German Reconnaissance Plane Henschel Hs 126 Serviced on the Eastern Front, 1942

August 26, 2025 - Reading time: 3 minutes

German Luftwaffe mechanics service a Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft, Eastern Front, spring 1942.

Luftwaffe ground crew servicing a German Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft on the Eastern Front, spring 1942.

This photograph shows German Luftwaffe ground crew performing maintenance on a Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft on the Eastern Front during spring 1942.

The Hs 126, introduced before the outbreak of the Second World War, was already considered outdated by the early 1940s. Despite this, the Luftwaffe still operated around 275 aircraft of this type at the beginning of the war. Designed as a short-range reconnaissance and observation plane, the Hs 126 was slow, weakly armed, and highly vulnerable to modern Soviet fighters.

As losses mounted, the Luftwaffe gradually reassigned the Hs 126 to secondary roles. By mid-war, many of them were used in night operations, including makeshift light bombing missions, similar to the Soviet U-2 (Po-2) night bombers. Remarkably, some examples of the Hs 126 remained in service until the very end of the war, a testament to the Luftwaffe’s shortage of modern aircraft as the conflict dragged on.

Technical photo data:
📝 Source of information: German military archives / Eastern Front photos
📍 Location: USSR, Eastern Front
📅 Date of photo: Spring 1942
📷 Photographer: Unknown