Bf 109F-4 flown by Hans Schleef of 7./Jg 3 in late May 1942. This is one of the famous splinter schemed aircraft of Jg 3, believed to be a result of them being assigned tropical spec 109F's despite being deployed to southern Ukraine. Most of the RLM 79 desert sand paint was covered with other colors; RLM 75 gray-violet and RLM 70 black-green in this case.
This aircraft was photographed either before departing Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany for the Eastern Front or shortly after arriving at the airfield complex at Chuguyev, Ukraine. At the time, "Katya" (presumably named after Schleef's wife/girlfriend) had 41 victory bars on the rudder, Schleef's score at the time of redeployment to Ukraine. He would add 5 more in the 10 days that 7./Jg 3 was based at Chuguyev. From there the unit was transferred to Crimea at the start of June 1942 and Schleef gained just one more victory that month. He would then be selected to instruct replacement pilots at the Eastern Front replacement pilot's combat training group (Ergänzung-Jagdgruppe Ost). From there, fresh pilots would be sent to their combat units. Schleef would return to combat operations in January 1943 and continued fighting in the east until August 1943 when III/Jg 3 was transferred to Germany to bolster the strength of fighters countering the American bombing raids. He would only score 6 further victories before being killed on December 12, 1944. His final tally was 99.
