HEINZ WOLFGANG SCHNAUFER (1922-1950)
1001* Schnaufer (Heinz Wolfgang, 1922-1950). The port tail fin from Schnaufer’s favourite Messerschmitt Bf110G-4, “G9+EF”, c.1944-45, made of aluminium and painted with 121 ‘kill’ icons, consisting of small roundels and four-engined British bombers with the date of each victory painted below, a large hakenkreuz (swastika) painted in black and white beneath, small data plate ‘Sach Nr 110 310 H / Werk Nr 20032 3’, bullet holes, dents and chipped paintwork, 111 x 78cm (43.5 x 29.75ins) Between 1 June 1942 and 7 March 1945 Schnaufer and his crew shot down a confirmed total of 121 British and Commonwealth bombers by night, and in only 164 operational sorties, making Schnaufer the highest-scoring night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. It is estimated that Schnaufer, nicknamed by the Allied Air Forces as “The Night Ghost of St Trond”, shot down 37 British bombers while flying the aircraft from which this tail fin was salvaged. It was his favourite aircraft and one which he began flying on 6 July 1944. On 30 March 1945 this aircraft and a number of Fw 190s were being flown to safety from the advancing enemy troops. It was en route from Gutersloh to Wunstorf when it was shot down, probably by a chasing Mosquito, crashing in the hills of Westphalia. The pilot that day, (not Schnaufer), and one crew member was killed and a third badly injured. Bizarrely, Schnaufer, who survived the war and one of only 27 men awarded the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, was to die on 15 July 1950 following a road accident while on a wine-buying trip in Bordeaux. He was just 28. Provenance: Wolfgang Lohmann, an expert on Luftwaffe aircraft and military-air historian. Over fifty years ago Lohmann discovered the artefact being used as a patch on a roof in the village of Hillegossen. The owner was a chimneysweep who had salvaged it in the summer of 1945, selling it to Lohmann around 1962. Now 80 Lohmann has decided the time has come to sell it. The Imperial War Museum has a tail fin from another Messerschmitt 110 flown by Schnaufer. That port fin of machine 3C+BA does not come from an aircraft in which Schnaufer scored any victories. The starboard fin of the same machine, with the symbols painted on Schnaufer’s instructions at the very end of the war, is on display at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra. Much discussion surrounds these and other Schnaufer tail fins and myth and fact have intertwined to cause great confusion. This item’s authenticity is beyond dispute and supported by Wim Govaerts, an authority on Schnaufer, who reproduces a wartime photograph of Schnaufer pointing at this tail fin in his book Nachtspook van Sint-Truiden (2007). The authenticity was further confirmed to Lohmann directly by Schnaufer’s radio operator Friedrich Rumpelhardt. For more information about these tail fins and authenticity see Peter Hinchliffe’s book Schnaufer: Ace of Diamonds (Stroud: Tempus, 1999), Appendix A, pp. 284-296. (1) £15000-20000 176