Line-up of Messerschmitt Bf 110G-1s at a Southern Italy’s airfield, perhaps Montecorvino, near Salerno, Summer 1943. The aircraft are of the Luftwaffe’s Zerstörergeschwader 1 (ZG 1), the well-known “Wespengeschwader”, fuselage code Code S9+, unit of the II. Fliegerkorps, Luftflotte II In mid-1943 the I and II Gruppen of the ZG 1 arrived in Italy from Eastern Front bringing to the III./ZG 1. Before Montecorvino the unit was deployed in Siciliy, at Trapani, and afterwards at Pomigliano, near Naples. Notice the undercarriage’s wheels covered with straw’s sheaf so as to protect the tires from the Sun’s heath and also the under wing auxiliary fuel tanks. Victor Sierra

“Wespengeschwader” in Southern Italy

The crew of Lt. Fuhrhop used to take their mascot, a Scottish Terrier named 'Peter', on many of their operations. Sadly, Peter was killed by a stray bullet from an I-16 during an operation on 13 June 1938 over Sagunto, Spain, and the crew painted this memorial to him on the fin of their He 111. The lower sentence translates as 'in aerial combat over Sagunto'.

In Peter's memory

Bf 110Gs of the Luftwaffe’s Zerstörergeschwader 1 (ZG 1) “Wespengeschwader” sabotaged by the same personnel and abandoned at Montecorvino airfield before the retreat towards North of the German forces after the Allied’s advance and the Salerno’s landing, September 1943. In foreground some Regia Aeronautica’s fuel drums themselves sabotaged by the Italians likely pick pummeled. Victor Sierra