JG 54 Messerschmitt Bf 109 F takes out a Soviet LaGG-3 in the skies over Leningrad in early 1942

0:00 Due to the extreme temperatures engine heaters were routinely used before engines were started.

0:08 The man in the cockpit is Luftwaffe ace Hans Philipp who at the time this footage was filmed was the I./Jagdgeschwader 54 Gruppenkommandeur and had recently scored his 100th aerial victory, the fourth Luftwaffe pilot to have done so.

Philipp claimed four aircraft shot down on March 17th 1943 taking his total to 203 aerial victories. He thus surpassed Hermann Graf as the leading German fighter pilot at the time, and six months after Graf, became the second pilot to claim more than 200 victories. He was promoted to Major and given command as the Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 1 on April 1st 1943, conducting Defense of the Reich operations against the USAAF. Philipp would go on to be promoted to Oberstleutnant on October 1st 1943 and was killed in action a week later on October 8th during an attack on Bremen. It is believed that he was shot down by US ace Robert S. Johnson flying a P-47 Thunderbolt. Philipp managed to bail out however it was at low altitude and his parachute failed to open.

0:16 The "Green Heart of Thuringia" insignia denoting Jagdgeschwader and the Nürnberg coat of arms denoting 1. Staffel are visible on the side of Philipp's aircraft.

0:19 The markings on the tail indicating fifty victories and the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub awarded to Philipp in 1941 as well as his subsequent victory tally. One can surmise that the man collecting firewood getting blown off his feet by the prop wash was deliberately played for the benefit of the camera.

0:26 The Bf 109 F taking off is missing the covers that were normally fitted to the undercarriage. In the mud and snow on the Eastern Front these were found to clog up and were frequently removed, with the minor increase in drag being an acceptable penalty.

0:43 Some practiced deflection shooting likely by Philipp himself. After several 20mm cannon hits what appears to be a coolant leak fills the cockpit with smoke, and shortly after fuel leaking from the starboard wing ignites as the doomed aircraft disappears out of frame.