Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot
Page 20
Meanwhile, another JG 107 had been set up in October 1944 at Hagenow, southwest of Schwerin, under the command of Oberstleutnant Hennig Strümpell. (A veteran of the Legion Condor, with whom he had scored his first two victories during the Spanish Civil War, the then Hauptmann Strümpell had subsequently commanded I./JG 2 Richthofen during the opening weeks of the Battle of Britain.) At this late stage of the war, the original plan to employ the ‘new’ JG 107 as a blind-flying school had to be abandoned due to shortages of technical equipment, qualified instructors and suitable aircraft. I./JG 107 was thus never fully activated.
A second Gruppe, II./JG 107 (the ex-JG 116), did manage to undertake some perfunctory day-fighter training at Hildesheim, southeast of Hannover, for just over two months during the winter of 1944/45 before it too was disbanded in February 1945.
8: Jagdlehrerüberprüfungsgruppe (Fighter Instructors’ Inspection Group)
The growing need for fighter pilots and the consequent proliferation of fighter training schools to meet this need had, in turn, resulted in an increased demand for qualified fighter instructors. In October 1941 Jagdfliegerschule 5 (Fighter Pilots’ School 5), then based at Bernay in France, set up a fifth Staffel (5./JFS 5) specifically for the purpose of training instructors.
A year later, on 1 September 1942, this Staffel was retitled the Jagdlehrerüberprüfungsstelle (fighter instructors’ inspection centre). It moved from Bernay to Orléans-Bricy under the command of Oberleutnant Erich Hohagen (a later Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 2 Richthofen). In November a Gruppenstab was formed, which led to the unit’s undergoing another minor change of designation to become the Jagdlehrerüberprüfungsgruppe.
The Gruppe remained at Orléans-Bricy until the end of August 1943. The instructors’ test courses, which had lasted anything from two to four weeks in the days of 5./JFS 5, were now extended to two months. During the summer of 1943 the Gruppe also operated a so-called Einsatzschwarm (an operational formation of four machines). Its task was to defend the airspace around Orléans, and later around Paris, against incursions by allied aircraft.
On 1 September 1943 the Gruppe moved to Guyancourt near Paris, before then deploying to the more peaceful skies of Orange-Caritat in the south of France towards the end of the year. During the winter months of 1943/44 the Gruppe’s pilots flew patrols over the Mediterranean from Orange, as well as from the unit’s satellite fields at Marseilles and Aix. Then in the spring of 1944, with the threat of an allied invasion of southern France looming large, the Gruppe exchanged the Mediterranean for the Baltic, taking up residence at Garz/Usedom where, on 1 June 1944, it was redesignated to become II./JG 110 (see below).
9: Jagdgeschwader 110 (Fighter [Training] Wing 110)
In May 1943 the flying training school based at Altenburg in Thuringia, FFS A/B 33 (see above), was redesignated as Blindflugschule 10 (Blind-Flying School 10). Remaining at Altenburg, with a satellite field at Pommsen in Saxony, the school–commanded by Oberstleutnant Max Gerstenberger and re-equipped with new Me 109s and Fw 109s–was specifically tasked with the training of pilots for single-engined Wilde Sau night-fighter operations.
On 15 October the unit provided the nucleus (I. Gruppe) for the newly forming Jagdgeschwader 110. Oberstleutnant Gerstenberger was appointed to be the Geschwaderkommodore, with Hauptmann Albert Falderbaum becoming the Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 110. The Gruppe continued its Wilde Sau training activities as before. It also sent small detachments of instructors to many of the day fighter Gruppen engaged in Defence of the Reich operations to teach their pilots rudimentary blind-flying techniques.
In June 1944 JG 110 was increased in strength by the incorporation of the Garz-based Jagdlehrerüberprüfungsgruppe (see above), which was redesignated to become II./JG 110. The new designation did not mean a change of role, however. The new Gruppe was still concerned solely with the training and testing of flying instructors.
The following month, July 1944, a multi-engined night-flying training school of long standing, FFS B 36 (first activated at Radom in Poland back in October 1940), ceased operations as such and was redesignated III./JG 110. Re-equipped with single-seaters, it began to train newly qualified fighter pilots in blind and bad-weather flying.
I./JG 110 moved from Altenburg to Brunswick in February 1945 and was disbanded there two weeks before the end of the war. Still at Garz on the island of Usedom on the Baltic coast (the site, incidentally, of the Peenemünde V2 rocket test-centre), the instructors of II./JG 110 flew operational sorties against the Red air force along the River Oder front during the opening weeks of 1945 before the Gruppe’s disbandment in mid-February. At Wesendorf, north of Berlin, III./JG 110 survived until mid-March, when its members were remustered as ground troops to take part in the defence of the German capital.
10: 1./Ergänzungsjagdgruppe West (1 Squadron/Replacement Fighter Group West)
The equivalent of the RAF’s operational training units (OTUs), the Luftwaffe’s Ergänzungs units underwent a succession of changes as the war progressed. Initially, each Jagdgeschwader was ordered to set up its own Ergänzungsstaffel (replacement squadron). Usually equipped with ‘war-weary’ machines retired from service by its parent unit, and staffed by Geschwader pilots–either on temporary attachment, resting from operations or recovering from wounds–the job of the Ergänzungsstaffel was to give newly qualified trainees from the fighter schools a ‘final polish’ to prepare them for front-line service.
JG 2’s Ergänzungsstaffel was activated at Octeville, on the French channel coast near Le Havre, in mid-October 1940 under the command of Oberleutnant Horst Steinhardt. Towards the end of March 1941 this Ergänzungs unit was raised to Gruppe status. A Gruppenstab (Stab/ErgGr JG 2) was formed under Major Jürgen Roth. The original Ergänzungsstaffel now became 1./ErgGr JG 2 and a new 2./ErgGr JG 2 was added. The former adopted the role of an Einsatzstaffel (operational squadron), flying defensive patrols along the Channel coast, while the latter took over the duties of the Ausbildungsstaffel (training squadron), transferring to the quieter environs of Cazaux in southern France for the purpose.
In February 1942 all the Ergänzungs units were the subject of a major reorganization. Removed from the direct control of their parent Geschwadern, the Staffeln were now amalgamated into three autonomous Ergänzungsjagdgruppen: Ost, Süd and West (east, south and west) of three-four Staffeln each. However, the individual Staffeln retained their connections to, and continued to supply pilots for, their own particular Geschwader. The reorganization of February 1942 resulted in 2./ErgGr JG 2, now under the command of Hauptmann Hermann Hollweg, becoming 1./Ergänzungsgruppe West. At the same time the Staffel was transferred from Cazaux to Mont de Marsan, south of Bordeaux and close to the French Biscay coast.
At the end of 1942 the somewhat cumbersome ‘Ergänzungs’ prefix was dropped from the unit title, which now became 1./Jagdgruppe West. In April 1943 the unit, under its new Staffelkapitän, Oberleutnant Wilhelm Hobirk, moved south to Tarbes at the foot of the French Pyrenees. It was here, in May 1944, that it exchanged identities with 4./Jagdgruppe Süd.
Under its new designation the Staffel departed France the following month, June 1944, transferring first to Hohensalza and then to Neuruppin, some thirty-five miles to the northwest of Berlin. Yet more restructuring in November 1944 saw the four ‘compass-point’ Jagdgruppen (a Jagdgruppe Nord [North] having been created in September) combined to form Ergänzungsjagdgeschwader 1. Jagdgruppe Süd was redesignated II./EJG 1, with 4./JGr Süd now becoming 8./EJG 1.
Late in January 1945 II./EJG 1, based at Schönwalde on the northern outskirts of Berlin, flew escort for the Luftwaffe Stukas and ground-assault aircraft attacking the Red Army as it advanced on the German capital. In mid-February 8./EJG 1, still commanded by the now Hauptmann Hobirk, withdrew to Ottingen, east of Bremen, where it was finally disbanded.
11: I./Jagdgeschwader 2 ‘Richthofen’ (1st Group/Fighter Wing 2 Richthofen)
I./JG 2 was rightly proud of its premier place as the oldest fighter uni
t in the Luftwaffe. It could trace its history right back to 1930–even before the birth of the Luftwaffe proper–when the German army secretly established three flying units. These were disguised to the outside world as Reklamestaffeln (advertising squadrons) and were ostensibly employed for aerial advertising purposes.
When the Luftwaffe officially came into being on 1 April 1934 it was one of these three Reklamestaffeln that was selected to form the nucleus of the new air arm’s first fighter Gruppe. Initially known simply as the Fliegergruppe Döberitz (Air Group Döberitz) after its base to the west of Berlin, the unit was awarded the honour title, Richthofen on 14 March 1935.
Just over a year later, on 1 June 1936, the Luftwaffe introduced a three-figure system of unit designation, which resulted in the Fliegergruppe Döberitz becoming the first Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 132 Richthofen (I./JG 132). Between then and the outbreak of war in 1939, a time of rapid expansion and a confusing multiplicity of redesignations within the Luftwaffe, the Jagdgeschwader ‘Richthofen’ was used to provide cadres for numerous other new fighter, Zerstörer and dive-bomber units. Having reached a peak strength of four Gruppen in 1938, the Geschwader had been reduced back down to its one original Gruppe by the outbreak of hostilities on 1 September 1939.
Operating now as I./JG 2, the Gruppe did not participate directly in the Polish campaign, but was instead retained at Döberitz to augment the aerial defence of Berlin in the event of allied bombing raids. It did, however, play a prominent role in both the Battles of France and Britain as part of General der Flieger (later Generalfeldmarschall) Hugo Sperrle’s Air Fleet 3.
Following the Battle of Britain, I./JG 2 spent very nearly the whole of the next three-and-a-half years in northwest France, where it constituted the first line of defence against allied air incursions into occupied Europe. These grew steadily in strength and diversity, requiring the Gruppe to operate both at low level against roving enemy fighter-bombers and at high altitude against the four-engined Fortresses and Liberators of the American 8th AF.
From February to April 1944 the Gruppe was deployed, via the south of France, to Italy. Here it saw action against the allied forces attacking Cassino and attempting to break out of the Anzio beachhead. Returning to France immediately prior to the invasion of Normandy, I./JG 2 was almost wiped out in the weeks following D-Day. At least thirty-five pilots were killed or missing, plus many more wounded, before they were finally withdrawn to Germany at the end of August 1944.
Back on home soil for the first time in more than four years, I./JG 2 took up residence at Merzhausen to the northwest of Frankfurt. The Gruppe was heavily involved in the defensive fighting on the western front during the autumn and winter of 1944. It took part in both the Ardennes counter-offensive (the ‘Battle of the Bulge’) and Operation Bodenplatte, the Luftwaffe’s disastrous New Year’s Day attack on allied airfields in France and the Low Countries on 1 January 1945. With fifteen pilots killed, missing or captured, I./JG 2 suffered the highest casualty rate of any of the Gruppen involved in the latter action.
Despite Merzhausen being extensively damaged by allied bombing, I./JG 2 remained there until the end of March 1945. Continuing to fly missions against increasingly heavy odds, it was during this period that the Gruppe lost its only Kommandeur to enemy action in nearly six years of war when Hauptmann Franz Hrdlicka was shot down by US fighters northeast of Frankfurt on 23 March. The following month I./JG 2 retired briefly into Czechoslovakia before returning to Germany, where it surrendered to American troops at Straubing near Regensburg.