1943 was the pinnacle of German air defense. A brief period where the Luftwaffe owned the skies, and Allied bombers entered it only at extreme peril.

Let’s take a look at one colorful combatant from the period of German domination.

From the start of the War, Jagdgeschwader 1 was assigned the defense of Northern Germany. They initially flew the Bf 109, then in 1942 two of the three assigned Gruppen converted to the Fw 190. That’s where things stood in 1943 as the USAAF daylight strategic bombing campaign gathered strength.

Developing an effective long range escort fighter remained a question mark for the US Air Force through most of that year; and much of the senior leadership, known as the “Bomber Mafia” were convinced the bombers could fight their way through without escorts. So larger formations, hundreds of heavy bombers penetrated German airspace that year.

We so often hear of how awful the casualties were. And make no mistake, they were awful. But the task was daunting for the Luftwaffe too. American heavies WERE heavily armed and well protected. Their formations were designed to point heavy machine guns in every possible direction. Resisting this bombing campaign was a major effort for Germany. Fighter Gruppen, planes and pilots, were reassigned from the Eastern Front and Mediterranean. Heavy fighters and night fighters with serious bomber killing firepower were also assigned.

And through 1943 the Germans seemed to winning this part of the War. Every bomber shot down caused ten times the casualties of each defending fighter brought down, not to mention German pilots often returned to action within the day. The climax is usually considered to be two massive missions in August and October. This was the first real attempt identifying a critical strategic target. Eighth Air Force would prioritize the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt.

The two big Schweinfurt missions have gone down as a disaster for Eighth Air Force. German Air Defense was at its peak capability, and no long range fighters accompanied the bombers. Casualties were massive.
The first was an attempted double strike, to confuse defenses, both Schweinfurt and a Messerschmitt factory at Regensburg were targeted on August 17. Over 376 B-17 bombers (no B-24 Liberators. These had all been assigned to Libya for Operation Tidal Wave) were dispatched and 60 were shot down.
On October 14 a follow up was scheduled. Supposedly at mission briefings, when the target map was revealed, the room was filled with groans and boos. 291 B-17s were assigned. This time, 77 were lost.

The factories were heavily damaged, but this was an obvious victory for the Luftwaffe. Unfortunately for the Americans, Germany had a significant supply of ball bearings. And the industry could be dispersed, or sourced from suppliers in Switzerland or Sweden. So for the cost of a minor logistical headache, a major victory was won.
Unfortunately for the Germans, the Americans learned a valuable lesson. They would fly no more missions into Germany until long-range fighters, in the form of the P-51B Mustang, were available in enough numbers to arrange an escort all the way to the target. And this would be with a new mission. Eighth Fighter Command was now told that whatever the bombers were doing, the extinction of the German fighter force was their priority target. In essence, when bombing missions resumed the bombers would be bait. This started a cycle the Luftwaffe could not win.

This particular aircraft was assigned to those defenders of northern Germany, JG 1. Apart from being at the peak of their effectiveness, 1943 also saw a peak for colorful markings. Briefly, the component Gruppen took to painting their noses solid white, yellow or red depending on which Gruppe. But soon, at least the Fw 190 equipped Gruppen adopted black checks over the color. Early in 1944 the switched to black stripes, so the red and black checks seen here identify this as a late 1943 aircraft.
It was flown by an Austrian pilot, Anton-Rudolf Piffer. He had 26 kills over the Western Allies, 20 of them four-engine heavies. I believe he had kills against both Schweinfurt raids. He was killed by Thunderbolts on June 17, 1944.

This is the Hasegawa kit, with kit decals. I was a little concerned with the complexity of 3-D shapes around the cowling and considered converting the black checkers into masks. But they were quite well engineered for shape, and went down well with a couple applications of Micro Sol. I’m glad I didn’t chose the harder way!