Anti bomber pilots, in defense of the Reich. Part 5

Focke-Wulf Fw190A-8 'White 21' of feldwebel Fritz Buchholz of II./JG 6
 sits on the apron outside a hangar at Königsberg-Neumrk, on the doors
 of which has been painted a full-size frontal rendition of B-17.
 The Gruppe was formed from the Me410-eqipped II./ZG 26 in the summer
 of 1944. Buchholz had previously flown the twin-engined
 Messerschmitt Me410 fitted with the 5cm BK cannon.

"One fourth of the German war economy was neutralized because of direct bomb damage, the resulting delays, shortages and roundabout solutions, and the spending on anti-aircraft, civil defence, repair, and removal of factories to safer locations. The raids were so large and often repeated that in city after city, the repair system broke down. The bombing prevented the full mobilization of German economic potential."

RAF estimates of destruction of "built up areas" of major German cities:
Berlin 33%, Cologne 61%, Dortmund 54%, Dresden 59%, Düsseldorf 64%, Essen 50%, Frankfurt 52%, Hamburg 75%, Leipzig 20%, Munich 42%, Bochum 83%, Bremen 60%, Chemnitz 41%, Dessau 61%, Duisburg 48%, Hagen 67%, Hanover 60%, Kassel 69%, Kiel 50%, Mainz 80%, Magdeburg 41%, Mannheim 64%, Nuremberg 51%, Stettin 53%, Stuttgart 46%.

A pilot catches up with his rest on the grass beside Focke-Wulf Fw190A-8 'White 5' of II.(Sturm)/JG 300 at Holzkirchen in late August 1944. The aircraft is fitted with armoured glass side windscreen panels as well as armoured panels on either side of the cockpit. A parachute is ready on the wing of 'White 10', the next aircraft in line.

Messerschmitt Me262A-1a 'Green 3'of the Geschwderstab of JG 7 prepared to move of across the concrete surface at Brandenburg-Briest in February or early march 1945. the aircraft, finished in a relatively rare application of streaked horizontal lines, has been fitted with a pair of 21cm WGr air-to-air mortar tubes visible beneath the fuselage aft of the nose wheel.