Bf 110 M8+CR of 7./ZG 76 at Stavanger-Sola in early spring 1941, a little before the “Shark Group” became II./SKG 210 and left for the new Eastern Front.
Part V
Marita and Merkur: Blitz in the Balkans
Hitler had to delay his invasion of the Soviet Union by nearly two months, as he was forced to rush to the aid of his Italian ally Mussolini in the Balkans. A photographer present at Gorizia on March 5th, 1941 captured this Ju 87 R-2 arriving at Graz (Austria) to be delivered to the Regia Aeronautica. Though intended for the 208th of the 101st Squadriglia Gruppo, this plane would actually crash just after take off at Tirana, Albania. (Giancarlo Garello collection)
In late March 1941, the Luftwaffe began to transfer a large number of units to the Balkans to prepare for Operation Marita: an attack on Yugoslavia and Greece. This field in Bulgaria was home to the Do 17 P-1 T6+HA of Stab/StG 2, as well as a Fieseler Storch and a Ju 52/3m. It is possible to make out in the background two old Dornier Do 11 bombers of the Royal Bulgarian Air Force.
A Hs 126 in its protective bay, probably in Hungary a little before the beginning of Operation Marita. (Private collection)
“Do you think we could win the war with oxen?” Crews benefited from some recreational time, even though the scope for tourism in Bulgaria was a little limited at the time.
A great view of a Ju 87 B-2 coded J stationed near Krésna gorge – which connected Sofia with Thessaloniki – in south-western Bulgaria at the beginning of April 1941. This picture was probably taken at Belica, where I./StG 3, Stab I. and Stab III./StG 2. were stationed.
Two views of Bf 110 E-3 L2+SR of 7.(F)/LG 2 taken in early April 1941 at Sofia-Vrazhdebna. The yellow on the nose was carefully painted around the insignia of this reconnaissance squadron, a laughing devil.
A yellow-nosed Ju 52/3m in Greece. On April 26th, 1941, the Auntie Jus played a prominent part in the airborne operation to conquer the Isthmus of Corinth.
This Ju 87 B-2, coded S7+DK, belonged to 2./StG 3 and was based at Belica, Bulgaria, in April 1941. All units engaged in the Balkan campaign received “high visibility” yellow markings to aid identification. (PK)
The enormous, though antiquated, four-engined Junkers G 38 transport GF+GG (W.Nr. 3302) Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg, previously D-2500 then D-APIS Lufthansa, seen during Operation Marita, which it took part in with KGrzbV 107. This plane was destroyed at Tatoi, during a raid by an RAF Wellington on the night of May 16th–17th, 1941.
A 250 kg bomb is attached to a Bf 109 E-1/B of 6./JG 27. This version of the celebrated Emil had only four 7.7 mm machine guns. (Philippe Ricco collection)
An 88 mm 36 anti-Flak cannon in the Balkans. The operators of this gun destroyed eight Allied aircraft.
The Do 17 Z U5+DA of Stab/KG 2 in flight over the Aegean Sea during Operation Marita. (Jacques Moulin collection)
This Heinkel He 59 with yellow markings in spring 1941 is probably the DD+BB (W.Nr. 1990) of the 7./Seenotstaffel, a sea rescue Staffel. (PK)
The Hs 126 B-1 5D+LK of 2.(H)/31 flies over a Greek town at the end of the campaign. (PK)
Junkers Ju 52/3ms of KGrzbV 172 (at the bottom of the image) and Henschel Hs 126s of 4.(H)/22 (to the right) fly over Tatoi in May 1941. (Private collection)
Heinrich “Heinz” Trettner, seen here as Oberst in 1943, was in 1941 the chief of operations in the general staff of XI. Fliegerkorps. It was in this capacity that he became one of those responsible for Operation Merkur: the invasion of Crete.
A Bf 109 “Jabo” takes off in Greece. On May 22nd 1941, the Emils of JG 77 damaged the British ironclad HMS Warspite, which had already been attacked by Ju 88s of LG 1 and Do 17 of KG 2 a little earlier. (Philippe Ricco collection)
Messerschmitt Bf 109 E “Black 7” of III./JG 77 at Belgrade-Semlin (Yugoslavia) in May 1941. The wing tips, trailing edges and a slim band on the fuselage are painted yellow.
Loading fuel drums for Operation Merkur onto a Ju 52/3m G5E, whose yellow nose cones are just visible. This version is easily recognizable thanks to its small radio antenna and the extra window behind the cargo door. (Jacques Moulin collection)
Two Ju 52/3m G3E aircraft of IV./KGzbV 1 operating in Greece in May 1941. The first military version of the 52/3m, the G3E has doors for passengers on both sides – a unique feature. Note 1Z+BF in the foreground has retained its pre-war three-colour camouflage, while the other has not. (Jacques Moulin collection)
The Stukas of Stukageschwader 2 “Immelmann” constituted the spearhead of the Luftwaffe during their operations in Crete. In the foreground, Ju 87 B-2 T6+CK of 2./StG 2 still has sirens on its legs, a practice that had been more or less abandoned by this time. (PK)
Mechanics of 7.(F)/LG 2 examine the damage sustained to the left rudder and wheel of a BF 110 C-5 L2+KR at Athens-Kalamaki, probably inflicted by Flak. This was not the first time that this aircraft had been hit; a red connector can be seen on the right rudder.
Returning fron a reconnaissance mission over Crete in May 1941, a pilot of 7.(F)/LG 2 climbs out of his Bf 110 C-5 L2+OR at an airport in Athens-Kalamaki.
Souvenir photo of Ju 52/3m 1Z+AY of IV.KGzbV 1. Despite substantial losses, nearly 500 Auntie Jus assisted the assault on Crete by dropping 10,000 paratroopers and launching 100 DFS 230 gliders over the island on May 20th, 1941. (Private collection)
On May 19th, 1941, at Eleusis, DFS 230s were prepared for the airborne operation in Crete. The gliders bore no identification other than coloured bands on their fuselages, giving them the element of surprise on arrival at their destination.
A BMW 132 engine is hoisted into the fuselage of a Ju 52/3m. Aside from transporting paratroopers to their drop-off locations, these three-engined Junkers executed the majority of air transport missions during the Balkans campaign. (PK)
Returning from the Balkans in June–July 1941, this very colourful Bf 110 C-4/B M8+AP of 6./ZG 76 was photographed on the ground at Magdeburg-Ost. It is seen here in the process of being transferred to another unit on the Eastern Front where new operations called for more German air forces.
Having concluded Operation Merkur successfully, these members of the Luftwaffe in Crete relaxed by organizing a jousting tournament with donkeys as mounts.
Fallschirmjäger parachuting from a Ju 52/3m at low altitude during a training exercise. (Jacques Moulin collection)
The fighter groups that left the Balkans at the end of April 1941 left their Messerschmitt Bf 109 Es behind to allow those who had participated in the assault on Crete to complete their missions. III./JG 77 acquired an Emil from Belgrade-Semlin that had previously belonged to II. and III./JG 54. This Bf 109 E-7 “Black 10” named Lilo was the old mount of Oblt Hubert Mütherich, Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 54, and retained his “hit list” on its tail: eight British and two Yugoslavian planes. The front section of the aircraft, which appears to have been taken from another aircraft, bears the cartoon bird of 8./JG 54 alongside the insignia of its new unit, III./JG 77 wolf’s head. In the centre image, the “Black P” of II.(S)/LG 2 is visible in the background.
Part VI
Operation Barbarossa
This particular photograph is invariably found on the Internet along with the caption: “Obfw Franz Dietrich Fadenau paints a new victory bar on his Bf 109 in 1942”. However, F. D. Fadenau never actually existed. If the painter is indeed an Obfw pilot, a careful examination of the photo shows that the formation of the bars (seven “aerial” with the point at the top, five “on the ground” with the point at the bottom) is typical of only two groups: II. and III./JG 3. Six of their pilots reported four aerial victories in the West before completing their hit lists in the East in the summer of 1941. Only two of these were of the rank Obfw: Erwin Kortlepel of 4./JG 3 and Eberhard von Boremski of 9./JG 3. Since it is not the latter, the victorious painter is probably Obfw Kortlepel, who won his sixth and seventh successes on July 1st, 1941. He had 27 victories before the end of the year, when he was transferred to the Fl. Sonderkommando OKL, where he was injured three yea
rs later on December 16th. (PK)
A Bf 109 F (probably of III./JG 54) is saluted by mechanics on its return from a successful mission. Most of the Jagdgeschwadern were reequipped with the “Friedrich” in early summer 1941; it completely outclassed the Soviet aircraft, so there was a huge increase in German fighter victories on the Eastern Front from June 22nd.
Oblt Heinz Lange in Dünaburg, Latvia in early summer 1931. On July 5th, he reported his fourth and fifth aerial victories. Though a pilot in 8./JG 54, he poses here in front of a vehicle marked with the emblem of I./JG 54: the coat of arms of the town of Nuremberg.
Hptm Franz von Werra (commander of I./JG 53) photographed in July 1941 in front of the wreck of an Ilyushin db-3 bomber. Shot down in England and captured the previous September, he escaped four months later from a prison train in Canada and made his way to the then neutral USA. (Signal)
Two years after the start of the war, the irreplaceable Ju 87 B-1 was still in use, as shown by S2+AP operating in the southern sector of the Russian front during the summer of 1941. This Stuka, named Anton der Zweite (Anton the Second), was that of Hptm Herbert Pabst, commander of 6./StG 77, with Fw Woletz as radio operator.
Bf 110s of Stab/StG 1 in the central sector of the front in July or August 1941. Involved like the Ju 87s in assault missions, this unit marked the beginning of Operation Barbarossa by destroying several hundred Soviet planes and tanks on the ground, whilst also reporting large numbers of aerial victories.
Three Bf 110 E2s of 1./SKG 210 over Smolensk at the start of the invasion. This version had air filters and deeper oil radiators. S9+EH (W.Nr. 4443) in the foreground and S9+GH (W.Nr. 4465) behind did not return from an attack on Wjasma on July 28th, 1941; as for the S9+FH (W.Nr. 4452) at the back, it was shot down near Pridnepowskaja a few days later on August 3rd.
Another, later, view of the Bf 110 E-2 of SKG 210. Unlike the previous shot, in which the Messerschmitt bears the original insignia of the unit, formed in July 1940 as Erprobungsgruppe 210 (a map of England seen through a visor), the fighter-bombers are this time marked with the new emblem of the unit: a magnificent wasp.
A beautiful shot of an early version of Heinkel He 111 H in the countryside on the Eastern Front in 1941. Unfortunately, there are no details visible to allow identification of the unit it belonged to.
The crew are helped out of Hs 126 6K+FL, a plane of 3.(H)/23 which has crash-landed in the Soviet countryside (maybe Owsischtschi) in summer 1941.
Another Hs 126, the 6K+DL of 3.(H)/23 on the Eastern Front at the same time. The bright yellow markings of “tactical reconnaissance” are clearly visible.
An He 111 H-6 of KG 55 “Greif” drives through a Soviet aerodrome past mechanics bringing an SC-500 bomb to another aircraft.
German and Romanian personnel celebrate the astonishing success of the first phase of Operation Barbarossa. But despite terrible losses, the Red Army was not defeated yet…
Photographed on the Eastern Front during summer 1941, the Ju 52/3m G5+HH belongs to the transport Staffel of V. Fliegerkorps, an aerial corps managed by GenFeldm Robert Ritter von Greim, and designated by a white “G” on its nose. This formation became, in April 1942, the Lw.Kdo.Ost, then one year later the transport Staffel of Luftflotte 6.
Ju 88 A-5 9K+BB of Stab I./KG 51 photographed over the Ukraine in 1941.
This Hs 126 is camouflaged by a makeshift shelter, representative of the often precarious conditions in which the Luftwaffe operated on the new front. (Die Wehrmacht)
A Ju 88 A-4 of 1./KG 51 in flight at the end of summer 1941. Note that this aircraft bears its full code, 9K+GH, under its wings. (Philippe Ricco collection)
Members of KG 51 put on a small concert for their squadron, a group of Junkers Ju 88 crews operating in the southern sector of the Eastern Front in 1941. (Bohumir Kudlicka collection)
A close-up of the insignia of the Kampfgeschwader 51 “Edelweiss” on the nose of a Ju 88 A-4. (Bohumir Kudlicka collection)
An Hs 123 A-1 carrying four 50 kg bombs under its wings. Though an outdated formula, this ground-attack biplane was so efficient that it was kept in service in 10.(Schl.)/LG 2 during the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hardy and reliable, the Henschel Hs 123s would only retire from the front in May 1944. DB+UC seen here already bears the badge of the assault infantry, but has not yet received a tactical code. (Jacques Moulin collection)
Mechanics adjust the shift mechanism of an enormous Junkers VS-11 propeller for an He 111 H-6. Unlike the VDM metal used on previous versions, the blades of this propeller are made of wood.
Hptm Gordon Gollod, “boss” of the II./JG 3, records his final mission during the summer of 1941. Later, as commander of the JG 77, he became the first pilot in history to achieve 150 aerial victories, claiming the 150th on August 29th, 1942.
A pretty shot of Hs 126 H1+AK of 2.(H)/12 in the USSR. Behind it on the right is a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, of which we can just see the first two letters of the Stammkennzeichen: PL. (Peter Taghon collection)
A Bf 110 E of SKG 210 at Paderborn in August 1941, en route to the Eastern Front. The unit would be redesignated ZG 1 in January 1942; the first unit to bear that number was dissolved at the end of the campaign in France.
Specialized equipment was not always available on the Eastern Front, so elbow grease was often needed to keep operations running. Here, armourers hoist a bomb into place under an He 111 H of KG 55 armed with a 20mm cannon in its nose.
Again without appropriate equipment, these men are changing a propeller (with slender VDM metal blades) on a Ju 88 A-5 of II. or III./KG 1 in summer 1941. The dive brakes can be seen clearly under the wing.
Two Ju 88 A-5s of 8./KG 1 prepare to take off in Pleskau in July–August 1941. In the background, V4+AS and in the foreground W.Nr. 4412 which would be damaged by Soviet anti-aircraft defences on August 25th near Rutschi. (Philippe Ricco collection)
An anti-aircraft cannon defends a German aerodrome at Krivoy Rog during summer 1941. This is a Bofors 40 mm gun operated by a Hungarian unit.
A Bf 109 F-2 of 7./JG 54 photographed at the end of September 1941 in front of one of the hangars at the Siverskaya base. This Friedrich is probably the mount of Obfw Karl Kempf, who won his 27th and 28th victories on the 26th of that month.
The pilot of P2+HK (W.Nr. 3313) climbs into his aircraft, which a mechanic has just started up. This Hs 126 B-1 of tactical reconnaissance Staffel 2.(H)/21, seen on the Eastern Front in the autumn of 1941, is equipped with a winch (behind the fuselage), to tow a DFS 230 glider. It began Barbarossa in 9.(H)/LG 2, where it was damaged on the ground on July 14th at Moschki during a Soviet air attack.
A nurse comforts wounded men awaiting evacuation by air at the front in Leningrad in autumn 1941. In the background are several three-engined Ju 52/3ms, of which the first has the code 9P+IH.
A Wehrmacht column photographed in the USSR from a Fieseler Storch in the winter of 1941-1942.
Do 17 Zs of III./KG 3, identifiable by the code 5K painted on the fuselage, on a mission in the Moshaisk sector at the end of 1941, during the failed offensive by German forces on Moscow.
The terrible Russian winter was a bitter surprise for the units of the Luftwaffe. Thanks to their strong gear, the Stuka could still continue operations, like here this Ju 87 B-1 which seems to belong to II./StG 1. (Jacques Moulin collection)
A Friedrich of III./JG 53 in the Russian snow? Curious, as this group returned to Germany at the beginning of October 1941 to be reequipped before being transferred to the Mediterranean Front. The explanation is simple: when leaving, the unit left one of its Bf 109 F-2s at Konotop where III./JG 3 was then stationed, but they then left for Orel and didn’t return until November, after the first snowfall. (Jacques Moulin collection)
Snow had also appeared at the south of the front. On Christmas Day 1941, Bf 110 E-3 L2+AR (W.Nr. 2437) of Staffelkapitän of 7./LG 2, Maj Paul Lube, had to make an emergency landing at Mariupol after having been damaged by Soviet anti-aircraft defences. (Private collection)
At the beginning of February 1942, the Soviet counter-offensive not only managed to reach Moscow, but also surrounded six German divisions in the pocket of Demyansk, about 300 km south-south-east of Leningrad. A Ju 52/3m airlift by the Luftwaffe ensured the successful resupply of 100,000 men trapped by the weather until spring allowed a ground offensive.
Bf 109 F-4s of II./JG 54, seen here at the beginning of 1942 at Siverskaya, participated in the protection of the pocket of Demyansk in March–April of that year. To avoid sinking into the fresh snow, doors on the undercarriage were removed. In the photo below, the Ju 52/3m RF+NA of the FlKpLnRgt 1 can been seen on the left.
To speed up replenishment, this pilot is filling his “Auntie Ju” with fuel himself The large radio-antenna shows that this aircraft is a Ju 52/3m G3E.
The bombers also had to be repainted with winter camouflage schemes, like this 111 H-6 1G+FP of 6./KG 27 in flight over Leningrad in February–March 1942.
In February 1942, Oblt Wilhelm Kaiser, Adjutant of III./StG 2, was decorated with the Ritterkreuz as reward for 125 successful combat missions at the controls of a Stuka.
A Ju 88 A-5 escorted by two Bf 109 Fs. The caption of this substantially retouched propaganda card claimed these aircraft were operating on the Eastern Front, but the Junkers Ju 88 does not have defensive armaments and the Friedrichs are marked with an unusual blue tactical figure at the rear of the fuselage. (Private collection)
A fantastic shot of Hptm Hans Philipp, henceforth Kommandeur of I./JG 54, posing with his mascot (a young fox) at Krasnogwardeisk on March 12th, 1942. The ace has just been awarded Crossed Swords on his Ritterkreuz (Knight’s Cross), in recognition of his 82nd aerial victory.
Two views of a De Havilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide used as a transit aircraft by Jagdgeschwader 54 on the Eastern Front. Originally used by the Latvian postal service, this aircraft (YL-ABC or YL-ABD) was recovered by the USSR during the annexation of Latvia in June 1940 and “liberated” by the German advance in early summer 1941 at Riga.
Luftwaffe in Colour: The Victory Years: 1939–1942 Page 3