AWP have a new book on Eastern Front night fighters due soon. From the recent posts on the TOCH forum it seems that not much is generally known about the subject but it is of particular fascination to this blogger.
One of the first to present his research on the Eastern Front night fighters of the Luftwaffe was Theo Boiten. Published in 2022, his "Nachtjagd Combat Archive - Eastern Front and The Med" (Red Kite) was 144 pages covering German night fighter operations on both the Eastern and Mediterranean fronts.
Günther Bertram's recollections feature in the book. Bertram flew He 111s in KG 4. Here he explains some of the early ad-hoc beginnings of an Eastern Front night fighter force in the Luftwaffe.
"....I was born on 2 November 1920 in Hamburg. In 1939 I sat my Abitur school leaving certificate and in November 1939 enlisted in the Luftwaffe. After the usual period of induction for new recruits I went to flying school in Guben in January 1940. Flight training for the A+B Scheine took six months to complete. Those cadets displaying officer potential went on to C-Schüle at Lömeritz for a furthur six months training. It was during this period that I was promoted to Leutnant. As I had applied to the bomber arm I completed four weeks blind flying training in Copenhagen before being posted to the large bomber training school at Tutow near Demmin in Mecklenburg. From here I was assigned to KG 4 based at Fassberg, situated between Hamburg and Hannover. This Geschwader was tasked with mining harbours and ports along the British coast. After a further period of blind flying training on the He 111 in France, some thirteen crews were transferred to Riga on the Eastern Front, assigned to fly supply dropping sorties for units encircled on the ground. As these flights were flown at low level there was always a great risk of taking hits from ground fire. After thirteen sorties we were withdrawn to fly mine-laying sorties from Königsberg over the bay of Kronstadt, which was the mission being carried out at that time by our Geschwader. After some twenty sorties the situation on the Eastern Front had become precarious and accordingly our Geschwader was shifted to Sestchinskaya on the central sector of the front in order to support our hard-pressed ground forces. I flew some eighty sorties over this sector. It was at this point that the first steps were taken to establish what would become the so-called Nachtjagdschwärme Ost. A single crew - flying the He 111- was selected from each Kampfgeschwader. A crew was also made available from the Fernaufklärer (long-range reconnaissance) under Oberleutnant Schneeweiss. As the first Schwarm only comprised three machines (two He 111s and a single Ju 88), fuel and munitions replenishment, along with maintenance and servicing requirements for the aircraft were always undertaken at the airfield of whichever larger unit we happened to be operating from. As luck would have it, in Sestchinskaya this happened to be my old unit KG 4, while later in Smolensk we were based on the field used by a Nachtaufklärungsstaffel and later still in Orsha we came under the umbrella of the Fernaufklärungsstaffel, with which our Schwarmführer Oblt. Schneeweiss had previously seen service..."
Bertram's unit was tasked with hunting and engaging the small Russian aircraft, mostly U2 and R5 biplanes, that operated every night supplying partisan groups located behind the front lines. The large and ponderous Heinkel He 111 was hardly suited to this form of aerial interdiction but there were no other available aircraft. While slow, the Russian machines were even slower - they could only manage speeds of between 150-180 kph, while the Heinkel had to maintain 200 kph at least. Bertram's favoured method of attack was to close from astern then sweep past presenting the Bordfunker with the opportunity to unleash a long salvo from his MG. Nor were the Heinkels fitted with AI radar so they could only effectively operate on clear nights. As Bertram put it, '..achieving a downing was always very much down to good fortune..' Later on, an additional MG was mounted in the forward fuselage, operated by the Bordschütze, firing through a side window. This weapon was particularly suited to strafing aircraft on the ground..
Following re-equipment with the Ju 88 the Nachtjagd Ost was put on a more organised footing. NJG 100 was formed at Brjansk from IV./NJG 5 which had shifted to the Russian Front in early 1943. Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn Wittgenstein was appointed Kommandeur of I./NJG 100 during the summer of 1943.
Boiten's book also exploits an unpublished memoir, Heinz de Fries " Wir waren Nachtjäger - Kriegserlebnisse der Besatzung de Fries an der Ostfront" - or 'We were night fighters - war stories of the de Fries crew on the Eastern Front'.
Along with eight other crews, Heinz de Fries and his crew departed Berlin in early November 1943, destination Orscha in the central sector of the Eastern Front. They were posted to NJG 100 where they were assigned to 1. Staffel under Staffelkapitän Hptm. Lechner, ".. ein alter Hase mit 42 Abschüssen.." De Fries had passed through his A/B Schule, the C-Schule, the Blindflugschule and finally the Nachtjagdschule in Lechfeld. At that time de Fries and his crew knew little about the 'Eisenbahnnachtjagd' or 'rail night fighting' - but soon grew to know it well - and appreciate it. 'Mobile' night fighting on the Eastern Front meant living and operating from 'night-fighting trains'. These comprised some 18-20 wagons fitted out with living accommodation - with 'creature comforts' such as hot-water central heating, a 'mess' and a 'wash room' - a Gefechtsstand, radar tracking stations and anti-aircraft positions. The Eastern front night-fighters moved from airfield to airfield operating more or less independently. They had to be to even hope to cover the vast expanse of the Russian front where there could be little in the way of 'permanent' infrastructure.