Willi Unger is perhaps the best known Sturmbock pilot of IV./JG 3. He has recently celebrated his 82nd birthday and is still replying to letters from enthusiasts and researchers from around the world. He was born in March 1920 in Warstein, Westphalia and like many young German boys grew up with a passion for aviation and sailplane flying and became an accomplished glider pilot. He trained as an engineer and passed his Facharbeiterprüfung on the 1st September 1939.

When war broke out he joined the Luftwaffe but with his engineering background found himself serving as a Flugzeugmechaniker despite his flying qualifications and accomplishments thus far. It was not until early 1943 when the years of easy victories were long gone that he was accepted for fighter pilots training with I./JG104 and was promoted to Unteroffizier in December 1943 attending advanced fighter training school. His first combat posting was to IV./JG 3 in March 1944 flying the Bf 109G-6 and his first combat flight (Feindflug) took place on 29 March.

He shot down his first four-engined bomber on 11 April 1944 and in the words of Ernst Obermaier

" wurde in kurzer Zeit zu einem der erfolgreichsten Sturmjäger der Reichsverteidigung ", he became in just a short time one of the most successful assault fighter pilots in the defence of the Reich. In April 1944 he shot down eight Ami Viermots, American four-engined bombers but was shot down himself for the first time on 8 May 1944 carrying out a successful Bauchlandung or belly landing.

In the battle over Oschersleben on 7th July 1944 he downed two Liberators, his 10th and 11th victories.

With events in Normandy still the focus of the 8th AF bombers, the Sturmgruppe IV./JG 3 was moved to Schongau (between Landsberg and Innsbruck), near the Austrian border, to counter the US 15th Air bombers coming from Italy over the Alps.. Losses were high! Up to 2 August, the Gruppe, led by Hauptmann Wilhelm Möritz, had sixteen pilots KIA .

As Willi wrote in a letter to this author he readily admits he was lucky .. " Ich selber hatte bei den Einsätzen gegen die viermotorigen Bombern sehr viel Glück. Ich wurde dreimal abgeschossen, kam immer mit leichten Verletzungen davon....I was very fortunate on missions against the bombers being shot down three times but always escaping with only slight injuries..."

The 3rd August 1944 saw a particularly fierce battle over the border area of Germany, Austria and Switserland. Willi Unger was credited with two B-24 Liberators shot down. but was himself shot down over the Lechtal Alps, parachuting safely from his damaged Focke-Wulf 190A-8  "yellow 7 + ~".

The following is his own account of that day.

.." …. On the 3rd August 1944 I took off with my Staffel in Schwarm strength as part of the Gefechtsverband der Gruppe. We had been scrambled at 10.35am and at 11.25 we caught sight of the enemy bomber formation in Grid Square (Planquadrat) E.O. flying at some 22,000 ft in a south-easterly direction towards Italy. We formed up behind several boxes of Liberators to attack. My Schwarm would attack a box (Pulk) of nine Liberators flying to the right and slightly above the main enemy formation……"

The Sturmgruppe (Assault Wing) IV of Jagdgeschwader 3 was based at this time on the airfield of Schongau. My 12 Staffel had been hit hard in the July air battles which was why on the 3rd August 1944 we were only at Schwarm strength, a Schwarm that comprised the following pilots ; Feldwebel Unger, Unteroffiziere Zimkeit, Scholz and Christ. As I remember the entire Gefechtsverband or Battlegroup was only 4 Schwärme strong i.e. some sixteen aircraft (instead of the 60-80 that the assault formation would have been expected to attack with …the whole point of the Sturmgruppen was an attempt to meet mass with mass  -translator's note…). The four-engined Liberators had bombed Friedrichshafen that morning and were now flying over the Tirolean Alps back to Italy. I had positioned my Schwarm directly behind an element of three Liberators trailing the main formation and now opened fire with my cannon on the midde machine. Pieces started to fly off the enemy machine. It veered out of the formation. In my attack I had overflown the next element of Liberators but was now on the tail of a B-24 flying in a third element. I attacked again. Two of the bomber's crew bailed out, and shot right past me, along with a hail of fragments. But I'd taken hits from the tail-gunners fire, mainly in the engine and oil tank. My windshield was covered in a thick film of oil. I couldn't see a thing. Without a second thought I bailed out. I got out of my Focke Wulf 190 easily enough and, spinning and tumbling, plunged earthwards. As American fighters would likely shoot at a parachute I let myself fall several thousand feet. The skies, the clouds and the ground spun round crazily. Just before entering the cloud deck I pulled hard on the ripcord and the chute mushroomed open. It didn't take long to fall through the cloud and then I hit the ground hard……I heard the sound of gunfire and then it went quiet. I'd survived both the air battle and the bail-out without injury. This was to prove extremely important, had I broken a leg, say, I could never have made it down the valley. For as I was to later learn, I had come down in the Knittelkar on one of the few trails in the Lechtal Alps, a wild and remote mountain region with huge stony peaks of up to 7,000 feet and thick pine woods. The valley trail where I'd come down was narrow, there was just about room to walk. Having packed my parachute as best I could and picked some Edelweis (Edelweis grows above the tree line in the Alps. Picking it and wearing it was the mark of a true soldier - translator's note). I started to make my way down the trail, slipping and sliding down it in places. I had to make several detours. After a while I came to a stream which I followed. I came across a mountain hut (there exists in the Alps a network of lodges or 'huts' nowadays providing comfortable overnight accomodation for walkers etc- translator's note) and met a gamekeeper by the name of Kuhn from the village of Rieden near Reutte. He had heard the sounds of the air battle but had not seen anything. He was able to take me further down the valley. The small village of Rieden was about 5 miles from where I'd come down and it was a further 5 miles on to Reutte. We walked to Rieden and I was put on cart and rode to Reutte. On the small road that led out of Rieden we came across the still smouldering wreckage of an aircraft. We stopped and went over to it. The local police had cordoned it off and at first wouldn't let me approach it. They said the pilot was dead. I was able to examine it nonetheless. It was a Focke Wulf 190, which had obviously plunged vertically into the ground. I could see there was no pilot or remains in the aircraft and that it was a Focke Wulf from my Staffel. It was obvious to me that it was in fact my plane, which is what I told the police . When we got to Reutte I reported to the police and was put up in the hotel 'zum Hirsch'. I was able to telephone the base and a Hauptmann from the Stabskompanie came and fetched me in a car later that evening. It must have been just about midnight as we arrived back in Altenstadt near Schongau. A light was still on in the officers mess. Feeling very much the worse for wear, uniform ripped, shoes scuffed, with no cap and parachute slung over my back decorated with Edelweis, I presented myself to Hauptmann Moritz, Gruppenkommandeur of the IV./JG 3 Udet. …".. Feldwebel Unger reporting back from Edelweis picking trip.. …Sir! "

Everyone was happy. I'd been reported as missing. I learnt though that Scholz and Zimkeit did not come back from the days mission. Uffz Christ had landed safely at Kaufbeuren but was shot down and killed less than a fortnight later….."

(to be continued..)