Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

Photograph. 6.5 x 4.5 inches.

Notes

The photograph shows a downed German Messerschmitt 109 guarded by two British soldiers. The plane has demolished a small building and come to rest by a domestic building with a hipped roof (with Kent peg tiles), and a chimney. The plane bears the unit marking of JG 26, which was based at airfields in the Pas de Calais until being sent to the Mediterranean theatre for several months in February 1941. The lack of foliage on the trees indicates that the season was winter, and there is a strong probability that this plane was the 109 which crashed at Abbey Farm on the Leeds Castle Estate on 12 December 1940. It was shot down by a Hurricane over Leeds and the pilot, Fw. Rudolf Lindemann, was taken prisoner. The aircraft is recorded as a Bf 109 E-4 (Werk Nr. 3708) with black 2 markings, as carried by the aircraft in the photograph. Jagdgeschwader 26, or JG 26, was perhaps the most formidable and successful German fighter wing that faced the RAF across the Channel, from the Battle of Britain onwards. The identification of this print is not, however, certain and there is still scope for more detailed research.