History:

The second gruppe of Zestorergeschwader 76 moved to Greece in late April, 1941 to aid in the invasion of Crete. At the same time, a coup d'etat in Iraq had thrown out the pro-British government, and the new regime asked Hitler for assistance in ridding the country of British troops.

With the invasion of Crete underway, and Operation "Barbarossa" coming up, the resources of the Luftwaffe were stretched to the limit. Hitler, to appease the Iraqis, sent the 4th staffel of ZG 76, a staffel of Heinkel He-111's, and various support aircraft to Mosul by way of Damascus, Syria.

This small group, known as Sonderkommando Junck (Special Force Junck, named after its commander, Oberst Werner Junck) arrived at Mosul during the second week of May, 1941. There was no ground support system in place, and they were forced to bring everything they would use with them either in their aircraft and or the few transports allotted to them -- including bombs for the bombers!

The Iraqi campaign lasted all of ten days. The number of serviceable aircraft fell quickly with spares at a premium, until by May 26, 1941, there was not a single Me-110 that was flyable. During their brief operations, the Me-110s claimed at least two air victories (RAF Gloster Gladiators) in the air and several more on the ground. The remaining aircrew were flown out by transport aircrarft.

Colors:

This aircraft was finished in standard day fighter colors of dark green (RLM 71) and gray (RLM 02) upper surfaces, with light blue (RLM 65) undersurfaces. The sides of the fuselage were mottled with dark green (RLM 71) and gray (RLM 02) in a rather heavier than usual pattern. II/ZG 76 used the Haifisch (sharkmouth) as the Gruppe (Group) emblem, and the upper nose was painted in the 4th staffel color of white. Complete Balkan campaign markings appear to have been carried. Before the unit arrived in Mosul, the German national markings had been hastily painted over, and Iraqi markings added. This overpainting was quite extensive, and included the unit markings. The color used appeared quite light, and I have interpreted it as Italian blue-gray. The same color would appear to have been used to paint out all insignia, and was probably from the first can of paint the ground-crew could find wherever this repaint was done (Italian? Greek? French?)

References:
John Weal, Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zestorer Aces of WW 2 (Osprey Aviation/1999)
Jet & Prop Magazine, March, 1991 "1941: Als die Luftwaffe fur den Irak flog"
Flugzeug Magazine, March, 1991 "Der Irak-Einsatz Der Deutschen Luftwaffe 1941"

Thanks to James Grimes for permission to do repaints for his excellent Messerschmitt bf-110C Zestorer, and a special thanks for this custom compile of his model to facilitate the application of special nose markings. The original model can be downloaded from: Virtual RLM for Combat Flight Simulator 2.

Copyright Info: This repaint is released as freeware, for all to use and enjoy. The repainted textures may not be used in any commercial package or project, nor may they be sold or altered for any purpose without the express permission of the author. This is my blood and sweat, if I'm not going to make any money off it, nobody else is either!

This notice does not supercede the original copyright of James Grimes for his creation! Please respect both my rights as an authorized repainter, and his as the creator of this virtual aircraft!

I do not guarantee that this plane will work on your system. It works on mine, sorry but everyone else has to figure it out for themselves. I had no problems with it, but I offer no warrantees. Your computer blows up, you are on your own.