Bf110 (Cor D?) G9+HM(?) Ofw.Paul Gildner Febr/March 1941

[jjp_nl]

Hello, I'm new here. My name is Jelmer and I live in The Netherlands.

For a scale model project I'm doing I'm looking into a victory achieved by soon-to-be-ace Ofw. Paul Gildner during the night of 28 Febr-1 March 1941 over the Northern piece of The Netherlands.The nightfighter diaries (among others) puts Gildner and his radio operator Rudi Muller at the helm of a Leeuwarden based 4./NJG1 Bf110 with fuselage code G9+HM (werk.nr unknown to me sofar) on the night of 28 Febr- 1 March 1941. Patrolling sector 'Löwe' (Lion) Gildner intercepted and shot down a 105 Sqn Blenheim IV T1895 flown by Sgt. Heape (who only by a miracle was the only surviver) that crashed near the eastern outskirts of the city of Groningen. (note: the night fighter diaries tables apparently mentions a Wellington, whereas the text discribing the event says it's a Blenheim, other sources also state it to be a Blenheim, so I'm stickig with the Blenheim)

While I've pieced together the story that sounds pretty plausible to me, I'm desperatly looking for pictures and/or any other technical information/details regarding Gildners plane at this time. I've since learned that his unit at the time was probably flying Bf110C-4, Bf110D-2 and Bf110D-3 subtypes of the Bf110.

I did find a few night time close-up pictures that are said to be of Gildners plane around spring '41, however no specific details can be derived from those other then that it's a black Bf110 night fighter (night fighter emblem clearly visable) that looks pretty ragged in parts (maybe paint of the the former ZG camouflage showing through the black nightfighter colors used at the time.)

Does anybody have any further information on this particular plane? (werk.nr of his plane, sub-type of his plane be it a Bf110C or a Bf110D sub-type, any other special visible features such as colors or the spinners etc. use of ID bands, victory markings etc, provisions for either external fuel-tanks or bombs) and possibly even some clear pictures of Gildners Bf110 G9+HM? Any information would be greatly appreciated.



Many thanks in advance

Jelmer
The Netherlands

[Crimea_River]

Welcome to the forum! Great question. Sorry I won't be of much help but hopefully Paul or Erich will chime in soon.

[Maximowitz]

I note that Jelmer has a similar thread up on the TOCH forum - he got an answer from my friend Marcel Hogenhuis who is probably the most knowledgable person I know on NJG1 operations, so if Marcel can't help I know I have nothing to offer!

Now if it was NJG 2, KG 2 or KG 51 intruder ops.....

Over to Erich!

[Crimea_River]

He posted over at LEMB too Paul. Covering the bases for sure, not that there's anything wrong with that!

[jjp_nl]

It's true I've posted this question on various different forums. Various people (model builders and other random aviation nutters not unlike myself) made various suggestions in regard to where I might look for information, so that's what I did.

I figured it wouldn't hurt to try and get information from various sources,even more so because nightfighter details that are 'out there' of this period appear to be somewhat sketchy. A lot of information concerning the 'big bosses' such as Kammhuber and Falck and their kind of mentorship over the rest of the nightfighter force. This does not mean there were no other innovators and other key players in developingthe art of night fighting as they went along (they had to invent to the wheel while driving so to speak) Except they weren't very well known, unlike say Falck or Kammhuber.

In addition, I have some more building projects going for me dealing with nightfighters operating from Leeuwarden. As I was born and raised in that area and currently live about 2 or 3 miles from the base, these stories are very appealing to me for their recognizability of the setting (names, villages, islands, those kind of things) As such I wanna look into the dark arts of doing research on these matters to be able to fill in the blanks, and hopefully translate all that into a series of scale models covering interesting episodes of the Leeuwarden nightfighters. Places such as these seem to be a good starting point. Also, a lot of what later turned out the 'big-shots' in night fighting operated from Leeuwarden at one point or another, which makes it all the more interesting to me.

[Crimea_River]

Hopefully you'l be able to gleen some info from all these sources. Many of us subscribe on other sites as well for the same reason. Once in a while Erich stops by to provide help from his vast knowledge of the night figthing arena so stay tuned. (He's at LEMB and 12OCH as well I believe).

[jjp_nl]

I will stay tuned (on all the different forums at that) for sure crimea river!