Before becoming one of the most successful Ju 88 pilots and unit leaders in the Mediterranean with I. and II./LG 1, Joachim Helbig flew extensively in tne Western campaign in 1940 and mounted 80 sorties against England. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 24 November 1940, by which time he had sunk 22,000 GRT of enemy shiiping. He is seen here at far right in the cockpit of his Ju 88 at Eleusis, in Greece, in August 1941. Helbig’s radio operator, Oberfeldwebel Schlund, seen at rear, also wears the Knight’s Cross. Note that both Helbig and his observer, Major Stefan (left), are wearing throat microphones, while Unteroffizier Czirpka, as gunner, appears to have squeezed a steel helmet under his flying helmet
Photo and caption featured in Ju 88 Aces of World War 2 (Aircraft of the Aces Book 133) by Robert Forsyth
