'FalkeEins - The Luftwaffe blog' presents another blog exclusive -albeit heavily copyright marked to deter the usual photo-thieves - this very rare image from the collection of JG 300 historian Jean-Yves Lorant.
This is Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-6 'Grüne 1' Werk Nr 550 445 flown by
Oberstleutnant Hajo Herrmann and
photographed between 03 August 1943 -date of Herrmann's 7th and last wilde Sau victory- and 24 August 1943 when Herrmann was shot down in this aircraft and bailed out
'unverletzt' (uninjured)
according to the loss record
. Click on the image to view large.
The original photo -measuring just a couple of centimetres square- was in the possession of Stab./JG 300 mechanic
Feldwebel Alfred Rademacher for much of his life. It was though in fact retrieved from the dustbin by the author Jean-Yves Lorant who just happened to be visiting Rademacher's widow Gerda as she was disposing of her recently deceased husband's personal effects!
In his 'wilde Sau' article recently published in issue 60 of Aérojournal magazine, C. Ehrengardt attempts to reinforce two 'myths' concerning Herrmann's aircraft and his
wilde Sau victory tally. Firstly, that Herrmann flew a Bf 109 T on the Berlin raid of 23-24 August 1943 -
he did not.
The author of the JG 300 history located the relevant loss listing during his research - '100% Fw 190 A-6 WNr 550445' - for the night of 23- 24 August, the pilot being listed as 'unverletzt'. This evidence, along with that of the photo presented above and Herrmann's own account of being shot down that night (he took to his chute and came down in one of the many lakes in the Berlin area) was more than enough evidence to remove any doubt.
M. Ehrengardt thus labels the neat profile artwork
published to accompany his article - " August 1943 ?". The question mark suggests - whether intentionally or not - that the original source of Herrmann's 'Green 1' may be incorrect while in actual fact the caption in Lorant's JG 300 history is accurate...
Below; just to clear up any 'misunderstanding' the inscription appearing on the reverse of the original photo above reads
"Bonn 1943, August, Maschine von Obstlt Herrmann ".
Another 'suggestion' that can be inferred from Ehrengardt's article is that Herrmann only returned five night victories. Well aside from the fact that the rudder markings are perfectly clear in this image, here is a brief listing of the 7 confirmed night victories returned by Hajo Herrmann during
wilde Sau operations:
Nachtjagdversuchskommando 4 July 1943 = 1 bomber at 1h30 over Bonn Mehlem
Stab./JG 300 26 July 1943 = 1 bomber
28 July = 1 bomber
30 July = 2 bombers
31 July 1943 = 1 bomber,
03 August 1943 = 1 bomber for his seventh and last night victory as per the rudder victory markings
Even as recently as April 2017 it was still possible to find the less-than-knowledgeable posting images of the horrendous caricature artwork of Herrmann's machine that has been doing the rounds of out-of-date books, articles and internet pages since the mid-1960s!! Take a (very) quick look
here for example. Posting out-dated caricature profile artworks with hopelessly incorrect captions - rather like attempting to revise and refute certain facts diligently proven by a recognised authority - doesn't do much for your credibility I'm afraid.
M. Ehrengardt presents some interesting photos in his article (Gniffke's 'white 11' at Hangelar, Döring's 'Red 6' at Bonn etc...all incorrectly attributed) but his text contains a number of errors. The 'problem' with writing about
wilde Sau operations is that the 'official' victories - as usually found on the Internet - represent no more than about 60% of the actual victories returned by the
wilde Sau pilots as researched by Jean-Yves Lorant. Numerous victories appear in log-books that were simply never filed with the OKL for reasons that the pilots themselves explained;
- absence of witnesses
- inability to pin-point the crash-site of a downed aircraft and/or wreckage ( at night, downed in many instances over a heavily bombed target area)
- claimed by the Flak who 'appropriated' a certain 'quota' of shot-down bombers according to the number of shells fired.
- dislike of and disinterest in the administrative paperwork especially following the stress and shock of a nerve-shredding and hazardous night-time sortie
- simple lack of diligence : by way of example the log-book of leading
wilde Sau ace "Nasen-Müller" details only FIVE of his thirty night victories.
Hence the importance of locating primary source documents or photos or accounts which enable the reality of what happened on
wilde Sau operations to be painstakingly reconstructed.
A further word on a couple of the colour profiles/ caption text in Aérojournal no. 60 :
Page 48, top. "Leutnant Reinhard Krumbach" is an invention of Bobo and his jg300.de site - evidently an inspiration and source for M. Ehrengardt. This 'pilot' did not exist on any JG 300 flight roster! "Black 3" as illustrated was indeed a III./ JG 300 aircraft but it was assigned to Lt. Otto Schwamb of 7.Staffel and was an ex III./JG 54 machine, retaining this unit's BLUE fuselage band and black Gruppe
Balken. III./JG 300 aircraft never displayed a vertical
Gruppe bar - as readers of Jean-Yves Lorant's JG 300 history would know. For some reason - an inscription on the reverse of a photo of Schwamb - Bobo at jg300.de has misidentified this photo as he likewise did with
Kurt Gabler's machine . Either that or he doesn't read English particularly well!
Page 51 top; now that the original photo on which the profile of "White 4" is based is in the possession of JG 300 authority Jean-Yves Lorant we can confirm that it is not a G-5 but a G-6 (the Werk Nummer is clearly visible). Assigned to I./JG 300 it was a 'Moskito' hunter painted in overall pale grey-blue equipped with power-boost as described by Herbert Schlüter in the JG 300 history (Vol I). It was not equipped with an 'infra-red' detector. Obviously to stand any chance of catching a 'Moskito' the aircraft did NOT mount 20mm
Gondelwaffen slung under the wings. The pilot of this machine was a well-known ace of 1./JG 300. See more
here on this blog.
Also on this blog;
biography/obituary of Hans-Joachim Herrmann on this blog
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/hans-joachim-hajo-herrmann.html
"..
Even as defeat appeared imminent, he refused to countenance any concessions to the enemies of National Socialism, vehemently rejecting an idea, floated by the Luftwaffe High Command, that the remnant of the air force should join with approaching American forces and fight alongside them against the Russians. Having fought throughout the war almost entirely against the western Allies, Herrmann was taken prisoner by the Russians on May 11 1945. He spent 10 years in Soviet camps and was one of the last to be released, returning to Germany on October 12 1955. After a period studying law Herrmann opened a legal practice in Düsseldorf in 1965. His clients included Holocaust deniers such as Otto Ernst Remer, Fred A Leuchter and David Irving. Something of an idol to the far-Right, he held political and historical evenings all over Europe to tell a younger generation what it meant to "live for the cause". He continued to make public appearances until 2009. For his services to the Third Reich, Herrmann was awarded the Knight's Cross, Oak Leaves and Swords..."
wilde Sau fighter pilot - Fritz Gehrmann 10./ JG 301
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/wilde-sau-pilot-fritz-gehrmann-10-jg-301.html
the aircraft of wilde Sau ace Friedrich-Karl Müller of NJGr. 10 and NJG 11
http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hans-dittes-ex-hispano-bf-109-g-10.html