Spitfires in WWII Germany?

An interesting book on this subject might be ‘Luftwaffe Test Pilot’ by
Hans Werner Lerche , he flew a fair number of captured Allied Aircraft during WW2 including

Spitfire
Typhoon
Tempest
P51B
P47D
Wellington
Blenheim
B24 and B17
Lancaster

His final wartime flight was a Do335 from Rechlin to near Munich , this aircraft went to the USA for some years but returned to Germany to be restored in the 70’s.

The best place to find photos and info on this subject on the net is here

http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org/forums/index.php?showforum=23

“Captured Aircraft with the Luftwaffe”

It does exactly what it says on the tin!

Luftwaffe PR.XI

I think this is the same example as shown in Mark 12’s photo.

I have an ancient book published by ARCO, “The B-24 Liberator”, part of the “Famous Aircraft Series”, which has many interesting first-hand anecdotes in it.

One of them describes a mission over Europe during which the formation of B-24’s came under air attack by enemy fighters, including a “Spitfire….painted overall lustre black; wonder who he was?” (with an Me109 as wingman). I’ll dig out the book tonight to get the actual quote, if anyone is interested.

Obviously I can’t attest to the accuracy of the story, seing as I wasn’t there…

cheers

greg v.

One Spitfire was clearly ‘re-roundelled’ after having German markings applied for propaganda photographs. They were re-applied too far inboard, indeed in the exact position of the German insignia, to cover it.

I’ve seen a photo of a Spit “attacking” a Dornier – the roundels are too far inboard on it, so possibly it’s the one you mean?

so then Mr Gowans – can we persuade you to have the most unusually marked spit on the circuit!?

TT

Photos exist of a Hurricane in North Africa that was captured by the Germans, and given German markings, then captured back by the British.

Best wishes
Steve P

This is probably the most interesting shot of a number of captured Spitfires in Luftwaffe markings I have in my archive. A PR Mk XI

One Spitfire was clearly ‘re-roundelled’ after having German markings applied for propaganda photographs. They were re-applied too far inboard, indeed in the exact position of the German insignia, to cover it.

Mark

Thanks Guys, some interesting stuff here.

If you go to Hyperscale forum and search for the keyword Messispit
you should find some discussion of EN830 and some nice model pictures too

http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/forum.htm

Someone’s alias is a German Spitfire’s serial.

I wonder who that could be ?

A couple of images of EN830 in German hands:-

Thanks to Gaël Elégoét

Article and pic of Zirkus Rosarius-operated Mustang (and Thunderbolt in the background):

Zirkus Rosarius

Several pics exist of Spitfire PRXIs operated by the Zirkus Rosarius, and quite a few other types used, too.

There’s a bit here:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30165

Circus Rosarius.

Also there was an interesting story (In Flypast within the last couple of years)of a defecting / spy pilot who flew a Hurricane to the Continent, which ended up in the Berlin Museum.

Someone’s alias is a German Spitfire’s serial.

There’s a famous photo taken out of the nose of a He-111 purporting to be an RAF Spitfire under fire – opinion is it was a German owned example used for propaganda.

There was a special German unit that toured the airfields with captured equipment to show the pilots how to attack and defend against them.Some kind of Circus if I recall.Someone with less holier a memory than me will answer.

Did any Spitfires, or for that matter Hurricanes, end up in German hands during WWII and were any flown “in anger” as it where?

Several were captured and evaluated (a canvas winged Hurricane in the Battle of France, a Spitfire MkVb force landed on the French coast in 1941 and was repaired, several Hurricanes in the North African desert) but I’m not aware of any being flown against the allies in combat – though I believe this happened both ways round with Finland and Russia… Don’t have any details, but can check on the Hurricanes this evening. At least one was painted in Luftwaffe markings, I suspect more were.