September 15 'Battle of Britain' day - the German fighter pilots and the 'myth'

 

Living in the shadow of the 'Battle of Britain' memorial to the 'Few' at Capel-le-Ferne on the white cliffs between Folkestone and Dover with the sound of Merlin engines almost constantly overhead at certain times of the year, I am reminded that 'Battle of Britain Day' (as September 15 is known in the UK)  has come and gone once again. 

According to some, the Luftwaffe was 'ill-prepared' for the fight over England. One fact not often acknowledged here, is the 'mauling' and subsequent losses that the Luftwaffe had sustained over France, so that the Luftwaffe's early forays over England in late July 1940 amounted to no more than an attempt to exert some 'political' pressure on those who might have been prepared to sue for peace in the UK. Göring's losses over France amounted to over 1,000 aircraft and trained crews according to which source you care to read.

(The latest 'official' score for 'la chasse' - the French fighter arm- according to the Service Historique de la Défense or SHD is around 650 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down during the Westfeldzug or 'campaign in the West'. Aircrew losses may have been as high as 3,000 men according to some sources. Infrastructure along the Channel coast had largely been wrecked. Hence the two month 'pause' before setting out to subdue England in earnest).

By mid-September the Luftwaffe could in theory claimed to have won the Battle - at least 'statistically’. However, men and machines were being worn down relentlessly, while the numbers of carefully husbanded RAF fighters were increasing. Losses on the scale being sustained by the Luftwaffe risked jeopardizing the planned assault on the Soviet Union. Hitler was probably already looking to 'shut-down' operations over the UK. But until the British government surrendered – an unlikely scenario- the Luftwaffe continued to lose men and machines to little purpose. As the summer wore on these factors all contributed to mounting cases of what was becoming termed Kanalkrankheit – Channel Sickness – better known now as combat fatigue. As Ulrich Steinhilper noted;

“Although most of us were still not outwardly showing major signs of nerves, by late August arguments were becoming more frequent, tempers frayed quicker…The strain of unrelenting front-line flying was beginning to show.”

And it was during September that the Luftwaffe turned its attentions towards London. This change of tactic played into the hands of the defenders - the RAF was able to concentrate its defensive force around the capital while the Bf 109s' limited endurance was again a factor. On September 7, the first day of raids on London, the Germans overwhelmed the defences. Fighter Command lost 33 aircraft. On the German side, a dozen bombers were lost as well as 15 Bf 109s and 10 Bf 110s. On the 8th, the Luftwaffe could not repeat its previous day's effort and the RAF had a breathing space. On the 9th, orders were given to bomb the capital by day and by night. Two major raids took place in the afternoon, but here the Luftwaffe could no longer saturate the defence - the '1000' bombers of the official history were never more than 400 and on only two dates could the Luftwaffe put more than 300 in the air. On September 9, some 23 RAF fighters were downed by Bf 109s. The Staffelkapitän 4./JG 53 Oblt.Günther Schulze-Blanck who had led the Staffel during August was killed in a dogfight over Hastings. He had returned six victories. His body washed up on a French beach some two weeks later.

There was by now perhaps, a growing realization that the fighter pilots had been assigned an impossible task. Equipping one third of the fighter force with bombs served little purpose. Lt. Jules Meimberg of 4./JG 2;

“..It was not until today that I grasped just how big a city London is. Brussels, Paris, even Berlin are tiny in comparison. What sort of effect could we hope to achieve with a few hundred bombs on a metropolis like this, aside from inflicting a few scratches..?”

 
On September 11, the fighting was particularly costly with the Luftwaffe claiming 67 fighters, while RAF Fighter Command claimed 89 German aircraft. Actual losses however amounted to 30 RAF fighters and 27 Luftwaffe machines - 11 bombers, 8 Bf 110s and about 8 Bf 109s including the machine flown by a certain Fhr. Hans-Joachim Marseille (1./LG 2) who managed to return to Wissant to crash-land his machine, 75% destroyed.

On September 15, the weather cleared and the Luftwaffe prepared for their “Final Blow” against England. This was to be the test of strength for Göring’s Luftwaffe and Dowding’s refreshed and reinforced Fighter Command. During the day’s prolonged and bitter fighting the Luftwaffe would lose 6% of their committed forces - 57 aircraft - their highest percentage loss rate during the entire Battle. Fighter Command’s losses were half of those on the German side, i.e. the rates of the Adlertag of 13 August. For the OKW, it now appeared that in major offensives, the RAF was always able to pull out the stops. Many more weeks would be required to destroy the RAF, a realisation that led to another review of tactics - attacks on airfields and factories with bomb-carrying Me 109 Jabos became more frequent. This 'Jabo' offensive - while far from decisive - was a much more effective use of the Luftwaffe fighters than the hated bomber escort duties. On October 5, for example, waves of Messerschmitt 109s (possibly as many as one hundred fighters), of which around thirty were toting ordnance, headed for Southampton and London. Fighter Command was no longer to be directed exclusively against German bombers - the Spitfires and Hurricanes were free to engage the Messerschmitts. But for the RAF, it did not necessarily have to 'win' the battle - simply not 'lose' it.. Ulrich Steinhilper, on the other hand, shot down over England at the end of October, was mentally and physically at the end of his tether.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” he says, “that the RAF broke the back and the spirit of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.”.

And on the basis that you don't always know that something is there unless you are reminded of it occasionally here is a piece on this blog published by the UK's 'Guardian' newspaper back in the year 2000 which discusses the German view of the 'Battle of Britain'..

" Hitler's pilots shoot down Battle of Britain 'myth'. Sixty years after the duel in the skies, German veterans in Berlin say that its importance is exaggerated.

Who collided with the 97th BG B-17 F 'All American' ? - Luftwaffe in Tunisia (2)

 

 The internet it would appear was made for stories like that of the 97th BG B-17 'All American'. 

 "..The 'All American', a B-17 Flying Fortress, seen returning to Biskra, Algeria, after a mid-air collision with a German fighter almost tore the bomber's tail off completely..."

While quite amazing in its own right, the story has been somewhat embellished in the re-telling. Some versions even have the B-17 returning to England. The 'Disciples of flight' web site even uses a German newspaper illustration of a Sturmstaffel Fw 190 ramming attack to illustrate its article. 

The bombing raid was flown from Biskra, Algeria to Tunis on February 1, 1943. The American B-17s - a small force of some 12 unescorted machines - were targeted head-on by the Bf 109s of II./JG 53. As related in his memoir, Jules Meimberg's 11./JG 2 - subordinated to JG 53 in Tunisia - also participated in this action. Meimberg - who had claimed a P-38 over Tunis the previous day - was still testing the frontal pass for attacking 'Ami' bombers, concentrating his fire at the weakest point defensively on the B-17 F. However his luck ran out on February 1, 1943. His Bf 109 G-4 was quickly set alight by the gunners' fire and  Meimberg bailed out badly burnt. He subsequently claimed the B-17 shot down but none were lost. 6./JG 53 ace Fw. Erich Paczia also set up for a frontal pass. According to Steve Birdsall in his 'Pride of Seattle, The Story of the First 300 B-17 Fs', what happened next left indelible impressions on the men at the front of the aircraft. Bombardier Lt. Ralph Burbridge recalled ; “I was firing at it all the way… I figure one of us must have killed the pilot because the plane crashed right into us… When we hit, our plane almost stood up on its tail. Then we went down at a very sharp angle. I thought to myself, ‘boy, this is it’.”
Paczia's wing plowed through the rear fuselage of the 'All American' and the 16-victory German ace plunged to his death. 

Fw. Erich Paczia of 6./JG 53 (left) seen in Comiso during 1942

 

Below; the B-17 managed to fly back to its base and land safely without any crew member injured.

"..Wings ablaze with gunfire, the Messerschmitt pilot aimed his fighter directly at the nose of the 'All American'. The crew aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress had seconds to respond. The bomber’s nose gun flashed in reply. The gunners of the lead bomber joined the fray, raking the air with bullets. At the last moment, the fighter turned to pull away. Suddenly, the pilot froze – one of the American gunners had found their mark. The fighter shot right over the cockpit of the B-17 'All American' with a deafening “whoosh” before plowing into the tail section. The craft shuddered as a tremendous “whoomp!” tore through it..."

A full day-by-day account of the Luftwaffe in Tunisia is related in issue #96 of 'Batailles Aériennes' over 96 A-4 pages, comprising 200 photos and 15 artworks all for 12 euros. Even if you don't read French this is a bargain.

"..From 1940 to late 1942, the Tunisians had seen few Luftwaffe aircraft, except for the few aircraft of the Armistice Commission that had come to verify compliance with the conditions set in June 1940 at Compiègne. This changed in November 1942 when the Allies landed in Algeria and Morocco, catching the Afrika Korps (then in full retreat) in a pincer movement. Mustering all it could, the Wehrmacht rushed in disparate units from land, air and sea to take control of Tunisia, towards which Rommel's army was retreating. On the ground, the Heer was initially able to block the advance of the enemy forces, while in the air, the Luftwaffe stepped up all kinds of operations: fighter and bomber escort sorties, ground attack, reconnaissance and also supply operations following the creation of an air bridge linking Europe to Africa. Airborne units and the flak arm were also put to great use. However, even if the German fighters were able to inflict heavy losses ( the USAAF in particular lacked combat experience), they often appeared powerless against large forces of American heavy bombers that were dispatched to pound their airfields as well as troop concentrations. The Luftwaffe, confronted with sophisticated enemy equipment, was to find out the hard way what 'Materialschlacht' meant. As the months passed and Allied numerical superiority increased, fatal blows were dealt to the air and sea supply units, which isolated the Tunisian pocket. Despite the disproportionate nature of the fighting, the Axis were able to hold on to the country for some six months, although their positions were slowly  whittled away. And on 13 May 1943, after suffering heavy losses, the Axis lost Africa for good..."

 

Flypast Meimberg article "The men behind the Bf 109"- an unusual 'kill', 24 September 1944

current issue of Flypast - nice cover. More Schwalbe Me 262 air-to-airs on this blog

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/new-build-me-262-schwalbe-air-to-airs.html

magazine contents include a small feature entitled 'Men behind the Bf 109' by Chris Goss who summarises the career of JG 2 ace Jule Meimberg. In his 'Britain at War' feature on Operation Sunrise as discussed elsewhere on this blog, Meimberg, according to his own account, ran out of fuel after downing three British bombers raiding the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau on 24 July 1941. In the subsequent crash-landing he sustained injuries that put him out of the war for nearly a year. In this latest extract from Meimberg's memoir the pilot is now Kommandeur of II./JG 53 on the Western Front. He describes an unusual aerial "victory" over Germany on 24 September 1944. Here's my more extensive version of the piece. I have corrected some turns of phrase in the magazine feature and added some additional text;

" ...We received a visit from Generalleutnant Beppo Schmid, who held forth to the Gruppe's pilots on the possibility of shooting up the parachutes of bailed-out enemy pilots - an aviator was only really out of the fight when he was dead, so there was no good reason to let enemy pilots hang under their chutes. After he had departed I said a few words on the subject, weighing my words carefully, since Schmid's turn of phrase had left it unclear as to whether he was merely expressing an opinion, outlining an instruction or giving an order;

" Gentlemen, you've heard what Generalleutnant Schmid has to say on the subject. You know that Leutnant Paashaus was murdered a few weeks ago as he was hanging under his chute. I however have no intention of carrying out such an act..."

" Well, I won't hesitate.."  Herbert Rollwaage smirked back at me. He had always had a rebellious streak and would contradict me on principle.  I tried to make allowances for his provocative defiance. For many of us it had become incredibly difficult to continue to fight a 'clean' war that was becoming ever 'dirtier'. My own examination came on 24 September 1944. On this day the Gruppe was deployed against 'Jabos' in the area of Metz-Nancy. After the passage of a cold front Seeger and I were airborne at 12:27 with two Schwaerme. The Rhine glinted beneath us and through breaks in the cloud we could see Ludwigshafen. As usual my neck was on a swivel as I quartered the sky; there, ahead of us, standing out against a dazzlingly white wall of cloud - a tiny dot, slightly higher than us and on a parallel  heading. A twin-engined machine..strange..the shape of the wings resembled that of a Focke Wulf Fw 58..but the Weihe was a smaller aircraft. We turned in towards it. It appeared to be an aircraft type that I had never encountered before and seemed to be unarmed.  By now we were in close and suddenly - like an electric shock - I recognised the red-white-blue roundels on the wings and fuselage. An RAF machine! Had he lost his mind, flying over Germany in broad daylight like that  - and with no fighter escort? I pushed the throttle forward with the idea of getting him to follow me, but at that moment he must have spotted us as he banked into a turn towards the wall of cloud, clearly trying to evade our attentions. By now I was in behind him and aimed a short burst of fire at his starboard engine. It was not my intention to shoot him down and I therefore unleashed a short salvo from my MGs alone. I did not fire the 109's cannon armament. It was then that the enemy machine pulled up into a steep climb, rolled onto its back and plunged earthwards. It went down like a stone, and, as the enemy pilot attempted to pull out, the machine's structural limits were far exceeded. With a jerk one of the wings came away from the fuselage and fluttered down like a leaf, while the rest of the aircraft plummeted to the ground. There was no sign of any chutes from the body of the aircraft. We followed it down in steep spirals until it augered in. I didn't feel good about this at all. I gave the order to turn for home...Once we were back on the ground I was determined to see for myself what type of machine this was.. it was a military target, of that there was no doubt, so according to international law I had done nothing wrong..but there was something about this incident that didn't add up. I set out with my driver but after a few kilometres we got a puncture and had to stop to put on the spare wheel. But after a second flat we had to turn back. In the meantime news of this downing had come through to the Gefechtsstand - my 'victory' was an RAF Dakota, a transport type with 3 crew. On board were 20 passengers wearing khaki uniforms. The pilot had evidently drifted off course or got lost while on a flight south..I had killed 23 men - people who had left behind parents, loved ones, wives or even children.. it was to affect me deeply...I had seen too many die, written too many letters of condolence, come too close to death myself, to simply put thoughts of the consequences of this sortie out of my mind... "

Julius Meimberg's  memoir entitled 'Feindberührung'  is published by 296 Verlag
Unfortunately I have no news on a possible English-language edition. Click the label link below for more

Operation Sunrise 24 July 1941 - I./JG 2 vs. RAF bombers over France (Britain at War magazine, April 2012 issue)

...Operation Sunrise was a large daylight raid mounted on 24 July 1941 against the German battle cruisers Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau holed up in the port of Brest. 'Sunrise I and II" - 'II' being the diversion - was flown by more than one hundred RAF medium and heavy bombers -  including Stirlings, Halifaxes..and three B-17 Flying Fortresses. Chris Goss has just published an excellent article detailing the events leading up to and including the 24 July 1941 raid entitled 'Neutralise the threat' which appears in the current issue of 'Britain at War' magazine.

Given the focus of 'Britain at War' Chris does not include any accounts from JG 2 pilots who countered the raid, although he does publish some interesting photos. 24 July 1941 was a significant day in the career of the Staffelführer 3./JG 2 Lt. Julius Meimberg - by his own account three bombers shot down and a crash landing that resulted in serious injuries that would keep him out of combat for the rest of the year.

While Goss states in one of his photo captions that Meimberg was shot down - presumably by the bombers' defensive fire - Meimberg's own account merely refers to running out of fuel. He had been performing an air test when he had simply run into the RAF raid ...

" ...In the early afternoon the chief engineer (Oberwerksmeister) reported that my Bf 109 E-7 'yellow 1' was serviceable and suggested that I take it up for an air test. So I took off alone. The visibility was perfect. With the sun beating down on my canopy, temperatures rose rapidly in the cockpit and I climbed for altitude in search of cooler conditions.."

 Banking in the direction of Brest, Meimberg could clearly see the silhouette of the Prinz Eugen in the port. The Gneisenau, on the other hand, was lying in a huge dry dock. They looked extremely vulnerable. Meimberg then flew a wide curving turn to the north-west and caught sight of a series of black dots moving to the south at between 4,000 and 5,000 metres altitude.

" Bomber ! They looked like swarms of insects, there was no doubt, however, they were bombers and there were several dozen of them ! I struggled to remain calm. I quartered the sky looking for the escort. However I see no sign of condensation trails that might betray any fighters - not a single Spitfire. As the bombers were flying into the sun, it was likely that I had not yet been seen. I called up our Gefechtsstand and told them the number, the altitude and the heading of the intruders. The first enemy aircraft passed below me at that moment...."

Meimberg feverishly switched on his sight and armed his MGs and dove down to come in behind a Handley-Page Hampden bomber.

" ..A long burst of fire ripped into his engines. He started to go down. I climbed back to altitude. After about ten minutes, I spotted another group of Hampdens and came down behind one of them. It wasn't long before he was joining my first victim. I again got back up sun in an 'ambush' position and, after a similar period, spotted my target: a Vickers Wellington. I came in from astern at full speed and opened fire, exhausting my last ammunition. It went straight down and crashed not giving any of its occupants a chance to escape. My third victory of the day! At that moment, the red low fuel warning light started flashing on the instrument panel. I'd been airborne for more than an hour and it was high time to land. Suddenly, while still a long way from Guipavas, my engine coughed and sputtered and then stopped abruptly..".

With his prop turned to fine pitch and still windmilling in the slipstream, the Staffelführer 3./JG 2 desperately sought out a landing strip before lining up on an open field in the vicinity of  Brélès. In the ensuing forced landing Meimberg's Bf 109 E -7 " yellow 1 ", displaying 10 victory bars, was brought to a stand after careening into a hedge and low wall. Severely damaged, the aircraft would be a write-off. In the photos taken immediately after the crash  Meimberg is prostrate on the ground, swathed in bandages, while German personnel and local civilians can be seen  attempting to protect the injured pilot from the heat of the sun’s rays with an umbrella. Meimberg would not rejoin his unit until spring 1942.

RAF losses during 'Sunrise' were considerable and the German ships relatively unscathed -  although the large bomber force was escorted by equally large numbers of fighters, the bombers could only be escorted part of the way due to the distances involved. I./JG 2 claimed some 25 RAF bombers shot down. Also successful were pilots of the Bf 109s of the Erg.Jagd training Staffel. Ofw. Franz Gawlik of this unit claimed a Halifax. The diversionary Circus mounted over northern France had failed to draw the Luftwaffe fighters north.


Further reading;

Eric Mombeek 'Dans le ciel de France'  (Vol II JG 2 history)
Jules Meimberg; chapter entitled "Gegen die Royal Air Force" in "Feindberuehrung" (296 Verlag)
Chris Goss " Neutralise the threat", article in Britain at War, April 2012 issue (general page view below)

'Feindberührung' - Julius Meimberg memoir published by 296 Verlag

On 12 May 1944 the US 8th Air Force dispatched hundreds of B-17s and B-24s- screened by long range escort fighters - to petro-chemical targets in central Germany. One unit that rose to meet this awesome array of strength was II. Gruppe of JG 53 commanded by Julius Meimberg. Aged twenty seven years old, he had seen service in France and Africa with JG 2 and was now responsible for some eight hundred men in the defence of the Reich, knowing already that the war was lost. His vividly written memoir 'Feindberührung' - Contact with the Enemy - opens with a description of his bail out that day. Scrambled from Eschborn at 11:30, Meimberg's Schwarm had sighted Mustangs glinting in the sunlight at lower altitude and swept down on the bounce. Opening up with the engine mounted cannon, Meimberg was quickly in trouble - a defective 30mm round suddenly exploded in his weapon..The following translated extract nicely captures the drama of Meimburg's vivid account..


" ......Get out! Out! OUT! Oh my God - get out! Quick!

While reason is still fighting the rising panic, my hands start to dart around the cockpit in a well-rehearsed ballet of actions...

My left hand pulls the throttle lever back to idle and with a jerk I disconnect the cable that runs to the flight helmet from the radio set. My right hand releases its grip from the stick and starts to grope for the clasp of the harness. Even as I'm doing this the aircraft has already started to fall away in an uncontrollable dive.

I do not want to get roasted as happened last year over Tunis.

The push-in buckle of the clasp has to be open before the negative acceleration of the plummeting fighter in its final dive pins me so tightly into my straps that it will impossible to release it. It has to be undone before I release the canopy - the force of the slipstream will whip and lash my body so powerfully that the belt lock will block.

With both hands I fumble around on the safety catch.

Done! My left hand flies up to the emergency canopy- jettison lever but the hood sits tight; both hands grab the lever which opens the canopy normally and and start to wind it furiously but the hood remains closed. I can feel the panic rising again, choking. The explosion must have bent something; some ridiculously small part, a peg, a locking mechanism, a linkage or a drill hole.

Through the black film of oil that the shot-up engine is spraying onto the plexiglass wind shield, I can see bight red flames streaming back along the fuselage. My 109 is on fire. Feet drawn up onto the seat already, I arch my back against the canopy hood desperately. The Messerschmitt continues its headlong plunge to earth - now no more than a blazing torch.

There-finally: a crack! A tiny opening! Any hope of being able to escape the deadly trap imparts almost superhuman strength.

A bang, the brute punch of the airflow against head and chest - I am free...right hand groping for the handle for the ripcord, I whirl down through the skies. As soon as I open my eyes, I see a grey-green expanse above me and deep blue at my feet. Strange how you always fall head first. I have to resist the urge to pull the ripcord now. This would be very dangerous: far too many comrades have been machine-gunned while hanging in their chutes recently. Discernable details come into focus in the grey-green mass above me - here a village, surrounded by fields of rape oil seed blossoming brightly, there a small forest. Now, country roads and gravel paths come into view.

No, don't pull it yet.

I've at least 500 or 600 more metres to fall - that would be two -much too - long, dangerous minutes hanging under the open chute. But very quickly the red-white area of the village resolves into individual houses and the light- and dark grey of the wood develops into conifers and broad-leafed trees.

Now!

One last moment of terror - I hold the ripcord handle with its short wire in my hand and think that it has been torn off – but then - just at that instant - the jolt of the chute as it billows out behind me brakes my descent and I float downwards, envelopped by the tender smell of Spring.

My jump ends on a slope full of fresh green. Suddenly the roar of the engines of the three American P-51 Mustangs - appearing out of nowhere they sweep over my landing site without attacking - resonates as a dramatic final chord.

And then - silence. This redeeming silence which talks even more vividly not letting you hear any sound at all.

I will be here forever, it says; behind the thunder of your engines, the hammering of your guns, the rattling inferno of your orders and your death-cries in the earphones, I will await you, timeless and indifferently. Your war – your war does not touch me …

In front of me a pair of rabbit ears pops up in a furrow. I do not move. Flat on my belly, my head raised, I listen into this silence. A hare stretches,bobs up for a few seconds and then jumps away without any hurry.

With a deep breath, childish joy flows through me: joy for the Spring, the sun, the colours and the smells around me. I'm alive. Again, Still. And infinitely thankful.

A whirling sound drills itself into my ears and ends in a hollow banging and splintering sound. Over there - where just seconds before the hare was musing - the cabin hood of my plane smashed into the ground.

I pull myself together and head towards it - the canopy is scorched, charred, bent, shattered and covered with a raw, blinding coat of boiling oil.

“Hands up !”  I hear the voice behind me as -with shaking hands- I'm still trying to clean a fragment of the hood for safekeeping...the villagers are here, lead by a man who is being pulled by a barking mutt that looks very aggressive. No, I have to disappoint them. All they have before them is a German airman. A German fighter pilot, brought down by his own machine five minutes ago.

That must have been how it happened, I think to myself, while we are trotting towards their village; There is no other reasonable explanation for this turn of events. We were climbing, when I saw something flashing to the right below me- the glinting of sunlight on the aluminium body of an enemy aircraft, a glittering spot above the Taunus hills - still more flashing spots were swarming eastwards, weaving and bobbing. The American fighter sweep is below us, we are up at 5000 metres and have the sun in our backs. The ideal position to attack.... "

'Feindberührung' is published by 296 Verlag. An English-language edition has been promised for some time now. Unfortunately I have no news on its possible appearance. Elsewhere Meimberg contributes extensively to Erik Mombeek's history of JG 2 (two volumes published in French, one in English - translator Neil Page)

More Meimberg on this blog

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Jules%20Meimberg

Julius Meimberg (JG2 ace) and Gerhard Baeker - a German view of the Battle of Britain

In an interview published in the British 'Observer' newspaper in the year 2000 prior to the commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, two Luftwaffe pilots who fought over England shoot down what the Germans refer to as the Battle of Britain 'myth'. In a recent thread over on the TOCH forum I was surprised to realise that this 'German' view of the Battle of Britain is not more widely known - probably because it is rather at odds with the accepted view. This piece should be read in conjunction with my earlier blog post on the Battle of Britain here Luftschlacht über England - the significance of the German defeat during the Battle of Britain
I have to say that I don't entirely share the views of the two pilots as related below, that firstly the Luftwaffe wasn't defeated and secondly that the mere presence of the Royal Navy prevented Hitler from proceeding with an invasion. And while Hitler's failure to achieve air supremacy over Britain - which he used as a pretext for postponing invasion - probably didn't alter the outcome of the war, it certainly did eventually allow the Western powers to prevent the entire European mainland from being over-run by the Soviets.


"...Sixty years after the duel in the skies, German veterans in Berlin say that its importance is exaggerated. German fighter pilots, famously seen off during the Battle of Britain, will not be commemorating their dead this year for a simple reason: they believe the British are talking up an 'insignificant' clash in the skies that did not alter the course of the war. Ahead of the sixtieth anniversary of the famous dogfights between Spitfires and Messerschmitts, German pilots are still engaged in fighting talk over the events of 1940 that Winston Churchill declared the victory of 'the few' British pilots on behalf of 'the many' in a battle that saved Britain from becoming part of the German empire.

At 83, Julius Meimberg is typical. He can remember almost every detail of a war in which he flew more than 250 missions as a fighter pilot, including dozens over Britain.

'It's all exaggerated,' he said. 'Churchill succeeded in creating this myth that so few did so much for so many. When you look at how we fought against the Americans later, the Battle of Britain was very little in comparison.'

There will be no official commemoration of the Battle of Britain in Germany, and the few surviving pilots who fought on the German side see no reason to mark the anniversary. Even if they did, Meimberg believes that none of today's generation of Germans would take any notice or express any interest in their wartime adventures.

'Nobody's interested in that here. There's nothing here, they're even getting rid of the memorial rooms for squadrons. You won't see a single swastika there, for example, because a whole period has been wiped out, even though it's part of their history. I think it's a very bad thing to try to undo history,' he said.

Meimberg was a 23-year-old lieutenant in Jagdgeschwader 2 'Richthofen' when he started flying up to four missions a day over Britain. He admits that he seldom thought about his opponents on the British side as people: they were simply targets.

'The people who were inside them [the fighter aircraft] were the same as us, except that they spoke English and we spoke German. We only saw the aircraft. I find that a bit difficult to understand today. We didn't see the people, only the aircraft. We fought aircraft against aircraft. We were fighting for our Fatherland and they for their England. It was like sportsmen - there were good and bad ones,' he said.

Gerhard Baeker was 25 when he flew his first bombing missions over England and he too regards the British preoccupation with the Battle of Britain as disproportionate. Like Meimberg, the former pilot who took part in the bombing of Coventry remembers August and September 1940 as just one incident in a long war.

'For me, the battle lasted from August 1940 until July 1941. What they call the Battle of Britain in England was just August and September.

'But for us it was only starting. England had declared war on us. We didn't want a war with England. We had the Russians at our backs.

'The Hitler-Stalin pact was an unnatural pact. We always hoped that England would give way and recognise that the Russians wanted to effect their world revolution - which was proven to be the case after the war,' he said.

Baeker dismisses as absurd the suggestion that the RAF prevented a German invasion of Britain by depriving the Luftwaffe of air supremacy. He argues that the German armed forces, which had only been fully reconstituted in 1935, could never have secured a bridgehead or defeated the Royal Navy.

Meimberg agrees that the Battle of Britain did not prevent a German invasion, but he claims that, if Germany had attempted to occupy Britain, the operation would have succeeded.

'The Germans could have occupied England afterwards. It was diplomacy that prevented that. It seems to me that the English led the Germans by the nose by showing a willingness to make peace but in reality playing for time. I saw the British at Dunkirk and I know they could not withstand an invasion,' he said.

Meimberg received serious burns and a number of broken bones during his service as a fighter pilot, but he says that the struggle to survive after the war was more difficult than anything he experienced in battle.

Unlike their counterparts in Britain, men like Meimberg and Baeker are at best forgotten and at worst reviled in their own country. A few tiny organisations, such as the German Fighter Pilots' Association, struggle to keep their traditions alive and to take care of veterans who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

But the German public has little time for the defeated soldiers of a war that brought shame and destruction to their nation.

'War is not the continuation of politics by other means, war is the utter failure of politics and politicians. We're described as Hitler's soldiers, but it is a totally false view that we were ideologised,' said Meimberg......"