Hasegawa Focke-Wulf 190A-8 of Oberst Walther Dahl in 1/72 Scale

Walther Dahl claimed his first victory on the opening day of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.  He continued to score against the Soviets, his total reaching 51 victories by July 1943, when he was assigned to the West as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 3.  He successfully made the transition from East to West, although he was shot down by RAF Spitfires on 17AUG43 had had to make a belly landing in his Bf 109.  The Luftwaffe became more and more desperate to stem the flow of Allied bombers, and Dahl took command of JG 300 in June, 1944.  JG 300 was formed as a special unit whose pilots were to close in on American bomber formations to point-blank range, ramming their targets if necessary.  While these tactics were sometimes successful, they were also costly to the Luftwaffe, especially if Allied escort fighters were present.  Dahl was one of several prominent Jagdflieger who locked horns with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, being relieved of command on 30NOV44 for refusing Göring’s order to intercept an American raid in poor weather, only the intervention of Adolf Galland preventing his court martial.  Dahl was quickly reinstated and promoted, and continued to fly combat missions until the end of the war.  He was credited with his last victory, a P-51 Mustang on 26APR45, bringing his total to 128.

The model depicts Dahl’s Fw 190A-8 of Stab /JG 300, at Jüterbog, Germany, December 1944.