I did a bit of research before setting up my dogfight double. Von Werra had been attacked and damaged by at least one other pilot before Stapleton latched on to him and eventually forced him down. There is no doubt at all that Stapleton was the man who last attacked von Werra and this is the scene I have attempted to represent in my dogfight double.
I have read various accounts from people on the ground who were involved in von Werra’s capture as well as, of course, Stapleton’s own accounts. We can safely ignore von Werra’s version, the man seems to have been something of a serial liar and fantasist.
There is one account, from a man of the searchlight battery that captured von Werra, that states that the Messerschmitt raised its undercarriage shortly before landing. This leads to an interesting conjecture, that von Werra lowered his undercarriage to indicate his surrender to the pursuing Stapleton. If he did, then Stapleton did not notice. I thought posing von Werra with undercarriage down would be confusing, so I’ve done both aircraft with their wheels retracted.
Stapleton’s original Combat Report reads,
“I then did a series of beam attacks from both sides, and the enemy aircraft turned into my attacks. He finally forced landed.”
Stapleton realised that von Werra was attempting to land and allowed him to do so. In a later account he would say,
“I noticed that its [the Bf 109] airspeed had dropped dramatically and I pressed home an attack, followed by another before allowing the pilot to carry out a forced landing. I remember seeing my tracer strike the 109 and was concerned that I was flying at low level, with a village in my apparent line of fire.”
In the end, rather obviously condensed in space, I have posed von Werra starting to fly the right turn he reportedly made prior to landing, with Stapleton breaking of what would have been another attack.
These are both nice little models, though if the Bf 109 is not more recent it certainly seems like it is. All in all great fun in an excursion into a scale which I rarely tackle.
I have read various accounts from people on the ground who were involved in von Werra’s capture as well as, of course, Stapleton’s own accounts. We can safely ignore von Werra’s version, the man seems to have been something of a serial liar and fantasist.
There is one account, from a man of the searchlight battery that captured von Werra, that states that the Messerschmitt raised its undercarriage shortly before landing. This leads to an interesting conjecture, that von Werra lowered his undercarriage to indicate his surrender to the pursuing Stapleton. If he did, then Stapleton did not notice. I thought posing von Werra with undercarriage down would be confusing, so I’ve done both aircraft with their wheels retracted.
Stapleton’s original Combat Report reads,
“I then did a series of beam attacks from both sides, and the enemy aircraft turned into my attacks. He finally forced landed.”
Stapleton realised that von Werra was attempting to land and allowed him to do so. In a later account he would say,
“I noticed that its [the Bf 109] airspeed had dropped dramatically and I pressed home an attack, followed by another before allowing the pilot to carry out a forced landing. I remember seeing my tracer strike the 109 and was concerned that I was flying at low level, with a village in my apparent line of fire.”
In the end, rather obviously condensed in space, I have posed von Werra starting to fly the right turn he reportedly made prior to landing, with Stapleton breaking of what would have been another attack.
These are both nice little models, though if the Bf 109 is not more recent it certainly seems like it is. All in all great fun in an excursion into a scale which I rarely tackle.
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