PROPACTEAM
DECALS 1/72-SCALE WW2 GERMAN LUFTWAFFE MESSERSCHMITT Bf109F-2 3./JG 27 HANS-JOACHIM
MARSEILLE NORTH AFRICA DEUTCH AFRIKA KORPS DAK 1942 #72-029/06 (INCLUDES
STENCILS) "STAR OF AFRIKA"
----------------------------
Additional Information from
Internet Encyclopedia
Hans-Joachim Marseille (13 December
1919 30 September 1942; was a Luftwaffe
fighter pilot and flying ace during World War II. He is noted for his aerial
battles during the North African Campaign and his Bohemian lifestyle. One of
the most successful fighter pilots, he was nicknamed the "Star of
Africa". Marseille claimed all but seven of his "official" 158
victories against the British Commonwealth's Desert Air Force over North
Africa, flying the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter for his entire combat career.
No other pilot claimed as many Western Allied aircraft as Marseille.
Marseille, of French Huguenot
ancestry, joined the Luftwaffe
in 1938. At the age of 20 he graduated from one of the Luftwaffe's fighter pilot schools just in time to participate in
the Battle of Britain, without notable success. A charming person, he had such
a busy night life that sometimes he was too tired to be allowed to fly the next
morning. As a result, he was transferred to another unit, which relocated to
North Africa in April 1941.
Under the guidance of his new
commander, who recognised the latent potential in the young officer, Marseille
quickly developed his abilities as a fighter pilot. He reached the zenith of
his fighter pilot career on 1 September 1942, when during the course of three
combat sorties he claimed 17 enemy fighters shot down, earning him the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und
Brillanten (Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds). Only
29 days later, Marseille was killed in a flying accident, when he was
forced to abandon his fighter due to engine failure. After he exited the
smoke-filled cockpit, Marseille's chest struck the vertical stabiliser of his
aircraft. The blow either killed him instantly or incapacitated him so that he
was unable to open his parachute.
He joined Luftwaffe on 7 November 1938, as a Fahnenjunker (officer candidate) and received his military basic
training in Quedlinburg in the Harz region. On 1 March 1939 Marseille was
transferred to the Luftkriegsschule
4 (LKS 4air war school) near Fürstenfeldbruck. Among his classmates was Werner
Schröer. Schröer reports that Marseille was often in breach of military
discipline. Consequently Marseille was ordered to stay on base while his class
mates were on weekend leave. Quite frequently Marseille ignored this and left
Schröer a note: "Went out! Please take my chores." On one occasion,
while performing a slow circuit, Marseille broke away and performed an
imaginary weaving dogfight. He was reprimanded by his commanding officer, Hauptmann Mueller-Rohrmoser, and
taken off flying duties and his promotion to Gefreiter postponed. Soon after, during a cross-country flight,
he landed on a quiet stretch of Autobahn
(between Magdeburg and Braunschweig) and ran behind a tree to relieve himself. Some
farmers came to enquire if he needed assistance, but by the time they arrived
Marseille was on his way, and they were blown back by his slipstream.
Infuriated, the farmers reported the matter and Marseille was again suspended
from flying. Those he graduated with had been made full officers by early 1940,
while Marseille's indiscipline left him with the rank of Oberfähnrich at the end of 1941.
Marseille completed his training at Jagdfliegerschule 5 (5th fighter
pilot school) in Wien-Schwechat to which he was posted on 1 November 1939. Jagdfliegerschule 5 at the time was
under the command of the World War I flying ace and recipient of the Pour le
Mérite Eduard Ritter von Schleich. One of his teachers at the Jagdfliegerschule 5 was the
Austro-Hungarian World War I ace Julius Arigi. Marseille graduated from Jagdfliegerschule 5 with an
outstanding evaluation on 18 July 1940 and was assigned to Ergänzungsjagdgruppe Merseburg.
Marseille's unit was assigned to air defence duty over the Leuna plant from the
outbreak of war until the fall of France.
On 10 August 1940 he was assigned to
I. Jagd/Lehrgeschwader 2, based
in Calais-Marck, to begin operations over Britain and again received an
outstanding evaluation this time by his Hauptmann
and Gruppenkommandeur, Herbert
Ihlefeld.
In his first dogfight over England
on 24 August 1940, Marseille was involved in a four-minute battle with a
skilled opponent. He defeated his opponent by pulling up into a tight
chandelle, to gain an altitude advantage before diving and firing. The British
fighter was struck in the engine, pitching over and diving into the English
Channel; this was Marseille's first victory. Marseille was then engaged from
above by more enemy fighters. By pushing his aircraft into a steep dive then
pulling up metres above the water, Marseille escaped from the machine gun fire
of his opponents: "skipping away over the waves, I made a clean break. No
one followed me and I returned to Leeuwarden [sicMarseille was based near Calais,
not Leeuwarden]."
On his second sortie, he scored
another victory, and by the 15 September 1940, had claimed his fourth victory.
Marseille became an ace on 18 September after claiming a fifth enemy aircraft.
While returning from a bomber-escort mission on 23 September 1940 flying Werk Nummer (W.Nr) 5094, his engine
failed 10 miles off Cap Gris Nez after combat damage sustained over Dover. He
tried to radio his position but was forced to bail out over the sea. He paddled
around in the water for three hours before being rescued by a Heinkel He 59
float plane based at Schellingwoude. Severely worn out and suffering from
exposure, he was sent to a field hospital. I.(Jagd) claimed three aerial victories for the loss of four Bf
109s that day.
According to one source, Marseille's
victor was a well-known ace. Werk
Nummer (W.Nr) 5094 was destroyed in this engagement by Robert Stanford
Tuck, who had pursued a Bf 109 to that location and whose pilot was rescued by
a He 59 naval aircraft. Marseille is the only German airman known to have been
rescued by a He 59 on that day and in that location. Tuck's official claim was
for a Bf 109 destroyed off Griz Nez at 09:45the only pilot to submit a claim
in that location. Marseille was in serious trouble when arriving back at the airfield.
He had abandoned his leader Staffelkapitän
Adolf Buhl, who was shot down and killed. He received a stern rebuke and final
warning from Herbert Ihlefeld, during which he tore up his flight evaluations
with a visibly upset Marseille looking on. Other pilots were voicing their
dissent concerning Marseille. Because of his alienation of other pilots, his
arrogance and unapologetic nature, Ihlefeld would eventually dismiss Marseille
from LG 2. As punishment for
"insubordination"rumoured to be his penchant for American jazz
music, womanising and an overt "playboy" lifestyleand inability to
fly as a wingman, Steinhoff transferred Marseille to Jagdgeschwader 27 on 24 December 1940.
Marseille's unit briefly saw action
during the invasion of Yugoslavia, deployed to Zagreb on 10 April 1941, before
transferring to Africa. On 20 April on his flight from Tripoli to his front
airstrip Marseille's Bf 109 developed engine trouble and he had to make a
forced landing in the desert short of his destination. His squadron departed
the scene after they had ensured that he had got down safely. Marseille
continued his journey, first hitchhiking on an Italian truck, then, finding
this too slow; he tried his luck at an airstrip in vain. Finally he made his
way to the general in charge of a supply depot on the main route to the front,
and convinced him that he should be available for operations next day.
Marseille's character appealed to the general and he put at his disposal his
own Opel Admiral, complete with chauffeur. "You can pay me back by getting
fifty victories, Marseille!" were his parting words. Nevertheless he
caught up with his squadron and arrived on 21 April.
He scored two more victories on 23
and 28 April, his first in the North African Campaign. However, on 23 April,
Marseille himself was shot down during his third sortie of that day by Sous-Lieutenant James Denis, a Free
French pilot with No. 73 Squadron RAF (8.5 victories), flying a Hawker
Hurricane. Marseille's Bf 109 received almost 30 hits in the cockpit area, and
three or four shattered the canopy. As Marseille was leaning forward the rounds
missed him by inches. Marseille managed to crash-land his fighter. Just a month
later, records show that James Denis shot down Marseille again on 21 May 1941.
Marseille engaged Denis, but overshot his target. A turning dogfight ensued, in
which Denis once again bested Marseille.[34]
Neumann (a Geschwaderkommodore as of 10 June 1942) encouraged Marseille to
self-train to improve his abilities. By this time, he had crashed or damaged
another four Bf 109E aircraft, including a
tropicalised aircraft he was ferrying on 23 April 1941. Marseille's kill rate
was low, and he went from June to August without a victory. He was further
frustrated after damage forced him to land on two occasions: once on 14 June
1941 and again after he was hit by ground fire over Tobruk and was forced to
land blind.
His tactic of diving into enemy
formations often found him under fire from all directions, resulting in his
aircraft being damaged beyond repair; consequently, Eduard Neumann was losing
his patience. Marseille persisted, and created a unique self-training programme
for himself, both physical and tactical, which resulted not just in outstanding
situational awareness, marksmanship and confident control of the aircraft, but
also in a unique attack tactic that preferred a high angle deflection shooting
attack and shooting at the target's front from the side, instead of the common
method of chasing an aircraft and shooting at it directly from behind.
Marseille often practiced these tactics on the way back from missions with his
comrades. Marseille became known as a master of deflection shooting.
Marseille always strove to improve
his abilities. He worked to strengthen his legs and abdominal muscles, to help
him tolerate the extreme g forces of air combat. Marseille also drank an
abnormal amount of milk and shunned sunglasses, to improve his eyesight.
To counter German fighter attacks,
the Allied pilots flew "Lufbery circles" (in which each aircraft's
tail was covered by the friendly aircraft behind). The tactic was effective and
dangerous as a pilot attacking this formation could find himself constantly in
the sights of enemy pilots. Marseille often dived at high speed into the middle
of these enemy defensive formations from either above or below, executing a
tight turn and firing a two-second deflection shot to destroy an enemy
aircraft. The successes Marseille had begun to become readily apparent in early
1942. He claimed his 3740th victories on 8 February 1942 and 4144th victories
four days later which earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross that same
month for 46 victories.
On 17 June 1942, Marseille claimed
his 100th aerial victory. He was the 11th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. Marseille then
returned to Germany for two months leave and the following day was awarded the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern.
On 6 August, he began his journey back to North Africa accompanied by his
fiancée Hanne-Lies Küpper. On 13 August, he met Benito Mussolini in Rome and
was presented with the highest Italian military award for bravery, the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare.
While in Italy Marseille disappeared for some time prompting the German
authorities to compile a missing persons report, submitted by the Gestapo head in Rome, Herbert
Kappler. He was finally located. According to rumours he had run off with an
Italian girl and was eventually persuaded to return to his unit. Unusually,
nothing was ever said about the incident and no repercussions were visited upon
Marseille for this indiscretion.
Leaving his fiancée in Rome,
Marseille returned to combat duties on 23 August. 1 September 1942 was
Marseille's most successful day, destroying 17 enemy aircraft (nos. 105121),
and September would see him claim 54 victories, his most productive month. The
17 enemy aircraft shot down included eight in 10 minutes, as a result of this
feat he was presented with a type 82 Volkswagen Kübelwagen by an Italian Regia
Aeronautica squadron, on which his Italian comrades had painted
"Otto" (Italian languae: Otto
= eight). This was the most aircraft from Western Allied air forces shot down
by a single pilot in one day. Only one pilot, Emil "Bully" Lang on 4
November 1943, would better this score, against the Soviet Air Force on the
Eastern Front. On 3 September 1942 Marseille claimed six victories (nos.
127132) but was hit by fire from the British-Canadian ace James Francis
Edwards.
Three days later Edwards likely
killed Günter Steinhausen, a friend of Marseille. The next day, 7 September
1942, another close friend Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt was posted missing in
action. These personal losses weighed heavily on Marseille's mind along with
his family tragedy. It was noted he barely spoke and became more morose in the
last weeks of his life. The strain of combat also induced consistent
sleepwalking at night and other symptoms that could be construed as
Posttraumatic stress disorder. Marseille never remembered these events.
The two missions of 26 September
1942 had been flown in Bf 109G-2/trop, in one of which Marseille had shot down
seven enemy aircraft. The first six of these machines were to replace the Gruppe's Bf 109Fs. All had been
allocated to Marseille's 3 Staffel.
Marseille had previously ignored orders to use these new aircraft because of
its high engine failure rate, but on the orders of Generalfeldmarschall Albert
Kesselring, Marseille reluctantly obeyed. One of these machines, WK-Nr. 14256
(Engine: Daimler-Benz DB 605 A-1, W.Nr. 77 411), was to be the final aircraft
Marseille flew.
Over the next three days Marseille's
Staffel was rested and taken
off flying duties. On 28 September Marseille received a telephone call from Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel
asking to return with him to Berlin. Hitler was to make a speech at the Berlin
Sportpalast on 30 September and Rommel and Marseille were to attend. Marseille
rejected this offer, citing that he was needed at the front and had already
taken three months vacation that year. Marseille also revealed he wanted to
take leave at Christmas, to marry his fiancée Hanne-Lies Küpper.
On 30 September 1942, Hauptmann Marseille was leading his Staffel on a Stuka escort mission, covering the withdrawal of the group and
relieving the outward escort, III./Jagdgeschwader
53 (JG 53), which had been deployed to support JG 27 in Africa.
Marseille's flight was vectored onto enemy aircraft in the vicinity but the
enemy withdrew and did not take up combat. Marseille vectored the heading and
height of the formation to Neumann who directed III./JG 27 to engage. Marseille
heard 8./JG 27 leader Werner Schröer claim a Spitfire over the radio at 10:30.
While returning to base, his new Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/trop's cockpit began
to fill with smoke; blinded and half asphyxiated, he was guided back to German
lines by his wingmen, Jost Schlang and Lt Rainer Pöttgen. Upon reaching
friendly lines, "Yellow 14" had lost power and was drifting lower and
lower. Pöttgen called out after about 10 minutes that they had reached the
White Mosque of Sidi Abdel Rahman, and were thus within friendly lines. At this
point, Marseille deemed his aircraft no longer flyable and decided to bail out,
his last words to his comrades being "I've got to get out now, I can't
stand it any longer".
His Staffel, which had been flying a tight formation around him,
peeled away to give him the necessary room to manoeuvre. Marseille rolled his
aircraft onto its back, the standard procedure for bail out, but due to the
smoke and slight disorientation, he failed to notice that the aircraft had
entered a steep dive (at an angle of 7080 degrees) and was now travelling at a
considerably faster speed (about 400 mph). He worked his way out of the
cockpit and into the rushing air only to be carried backwards by the
slipstream, the left side of his chest striking the vertical stabiliser of his
fighter, either killing him instantly or rendering him unconscious to the point
that he could not deploy his parachute. He fell almost vertically, hitting the
desert floor 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Sidi Abdel Rahman. As it
transpired, a gaping 40 cm (16 in) hole had been made in his
parachute and the canopy had spilled out, but after recovering the body, the
parachute release handle was still on "safe," revealing Marseille had
not even attempted to open it. Whilst checking the body, Oberarzt Dr Bick, the regimental
doctor for the 115th Panzergrenadier-Regiment,
noted Marseille's wristwatch had stopped at exactly 11:42 am. Dr. Bick had
been the first to reach the crash site, having been stationed just to the rear
of the forward mine defences, he had also witnessed Marseille's fatal fall.
------------------------------
Development of the new Bf 109F
airframe had begun in 1939. After February 1940 an improved engine, the
Daimler-Benz DB 601E, was developed for use with the Bf 109. The engineers at
the Messerschmitt facilities took two Bf 109 E-1 airframes and installed this
new powerplant. The first two prototypes, V21 (Werknummer (Works number) or
W.Nr 5602) and V22 (W.Nr 1800) kept the trapeziform wing shape from the E-1,
but the span was reduced by 61 cm (2 ft) by "clipping" the tips.
Otherwise the wings incorporated the cooling system modifications described
below. V22 also became the testbed for the pre-production DB 601E. The smaller
wings had a detrimental effect on the handling so V23, Stammkennzeichen
(factory Code) CE+BP, W.Nr 5603, was fitted with new, semi-elliptical wingtips,
becoming the standard wing planform for all future Bf 109 combat versions. The
fourth prototype, V24 VK+AB, W.Nr 5604, flew with the clipped wings but
featured a modified, "elbow"-shaped supercharger air-intake which was
eventually adopted for production, and a deeper oil cooler bath beneath the
cowling. On all of these prototypes the fuselage was cleaned up and the engine
cowling modified to improve aerodynamics.
Compared to the earlier Bf 109
E, the Bf 109 F was much improved aerodynamically. The engine cowling was
redesigned to be smoother and more rounded. The enlarged propeller spinner,
adapted from that of the new Messerschmitt Me 210, now blended smoothly into
the new engine cowling. Underneath the cowling was a revised, more streamlined
oil cooler radiator and fairing. A new ejector exhaust arrangement was
incorporated, and on later aircraft a metal shield was fitted over the left
hand banks to deflect exhaust fumes away from the supercharger air-intake. The
supercharger air-intake was, from the F-1 -series onwards, a rounded,
"elbow"-shaped design that protruded further out into the airstream.
A new three-blade, light-alloy VDM propeller unit with a reduced diameter of 3
m (9 ft 8.5 in) was used. Propeller pitch was changed electrically, and was
regulated by a constant-speed unit, though a manual override was still
provided. Thanks to the improved aerodynamics, more fuel-efficient engines and
the introduction of light-alloy versions of the standard Luftwaffe 300 litre
drop tank, the Bf 109 F offered a much increased maximum range of 1,700 km
(1,060 mi) compared to the Bf 109 E's maximum range figure of only 660 km (410
miles) on internal fuel, and with the E-7's provision for the 300 litre drop
tank, a Bf 109E so equipped possessed double the range, to 1,325 km (820 mi).
The canopy stayed essentially
the same as that of the E-4 although the handbook for the 'F' stipulated that
the forward, lower triangular panel to starboard was to be replaced by a metal
panel with a port for firing signal flares. Many F-1s and F-2s kept this
section glazed. A two-piece, all-metal armour plate head shield was added, as
on the E-4, to the hinged portion of the canopy, although some lacked the
curved top section. A bullet-resistant windscreen could be fitted as an option.
The fuel tank was self-sealing, and around 1942 Bf 109Fs were retrofitted with
additional armour made from layered light-alloy plate just aft of the pilot and
fuel tank. The fuselage aft of the canopy remained essentially unchanged in its
externals.
The tail section of the aircraft
was redesigned as well. The rudder was slightly reduced in area and the
symmetrical fin section changed to an airfoil shape, producing a sideways lift
force that swung the tail slightly to the left. This helped increase the
effectiveness of the rudder, and reduced the need for application of right
rudder on takeoff to counteract torque effects from the engine and propeller.
The conspicuous bracing struts were removed from the horizontal tailplanes
which were relocated to slightly below and forward of their original positions.
A semi-retractable tailwheel was fitted and the main undercarriage legs were
raked forward by six degrees to improve the ground handling. An unexpected
structural flaw of the wing and tail section was revealed when the first F-1s
were rushed into service; some aircraft crashed or nearly crashed, with either
the wing surface wrinkling or fracturing, or by the tail structure failing. In
one such accident, the commander of JG 2 "Richthofen", Wilhelm
Balthasar lost his life when he was attacked by a Spitfire during a test
flight. While making an evasive manoeuvre, the wings broke away and Balthasar
was killed when his aircraft hit the ground. Slightly thicker wing skins and
reinforced spars dealt with the wing problems. Tests were also carried out to
find out why the tails had failed, and it was found that at certain engine
settings a high-frequency oscillation in the tailplane spar was overlapped by
harmonic vibrations from the engine; the combined effect being enough to cause
structural failure at the rear fuselage/fin attachment point. Initially two
external stiffening plates were screwed onto the outer fuselage on each side,
and later the entire structure was reinforced.
The entire wing was redesigned,
the most obvious change being the new quasi-elliptical wingtips, and the slight
reduction of the aerodynamic area to 16.05 m² (172.76 ft²). Other features of
the redesigned wings included new leading edge slats, which were slightly
shorter but had a slightly increased chord; and new rounded, removable wingtips
which changed the planview of the wings and increased the span slightly over
that of the E-series. Frise-type ailerons replaced the plain ailerons of the
previous models. The 2R1 profile was used with a thickness-to-chord ratio of
14.2% at the root reducing to 11.35% at the last rib. As before, dihedral was
6.53°.
The wing radiators were
shallower and set farther back on the wing. A new cooling system was introduced
which was automatically regulated by a thermostat with interconnected variable
position inlet and outlet flaps that would balance the lowest drag possible
with the most efficient cooling. A new radiator, shallower but wider than that
fitted to the E was developed. A boundary layer duct allowed continual airflow
to pass through the airfoil above the radiator ducting and exit from the
trailing edge of the upper split flap. The lower split flap was mechanically
linked to the central "main" flap, while the upper split flap and
forward bath lip position were regulated via a thermostatic valve which
automatically positioned the flaps for maximum cooling effectiveness. In 1941
"cutoff" valves were introduced which allowed the pilot to shut down
either wing radiator in the event of one being damaged; this allowed the
remaining coolant to be preserved and the damaged aircraft returned to base.
However, these valves were delivered to frontline units as kits, the number of
which, for unknown reasons, was limited.
The armament of the Bf 109 F was
revised and now consisted of the two synchronized 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17s with
500 rpg above the engine plus a Motorkanone cannon firing through the propeller
hub. The pilot's opinion on the new armament was mixed: Oberst Adolf Galland
criticised the light armament as inadequate for the average pilot, while Major
Walter Oesau preferred to fly a Bf 109 E, and Oberst Werner Mölders saw the
single centreline Motorkanone gun as an improvement.
With the early tail unit
problems out of the way, pilots generally agreed that the F series was the
best-handling of all the Bf 109 series. Mölders flew one of the first
operational Bf 109 F-1s over England from early October 1940; he may well have
been credited with shooting down eight Hurricanes and four Spitfires while
flying W.No 5628, Stammkennzeichen SG+GW between 11 and 29 October 1940.