There have been a number of accounts of the air battles for Romanian oil from the establishment of JG 4 to 'Tidal Wave' in August 1943 to the combats of April-July 1944 fought by JG 77 and JG 52 to the Russian arrival in Bucharest in August 1944. Aside of course from the JG 77 history by Jochen Prien none of them provide any detail from the German side. There is one other good source on these air battles - La chasse de jour allemande en Roumanie (Day fighters of the Luftwaffe in Romania) authored by Jean-Louis Roba is a slim soft-back and 25 years old but it is packed with first-person accounts and rare images..such as the photo here, recently offered on ebay;
Pilots of 8./JG 77, Mizil, Romania, spring 1944. The ace Uffz. Karl-Heinz ‘Pummel' Böttner is in the middle (fourth from the right). Second right is Uffz. Jürgen Kilian.
July 22, 1944 saw a repeat of the attack of the week before with approximately four hundred and fifty bombers launched. Four B-24s and one HSS were claimed by III./JG 77 as well as two P-38s. ‘Pummel' Böttner returned his 16th victory – another Liberator- and 8./JG 77 suffered only minor material losses. That day, at least nine B-24s were lost to the combined actions of the fighter force and the Flak arm. It was during this period that 8./JG 77 was taken over by Lt Wilhelm Mockel. Born in 1918 Mockel had spent a number of years as an instructor in training schools. Sent in mid-1944 to I./JG 53 operating in Romania, he was then posted to III./JG 77, a Gruppe short on officers. Mockel may have volunteered for combat but he had no experience of it - unlike the survivors of the African and Italian campaigns, aces such as Hackler or Böttner.
July 28, 1944 saw the 15th USAF mount its fourteenth attack on the Romanian oilfields; some 350 bombers were launched, fully intending in this last phase of the assault to deal the final blow to the defense of the oilfields and refineries. Some twenty four-engine bombers were lost, two of which were attributed to Uffz Böttner. But in the course of the fighting 8./JG 77 lost two pilots, both probably reinforcements having arrived in Romania at the beginning of 1944. On July 31, three hundred and fifty bombers were split between Bucharest and Ploesti. 7./JG 77 was decimated and 8./JG 77 lost three aircraft and one pilot killed. The Kapitän Mockel was wounded and temporarily put out of action (his post would then probably have been taken over by Hackler). Poorly guided from the ground, the Bf 109s were directed towards the escort which was present in much greater numbers, resulting in substantial losses.
On August 6, an internal note from the Luftwaffenmission in Romania stated brutally; Romanian airspace can no longer be defended by aircraft because 1°) the enemy is far superior in number; 2°) the German and Romanian fighter pilots no longer have enough experience. Indeed, apart from a few 'old hands', the ranks of III./JG 77 were largely made up of novices. Attacks could only be mounted when certain of having at least a slight tactical advantage. III./JG 77 had thus become no more than an auxiliary force, the defenders relying mainly on the Flak as well as on the units producing smoke to mask the objectives.
See "Luftwaffe Fighters - Combat on all Fronts" Vol I for a detailed biography of III./JG 77 ace K-H Böttner, illustrated with rare photos from his album. Still available from publisher Mortons here Only £9.99 (132 glossy A-4 pages, 200 illustrations, 80,000 words)
G-6 Gustav 'Black 2' flown by Uffz. Jürgen Kilian 8./JG 77
