Hans Joachim Marseille Here with one of his kills in North Africa. 1. The most successful combat flier at the African front, knight cross carrier second lieutenant Marseille, that in the meantime its 50. Firing transact could, with the enemy machine, which it with its 48. Air victory brought down. 31-3-42 2. 3. Peter, Any further info on the Hurricane?
Great Pic. Looks like the rarer Mk2 With 10 gun 0.3 arnement. Looks like he put up a fight, guns have been fired. Probably survived judging by the decent wheels up landing. Kev edit: sorry looks like wheels down landing. The undercart come through the wing....
Marseille was an awful loss to the Luftwaffe when he died. Did he strike the tail of the aircraft of the Bf109 he was bailing out of? Hans-Joachim Marseille - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia He didnt enter the combat sphere until August 1940, yet his wiki profile no pilot had more kills against the RAF or the USAAF!! There are however doubts about all of his claims.
From the link on my first post: On Sept. 26, he shot down his last victims, making a total of 158 confirmed air victories. He received a new Me-109 aircraft but refused to replace his faithful aircraft. His status was such that only an order by Fieldmarshal Kesselring, the supreme commander of the German forces in the southern front, convinced him three days later to use the new aircraft. The next morning, Sept. 30, 1942, he flew his 382nd combat mission, a fighter sweep over British territory. They met no enemies, and turned back towards the German lines. Marseille then had a technical problem. His new aircraft's engine cooling system failed, the engine caught fire, and his cockpit was full of smoke. Encouraged by his fellows, Marseille flew his burning new Me-109 three more minutes until he was again over German held territory. He then turned his aircraft upside down, jettisoned the canopy, and then released himself and fell outside of the burning fighter. Bailing out is not always safe, and Marseille was hit in the chest by the rudder of his Me-109 and lost consciousness, so he did not open his parachute, and fell down to the ground and died.
he also hit the tail of his 109G with his skull as well. Pictures prove that, sad day for the LW, some do say he would of been the top scoring pilot on the western front had he not been killed, though I feel most likely he would of fallen in the Reichsverteidigung in Germany 44-45.
