#mark postlethwaite

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1943 10 04 Norway, Operation Leader - Mark Postlethwaite

Dauntlesses and Wildcats from USS Ranger attack German shipping in Bodo harbour on 4th October 1943.

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1918 06 08 De Havilland DH4 No 25 Sqdn vs Jasta 14 - Mark Postlethwaite

repost better quality no watermark

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Lieutenant Johansen et Fern Hulmen dans un de Havilland Mosquito HP864 du 333e Escadron de la Royal Norwegian Air Force attaquant le U-998 au large des côtes norvégiennes – 16 juin 1944

©Artwork by Mark Postlethwaite

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1943 10 17 P-38 Lightning 475 Fighter Group Tom McGuire - Mark Postlethwaite

In mid-October 1943, New Guinea-based USAAF and RAAF bomber and attack aircraft commenced an aerial offensive against the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. In turn, Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft targeted Allied shipping in nearby Oro Bay, and it fell to V Fighter Command units to protect these vessels. In the vanguard of the defence was the P-38 Lightning-equipped 475th FG.

At 0930 hrs on 17 October, the group's 431st FS was scrambled from Number 12 airstrip when 15-20 A6M 'Zekes' were intercepted by the 432nd FS over Oro Bay upon their return from a mission to Lae. Amongst the pilots to engage the enemy was leading group ace, 1st Lt Tom McGuire (in P-38H-5 42-66836 ). His combat report from the mission read as follows;

'We were ordered off by the controller and sent to Tufi at 0930 hrs, after which we were told to proceed to "angels 20" over Oro Bay. I was leading "Hades White Flight". We were at 23,000 ft when we sighted the enemy at a position of "eleven o'clock", slightly above us (a group of from 10-20 Zeros). After we dropped our belly tanks, 1st Lt Kirby, in his capacity as squadron leader that day, led us in to a climbing head-on attack.

'I selected one "Zeke" at the right of the formation and started firing. He started smoking and rolled down and to his right. I followed, firing intermittently, to 18,000 ft, then pulled back to rejoin our formation. I had lost my second element and my wingman (Lt Hunt) by this time. My wingman could only drop one belly tank, and because of this could not pull out of his dive until at 4000 ft. He saw the "Zeke" that I had fired on go straight down, still smoking.

'I pulled up behind "Red Flight" at 21,000 ft, and arrived in time to see two Zeros attacking from a position of "four o'clock high". After I had fired at them in an attempt to drive them away, four others started down on me from "six o'clock high", forcing me to dive to 14,000 ft. I had begun a climb when I sighted two "Zekes" at "two o'clock" and 1000 ft below me. I dived in to an attack, getting several shots with no results observed. 'I was at 18,000 ft when three Zekes from "eight o'clock high" attacked me. As I was diving out, one got very close to me and put two "slugs" into the cockpit and possibly other parts of the ship. My evasive manoeuvre in this instance was to increase my dive to vertical, diving to 7000 ft, then pulling up to 13,000 ft.

'At that time I saw seven Zeros in a loose formation and to the rear of a P-38, which appeared to be in trouble. As one Zeke began his pass at the P-38, I made my attack on him from a 90-degree angle of deflection. I fired a long burst and saw him break away in flames. Feeling that I could distract the enemy from the P-38 by making an attack, I pulled up slightly and to the right, getting a direct tail shot. I closed to about 100 ft and began firing. The "Zeke" began burning and rolled slowly to the left and down. The remaining "Zekes" attacked me at that time. One was about 100 ft behind me, and closing. As I started to dive out, my left engine began to burn, my right engine was smoking, a cannon shell burst in the radio compartment and a 7.7 mm machine gun bullet hit my wrist and embedded itself into the instrument panel. Other shells hit at the base of the control column. I received shrapnel in my right arm and my hips. 'I tried to pull out of the dive but my elevator controls were completely useless. I then released my escape hatch and bailed out. I landed in the sea about 25 miles from shore and remained there for approximately 30 minutes. I was unable to inflate my life raft as it had been holed by shrapnel. I was picked up by Navy PT boat No 152 and carried to PT Tender USS Hilo in Buna Bay.

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1943 03 22 Tunis, Mareth Line, Spitfire Mk.IXc Stanislaw Skalski Polish Fighter Team - Mark Postlethwaite

The Polish Fighting Team (PFT) also known as “Skalski’s Circus” was a Polish unit which fought alongside the British Commonwealth Desert Air Force in the North African Campaign of World War 2, during 1943. Its nickname was derived from its commander, Stanislaw Skalski. In late 1942, Polish Air force Staff Command requested RAF permission to send a group of specifically chosen pilots to the North African theatre of operations to acquire experience in operating as a part of a tactical air force in preparation for future Allied landings on the European continent. Volunteers had to be experienced (with at least 30 operation missions completed) and some 70 volunteers were considered nefore 15 pilots were chosen for the operational tour of three months. Formed at Northolt on February 5th, 1943, as the Polish Fighting Team, initial preparations for overseas service took place at RAF West Kirby, and the unit embarked on February 24th, arriving in North Africa on March 13th 1943. The team was initially attached as “C” flight, to No. 145 Squadron RAF, equipped with the Spitfire MK.V and operating from Bu Ghara, 150 miles west of Tripoli. Commencing operations on March 18th the unit gained an immediate reputation for combat effectiveness. The unit was re-equipped with the Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX in late March.

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1943 08 19 Fw190 JG1 Oesau aces - Mark Postlethwaite

repost with complete story

During the early evening of 19 August 1943, a force of 93 B-17s of the US Eighth Air Force’s 1st Heavy Bombardment Wing under escort from 175 P-47s of the 4th, 56th, 78th and 353rd FGs attacked Luftwaffe airfields at Gilze-Rijen and Vlissingen in occupied Holland, while the 4th Heavy Bombardment Wing targeted Woensdrecht, but abandoned its strike owing to heavy cloud.

As the bombers approached their targets, they ran into strong formations of Luftwaffe fighters drawn from I. and III./JG 1, III./JG 2, I./JG 3 and II. and III./JG 26. I./JG 1 was based at Deelen, under the command of Hauptmann Emil-Rudolf Schnoor, and was quickly scrambled to intercept the Flying Fortresses as they crossed the coast. Launching head-on attacks, the Fw 190A-4s and A-5s of I. Gruppe claimed no fewer than seven B-17s, although only five American bombers were listed as lost.

These still relatively early encounters between large formations of USAAF and Luftwaffe aircraft honed tactics for both sides and led to growing numbers of JG 1 pilots developing potent skills in combatting the dreaded Viermots.

Mark Postlethwaite’s dramatic cover painting depicts the moment Unteroffizier Bernhard Kunze of 1./JG 1 became an ‘ace’ in the eyes of the Luftwaffe, as he banks his Fw 190A-5, Wk-Nr 410055, White ‘4’, away from a squadron of B-17s, which has clearly suffered damage during the German attack. His aircraft carries the distinctive black and white chequerboard recognition cowling of 1./JG 1. It has been asserted that the chequerboard was yellow and black on this aircraft, but photographic evidence suggests that what has been interpreted as yellow is, in fact, dirty, oil-stained white. On its port side Kunze’s machine also carried the pilot’s personal emblem of a red heart just below the cockpit, superimposed with the name ‘Friedel’. At some point five victory markings were applied to the left side of the rudder, but it is not known if this had been done by 19 August.

Kunze would go on to be credited with nine victories, of which seven were B-17s, plus one P-47 and a B-24. He was lost on 5 January 1944 while holding the rank of Feldwebel with 2./JG 1, after crash-landing in his Fw 190A-6, Wk-Nr 550884, Black ‘1’, near Bergisch-Gladbach following an air action

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1943 03 04 Focke Wulf Fw189 - Mark Postlethwaite

Focke Wulf Fw 189 of Aufkl.Gr. (H) 32 running into trouble on an early morning reconnaissance mission over Loukhi, Finland, 4th March 1943.

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1942 11 28 Bf109 E-7 Slovakia - Mark Poslethwaite

Bf 109E-7 (Wk-Nr 6474) 'White 12' of porucik Vladimir Krisko, 13(slow)./JG 52, Maikop, Kuban, November 1942, claimed a Polikarpov I-153 over Tuapse for his first victory