This Bf 109 G-2 trop was one of ten of that type delivered to II./JG 27 in October 1942. The machine was probably flown by Uffz. Wolfgang Bierstedt in action, marked as "Black 13.

However already on 4 November it was blown up at the Quotaifiya base due to un-serviceable, as the Brittish 8th Army was closing in. Here it was later captured together with an another Bf 109 G-2 and additional four Bf 109 Fs.

In all the II Gruppe received a total of 27 G-2s in a two-month period up to November. Of those 10 was lost in North Africa, two downed in air-combat and one shot down by enemy FLAK.

In all the Gruppen lost 12 Bf 109 Fs and Gs due to air combat and other 16 Messerschmitts, (most of them blown up) during the Brittish and their October to December advance in this teatre.

During the same period the pilots of II./JG 27 filed claims for an additional 61 enemy aircraft, most of them fighters.

The pilot Uffz. Wolfgang Bierstedt was unfortunate to be killed in a take-off accident at Nofilia/Merduma on 26 November 1942, by then flying in another "Black 13" although this was a Bf 109 F-4 trop, with the W.Nr. 7644.

Note the, for 5./JG 27 typical red horizontal II Gruppen bar behind the fuselage cross, note also that the "Berlin Bear crest of the Gruppe on the engine cowling is overpainted. The dirty condition over its "Desert camouflage" RLM 78/79 is obvious, all due to the hectic fighting that was going on around Tobruk during this period.