In 1942, Beuys was stationed in the Crimea and was a member of various combat bomber units. From 1943 on he was deployed as rear-gunner in the Ju 87 “Stuka” dive-bomber, initially stationed in Königgrätz, later in the eastern Adriatic region. Drawings and sketches from that time have been preserved and already show his characteristic style. On 16 March 1944, Beuys’s plane crashed on the Crimean Front close to Znamianka, then Freiberg Krasnohvardiiske Raion.
