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The story of an ace told with FSX

JensOle

JensOle

SOH-CM-2023
During my research for the painting of Norwegian Spitfires I kept finding pictures of Werner H. Christie and his Spitfires.
He was one of many great Norwegian pilots during the war, ending the war with 10 confirmed victories, but his career is maybe
the most interesting of them all. It started with obsolete biplanes in Norway in the late 1930’s and ended with high performance
jet fighters.

He started his flying career in the Norwegian Army Air force in 1937. As the Germans invaded Norway on 9th April 1940, Christie,
with the rank of sergeant, took part in the fighting until late April. In the autumn of 1940 Christie fled to Canada via Sweden,
the Soviet Union and the United States. He joined the air force-in-exile at Little Norway in Canada.

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Curtis P-36 painted as a Hawk 75A-8 in the colors of the Norwegian Army Air force /Air Force Flying training camp at Little Norway,
Toronto, Canada as Christie most likely flew during his time at Little Norway in 1941. The Hawk 75s had actually been ordered before
the war by Norway, but sadly they were not delivered when Germany attacked in April 1940, and they were later delivered to the
Norwegian forces in exile in Canada.


He attended refresher-flying training at the 56 OUT in 1941. He was back with the Norwegian 331 Sqn in September 1941, but he was
rather quickly sent to the British No. 253 Sqn to build experience on offensive fighter operations (331 was at the time based in
Scotland and officers were attached to British squadrons in the south to bring back experience and knowhow).

In January 1942 he is among the cadre that form the second Norwegian fighter squadron, 332 Sqn at Catterick.

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The A2A Spitfire IIb painted as Spitfire Vb (cannon armed) LB314 “AH-M”. A large number of pictures from April 1942 show Christie
flying this Spitfire during a press day at RAF Catterick. This aircraft also scored the first victory of 332 Sqn when Sgt Marius Eriksen
shot down a German FW-190 in July 1942.
The pictures show that AH-M had been heavily overpainted and that might be the reason for the lack of serial number or stencils. The font
used on the M is also non standard. The word “Litago” was painted on the engne cowling (A common cow name in Norway…). Thanks to Huub Vink
for helping me with the paintkit!


He continue to fly Spitfire with No 332 Sqn for the next two and a half year, following a pattern with flying from spring to summer with
a mandatory 200 combat hours rest period in the autumn. Early in 1943 he is promoted to Captain and B-Flight commander. He does not shot
down his first enemy aircraft before May 1943, but he soon thereafter makes ace for a total of 6 kills flying the Spitfire.

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Spitfire IXc EN177 "AH-Z", Werner Christies personal aircraft from late 1942 to the summer of 43 when 332 Sqn was based at RAF North Weald.
The 332 sqn badge and 3 victory crosses are painted bellow the canopy. This aircraft was also flown by 2.Lt Marius Eriksen during his
famous (at the time widely published in British newspapers) shootdown of a Ju-88T at an altitude of more than 31.000ft south east of Clacton
in April 1943.


In January he assumed command of the squadron, now as a Major. He led the 332 sqn for the important June days, which goes into history as
maybe the most important military operation ever. His 3rd combat tour was over in mid June, with Christie having another rest period.

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Spitfire IXc NH171 "AH-Z" of No 332 (Norwegian) Sqn. flown by the squadron commander Major Werner Christie on the D-day (6th June 1944).
The Squadron was at the time based at Bognor Regis AGL.
 
Werner Christie was one of a very few Norwegians which took command of both a British Squadron and later an entire wing. On 21 December 1944
Major Christie was posted as CO of No. 234 Sqn at Bentwaters flying the NA Mustang III on long range bomber escort mission. He served in that
role for a short time until 10 February 1945. At Bentwaters he often flew FB344 “AZ-Z”, and he shot down a German Ar-96 on 9 February 1945
flying this Mustang. The Ar-96 had been practicing combat maneuvers when Christie helped out with some mentoring..

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North American Mustang Mk.III FB-344 “AZ-Z” of No 234 Sqn RAF, flown by the squadron commander Major Werner Christie. Like the majority of the
RAF's Mk.III Mustangs late in the war, FB-344 is fitted with a Malcolm Hood Canopy.
 
In late February 1945 he was promoted to Wing Commander flying (Lt. Col) of the 150th Wing flying the Mustang III from RAF Andrews field.
Very little information is available from this posting, but sources mention that Christie flew a specially painted Mustang III with his
initials (WHC). He also flew Mustang III FB226 coded MT-K from No. 122 Sqn on a particular disastrous mission as wingco flying when he led
the wing down for finding targets of opportunity over Germany after their bomber escort duty was over. They had been flying over a solid cloud
layer for 2 hours and they came out of the clouds further east than expected over high ground and two Polish Mustang pilots were sadly killed
when they hit the ground. Sources mention that Christie himself hit the ground with MT-K as well causing serious damage to both wings and
starboard stabilizer. He managed to return safely to base. He felt very badly for this incident as he had been leading the wing.

On 6th March 1945 he becomes Wing commander for the new Hunsdon Wing flying Mustang IVs on long range bomber escort missions. As W/Cdr he flew
Mustang IV KH790 specially painted with his initials (WHC) and a red spinner to make his aircraft easier to recognize for the rest of the wing
during dogfights. On March 27th 1945 wingco Christie shot down 2 Fw 190s flying this aircraft.
After 244 operational missions he was shot down over Germany on 18 April 1945 and held as a POW until the war's end. 4 victories while flying the
Mustang brings his total to 10.

Christie was later asked how the Mustang compared to the Spitfire;
“It was a much better aircraft, we have to remember it was developed later. The Spitfire IX was a natural evolution, and was much heavier than
its predecessors, but yet with the old design. The Mustang was superior in many ways. It had a longer range of operation, all the way up to six
hours of flying hours, and was also quicker”.

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North American Aviation Mustang IVa (P-51K) KH790 “WHC” flown by W/Cdr Werner H Christie of the Hundson Wing, spring 1945. As was the privilege of a
Wing Commander, the aircraft bears his initials (WHC) as the aircraft code.
 
After the war Christie continued in the air force. Among many postings he was Gruppesjef (Wing commander) of the Gardermoen wing in the early 1950’s.
Here he flew Norways first jet fighter, the DH Vampire. He continued the tradition from the RAF with painting up his personal Vampire FB.52 with his
initials as the aircraft code and the RAF wing commander pennant. Christie had in fact been the very first Norwegian to fly the Vampire.

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De Havilland Vampire FB.52 VO445 “WHC” of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. This particular aircraft was the personal mount of Lt. Col Werner H. Christie
during the early 1950’s.


When the F-84G Thunderjet arrived over the MAP from the USA, Christie was stil Gruppesjef at Gardermoen and a Thunderjet was quickly painted up with
his initials (both on the nose and tail). I believe Werner Christie finished his operational flying on the F-84G before moving on to different military
staff jobs with a few breaks taking up leader positions in the Red cross and the Norwegian Aero club. It must have been quite an jorney, starting up
on the outdated biplanes which made up the Army Air Force in 1937, flying some of the very best propeller fighter planes of the 2nd World war and ending
up in high performance jet fighters in the 1950’s. All in not much more than 15-years!

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To finish the lineup I have recovered an old FS9 model showing Werner Christies F-84Gs “51-11113” which he flew in the mid 1950’s from Gardermoen.


Werner Chrsitie become a General 1968, he finally retired from the RNoAF in 1977. He died in December 2004 in Oslo.
 
One of the best threads I've read here. To me, this is what flight sim is all about. Beautiful work, Jens. :encouragement:
 
Thanks a lot! For me the FS hobby is sort of a time machine for history. Of course it is fun to fly the planes, but for me the reading of aviation history and recreating of the aircraft are important aspects. And i think we also sort of help out with keeping the history alive about these brave men. Just for the last 6 months different publications have asked me to use screenshots of particular fs models as "digital pictures". Tells us that what we do is also credited for accuracy outside the FS community.

When I was younger it was plastic model planes, but the fs world has certainly opened up new possibilities.
 
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