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[Piotrek1]

Hi pilots,
I am looking for information about the Bf-109G-6 "yellow 10" from III / JG 52 piloted by lt. Rudolf Walther, I am particularly interested in the probable appearance of this aircraft or possibly painting JG 52 aircrafts while stationed at airfields Warzyn or Łężany .
Perhaps some of you have a book, or found some old photographs somewhere on the net....if so, every information is very welcome.

I found some information on this subject but unfortunately nothing about camouflage:

The "yellow 10" was probably shot down by anti-aircraft artillery on 21.09.1944 (i.e. on the day when the Soviet army and Czechoslovak Corps entered Dukla)  during an attempt to destroy Russian observation balloons in the Dukla area and the fighting for the Dukla Pass.
Less than a month earlier a similar attempt had been made by the pilot FW-190 in the village of Żeglce, which ended with the shooting down of the plane by the AA and the death of the pilot.

Based on published documents, including the beginning of the third decade of September 1944, the Luftwaffe lost only one machine of this type in the Dukla area. It was Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 Wnr. 440 957 "yellow 10", which disappeared southeast of Dukla on Thursday, 21 September 1944. The plane took off from the Warzyn airfield (the town near Jedrzejów in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship), it was piloted by leutnant (lieutenant) Rudolf Walther from III / JG 52 (3rd Squadron 52 of the Luftwaffe Fighter Wing). The squadron was equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 fighter planes, in the period 26 - 30 July 1944 it was stationed at the Łężany airfield, hence the German pilots learned the area of ​​the Dukla Pass.  Rudolf Walter, despite his young age, managed to shoot down 21 aircraft He was only 21 years old then, he was born in Zgorzelec on February 2, 1923.

According to German sources, on September 21, 1944 at 20:00 (?) He was shot down and wounded, his Bf-109 fell east of Dukla, and the pilot himself was considered missing. However, he managed to return and was hospitalized. His later fate is unknown, it is not known whether he has returned to flying yet. He survived the war.

periods of stationing:
26 Jul 1944 - 30 Jul 1944  Łężany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81%C4%99%C5%BCany,_Podkarpackie_Voivodeship
Aug 1944 - Oct 1944   Warzyn   
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warzyn_Pierwszy   
https://www.asisbiz.com/Luftwaffe/jg52.html
asisbiz.com gives the name Lezanie -but it should be Łężany

Piotrek

[DHumphrey]

Hello Piotrek1,

I've just done some quick searching on the internet and found these examples. They are not of "Yellow 10", however it is a Bf-109 G6 in JG52 during the time frame your looking for and shows what the camouflage looked like. The second aircraft is of a Bf-109 G-14 "Yellow 10" in III/JG52 and I'm only assuming it was the replacement of Walther's aircraft. I hope these are of some help. 

[Knochenlutscher]

Yellow and III./JG52 that's the 9th Staffel of JG52, no doubt.
Karaya Staffel.

Yellow 10~ is 9./JG52 (all kites had the Karaya Heart Emblem)
Yellow 10 is 3./JG52 (no emblem or just sth. personal if at all)

A relative of me flew Yellow 10 too, at least for one time if I remember.
If I remember he recorded a Kill with it (Romania?).
They where both smaller ranks and according to the records I could make out
6 or 7 Gustavs my relatives flew. From a 10, 12, also from or under a different Staffel.
He was with 9./JG52, so yellow, but flew White 10 and 12 under Birkners command too.
I assume they took what was serviceable.
Ney, at that time both G-6 and G-14 appeared in a mixed setup at the Staffeln,
my relatives flew on both types, depending on what was serviced.
Transisition was yet not completed.

My Grandpa had 2 Cousins, brothers and both assigned JG52, one of 9.th too died in captivity,
the other escaped his burning Gustav and lost his sight, but survived.
He was shot down a few times.

[Piotrek1]

Hello Guys,
Thank you both for very interesting information,
Here you can find photos of propeller blades from Walter's aircraft. Unfortunately, the site is in Polish:
http://www.muzeumkrosno.pl/aktualnosci2.html

Best regards,
Piotrek

[Knochenlutscher]

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-aces-of-jg-52-and-bagration.html


This is Yellow 12~ (Karaya 12) here flown by CO lll. Gruppe, Hptm. Wilhelm  Batz as Wingman of Hartmann. This is the shared kite I was speaking off, whoever got duty, was on rotation,
grab a seat. My relative flew also as Bubis Wingman in it, nearly being shot up by 3 chasing Mustangs. (Bf 109 G-6 Werknr. 165 033 „Gelbe 12“???)

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2016/08/late-war-9jg-52-film-footage-hartmanns.html

[Piotrek1]

I have been on falkeeins many times lately, but I have not found it yet ,
Thank you very much, Tobias, for your time and searching ,

Best regards,
Piotrek

[Knochenlutscher]

That site is a lil mess, 

Glad I could hElp you
Kind Regards
Tobias

[Knochenlutscher]

After endless hours lurking that timespan and footages, I came to the conclusion that
artist Profiles mix late war JG52 with wrong timeline.
In April/May 45 the JG52/9th spotted simple yellow Numbers without black border.
On some kites the wavy Staffel marking was left out, on some carried,
but from late '43 on it was narrower in appearance.
9./ flew also Kites from the other Staffeln of III./JG52 occasionally!
So markings are sometimes leading into foxpits.

A phat wavy Staffel Marking indicates to prior this Time.
At Summer-Autumn 44 it must have been Yellow with clearly visible black outline.
Also of note is the Erla Haube together with the Tall Tail.
In our game it is

Code: [Select]

Bf-109G-6_Late.

Between autumn 44 and May 1945 the numbers where intermediatly small compared to this timeline footages and
very late appearance. The smaller lettering occured while being stationed at Hungary.
I have seen Profiles that shift the small numbers back to Romania, which is wrong, no footage showing
such smaller then.

1943 fat/large lettering yellow black
1943/late narower and smaller letters
1944 -"-
1944/late small lettering with outlines
May 1945 larger no outlines lettering

G-14 was only a small number at this time, I remember a record stating my ancestor
flew for 9./JG52 in a White 10~ (G-14), which is from another Staffel, yet he flew under command
of this Staffel 2 times. So personell and kites were interchanged on occassion.

[Piotrek1]

I agree with what you wrote, although most did not know, besides, let's not forget that it is the end of 1944 so "renting" aircraft from other Staffel was probably something natural.
Some publications mention the problems of General Heinrici's army with observational balloons in the Dukla area and the lack of aircraft to fight them.
You write very interestingly about numbering and marking aircrafts, Thank you again for all the information.
Best regards,
Piotrek

[Piotrek1]

Hi all, Some additional information about the pilot, I don't remember from which page they come:

Regarding his Date of Birth, this came from Bernd Barbas who knows all that is known about JG 52, his information comes from a loss sheet for 21st September 1944 when Walther went missing, but managed to return, his place of Birth appears to be Görlitz.

This is what I have on him, all claims are with 3./JG 52 as a Leutnant:-

24th March 1944 U-2 South of Stalino 1428 hrs tief Nr.1
2nd May 1944 Il-2 15km NE Roman 1512 hrs 500 metres Nr.2
14th May 1944 P-39 5km South of Grigoriopol 1403 hrs 1200 metres Nr.3
31st May 1944 P-39 10km North of Tudora 1135 hrs 2500 metres Nr.4
2nd June 1944 Il-2 15km NW Lasi(Jassy) 1130 hrs tief Nr.5
3rd June 1944 Il-2 15km NW Lasi 1200 hrs 500 metres Nr.6
4th June 1944 Il-2 20km WNW Lasi 1613 hrs 200 metres Nr.7
4th June 1944 Il-2 25km NW Lasi 1615 hrs 20 metres Nr.8
14th July 1944 P-39 55km SW Luzk 1025 hrs 1000 metres Nr.9
14th July 1944 Il-2 25km NW Brody 1201 hrs tief Nr.10
14th July 1944 P-39 25km East of Zolocev(Zloczow) 1758 hrs 1500 metres Nr.11
16th July 1944 Jak-9 40km North of Busk 1657 hrs 2000 metres Nr.12
4th August 1944 Jak-9 10km West of Mielec 1507 hrs 1000 metres Nr.13
21st August 1944 Il-2 20km NE Leipzig(Sowiet not Germany) 1849 hrs tief Nr.14
22nd August 1944 Jak-9 45km West of Akkerman 0718 hrs 1000 metres Nr.15
25th August 1944 Jak-9 20km NNW Mielec 1607 hrs 1200 metres Nr.16
26th August 1944 Jak-9 10km North of Sandomir 1104 hrs 2000 metres Nr.17
26th August 1944 Pe-2 15th West of Sandomir 1110 hrs 1400 metres Nr.18
31st August 1944 Il-2 15km SSW Opatow 1253 hrs 400 metres Nr.19
31st August 1944 Jak-9 10km West of Opatow 1257 hrs 500 metres Nr.20
31st August 1944 Il-2 15km South of Opatow 1620 hrs 150 metres Nr.21
1st September 1944 Il-2 Opatow area 1401 hrs 400 metres Nr.22

On 24th March 1944 he collided with a HS123 and was forced to belly-land his Bf109 at the Lasi airstrip, but was unharmed. On 25th May 1944 he crashed his Bf109 whilst landing at the Leipzig airstrip, Ukraine, but was unhurt. He crash-landed his Bf109 at the Stryi airstrip, Poland on 28th July 1944, again he was unharmed. On 21st September 1944 at 2000 hrs he was shot down and wounded, his Bf109 coming down East of Dukla, and was listed as missing, he did however manage to return.

Don't know what happened after this, it is possible that he returned to combat, but he doesn't appear to be in Bernd Barbas's group 3./JG 52 end of war photo. He survived the war.

map if anyone would like to know where it is:

with crosses on the map I marked the town of Dukla and the villages of Łężany and Żeglce where in June 44th crashed FW-190 .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukla_Pass

[Knochenlutscher]

A
If you returned to flying duty was checked briefly after each wounding you inflicted.
The older cousin from my Grandpa got slightly wounded by Mustangs over Romania,
quickly was sent back to duty.
The younger cousin of my Grandpa was severly shot up in a Mustang Clash, lost an eye and
had 3rd degree burnings allover the upper part of his Torso/Face.
he managed to crawl back to his unit but then was sent to a LW Hospital to Germany,
where he remaind until the end of the war. I'm 100% sure, if Walther survived, was wounded he was also sent
home for Lazarett and Genesungsheim. It depended not only on seriousness of wounds,
but stage of psych, the LW Docs easilly wrote up Wackel Candidats.
Which meant he was lucky enough to not being posted to the Front again.

B
Another possibillity why he isn't listed afterwards could be, he made a long walk by foot to friendly lines
until being hospitalized. In the late war if you got wounded and to Lazarett your unit sometimes
haven't got no news, maybe that's why he's went missing.
There where no communications lines availlable as earlier in the war.

Some Soldiers had an exceptional constitution to walk really long.
That area is mountanious, wilderness. Who knows if he went North or West.
My great Grandpa took a walk from Siberia to Berlin in 1918, no Barbedwire guarded POW
camps, Guards waved him Goodbye as it was seen impossible to survive in Winter and
even reach Home. He aquired a rifle in the Wilderness and stole Boots from Farms.
Still in felt Boots the Permafrost took his toll.
Apart from sever frostbites at his Feets he managed to return to Berlin.
My Grandpa did so too, from Berlin to Halle, 1 and a half Week. Arriving on 8th of May,
just in time for Liberation. My Grandpa had no documents or awards, weapons with him.
This was so he avoided being POW, but was risky before the end of the war.

[Piotrek1]

Thank you again for explaining the subject, Tobias , I must finally invite you for big beer  .