Below are two more sections from the Jagdgeschwader 2 movies, which we were fortunate to receive from the family of a former Richthofen Geschwader pilot. We are used to seeing black-and-white photographs of Second World War pilots, but the videos are so much more interesting. There is quite a bit of this footage, and we may post up more in the future if there is interest.
The first section is quite relevant to Air War Publications, because it shows Kurt Bühligen’s personal aircraft, Bf 109 E ‘Yellow 9 + -‘, which had a tally of eight victories on its rudder. The rudder can just be made out in the video. A photograph of ‘Yellow 9 + -‘ can be seen in our eArticle about Bühligen, available here. The date of the photo and footage is the winter of 1940/1941, and the French airfield is covered in snow.
In the second section from the movie, the pilots of the 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 2 are seen relaxing outside their quarters at Beaumont-le-Roger in the spring of 1941. Several of the men featured here would become unit leaders, including:
- Ottfried Philipp, seen here as an officer candidate, but he later led 6./JG 2, and in 1943 succeeded Erich Hohagen at the head of 7./JG 2 (we will be publishing a biography of Hohagen at some stage in the future). Although he was with JG 2 for more than two years, Ottfried Philipp only flew around 70 Feindflüge (operational missions), claiming six aerial victories, of which five were four-engined bombers
- Kurt Bühligen, who at this point had eight aerial victories to his credit