A couple of years back I bought a group of relics from a Messerschmitt BF109G from member ‘Asperious’ but one thing led to another and I never showed them to the forum. Meantime though, I did some research into the aircraft and pilot and their ultimate fate.

Gefreiter Karl-Heinz Schöffmann of 3. Staffel JG300 was shot down & killed by US forces ground fire near Nordhausen on 27th November 1944. A bad day for the gruppe as it lost 27 aircraft between sun up and sun down!

Prior to that day, Karl-Heinze had been lucky, he had been wounded in action on 18 July, 1944 during aerial combat but bailed safely east of Weilheim ( flying a 109G-6 ).

2 weeks later ( the wounds must have been slight ) he was back in action and on 27th July at 1000hrs and flying at 6500metres north of Plattensee, he downed a B-24 Liberator – his first confirmed kill.

Two months later ( again on the 27th at 1053hrs) his second kill was a P-51 Mustang at 8000m near Bad-Langensalza.
Seems the 27th day of the month was his day ……… for a time.

Another 2 months go by and on the SAME day his luck finally runs out and he falls in combat, the plane ( and him ) shattering to pieces on impact. A record I found stated that “his coffin only contained the left hand with a ring and sand”

Karl-Heinz was holder of the EK1, EK2, wound badge and Fighter operational clasp.
Another fallen young eagle for a mother to bury – and there were SO MANY from both sides…….

next are some photos..
Dan