Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-8

Black chevron 1 of Stab I./JG 54, Flown by an unknown pilot, Windau/latvia, 8 May 1945

Black chevron 2 of Stab I./JG 54, Flown by Unteroffizier Ludwig Nitsch, Windau/latvia, 8 May 1945

After the Kommodore of JG 54, Deitrich Hrabak ordered his pilots to leave the Kurland pocket and flying out their fighters to the west, they stuffed their machines full with their "Black men" some machines with as many as five persons. Two of the machines flown out this day was these Fw 190 A-8s. It interesting to note that they were form the same production batch, produced by Ago in Oscherleben during November 1944 and with just four machines apart on the the production line, W.Nr. 739141 and 749137.
Both pilots took of as ordered from Windau heading towards Denmark. However Chevron 2 flown by Uffz. Ludwig Nitsch was forced to to jettison his drop-tank and flew to Neutral Sweden instead where he belly-landed his machine at Lockarp. In fact both machines landed about 100 km from each-other, although the pilot flying in Chevron 1 belly-landed his machine in Denmark on the Island of Lolland at Jarlsgaard near Sanby.

© Claes Sundin 2018