I was reading Martin Middlebrooke's book on the
Regensburg-Schweinfurt raid, and in it there's a photo of a
group of Luftwaffe pilots sitting around a table playing
cards.

Skat, undoubtably. Always wished there was a place to learn that game.

The caption says they're members of JagdGruppe 50,
and the photo was taken at Wiesbaden.

That should give us a pretty tight date to work from --

The guy almost
directly facing the camera is an Oberfeldwebel with a tin
tie.

Gong-wearing sergeants weren't all that rare by end 43. I have a complete
record of all RKT, OL, S, B, etc. in the order they were given out but its of
little practical use in cases like this. Could it be Hafner..? Any chance of
sending the scan over - not that I know them all by sight, but I think I may be
able to figure it out (or know others that can).

Any idea who he might be, assuming the photo was taken
about the time of the raid (August 17th, 1943)? ISTR that
NCO fighter pilots with Ritterkreuz were pretty rare in the
western JGs (off hand, Addi Glunz is the only one who comes
to mind), so I'm guessing he probably won it in the east.

Glunz was a popular figure at the time and was well photographed - wouldnt
surprise me a bit if it turned out to be this tenacious little fighter.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."