Corgi 1/72 AA27111 Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 (Trop) 'Red 1' Hpt. Werner Schroer, 8./JG27, Rhodes, Greece, 1943

Although making an unremarkable start to his combat career during the Battle of Britain, Werner Schröer’s transfer to North Africa and air operations in support of the Afrika Korps would bring him a change in fortune and a steadily increasing victory tally which would eventually make him one of the Luftwaffe’s most successful pilots. By the time III./JG27 relocated to the Aegean Islands in late 1942, Schröer has 61 confirmed victories to his name, making him the second most successful ‘Desert Eagle’, with only the famous Hans-Joachim Marseille ahead of him. For a time, Schröer and the rest of 8./JG27 enjoyed great success flying fighter cover for strike aircraft targeting British shipping in the Mediterranean, but unfortunately, this success proved to be short-lived, as the Allies were now advancing on all fronts and their time of Rhodes soon came to an end. With Germany now coming under concerted bombing attack by day and night, as many fighters as could be spared were pulled back to defend the Reich from what was now becoming an increasingly desperate situation. Werner Schröer would survive the war with 114 aerial victories to his name, having flown just 197 operational missions. Of this number, 102 victories were achieved in combat on the Western Front against the most capable Allied aircraft and airmen, a figure which included 26 four-engined heavy bombers, as the German homeland itself came under concerted aerial attack.