German Air Force

British-American Ju 88

Francis E. Hudlow Collection, 65th FS

The Junkers Ju 88 delivered to the Allied forces by a Rumanian defector on July 1943. The plane, a Ju 88D-1/Trop (later designated Ju 88D-3) for long-range photographic reconnaissance, built on 1943, was flown from Romania to Cyprus and captured intact by the Royal Air Force. Afterwards the RAF turned the plane to the U.S. Army Air Forces in North Africa. In this photo, from the collection of Francis E. Hudlow, 65th Fighter Squadron's official photographer, the former Rumanian Ju 88 in Tunisia, with the Allied markings (British on the fin and American stars on the fuselage and under the wing) added by the British Camouflage unit and Americans of the 26th Air Depot Group. The aircraft, called “Baksheesh” and overhauled by the American mechanics, was transferred, with a transatlantic flight, to the United States. After Wright Field test pilots flew the aircraft extensively, the USAAF stored it in the Arizona desert after the end of WWII. The plane is the same today displayed on the US Air Force’s Museum at Wright-Patterson. Victor Sierra