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Zeichner von Drachenberg becomes one of the few German casualties of the first day of WWII. Though rather ignominiously. His plane, a Bf110, was, technically, not shot down so much as shot at while suffering a double engine failure. He had been stuck with a tricked out machine that Daimler Benz and Messerschmitt had been tinkering with and wanted it to fly on opening day. He had been on loan to Messerschmitt off and on as a test pilot and got the duty. Of course, the one time he sees enemy aircraft, the engines overheat and he has to try a dead stick landing while getting shot at by a PZL. He is unhurt until he scrambles out of the cockpit to see how bad his gunner is hurt, breaking his leg. Then realizes the gunner has been killed. He's recovered the next day.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Miscellaneous
Species Dog (Other)
Size 784 x 542px
File Size 127.4 kB
Right. He holds off some curious locals with his GP35 for a while then gets picked up by an Army unit. He recovers and gets shunted back to Messerschmitt for more test pilot work, but after having not nice thing to say about the Me210 and other things related to not being in action, he gets his wish, after a fashion, and is sent to North Africa where he has a rather 'interesting' time with Erwin Rommel's little known younger Brother.
While Frau Barr covered the later fated of most of the major characters in "the Desert Peach" I don't think von D was mentioned much. Then again, he wasn't exactly the most willing member of "Peach's" little company. What was that unit called???? something about grave digging? WCJ
Was it at Con-federation or Nola-con or Magi-con that you had a portrait of von Drachenberg [non-anthro] on home leave? I don't remember if I bid on that one, didn't get it. Showed him petting the source of his name--i.e. petting a small dragon. {Drachenberg = dragon mountain} von D's career did cover a lot of territory, from the spontoons to north Africa and beyond. What ever did happen to him, any way. His association with "peach" Rommel could not have been good for his advancement, though for his survival, maybe not so bad. Hopefully he followed such Luftwaffe greats as Galland and ended up in the west. The Colonel
He was able to get out of North Africa with a batch of troops, flying a Me323. His career started with crewing on the Graff Zeppelin on several of its around the world flights, that's how he showed up on the Spontoons. He was later in the regular Luftwaffe and flew in the Legion Condor and did a lot of stuff for Messerschmitt. Was on hand for Poland and later various Channel actions. As mentioned, got shunted off to Africa. Got back and back to Messerschmitt and occasional bomber intercept action. When he went back to his hometown, he saw the Devil in the Gauleiter and how the region had been damned for letting the local Witch be taken by the Nazis. (there are real dragons in the Drakenzahn and the Witch was their caretaker) He goes back to do flight work with the Me262 but is pretty disgusted with the whole war and sort of defects, bailing out of a plane over Allied lines to sit out the rest of the war in a cage. After the war he becomes a forester, taking care of the Dragons on the Zahn where he lives still.
If he was flying a 262, he didn't have too long a stay as a POW. Now the story about the Witch and the Gauleighter sound like a tale worth telling. rough on the NAZi, I presume. Real Dragons??!!! Image of von D flying a 262 with a dragon escort...then again, considering the time and place, who is escorting whom? The dragons would cover the "FOO fighter" sightings, perhaps? Dragons would really far under the class of U.F.O.s. WCJ
Real dragons are rather reclusive and even if they weren't so shy, couldn't begin to keep up with anything faster than a Storch. I'm thinking Sept. Oct. for von D. to dump his '262. He recognized that even with its potential, it could never win a war in which industry was hard pressed to come up with even handfuls of engines (the Jumo 004 was only then coming up in any numbers and was still an unreliable cloodge. the notion of '262s coming on line earlier miss the point that the engines didn't get into reliable production until the last quarter of '44)
A forester, huh...Well that would fit in well with his unhappiness with the end game of the war. I assume that the Drakenzahn is in the west, like in the Swartz Wald, perhaps?? WCJ
At this late date, he must be very well preserved to be still around....Dragon Magic, perhaps?......
At this late date, he must be very well preserved to be still around....Dragon Magic, perhaps?......
So my curiosity winning out...What PZL model shot him down? And what I would give to own an Original Factory P-35...Such a wonderful little pistol. (I know they still make Hi-Powers but come on, a pistol with history is a pistol with history! Like my little Makarov. I can happily state it is a former USSR issued sidearm and not a post fall built model.)
The Tok in 7.62 is a super reliable feeder and the bottleneck cartridge is pretty energenic. If you reload, Fiocci has it in Boxer and brass can be very easily converted from 9mm magnum, or, if you have a lathe, .38 special or .357 mag. My stupid Brother ran up a big batch from Spokane PD .38 special brass and it looks really weird to have that as the head stamp on 7.62 loads.
I have to admit though, I've become very fond of my little Bulgarian Makarov. That 9x18mm round is insanely accurate. (Need to readjust the rear dovetail on it but other than thaaat...) 50 rounds all on the inner rings at 10 meters with .5'' to 1'' groupings is a dream for me. The recoil supremely manageable too.
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