Manufacturer: Frog
Scale: 1/72
Additional parts: none
Model build: Nov - Dec 2012
Luftwaffe Vought F4U
Frog
1/72
1/72
Corsair Kriegsmarine
Made with Suno
Delphin's Fury: Operation Ostfront
Leutnant Hans Müller gripped the control stick, his knuckles white. Below him, the monstrous form of the Graf Zeppelin sliced through the icy waves of the North Atlantic. A biting wind whipped around the canopy of his captured Vought F4U Corsair, emblazoned with the bold yellow "2" that marked him as part of the elite "Delphin-Staffel" - the Dolphin Squadron.
Müller wasn't supposed to be flying an American plane. He'd trained on the temperamental Me 109T, a poor excuse for a carrier aircraft. But fate, in the form of a crippled American transport captured by the ingenious Michel raider, had delivered eight pristine Corsairs into German hands. They were a revelation - powerful, agile, perfect for the Graf Zeppelin's maiden voyage.
Operation Ostfront was a gamble. The Soviets, emboldened by recent victories, were pushing hard on the Eastern Front. The freshly repaired Scharnhorst and Tirpitz, the pride of the Kriegsmarine, were to be unleashed in a daring raid to disrupt Soviet supply lines. The Graf Zeppelin, still a greenhorn carrier, was tasked with providing air cover.
The tension crackled in the aircrew ready room. Müller glanced at his wingman, the stoic Oberleutnant Schmidt, his black hair slicked back. A curt nod was their only communication. They climbed into their cockpits, the familiar roar of the Corsair's Pratt & Whitney engine a comforting counterpoint to the churning of his stomach.
Suddenly, the shrill shriek of the alarm pierced the air. The bridge blared, "Enemy fighters inbound! Multiple bogies, bearing 020!" Müller's heart hammered. This was it. Their baptism by fire.
Eight Yakovlev Yak-9s, sleek Soviet fighters, materialized from the cloud cover. The Delphin Staffel wasted no time. With a guttural roar, Müller launched himself and his squadron into a swirling ballet of death. The Corsairs, with their superior firepower and agility, danced circles around the surprised Yaks. Müller painted the sky with tracers, his Corsair spitting fire as he sent one Yak spiraling into the icy depths below.
The battle was a blur of adrenaline and fear. Schmidt's plane took a hit, smoke billowing from the engine. With a heavy heart, Müller watched his wingman limp away, heading back to the carrier. He himself was low on ammo, his Corsair riddled with bullet holes. Just as he decided to break off, a glint of metal caught his eye - a lone Pe-2 dive bomber, streaking towards the vulnerable Scharnhorst.
Time seemed to slow down. In a desperate gamble, Müller pushed his Corsair to its limits, chasing after the lumbering bomber. He squeezed off a final burst, a prayer on his lips. The Pe-2 shuddered, then burst into flames, a fiery blossom against the leaden sky.
Exhausted but exhilarated, Müller limped back to the Graf Zeppelin. He landed with a bone-jarring thud, the cheers of the deck crew barely registering in his ears. As he climbed out, his legs wobbled. Eight Soviet planes lay vanquished, a testament to the Delphin Staffel's prowess.
Operation Ostfront wasn't a decisive victory, but it sent a powerful message. The Germans still had teeth, and the captured Corsairs, flown by skilled pilots like Müller, were a game-changer. As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in fiery hues, Leutnant Müller knew this was only the beginning. The Delphin Staffel, a symbol of Germany's desperate innovation, had tasted victory, and they craved more. The skies of the Eastern Front, once dominated by the Soviets, would soon know the fury of the Dolphins.
The Capture of the “Iron Can” and the Delphin-Staffel
In early 1943, the German auxiliary cruiser Michel (HSK-9) remained one of the last operational commerce raiders of the Kriegsmarine, patrolling the Pacific Ocean in search of Allied shipping. In February of that year, Michel encountered the American transport vessel SS Iron Can, which had been left vulnerable after suffering an engine failure. Disguised as a neutral freighter, Michel approached without raising suspicion. Before the American crew could scuttle their ship, a German boarding party secured the vessel and discovered a valuable cargo: sixteen Chance Vought F4U Corsair fighters, crated on deck and in the holds.
After repairs were carried out, Kapitän zur See Helmuth von Ruckteschell, commanding officer of Michel, ordered the Iron Can to be crewed by German sailors and sent on the perilous voyage back to Europe. Three months later, the ship reached occupied France, and the Corsairs were forwarded to the Erprobungsstelle Rechlin for technical evaluation.
At the same time, the Kriegsmarine struggled with carrier aviation. The Messerschmitt Bf 109T, originally adapted for the carrier Graf Zeppelin, had proven unsatisfactory for operations at sea. The captured Corsairs, with their rugged construction and excellent handling, offered a timely solution. By October 1943, eight Corsairs had been repainted with German markings and assigned to Graf Zeppelin, which was completing her readiness trials in the Baltic.
On 22 October 1943, the Corsairs officially formed the so-called “Delphin-Staffel”, an ad hoc naval air detachment. Shortly thereafter, Graf Zeppelin deployed to Norway, operating in tandem with Scharnhorst and Tirpitz. During several sorties into Arctic waters, the Corsairs proved their worth, fending off Allied reconnaissance aircraft and providing a protective fighter screen against long-range bombers. Reports from the squadron highlighted the Corsair’s reliability and superior performance compared to earlier German carrier aircraft.
By May 1944, Graf Zeppelin and her escorts returned to the Baltic Sea, where the Delphin-Staffel continued operations until the final collapse of the Reich in 1945. Though only a small footnote in naval aviation history, the unlikely service of the American-built Corsair under German colors remains one of the more unusual episodes of the late-war Kriegsmarine.
The model shows the "Yellow 2", flown by Leutnant Müller during the Operation "Ostfront" in December 1943.
As I want to build all the aircraft to be used on the Graf Zeppelin, I still struggle a big with the camo pattern. Therefore I wanted to try the different alternatives on test models first. So I took the old and simple Frog Corsair to use the first camo scheme - two different grays fo the upper cammo, the lower part of the fuselage and wings in light gray.
The model itself was quite simple and consits of only few pars, but for a test model, its ok. No additional parts were used.
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