Pics of Axis/Allied aircraft in Swedish livery

Here is an intresting picture. This is Lancaster Mk.III PB379 of 460 Sqn. during transit between Kalmar and Linköping/Malmen in October 1944. Note that roundel and finflash are painted over.

At 04.38 loc on 30.8.44 did wounded P/O Aldred land PB379 at the base of F 12 Wing at Kalmar. This Lancaster was later scrapped at Malmen.

In case the pic wont upload, here is the URL:

http://hem.passagen.se/sfff/Bilder/SFF-10.jpg

Bager1968,

It’s a typo. The last Nicaraguan Mustangs were retired and sold in 1963.

Regards,

Jan

In the text on Entropy’s site: http://www.canit.se/~griffon/aviation/text/26mustan.htm

“Nicaragua

In 1953 Nicaragua signed a contract for 26 of the Mustangs, and they were delivered in Oct 1954.

The last ones were retired from Fuerza Aerea Nicaragua in 1953, and ten were sold to USA. “

Talk about a short service life…retired the same year they were bought, and at least 10 months before being delivered!!

The first four P-51s in Swedish AF service (Fv-nr 26001 to -004) were all a/c that had made emergancy landings in Sweden after missions over Europe.

26001 was a P-51B-7 that from the begining was TOC by USAAF 22.9.43 as 43-6365 (104-24953). It was nicknamed “Z Hub” and flown by 1.Lt Eldon E. Posey of 355 FS of the 9th AF when it landed at Rinkaby on 13.5.44 due to fuel shortage after an escort mission to Stettin. “Z Hub” was ferried to Stockholm/Barkarby and was used by Capt. Nicholas Megura in a display for high rank Swedish AF officers a few weeks later. After this the Mustang was stored at Barkarby until 14.3.45 when it was flown over to nearby Bromma. During this time the American star was painted over. On 10.4.45 “Z Hub” was flown by Swedish pilot Assar Svensson, now a small white (?) star was painted on each side of the fuselage. On the same day the first ten P-51Ds were delivered to Bromma by USAAF-pilots.

With TTSN 220 hrs was “Z Hub” offically TOC by the Swedish AF on 30.7.45. It was used as an unarmed liasion a/c by the staff flight of F 16 Wing at Uppsala. It was SOC 19.11.52 and scrapped (TTSN 448 hrs).

Just found an interesting page about the Mustang in Swedish service that included this excerpt
“43 were delivered by US ferry pilots to Sweden on Apr 23:rd, flying from Liverpool to Bromma airfield in Stockholm. On this occasion they met German fighters over the North Sea, whereupon one Messerschmitt 109 was shot down. Three more arrived on Apr 30:th. These were all accepted by the Swedish air force immedeately upon delivery. “
This is from http://www.canit.se/~griffon/aviation/text/26mustan.htm

Thanx, Papa Lima

The name of the German F/E was Heinz Edgar Roesch. He later became a car dealer here in Sweden, but that is another story… 😉

Read about his escape: http://www.dornier24.com/pages/stories/story8.html

Here is a pic of the Do 24 at F 2 Hägernäs before it was taken on charge of the Swedish AF. The German markings are covered by white paint.

Dornier Do 24T-3 in Swedish service

On 31 October 1944 this Do 24 landed at Hällevik with two refugees on board. The aircraft belonged to the German air sea rescue unit based at Nest (East Swinemünde). The pilot was a German flight engineer and he was accompanied by an Estonian woman.
The aircraft was in excellent condition and after instruction by the German pilot it was flown to Karlskrona for examination. After further instruction by the German, it was flown on to F 2 Hägernäs by a Swedish crew. It had apparently only flown 12 hours from new when it landed in Sweden. Sale of the aircraft to Sweden was negotiated with the German authorities, and SEK 250 000 was paid for it in January 1945. After a complete overhaul and repainting at Central Flygverkstaden in Västerås (CCV) it was approved on 11 May 1945 as Type Tp 24 and assigned registration number 3343 (the same as its construction number).
The German entered the Swedish Air Force as an instructor and assisted with training and maintenance.
The Tp 24 served at F 2 up to 1951. When scrapped in August 1951 it had flown almost 560 hours for Sweden. It was mainly used for reconnaissance over the Baltic and once the Tp47 Catalina entered service its air sea rescue role came to an end.
(Precis of text in “Svenska Vingar 1”)

Thanx for helping me out on this, Jan 🙂

Regarding markings of German a/c tested by the Flygvapnet there was no standard.

The Bf 109-10/R3 mentioned earlier (landed at Malmö/Bulltofta 4.5.45 and belonged to 10./JG 51, code yellow 5, W/nr. 130297) seemed to had its Balkenkreutz’ under the wings painted over with a square in black (?). On the fuz the German national insignas were painted over with a band going all around it. Red, yellow, green or blue – hard to see which on b/w photos.

The “Swedish” marked Bf 109G-10 (W/nr. 490137, code White 14) mentioned by Jan was flown by Hptm. W. Wagler of JG 51 who deserted and landed at Rinkarby 24.4.45. It was later tested by Fred Lambert-Meuller of the Swedish AF evaluation unit (FC) out of Rinkarby with blue square’s and yellow cross covering the Balkenkreutz on the fuselage.

Lambert-Meuller also tested a Fw 190. It was a Fw 190 F-8/R1 (W/nr. 63801022) flown by Fw. H.J. Deitel of 2./JGrOst to Malmö/Bulltofta on 3.2.45. Lambert-Meuller flew the 190 twice. On the second flight he couldn’t retract the u/c so he bellied it. During these tests the a/c had its German markings simply sprayed over with white paint. This Fw 190 was later scapped at FC at Malmen AB in 1947.

Then we shouldn’t forget the Luftwaffe Do 24 taken over by the Swedish AF…. 😉

Not exactly a Hampden – an HP53 Suecia, altered to meet Swedish requirements, and delivered 1 September 1938 called a P5. Converted in 1941 to a military VIP transport (by adding one(!) extra seat). Served until 1945, then sold to SAAB and registered SE-APD for use in testing electronic equipment.

Sweden also had a Hampden. I think that they bought it pre-war though.

Best wishes
Steve P

I have just bought a copy of Bo Widfeldt’s “Svenska Vingar 1” (ISBN 91-971605-3-9)which details every type of aircraft (including helicopters) that has served in the Swedish Air Force. As far as I know, it is only available in Swedish, but as a professional translator I would like to be able to help produce an English version one day! I must get in contact with the publishers and see if they are interested in publishing and English version, as this is an invaluable reference book.

Re the B-17 test flights, I’d suggest that you contact Mr Bo Widfeldt, who is a walking encyclopedia on the US, RAF, Luftwaffe etc aircraft that came down in Sweden during the war. Apart from the Luftwaffe in Sweden book, he has written quite a few other titles on this subject. Bo’s contact information can be found here: http://ahr.widfeldt.se/english.html

And yes, Flygvapnet did order several types of aircraft from Germany prior to the outbreak of the war. Among these were the Junkers Ju 86K medium bomber (designated as the B 3, and also produced under licence by Saab), the Heinkel He 115 twin-float torpedo bomber/maritime reconnaissance aircraft (designated as the T 2) and the Fiesler Fi 156C Storch (designated as the S 14). More on these types of aircraft can be found here:http://www.avrosys.nu/aircraft/index.htm

Re the B 3, you might want to practice your Swedish language skills by reading the book B 3 – Junkers Ju 86 in Sweden by Lennart Andersson. Lennart has written several other books, including titles on the Swedish aviation industry and the Flygvapnet post-war ‘spying’ flights against the USSR. More can be found here: http://goto.glocalnet.net/LAflyg/index.htm

Regards,

Jan

Jan-
Thanks for the info, I am going to look into that book, sounds very interesting. Did the Flygvapnet not buy some Italian and German aircraft prior to the outbreak of the war? Not sure which though…
Do you have any further info on the B-17 “test flights” with US crews? Sounds very interesting… What became of the aircraft?

Hi Entropy,

Although many B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators came down in Sweden during the war, none were ever served in the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet). Many of them were test flown in Sweden, but by US crews (usually with at least one Swedish officer onboard and reduced fuelload). None received Swedish Air Force insignia, unlike several of the B-17s and B-24s that landed in Switzerland.

At the end of the war, the Swedish Air Force looked into the possibility of obtaining and converting some of the B-17s or B-24s for aerial mine-sweeping duties, which would use the same technique as the Luftwaffe with their ‘Mausi’ Bv 138s and Ju 52/3ms. Ultimately, this was deemed as being too dangerous, and a job better performed by ships.

However, seven B-17s were rebuilt by Saab into 14-seat airliners for use by SILA. The basic story of this can be found here: http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2006/february/i_history.html

Of the ten P-51 Mustangs that landed in Sweden, four (two Bs and two Ds) entered service with Flygvapnet. The sole F-5E Lightning that came down in Sweden (s/n 42-28616, which landed at Wing F 8 Barkarby on 22 November 1944), was test flown at Wing F 1 until she was written off in a landing accident on 28 June 1945. Sadly, no Flygvapnet markings.

Re the Luftwaffe aircraft, the Bf 109G-10 referred to by SierraEchoFred was piloted by Horst Petzschler, and later test flown by the Swedish Air Force. During these tests, the Bf 109G received a blue and yellow cross painted over the Balkenkreutz. The whole story and photos of Petzschler’s Bf 109 and all other Luftwaffe aircraft that for various reasons came down in Sweden during the war can be found in Bo Widfeldt’s book Luftwaffe in Sweden, of which more here: http://ahr.widfeldt.se/swedish/bok_luftwaffe.jsp.

Incidentally, Flygvapnet planned to buy two Luftwaffe Ju 52/3ms after the war, but, for various reasons, this was not proceeded with.

Regards,

Jan

a good book is Strangers in a strange land by heinz henry stafler, 2 volumes of
all aircraft that went to switzerland, most american bombers but a p-51, Mosquito, several ju-88’s, awesome book. It should be available on amazon or
other sources

I remeber seeing a few aircraft that the Swedes did paint with thier own marking, much like the Swiss did with some German aircraft. Just wondering if there were any pics floating around. I do remmeber a B-17 but maybe it was civil registered. Any pics of the German aircraft in 1940? I misspoke about about landing in Sweden with the Tre Kronor, obviulsy this came after!
BTW might be down in Gotebrorg next month at a friends summer house, maybe we can do fika?

Some German a/c were given Swedish civil reg in order to be flown back to Germany in 1940. These were:

SE-AKR Ju 52/3m SE+KC (6664)
SE-AKS Ju 52/3m SE+IM (5791)
SE-AKT Ju 52/3m SE-HU (6132)
SE-AKU Fi 156C-1 BD+PY (4307)

All a/c were painted up with large letters.

A few Luftwaffe a/c that were tested by the Swedish AF in 1944/45 got some special markings. To cover the German cross a big black square was painted and sometimes in that a white (or yellow) cross was also painted. I’ve seen pictures of a Bf 109G pinted as such and I belive it was the one that was w/o at Bromma 29.8.45, then flown by a Soviet pilot.

After a quick look through “Flyget på Bulltofta 1919-1972” I see that of all the US, Britsh and German aircraft that emergency landed in Sweden during the war only one, the P-51B Mustang 43-6365 “Z-Hub” was repaired and put into Swedish Air Force service after the war.
It appears that all the others were either scrapped or returned after being repaired(and after the end of the war) to their native countries.
AB Aerotransport did buy eight formerly emergency-landed B-17s for one dollar each for use as civil transports after the war, but flew them in civil markings of course.
However, I don’t quite understand what you mean by “landed in Sweden during WWII with Swedish markings” as all these were in their own countries’ markings of course!