This German fighter pilot, likely of the JG-53 “Pik-As” (Ace of Spades), take advantage of an inspection to its Messerschmitt Bf 109 for shaving. The environment, a landing strip at Cancello, Southern Latium, South of Rome, late Summer 1943, isn’t undoubtedly of the best. Note the rough accommodation, typical of many German temporary bases in the Apennines during the Campaign of Italy. Clearly the adaptability of Luftwaffe’s personnel were remarkable. Victor Sierra

German pilot shaving

A cartload of hay drawn by oxen has clearly waked by his brief sleep open air over the stubbles, near his Bf 109, a German fighter pilot of the Luftwaffe’s JG 53 (Pik-As Geschwader) at Cancello, a landing strip on the Apennines at South of Rome, Autumn 1943. This photo give a clearly image of the hard life’s conditions of Luftwffe’s men on the rough airstrip fitted close the frontline in the Apennines areas. A personal remembrance: when I was a child, in the Fifties, at L’Aquila, Abruzzi, in the Fifties, I remember one sector of the local cemetery with many graves, some with a gravestone often penciled (XXX, Sky of XXX, day, month and year) of German pilots killed on the fight with the Allied air forces flying from South to North or on return. This pilots acting by the many airstrips on the area like that of the photo, airstrip immediately returned to agriculture just after the hostilities. Victor Sierra