During April 1945 in a last-ditch attempt to stem the flow of Allied armour pouring into southern Germany, the Luftwaffe established a number of ad-hoc tank-hunting Staffeln equipped with the most derisory of means - the Bü 181 Schulflugzeug (trainer) mounting Panzerfauste rocket launchers on and under the wings. For more on this extraordinary story please go here
The following article was due for publication in a UK magazine anytime soon. That was two years ago. I've grown tired of waiting, so just for my readers here is a small edited piece on I. Gruppe NAG 12 Technical Officer Oblt. Heimo Emmerstorfer's ‘White 14’, which no doubt will coincide nicely with the latest Classic/Midland Aufklärer title. For more please go here Messerschmitt Aufklärer - Recce 109s
Also new - I've restored Michael Payne's feature on Heinz Schnabel's escape attempt - read more about The one who nearly got away
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....Willi Reschke's 'history' of JG 301/302 is one of the more interesting Luftwaffe unit histories. At the outset his text was probably intended as a personal memoir - Reschke "researched" and wrote the book behind the wall in East Germany - in other words, documentary sources were in short supply. One of the leading authorities on Reschke's unit, JG 301, is French historian J-Y Lorant who interviewed many former pilots and personnel of the Geschwader during the 70's and 80's in the West. Re-examining the documentary sources that he has collected over the decades for JG 301 he concludes that a number of Reschke's accounts are at variance with events as recalled by other members of the Geschwader. There is some doubt in particular about some victories obtained at the controls of the revolutionary late war Ta 152. This is perhaps not at all surprising given the chaos and confusion at war's end. For the record Reschke states in his book for 24 April 1945 that engagements with Yak 9's during the final throes of the Battle of Berlin resulted in four Yak 9's being shot down. In poor visibility, two were claimed by himself and two by Obfw. Walter Loos (in "Green 4"). The Stabsschwarm lost Hptm. Hermann Stahl and his Ta152. However when interviewed in the late 1970's Walter Loos apaprently stated that he had no victories - not a single enemy fighter claim - while flying the Ta 152. In the context of the combats that supposedly took place on 24 April 1945 this is a startling piece of info - at least for readers of Reschke's account. However Loo's claim is apparently supported by reference to the personal diary of Fhr. Ludwig Bracht written during March-April 1945 and the letters of Uffz. Rudi Driebe. It would appear that when interviewed alongside his old comrades Loos related an acount of his service that subsequently underwent some amendments after his former comrades Bracht and Driebe passed away in 1982-83. Incidentally - & despite Jeff Ethell's account in his Monogram Close Up - Archie Hagedorn never flew the Ta 152 in combat. By the time Reschke came to compile his own account as indicated a number of victories over Yak-9s have appeared. The 'problem' may lie with Loos' log - a version of the final page of his logbook that has circulated only shows flights 860 to 880 and also shows amendments in the form of sections pasted over each other. In Ofw. Willi Reschke's flight log the last two lines are two entries recording missions in which victories are reported in the 'Bemerkungen' column - this time handwriting and inks appear to differ somewhat from earlier entries. As mentioned above, Reschke also describes the death in combat of Hptm. Stahl in this same combat, 24 April 45 - other thus-far-unpublished JG 301 documentary sources indicate that Stahl was shot down & killed on 11 April 1945. Ofw. Josef Keil was flying as his wingman that day - an account from Keil appears below. Of course most memoirs contain errors and omissions especially when writing without the benefit of the latest research- or access to flight logs. It is not my intention to 'slander' Reschke - you can draw your own conclusions. Not only was he there, he has earned his place in aviation history as a rare front-line pilot to fly combat sorties at the controls of the Ta 152. His book is still an intriguing account although the more easily verifiable factual errors can be ascertained simply by comparing his text with details of the same missions recorded in the large tomes published on sister Wilde Sau unit JG 300. A very 'personal' account then...which leads us to our latest poll...
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The following interesting comments were received from Russ Fahey;
"Hi Neil,
..As you have written, the final page of Loos' logbook that has circulated only shows flights 860 to 880, and it does show sections pasted over each other. However, there is a better copy available! This better copy shows the entire page (#52), with all flights appearing (861 to 876). In this version, there is no apparent cutting and pasting! It would seem that the version you have seen (which I also have) was created by someone who photographed the logbook (note the dark copy, probably due to a color photograph being copied on an old copy machine), and then had to tape the left and right side photographs together to create a contiguous document. But the cutting and pasting was not done by Loos! In reality, the complete, non-pasted version of the page does not look very suspicious at all. So I think you can eliminate this document in the prosecution of Loos for false Ta-152 claims. However, since the other evidence is so strong, I think you might still get a conviction without the smoking logbook!......
"....Another problem with Loos's Flugbuch, which I have just discussed with Mr Lorant in an e-mail, is that Loos does not appear to have flown with JG 300 after December 4, 1944. This is problematic because Loos figures prominently as a witness in many of Dahl's claims from Late 44 and early 45, when Dahl was supposedly still flying with Stab/JG 300. So either many of Dahl's claims during this period were bogus, or he flew alone and had no witnesses! Considering the questionable nature of some of Dahl's "victories", such as on Dec. 5, 1944, it would seem that the former was more likely. On Dec. 5, for example, Dahl listed Loos as a witness, but Loos' last flight with JG 300 was the day prior, Dec. 4, before he was posted out as a flight instructor. His logbook shows no flights on Dec. 5, and indeed, none between Dec. 4 and Dec 16, '44. (Incidentally, this page, #49, flights 801 to 820, may not be in the circulating Loos logbook with the patched up last page (#52.) ......"
Thank you Russell for that interesting contribution !
To mark the passing of the leading ace of JG 77 on 5 September 2007 I have posted a brand-new biography of Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert here
Johann Pichler's biography is also updated with a new account and photo here
One of the "best" new books published recently is Paul Zorner's memoir "Nächte im Bomberstrom" from 296 Verlag ... and we have the publisher's permission to translate an extract here. Zorner writes engagingly and very frankly. One of his best 'reports' is his account of his third victory as a night fighter achieved on 19 February 1943 at the controls of a Do 217 - a "tired old cow" that took for ever to climb to altitude and was, as Zorner puts it, "exactly ten times heavier than a He 51 fighter". Zorner never liked the Do 217 - the idea that it could be used as a nightfighter he found preposterous. Climbing out over the North Sea that night he was vectored towards a Wellington some twelve km north of the island of Norderney. Approaching the Wellington head on, the two aircraft banked into a 'turning fight' that lasted some twenty minutes as Zorner vainly sought to draw a bead on the British twin, hauling back with all his might on the stick in the turn, even getting the navigator to help him maintain his effort on the control column. In an attempt to achieve an outcome Zorner had to resort to desperate measures - giving the order to dump some 800 kg of fuel in order to lighten the Dornier. Putting in a superhuman effort on the stick he managed to loose off a brief burst which sent the Wellington down. There were no witnesses in the air - the downing was later confirmed by a flak battery. Zorner and crew then had to nurse their 'fighter' home on just one engine some 100m above the waves - a single round the size of a €2 coin had punctured an oil line. "When we landed I went and saw the Kommandeur Lippe-Weissenfeld and told him exactly what I thought of the Do 217" . Zorner never flew the aircraft again at night. The penultimate chapter of Zorner's memoir covers the period from October 44 to May 45 as Kommandeur II./NJG 100, one of his last log entries being the flight into Novy Dvor on 15 October 44 at the controls of Ju 88 G-6 C9+HD. His Gruppe was in Hungary from October 44 before falling back to Wiener Neustadt in mid-March 1945.. Zorner states that 'what was left of the Gruppe II./NJG 100 had fallen back as far as they could go and most of our equipment and aircraft had been left behind..' He describes his final successful sortie flown on the night of 5/6 March with four Ju 88s. With the Americans just kilometres from the field on 4 May 1945, orders came through for the Gruppe to fly to Prag-Gbell. Because of thick fog shrouding the field Zorner describes briefing his pilots on various plans of action - none of the twelve remaining pilots would be forced to make a Blindstart . In the end eleven aircraft managed to get airborne - including Zorner's W7+AC -reaching Prague on their last drops of fuel. Prague of course fell to the Russians. Zorner describes how on news of the capitulation on 9 May he and his men drove westwards to meet the Americans. As commanding officer the Americans would allow Zorner safe passage further westwards but not his men ..he therefore chose to stay with them, herded with thousands of German servicemen into an improvised field camp with no rations for a number of days. However at this point the US forces moved back allowing the Russians to take over the camp - the Russians then marched the officers back into eastern Germany and captivity...
Other news ; recent updates on JG300.de see this site going from strength to strength ...firstly the pictures of Kurd Peters ..sorry Bobo ..but none of your images of the pilot in the shots show Kurd Peters...we believe that these pics most probably portray Hauptmann Herbert Kaminski , Kommandeur I./ ZG 26 "Horst Wessel" awarded the Ritterkreuz on 6 August 1941. Elsewhere the picture of Richard Loefgen (above) taken in March 1945 is lifted directly from volume II of the Eagle Editions opus. The original negative is in the author's collection....Note the inscription Ur-sau on the fuselage/cockpit side armour, a reference to Loefgen's status as one of the original complement of Wilde Sau nightfighter pilots from May- June 1943
'The problem with JG 300.de' - a review of this well known Luftwaffe site
Thanks for reading,
Neil Page
On 14 February 1943 Oblt. Franz Hessinger of 2.(F)/123 flew this Ju 86 R-1 on a high altitude recce sortie over Tobruk. As a result of engine problems the pilot was forced to feather the two engines and was able to glide back to Tympakion on Crete for a belly landing. Pic via Michel Ledet at Avions magazine. A detailed feature - with pilot accounts - on this important recce unit known as 'Kesselring's eyes' coming soon..
Fighters in the West
"On May 10 we heard on the radio that the invasion in the west had begun. The order to transfer to Münster was not long in coming and we hurriedly packed up our things, arriving in Münster during the afternoon. The move had particular relevance for myself as I was originally from the town and my parents still lived there. I was allowed to put through a phone call to them that evening. After a short night, we prepared to move again, this time for a field strip on the outskirts of the small town of Hamminkeln. An advance party was already there. As we arrived over the field, Hahn ordered myself and Harbauer to go in first. I saw him touch down and roll out and then prepared to line up on finals for the perfect three-pointer. Unfortunately, I made a complete mess of it. My machine landed heavily, bounced back in the air and turned over. Luckily, it did not catch fire and I was uninjured. A crash team was quickly on the scene to extricate me from the cockpit, while my comrades came in and landed in turn. As punishment, the Kommandeur grounded me - no combat sorties for one whole week! I was assigned to ferry in our aircraft from the rear areas. My disappointment knew no bounds - I had been training to fight for months now, and here I was, with the war in full swing, constrained to take the train to towns located far from the front, just to pick up our 109s and fly them into our field - if there was a worse scenario then I couldn't imagine it. ." Lt. Jules Meimberg, 4./JG 2
" ..31 August 1940 was to be a black day for I./JG 77 recently posted to reinforce the Channel front. The Emils had only just moved into Marquise (between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer) and were assigned to fly their first sortie - a free hunt fighter sweep - over Kent that morning. The Gruppe was quickly caught up in a wild dogfight with British fighters. Although Lt Herbert Muetherich of 3./JG77 -a future Knight's Cross recipient- claimed a Spitfire shot down, 2. Staffel lost their Kapitän, Oblt. Ekkehard Priebe, who was taken captive after being forced to bale out over Ealham. While this in itself was a serious blow, the second sortie of the day, a bomber escort mission, proved to be a total disaster - at 3,000 feet over the Thames estuary a formation of Hurricanes fell on 1. Staffel. Six JG 77 109s were shot down including the Emil of Fw. Walter Evers, a veteran of the campaign in the West. Among the pilots forced to bale out were the Staffelkapitän, Oblt. Hans-Jurgen Ehrig, and Lt. Jura Petrenko- of Russo-German parentage- who was flying his first combat sortie of the war at the controls of 'Yellow 4'.."
Zerstörer; ZG 1 first sorties in the West - Kurt
Bundrock - Bordfunker to Reinhold Knacke and Werner Streib
JG 26 in the Battle of Britain
Dieppe combat report 19 August 1942 (translated
from Nauroth's JG 2 Richthofen)
Jasta Helgoland; first sorties against the bombers
Günther Seeger; the unknown ace (Based on
Eric Mombeek's article in Avions No. 137)
One Friday in spring -Jules Meimberg II./JG 53 Translated extract from "Feindberührung"- the author describes his bail out of 12 May 1944 - submitted by Phil Weber of Vienna
Bf 109 Jabos
over Hürtgen December 1944; Ernst Scheufele JG
4
Jabos over Berlin - April 1945
Last weeks in front of Berlin - I./JG 11 on the Eastern Front
Einsätze in Rußland, über dem Mittelmeer, dem Eismeer und Afrika
Oblt. Hermann Graf - StaKa of 9./JG 52 - enjoyed a long run of success during the fighting in the push for Stalingrad during August and September 1942. Graf had already been awarded the Swords to his Knight's Cross. In August he filed 29 victories, bringing his tally to 140. The operations flown in September put a heavy strain on him. Flying four to six sorties per day, he rarely returned without a 'kill'. As to his type of victim, he seemed not to have a preference - anything with red stars on it fell to his guns. There was no time to rest - or to celebrate his promotion to Hauptmann and the award of his Oak Leaves and Diamonds on 16th September, following his 172nd victory. Two days later, after bringing down two LaGGs and an Il-2, his personal score reached 180. On 20th September he bagged another LaGG, but returned to his base at Pitomnik with a failing engine and shot-up radiator, crossing the River Volga in a shallow, gliding descent. Three days later he downed ten Soviet aircraft recording the exploit in his diary; Hermann Graf's 200th
Vom Kettenhund zum Kommodore: Major Dr.jur. Ernst Kupfer
The short-sighted ace of JG 51 (adapted from Professor Skrawran's Ikaros)
Walter Nowotny; first victories for the Fliegerwunder aus Österreich, July 1941
Wolfdieter Huy - III./JG 77 in combat on all fronts
Fw 190 on the Eastern Front the Grünherz Jäger I./JG 54 during March 1943
Eismeerjäger - Bf 109 fighters of JG 5 - extracts from the latest Kagero title and Eric Mombeek's JG 5 history
Last victory of the blonde Knight
Hartmann's claims disputed; Dimitri Khazanov in Le Fana de l'Aviation
Hans Arnold Stahlschmidt; "My hardest ever combat"
Heinz Bär and the Reichsmarschall Alles, was die Jäger in Afrika gemacht haben, ist Scheiße gewesen!
JG 77 - a fighter Geschwader in the battle for Sicily, June-August 1943 A first in English, from the researches and photographic archive of Eric Mombeek
Ritterkreuzträger Hans-Joachim Kroschinski I./JG 54 Bio of this leading JG 54 Focke Wulf 190 pilot by Leo Etgen
Ritterkreuzträger Gerd Thyben II./JG 54 a new bio of the last victorious Focke Wulf 190 pilot of WII by Leo Etgen
Günther Rall JG 52 ace a translated extract from Rall's superbly written memoir "Mein Flugbuch" - a first in English -with permission from publisher Dr. Kurt Braatz. My translation covers the period following Rall's serious back injuries sustained in combat after his 36th victory (P98-102 of his book)
Accounts from the Normandie Niemen - Free French fighter pilots of GC 3 on the Eastern Front
Focke Wulf 190 - flying & fighting in the Butcher Bird on the Eastern Front
Kampfgeschwader !
" 20 January 1943; the Kommandeur (I./KG100) delivers his pre-sortie pep talk....as you all now know Pitomnik is in Russian hands. Ivan is already flying fighters out of there and the place is bristling with flak - stay well clear....our supply -drop zone in the vicinity of Gumrak rail station has been readied as a makeshift landing strip. Putting down there and taking off again in fading light will be difficult exercises..exactly how you should go about the task will be left to your own judgement.." - continued here Last sortie into Stalingrad
Ju 88 Ritterkreuzträger and Me 262 ace ; Franz Gapp LG1 & KG 6 (Based on Peter Taghon's article in Avions No. 115)
Helbig-flyers - LG 1 over the Med - an account by Ritterkreuzträger Gerd Stamp
Me 262 jet bomber pilot - the first of two accounts by Otto Zeppenfeld I./KG 51
Kampfgeschwader 2 - Luftwaffe bombers over England Translated extracts from Ulf Balke's two volume KG 2 history
The Luftwaffe in France 1940-1944
Numerous Luftwaffe fighter units were dispatched to Normandy following the 06 June landings including I and II./JG 11. Deploying to Normandy on 7 June 1944, the pilots of I./JG 11 encountered a group of Mustangs over Rambouillet and downed four of them without loss, while II./JG 11 flew their first sorties over the beachhead. They were tasked with escorting Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers attacking the invasion fleets. Gruppenkommandeur Oblt. Walter Krupinski was seriously concerned for his pilots. Their Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/AS aircraft were high-altitude fighters and while their performance at 6000-7500 meters was comparable to that of American fighters, below this level they behaved more like lame ducks in Krupinski’s own words. Uffz. Rudolf Strosetzki of 6./JG 11 took part in the action; “The weather was awful that day-almost total cloud cover with the cloud ceiling at 300-400 meters.. Our 6. Staffel flew at the head of the formation in the following order; Lt. Lüchau and his Katschmarek Uffz. Strosetzki in front, left Rotte of Lt. Wimmers and right Rotte of Uffz. Berndt. When we got to Rouen we couldn’t find the Stukas of course. This would usually have meant scratching the sortie and turning back! Lt Lüchau, however, decided to continue the operation even without the Stukas, so we flew on alone over Caen towards the coast, where we saw the invasion fleet. The view was horrifying-we had never seen so many warships before in our lives! There were some 60-70 landing ships directly in front of us and they opened up with everything they had. Instead of coming up behind the ships –from the west - which would have enabled us to put down along the coast in the event of any misfortune- we had approached them from the east with the result that their top cover- some 150 Thunderbolts- immediately had us in their sights. Everything happened at a height of just 100-200 metres under the cloud deck. I saw Lüchau weaving then something slammed into my kite. I glanced back and saw Thunderbolts that slid in onto our tails. With their initial salvos I took some serious hits; a thick trail of coolant was streaming from one radiator and a projectile had gone straight through my canopy, smashing into the armoured glass behind my head, jamming the canopy - I couldn't open it to bail out. There was nothing left to do but to try and make an emergency landing. I was quite lucky as my pursuer let me go and I could calmly find a suitable field to force land on.. I spotted a wide, slightly ascending meadow and put the kite down on its belly. It hit a small rise, was thrown into the air and crashed back down to earth again with a bang. As the careering aircraft slid to a stand, I hit a small wall that was separating the meadow from a road. In the collision my left wing smashed down part of the wall and I hit the gun sight with my head and got a black eye. The concussion caused by the crash almost knocked me out - I knew what was happening around me but didn’t realize how it had happened and why I was there. British soldiers soon appeared to take me captive. I was put on a stretcher and loaded onto a jeep and driven back in the direction of the coast. On our way we passed invasion units marching further inland. I clearly remember French civilians cheering and greeting them as their liberators. Shortly before the end of our journey we encountered a group of elderly French civilians that threatened to lynch me. I owe my life to my British guards who immediately reached for their machine guns and forced the crowd back. The hatred in the French people’s eyes will stay with me for ever.”
...
Closest to the beachheads: JG 2 on D-Day
IV./JG 3; assault fighters in Normandy, June 1944
"Partisanen ! "III./Schlachtgeschwader 4 against the Maquis
Defending the Reich
" The Focke Wulfs closed on the bombers in line abreast, watching the
hits from the terrible Mk 108 cannon flare and flare again, knocking out
the tail gunner. Breaking off just in time to avoid colliding with the target
they flew through a rain of fragments.."
Pauke ! Pauke ! Sturmstaffel 1 and IV./JG 3 in action, 11 April 1944 Wochenschau film stills of these leading units in the defence of the Reich
A
March 2001 interview with Karl Bleckmann, Stabsschreiber IV./JG
3
(a page from my old site.Please use the 'back' button on your browser,
or the ALT+left arrow keys to link back)
Oschersleben 7 July 1944 (part
1)
The
492nd Bomb Group 7 July 1944: disaster over Oschersleben (a page
from my old site. Please use the 'back' button on your browser, or the ALT+left
arrow keys to link back to this page)
Oschersleben
aftermath artwork, pictures and personal accounts from the old Sturmgruppen
site, revised and re-written!
A Focke Wulf 190 pilot writes - Ernst Schroeder II./JG 300 responds to one of my magazine articles
JG 300 Sturmjäger assault - 15 August 1944 Long lost article by Jeff Ethell describing the Sturmgruppen assault on the 303rd BG during the summer of 1944
Flying the Ta 152 - the best piston-engine fighter of WW II ?
Sturmjäger: The Men
Sturmpiloten ! A comprehensive and illustrated series of bios of the leading Sturmgruppen pilots
Pauke ! Pauke !
A Sturm pilot describes a bomber assault - a letter extract from
Hans-Martin Markhoff, Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 4 in September
1944
Ramming attack: a brand-new bio of Klaus Bretschneider of II./JG 300
written by Gordon Raddock
The aircraft of Walther Dahl (part 1)
Zirkus
Rosarius! Walther Dahl flys the
P-51
An Airman's Death
over the Lechtal Alps a personal account from Willi Unger, August 1944
A special photo feature devoted to Hubert Engst, II.(Sturm)/JG 300
Jagdgeschwader JG 300 - the book chronicle
a translated transcript of a conversation with Jean-Yves Lorant, author of the JG 300 history published by Eagle Editions
'The problem with JG 300.de' - a review of this well known Luftwaffe site
Wilde Sau, Nacht-und-Tagjagd
"..Initially we were to hunt and engage the small Russian aircraft - mostly U2 and R5 biplanes - that operated every night supplying mines and shells to partisan groups located behind the front lines. Our large and ponderous aircraft were hardly suited to this form of aerial interdiction but there were no other available aircraft that could be employed in this role. In terms of tactics our three machines were assigned to patrol in boxes designated after varieties of fruit - Apple - Pear - Plum - Peach - which extended from the front to deep into the rear areas with each aircraft deployed to cover a particular sector. We tended to operate at high altitude in order to be able to better discern the landing sites and drop zones. This was possible since the partisans would light bonfires on the ground in order to guide their small supply machines to their destinations. This tactic of course enabled our own crews to locate the landing zones and, if we were lucky, to shoot down the Russian machine either just as it was going into land or taking off. This was how I was able to achieve my first two victories. Naturally nights when the moon was full particularly favoured our operations and it was on such moonlit nights that I recorded these victories. My first victim had only just got airborne. Closing from astern, I swept alongside and past it, resenting my Bordfunker with the opportunity to unleash a long salvo from his MG. Given that the Russians only managed speeds of between 150-180 kph, while I had to maintain the speed of our cumbersome He 111 at 230 kph at least , achieving a downing was always very much down to good fortune.."
(35 victory ace Günther Bertram describing in a recent letter the first sorties undertaken by the fledgling crews of the Nachtjagdschwärme Ost - the first of the Eastern Front night fighter units)
Luftwaffe night fighter combat claims 1939-45 by Foreman & Parry book review by Jean-Yves Lorant.
Ofw. Kurt Bundrock flew as Bordfunker (radio operator) with NJG 1 ace Hptm. Reinhold Knacke (44 night victories). He wrote a 200 page manuscript of his experiences that remains unpublished - although some of the text appeared in an edition of Der Landser entitled Kampf am nächtlichen Himmel . Read an extract in English for the first time from Bundrock's "Battle in the night skies"..part one is here .
" one of the best pilots of our Staffel, 6./JG 302, was Andreas Hartl. He had thirteen Viermot claims. He was shot and killed by Mustangs as he hung under his parachute after bailing out on his first day sortie..". Fritz Gniffke
Moskito-Jagd Mosquito hunting - interviews with two former NJG 11
pilots - site exclusive!