It’s a bit odd. The MG breeches are open indicating that people have been around it and been playing with it and messing with it, alot of damage occurs to belly landed 109’s afterwards in the hands of soldiers, so much of the tail damage could have happened after belly landing but if soldiers have been around the cockpit area and playing with the breeches I have a very hard time believing they would leave a body in the cockpit, no.1 he’s in the way of all the souveniers! It seems like a modeller would love to make a diorama like this but it’s not particulary believable.
The tail wheel is down indicating that this k-4 had the tail wheel locked down as happened on many k-4’s but the tail wheel doors are open which seems strange, usually with retractable tail wheels locked down the doors are locked shut.
Also where are the wing large tire fairings? These are made out of very substantial and thick metal and riveted on top of the existing wing with the cutout for the balloon tyres but there is no sign of it?
How is the pilot sitting upright? His back should be held up by the cockpit bathtub that has apparently been blown away, also the MW tank is not damaged but that area has extreme damage? What’s he held up by (modelling glue!)
Around the firewall I would expect to see the U/C selector and drop tank valve as it is light natural metal but there is no sign of it.
Quite a few strange things really, I am not convinced, if anyone diasagrees with these observations the please say.
Matt
The bold part of the quote makes perfect sense (the rest makes sense too). Soldiers were brutalised by the war and would remove an enemy soldier at the drop of a hat, if it provided access to loot, or souvenirs. There is no way a pilot would have been present at the time the picture was taken.
However, I don’t think the AC looks like a model.
Even if a friend of the photographer crawled into the cockpit to pose, I think he would have looked more real. The pose is very unnatural (for living or dead humans). The “pilot” looks like a dummy to me. Could it have been some kind of experiment?
I feel Soviet propaganda would have made sure, that the viewer had no doubt about who shot down this aircraft – the red army. Arranging the scene, so some red army personnel, or soviet landmark, could be seen. The image is just too generic to make good propaganda.
For anyone trying to identify the aircraft, my guess is, that it was taken in Europe by Americans, since the seller offers mostly American pictures (the Reichsverteidigund also indicates a European location). The K-4 was operative from around October 1944.
I will now dig into my books and see if I can identify the markings further.
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