Wednesday 14 July 2010

The last of the Eagles - Blohm and Voss BV 222, scuttled in Norway, October 1945

Trondheim, Norway, 27 August 1945. 

The war in Europe has ended after the suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945, but this photo was taken some three months later. There are many interesting details. A German officer with service cap goes up the catwalk , perhaps it is the pilot of this Blohm und Voss BV 222. Behind him, head down, a German soldier also in uniform. In the background is another German military uniform , perhaps the Navy. Is this Bv 222 carrying a U.S. flag on the fuselage (and RAF roundels on the fuselage) about to leave for the U.S? According to the Lela Presse 'Luftwaffe Seaplanes' book (Vol. 2) the Americans tested the BV 222 V-2 on 15 and 20 August 1945 after the British "loaned" it to them but testing was curtailed by technical problems with the engines. This magnificent aircraft was destroyed or rather 'scuttled' on 15 October 1945, still in Trondheim. Note that the caption indicates that this photo is "CONFIDENTIAL " and can not be used for publication.





BV 222 V-4 X4+DH Tripoli/Tobruk re-supply flights, September 1942

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/bv-222-v-4-x4dh-tobruktripoli-resupply.html

Model and diorama superbly executed by Bjorn Jacobsen from the Revell 72nd scale kit