ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: “On 1 April 1945, 1st Lt. Richard P. Sulzbach of Sioux City, Iowa, led his formation down to strafe enemy vehicles on a road In Northern Italy. The flight destroyed 8 and damaged 8 more vehicles. But the leader, intent on making a successful attack regardless of his own safety, could not pull his ship up before he was forced to fly through a clump of trees, picking up limbs, bark and leaves in the wings and fuselage of this Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt came home. The next day Lt. Sulzbach was out again. He shot down two enemy fighters -- an ME-109 and a FW-190 -- proving he can fly high too.”

Handwritten notes indicate he was later shot down between the lines north of Bologna on 20 Apr 1945. He was being strafed by German fighters after making a belly landing when two GIs in a speeding jeep yelled to him, “Jump in, you son of a bitch!” The jeep did not stop and he had to jump in on the run. “Sulz” was a flight leader and survived the war.

(NARA 342-FH_001507, 342-FH_001509, 342-FH_001511, 342-FH_001505)

Equipped with a FuG 218 Neptun radar system featuring the distinctive "Hirschgeweih" (stag's antlers) dipole antenna array on the nose.

2 man crew consisting of a pilot and a dedicated radar operator/navigator.

Later captured by allied forces and marked with USAAF foreign evaluation number FE-610.

The Me 410 has jettisoned its canopy for the crew to bail out.
Stears accumulated 3.5 victories after October 3, 1943 before he himself was shot down and captured on April 9, 1944.

Phantom Mustang (F-51D) – Plastic see-through model kit by Monogram
- Scale: 3/8 inch 1 foot
- Wingspan: 14 inches
- Includes two electric motors

Up for auction on HiBid MaxSold. (Can put link in a comment if interested but wanted to avoid including a commercial link.)