The Unteroffizier Karl-Heinz Schleiermacher at his place of observer, near the pilot, onboard an Junkers Ju 88 of the Luftwaffe’s 4 Staffel/Lehrgeschwader 1 (4/LG1), based at Catania, Sicily. Schleiermacher, born 27th April 1920 in Bad Wildungen, Germany, was KIA on the evening 12th April 1942, when his plane, the Junkers Ju 88A-4, Werke/Nr.5595, fuselage code L1+GM, was hit and shot down by AA fire during a raid against the Malta’s airfield, Ta Qali and Luqa. The airplane crashed near La Valletta without survivors. Only the body of Schleiermacher was recovered. The other crewmembers: Oberfeldwebel Waldemar Kremin, pilot, Unteroffizier Karl Seyffer, radio/operator, Unteroffizier Richard Hackethal, gunner, was declared MIA. Victor Sierra

KIA over Malta

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

British-American Ju 88

Fw189 Uhu 'Flying Eye'
with the FuG 212 C-1 radar and 'Schräge Music'
from LuftArchiv.de