Jayce,

If there is a Sabre at Rechlin, (sorry I have no photo) it could have come from either a Typhoon or Tempest. In June 1944, Hans-Werner Lurche flew a Typhoon at Rechlin. This he described in passing on p 121 of his book, Luftwaffe Test Pilot , Jane’s, 1980, ISBN 0 7106 0031 3. He does not identify the aircraft.

However, On Special Missions – The Luftwaffe’s Research and Experimental Squadrons 1923 -1945, Smith, Creek and Petrick, p92-93, 2003,Classic Books ISBN 9 781903 223338, shows EJ 956 ex 486 squadron in colour profile and photographs at Rechlin in June 1944, but the Sabre is not likely to be from it as it crashed near Harburg in July 1944. A photo in Lerche’s book shows JP 961 JX-U recovered by rail after force landing, it says, in 1943. Perhaps that is the donor engine referred to by your colleague.

Lurche then flew the Tempest V and this is described pp 127- 131. He seemed to enjoy it, but again did not identify the aircraft.

Unfortunately Lerche’s book is not indexed and so there might be more within its covers than I have related. (Incidentally this book reveals Lurche’s part in August 1944 by flying a Lancaster at night over Berlin to determine by experiment how to combat “Window.”)

Jean-Louis Roba’s book, Foreign Planes in the Service of the Luftwaffe, Pen and Sword , 2009, ISBN 184884081-0 shows in photograph, (no page number) JR 319, “G” (he says from being recovered fairly intact, after a crash. The book then says without evidence that the “German Air Force seems to have tested at least two Typhoons.”

JP845 of 485 Squadron was also captured (photograph in Roba no page number, but says lost near Abbeville 21 December 1943) but there is no evidence of its flying in German hands.

Roba also shows a Beaufighter in flight in German colours, p 140, a captured Mosquito on a beach, undercarriage down. This may be the aircraft in colour profile and photographs in Smith, Creek and Petrick, p82-83. This aircraft was captured before 3 September 1943.

WZ862

There is German documentation to show at least 3 Typhoons were flown by the Luftwaffe. EJ956 ex SA-I of 486 Sqn (f/l 24 March 43), JP548 ex 174 Sqn (f/l 14 February 44) and a third as yet unidentified.

There are photos taken by US forces in a wrecked hangar near Paris which show JP845 SA-H (ex 486 Sqn), apparently being rebuilt or used for spares retrieval, along with JP915 US-K (ex 56 Sqn), JP510 FM-Y (ex 257 Sqn) and at least one other (as well as Spits and P-47s). JP915 still has its Sabre but JP845’s and one other’s have been removed .

JR319 HH-C was shot down on 16 March 44. An earlier 175 Sqn Typhoon, JP577 HH-T (f/l 16 August 43) was displayed at Beutepark 5 der Luftwaffe, Paris-Nanterre, still with its detached tail unit. In fact many Typhoons were force-landed as they operated at levels too low for the pilot to bale out – so the Germans would have had plenty of reasonably intact Sabres to choose from.

Only one captured Tempest is known to have been flown; EJ709 f/l on 5 October 44, 274 Sqn. As with the Typhoon, many others were forced to crash-land in enemy territory and could have been Sabre-donors.