Captured Aircrafts: EEUU

[gekho]

The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft of World War II. The Me 210 was designed to replace the Bf 110 in heavy fighter role; design started before the opening of World War II. The first examples of the Me 210 were ready in 1939, but they proved to have poor flight characteristics from serious, unanticipated design flaws. A large-scale operational testing program throughout 1941 and early 1942 did not cure the aircraft's problems. The design eventually entered limited service in 1943, but was almost immediately replaced by its successor, the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse ("Hornet"). The Me 410 was a further development of the Me 210, renamed so as to avoid the 210's notoriety. The failure of the Me 210's development program meant that the Luftwaffe was forced to continue fielding the outdated Bf 110, to mounting losses.

 

[Gregg]

I made an mistake in the title the ME 262 restored is in the photos of the captured ME 262s and was number just as it was then with the original #35. If you look close the one ME 262 #35 has two seats, I have seen it recently restored. There is a group in Seattle Washington that agreed to completely disassemble the ME 262 #35 and restore it so they could make 5 reproductions. The M Company helped them and each reproduction sold for at least ONE MILLION DOLLARS. This is the last restored two seater trainer model of the ME 262 and was in a museum at Willow Grove Naval Air Station. It has now been relocated to a museum in Florida. I will look to find the You Tube of the Berlin Air Show when the first reproduction flew over Germany, it was the first time since the war a ME 262 flew over Germany.

 

[Gregg]

The Retired Colonel who showed us the ME 262 told us how they never removed the cannons in the nose and when they disassembled it was a surprise to find them intact and complete.[/B][/B]

Here is a link to the ME 262 flying at the Berlin Air Show in 2006.



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjyIo8uRBDI


This link will take you to the story of the restored, reproductions and flying ME 262 videos.


STORMBIRDS presents the Me 262 Project


Here is a PDF with so great graphics of the ME 262


View attachment ME262.pdf

 

[Gregg]

Here is the same ME 262 #35 just after it was captured by the USA to be brought over to the states. THIS IS THE VERY SAME ME 262 #35 THAT IS RESTORED AND ON DISPLAY NOW IN FLORIDA AND I POSTED THE RESTORED PHOTOS.

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[johnbr]

A Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and a Junkers Ju 88 of 1426 Flight undergoing maintenance by RAF ground crew at RAF Collyweston (February 1945)

Captured German aircraft of No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft Circus) Flight at Collyweston, Northamptonshire, undergoing maintenance; Focke Wulf Fw 190A-3, PN999, undergoes an engine service while airmen re-paint the wings of Junkers JU 88S-1, TS472.
Date 22 February 1945

 

[johnbr]

aptured P-47.

Fighter P-47 d-2 (serial number 42-8370) 355-th fighter Group 8-th air Army United States AIR FORCE was lost in the vicinity of Qana 08.11.1943. This is the first P-47, captured by the Germans. The fighter entered the German trial Squad, known as the "Wanderzirkus Rosarius", Commanded by Theodore Rozariusa that unit did trials with captured Allied aircraft in 1954.

 

[johnbr]

YAK-1B

The Germans captured fighter yak-1B Squadron commander of the 6th fighter Regiment 148 Leonid Smirnov at the airfield. Of delivering 06.05.1943

Captain Leonid Dmitriyevich Smirnov, born in 1913, urož. Kharkov, AE 148 IAP's Commander, did not return from battle to cover-up their troops in r-not Neberdžaevskaâ on the Yak-1. On the account had +4 shot down 7 enemy planes.

 

[johnbr]

Captured Soviet Ilyushin Il-4.

Damaged in a forced landing of a Soviet bomber SAT with m-103 engines, captured by the Germans. The bomber from the 13-th Regiment of high-speed bombers 9th mixed air Division 10-th army of the Western front in 1941.

 

[johnbr]

Damaged in a forced landing of a Soviet bomber SAT with m-103 engines, captured by the Germans. The bomber from the 13-th Regiment of high-speed bombers 9th mixed air Division 10-th army of the Western front in 1941.

 

[johnbr]

Soviet TB-3 bomber

Soviet TB-3 bomber 4 m-17F fighters bombed the airfield and damaged this TB-3 it was later captured by the Germans in June 1941.

 

[johnbr]

otez 63.

German soldiers photographed with a captured French Potez 63.. One soldier holds French 7.5 mm machine gun MAC 34 aircraft, June 1940.

 

[johnbr]

captured Shōwa L2D3 or L2D3-L in US markings, Mindanao, Philippines, May 1945

The Shōwa L2D and Nakajima L2D, given the designations: Shōwa Navy Type 0 Transport and Nakajima Navy Type 0 Transport, were license-built versions of the Douglas DC-3. The L2D series, numerically, was the most important Japanese transport in World War II. The L2D was given the Allied code name Tabby.

After successful license production acquired in 1935 of the earlier Douglas DC-2, Nakajima Hikoki acquired the license rights for $90,000 in February 1938, to build the DC-3. Previously, the Great Northern Airways and the Far East Fur Trading Company had purchased 22 DC-3s from 1937–1939. This total consisted of 13 Cyclone powered DC-3s and nine Twin Wasp powered DC-3As, two of which were delivered un-assembled and assigned to a relatively new concern, Shōwa Aircraft.[3] Both Shōwa and Nakajima worked in concert to create a production series. Although the L2D was intended for both civil and military application, the production run was largely reserved for the Japanese military as the Navy Type 0 Transport.

The Nakajima prototype, powered by Pratt Whitney SB3G radial engines, first flew in October 1939 and entered production in 1940 as the L2D1 with parts imported from the U.S. while the two Shōwa examples were being assembled to Japanese production standards to simplify manufacture. Differing in minor details, mainly due to the use of locally-produced Mitsubishi Kinsei 43 radial engines of similar power, the initial series from both companies were very similar to its Douglas antecedent.

By 1942, Nakajima had built, including the prototype, 71 L2D2 Navy Type 0 Transport Model 11s and then embarked on manufacturing combat aircraft of their own design. Shōwa, once their factory and production line was complete, built the next series, a total of 416 aircraft, including 75 cargo versions with the "barn door," and reinforced floor (designated L2D2 1). The first Japanese military version was equipped with wide cargo doors, essentially mirroring the U.S. C-47, appearing about the same time.[5] Other L2D variants, while normally unarmed, the L2D4 and L2D4-1 variants carried one flexible 13 mm Type 2 machine gun in a dorsal turret in the navigator's dome and two flexible 7.7 mm Type 92 machine guns that could be fired from fuselage hatches, but this armament configuration was not a production standard.
Although the Japanese civil versions were nearly identical to their Douglas equivalent, the military variants, while visually similar, were substantially different. The Kinsei 51/53 engines had 1,325 hp (975 kW) and featured enlarged nacelles and large propeller spinners, while the cockpit bulkhead was moved back 40 inches (100 cm) so all four crew members forward were in one compartment, with three extra windows added behind the cockpit. The most radical changes to the original design came about due to wartime exigencies in shortages of strategic materials, that led to metal components in less critical structural areas being replaced by wood. As many as 20 transports featured wooden rudders, stabilizers, ailerons, fins, elevators and entrance doors. An all-wood variant, the L2D5, was readied for production near the end of the war.

The original DC-3s operated by Dai Nippon Koku were impressed into Imperial service during the war, serving alongside the license-built L2Ds. The L2Ds served in the Southern Philippines Kokutai in squadrons (Butais) attached to the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th[citation needed], 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Air Fleets (Koku Kantais) as well as the Combined Fleet (Rengo Kantai) and to the China Area and Southwest Area Fleets. With the large load capacity inherent in all L2D variants, the types were used in all Japanese theaters, as both a passenger and cargo transport, playing an important role in supply of the distant garrisons on the islands of Pacific Ocean and new Guinea. They were also adapted to serve as staff and communications aircraft as well as in the maritime surveillance role.

Relatively few of the Shōwa/Nakajima L2Ds survived the war, although at least one captured example was in service with the National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) during 1945, serving along with DC-3s acquired pre-war. In 1946, another captured L2D2 was used by the French VVS in military operations in Indochina.Postwar, other L2Ds were located in the Pacific as either crashed or abandoned aircraft, and none exist today

Comments and faves

 

[johnbr]

Captured Italian Cant Z-506B

Rescue seaplane Cant z. 506B belonged to Italian-139 Squadron. July 29, 1942 year he saved the crew of 4 from a downed Bristol Beaufort . The seaplane was also 4-3 crew members, one of the italian hit an RAF crew member with a pistol. However the British prisoners attacked him and because took his weapon and captured the Italian crew at gunpoint, they seized the plane and forced the pilot to fly to the British base in Malta.

 

[Jarda Rankl]

Few pictures in color.

 

[Wayne Little]

Excellent!

 

[Jarda Rankl]

In the hands of the enemy (in color, of course). 8)

 

[Jarda Rankl]

In the hands of the enemy (2nd part).

 

[Matt308]

Wonderful pics!

 

[Jarda Rankl]

In the hands of the enemy (3rd part).