations in concentration camps.

  In June 1941, Hitler, convinced of his genius, attacked his communist rival and former ally, the Soviet Union. The invasion targeted Leningrad, Moscow, and the Caucasus oil fields. The primary goal of Operation Barbarossa was to annihilate the Red Army and penetrate deep into Soviet territory, with a strategic line envisioned from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. The Ural Mountains were an even more distant objective. Simultaneously, Germany and its European allies sought to dominate the Mediterranean, aiming to control the Suez Canal and establish a foothold in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, air battles raged over the coastline of Western Europe and air raids against Britain continued. Hitler’s dream of a Greater Germanic Reich and its dominance over a vast economic sphere was unfolding.

  However, public morale in the resisting nations, especially the Great Britain (but also the still neutral United States), was flagging after years of war. Victory seemed distant, and many politicians preferred negotiating with Hitler. Strikes even erupted in Britain’s wartime industries.

  After years of conquering Chinese territory, Japan also entered World War II during December 7 and 8, 1941, when it attacked American, British, and Dutch forces in Hawaii, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. After Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., nothing stood in the way of Japan’s colonial ambitions, defined in the plan of "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." This imperialist project was planned to exploit conquered territories. The Axis powers envisioned dividing Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with Japan aiming to conquer India, Soviet Asia, including a draft of a plan even to colonize Australia with two millions of Japanese settlers.

  The Japanese blitzkrieg, however, suffered significant setbacks in the Battle of the Coral Sea and, most notably, the Battle of Midway. The advance of Japanese ground forces in southern New Guinea faced successful Allied resistance for the first time, while Guadalcanal became the second decisive barrier that halted Japan's southward expansion. Dreams of the Axis powers—Berlin, Rome, Tokyo—were shattered in November 1942.

  In North Africa, during the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 23 – November 11, 1942), British forces under the command of General Bernard Montgomery defeated the German-Italian forces led by Erwin Rommel. The Allies thus halted the Axis advance in North Africa and forced them to retreat into Libya. The battle was crucial for maintaining control over the Suez Canal.

  In Morocco and Algeria, U.S.-British forces successfully carried out an amphibious landing during Operation Torch (November 8–16, 1942), capturing key ports and territories controlled by the French collaborationist Vichy government. This established a new Allied front in North Africa, forcing German and Italian forces to split their resources and retreat. As a result of these two major military victories, along with Malta’s robust air defenses, German forces abandoned their prolonged efforts to blockade and eventually capture this “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in November.

   During the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), the Soviet counteroffensive, Operation Uranus, was launched on November 19, 1942. This operation encircled the German 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus, significantly weakening German forces on the Eastern Front. The encirclement ultimately led to Paulus' forces surrender in February 1943. By this time, the Soviets were already benefiting from Western material and military support provided under the Lend-Lease Agreement.

  In mid-November 1942, the Kokoda Trail Campaign in New Guinea (July 21–November 16, 1942) reached its conclusion. In late September and early October 1942, the Japanese were halted within sight of Port Moresby. Capturing this base in the island's southeast would have significantly advanced Japanese plans for an invasion of Australia. However, supply shortages, exhaustion, and the arrival of Australian reinforcements forced them to retreat.

  The Kokoda Trail Campaign marked the first time Allied ground forces successfully stopped a Japanese advance. It highlighted the resilience of Australian soldiers under extraordinarily harsh conditions and boosted Allied morale. The next Australian offensive targeted the Buna and Gona airfields in November 1942.

  Today, the Kokoda Trail Campaign holds considerable historical and symbolic importance in Australia as a pivotal battle to defend the homeland and achieve victory against a formidable enemy.

  In mid-November 1942, the naval Battle of Guadalcanal (November 13–15) took place, during which the U.S. Navy defeated Japanese forces. This battle was pivotal in halting Japanese expansion in the Pacific, disrupting their supply lines to the island, and marking the Allies’ transition to the offensive. After six months of intense fighting, the Japanese ultimately lost the Battle of Guadalcanal in early February 1943.

  November 1942 was therefore a turning point, as the "Great" Axis—the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance—lost the initiative on several major fronts. In the subsequent period, it focused primarily on defending its occupied territories. The only area where an Axis force continued to advance until the end of the war was southern China. Even there, however, Japanese troops were forced to surrender following Japan’s capitulation in August 1945.

  At the end of World War II, the United States, with its immense military-industrial capacity, was referred to as the "Arsenal of Democracy." The role of the U.S. in this regard was one of the key factors in the Allied victory. After the Second World War, the Western victorious powers transformed their former arch-enemies into new allies to prevent a recurrence of the scenarios that led to the First and Second World Wars.

  The last global conflict was followed by the Cold War, during which the Soviet Union eventually collapsed. The Kremlin lost vast territories that had been part of the Soviet Union and relinquished control over Eastern European countries it had once dominated or occupied. Russia had faced a similar situation at the end of World War I, losing Finland, parts of present-day Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and other regions.

  As history in the 20th century shows, dictators often seek to reclaim lost influence and territory. Unfortunately, it appears that such ambitions are not confined to the past, and the 21st century is not spared from similar plans.

  In November 2024, 1,000 days had passed since the Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine. Through this aggressive conquest, Putin aims to restore parts of the former Soviet Union, gain access to Ukraine's natural and industrial resources, and bolster the stability of his regime. He has openly declared his intention to reshape the world order. Whether he succeeds with his strategy of terror and scorched earth remains to be seen, but history suggests that dictators with similar ambitions have been defeated before.

  I firmly believe that the "Arsenal of Democracy," in collaboration with its partners, must act swiftly to build new production capacity.

  
  

• Debriefing

  Dear Friends

   

  If you have read this far, you have probably formed a clear opinion as to whether our new online magazine, the Eduard Modeller´s Den, is worth your time, your interest, and ultimately your hard earned money. We will do everything to make it worth your while. Our effort is, and will continue to be, to create a quality periodical with valuable articles, credible and up-to-date information, interesting interviews with interesting people, and also with serious opinions of its contributors.

  The concept of the EMD virtual magazine is based on the concept and style of the company newsletter, which has been published regularly for more than ten years. Naturally, it has much in common with it, but in many ways it develops the concept further, and to be a viable entity, differs in many of its elements and approaches. The main difference between EMD and the newsletter is in its approach to advertising. The Eduard newsletter is primarily a marketing tool, and as such, it places the main emphasis on information surrounding Eduard products, especially new releases, with the goal of introducing these new products to customers in the best and most comprehensive way possible. Historical and technical articles, although making up a large part of the content of the newsletter, are a secondary component within it, the aim of which is to attract the customer's attention, provide a broader insight into the background of the creation of company products, and also acquaint customers with the historical and technical background of the company's product designs.

  Within EMD, the opposite is more true. In it, articles, interviews, reports on industry-wide developments, as well as comments and editorials, will be the primary product. The advertising part will play a secondary role. Eduard advertising will be minimal, and if it even does appear, will not be advertising our products such as kits or accessories, but rather will promote events such as E-day, the Eduard ‘fly-in’ at Líne, the annual Iron Bunny competition and other similar events. Mention of new releases will be limited to basic information about some kits, which will be in the industry news section we are appropriately calling ‘Warning Shots’ and would not be, in our opinion, complete without said mention, in an effort to preserve the context of the section.

  Another fundamental difference between the Eduard monthly newsletter and EMD is availability. While the content of the Eduard newsletter is and will remain free, EMD will be (or rather, after the first introductory issue) a paid resource. EMD will be published, much like the Eduard newsletter, on the Triobo platform. Unlike the newsletter, though, EMD will be accessible only to registered users and for a small fee. This fee will be compensated for by a discount coupon with a unique code, which will allow readers to make very good use of their investment in the EMD when shopping at the Eduard e-shop.

  Dear readers, modelers and history enthusiasts, consider today's inaugural issue of Eduard’s Modeller’s Den as our Christmas gift and a taste of what we have in store for you in the next issues. We look forward to seeing you and promise to do our best to keep you informed and entertained not only throughout the coming year, but for many years to come!

   

  Vladimir Sulc

  Eduard CEO and Member of EMD Editorial Staff