KG 3 Ju 88 crew photo album -ebay photo find # 360

From the estate of Luftwaffe Ju 88 crewman Hans Burkhardt from Görlitz (born 14 December 1916)
April to October 1937 labour service with the RAD-Abteilung 1/105 in Sagan, Silesia.
Rekrutenzeit/recruit period/boot camp with the 1st / Infantry Regiment 30 in Görlitz from 14 November 1938.
With this unit, as part of the 18th Infantry Division, deployment in the Polish campaign.
In 1940 to the Luftwaffe; October 1940 to May 1941 at the Große Kampffliegerschule Thorn.
May 1941 to February 1942 with 11./ Kampfgeschwader 3 at Chièvres, Belgium.
February 1942 transferred to 2./KG 3 KG.3 on the Eastern Front as an observer-gunner Beobachter-Bordschütze.
He served in the Junkers Ju 88-A crew of pilot Helmut Rösner (DK holder).
March 1943 transferred from Zaporozhye to Creil, France, for special England operations.
Spring 1943 to IV./KG.3 at Istres airfield, southern France for operations over Africa.
Here he was awarded the Ehrenpokal (honour goblet) on 30 April 1943. He was also proposed for the DK (German Cross).
In 1944, he was posted as a crew instructor ("Lehrbesatzung Rösner") to Lüneburg airbase.
November 1944 until end of war with the 3./TG 20 (Transportfliegergruppe) in Fornebu, Norway.
He made a total of 176 combat flights in the East, 11 over England, and 3 in Africa.
He survived the war and escaped from French captivity on 31 July 1946.

 On offer from crains militaria here

 

Ju 88 A-4s of KG 3 on the Eastern Front

 

Mechanics of Kampfgeschwader 3 Blitz, standing on the Junkers Ju-88 A-4 coded 5K+GP, salute the crew of a bomber flying over the airfield. This particular 6./KG 3 (WNr. 8518) Ju 88 was shot down on 9 July 1942 in the Shisdra sector. The crew escaped unscathed except for the pilot Fw. Horst Pilz who was killed. Note the gust locks in place on the elevator and rudder.

The Kommodore who switched sides - Walter Lehweß-Litzmann (1907-1986) - 'Absturz ins Leben'

 

"..In front of me, one aircraft after the other was now plunging steeply downwards. I also guided the Ju-88 into the dive ... Suddenly a flash of fire, a blow to the head. No more aircraft around me. I found myself free-falling, still strapped in the armoured seat ..plunging earthwards...."

In 1994 Jörn Lehweß-Litzmann wrote and published his father's memoir 'Absturz ins Leben' (lit. 'Crashing into life')

Grandson of WWI infantry general Karl Litzmann, Walter Lehweß-Litzmann joined the Reichswehr in 1925 and the Luftwaffe in 1933. According to his son's account, Lehweß-Litzmann 'was involved in building up the air force' as Aufklärer, Kampfflieger and Generalstabsoffizier. 

In April 1941 as Maj. he was appointed Kommandeur of  III./KG 1 and on July 7 crash-landed his Ju 88 A-5 (V4+AD) near the coast during an attack on Pernau airfield, Estonia 'following engine failure'. He escaped back to friendly lines. Following the awards of the Ehrenpokal and the DKiG, he was named Kommodore KG 3 'Blitz' in April 1943. On 18 July 43 he was shot down in flames near Kharkov, making a belly-landing in safe territory. 

On September 7, 1943 he was the victim of an unlikely 'partisan action' - his Ju 88 blew up mid-sortie near Bulovka. According to one account a bomb had been planted on board, a story that originates in a 1987 'DDR Flieger Revue' article written by Lehweß-Litzmann's son entitled "Ein ungewöhnliches Fliegerleben". In the explosion he was 'catapulted' out of  his Ju 88 A-5 (5K+AA) still strapped into his seat but managed to release himself and landed safely by parachute. Again according to his son's account, he became the highest-ranking airman (Kommodore) taken prisoner of war in the Soviet Union. Presumed KIA on the German side he was 'posthumously' awarded the RK (October 29, 1943). 

Witnesses to the loss of the Ju 88 flown by the Kommodore concluded (self-evidently) that the machine had taken a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire. Three parachutes were seen, one of which was on fire and failed to open correctly.  This was most probably the  BO/observer SFw. Stefan Rajek who was found by the Russians severely injured but who reportedly died in a (German) air attack en route to a field hospital. Bordfunker Uffz. Ulrich Oelner crashed with the machine. BM/S (flight engineer/gunner) Gfr. Gunther Herzog was also taken prisoner.

In captivity Lehweß-Litzmann's " first impressions of the Russians were completely at odds with all the anti-communist propaganda that he had been fed up to that point.."  He was already apparently a Russian speaker and eventually actively joined  the anti-Hitler 'Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland' (NKFD) movement, the "new, supposedly democratic path for Germany". 

He was of course stripped of his decorations. After a new start post-war as a journalist in the midst of a divided Berlin, he participated in the build-up of the air force of the East German state and 'made his contribution to the remarkable performance' of civil aviation in the DDR (East 'German Democratic Republic'), being responsible for crew and pilot training at Interflug, not as Bergstrom says, as 'head of Interflug'..Lehweß-Litzmann may eventually have been side-lined as an embarassment to the East German state who prided themselves on establishing an air force and an airline without recourse to former decorated members of the Wehrmacht. In Jörn Lehweß-Litzmann's account it was a bad car crash in 1969 that put a 'premature' end his fathers career...

with thanks as usual to the De Zeng/Stankey Luftwaffe Officer career summaries here  and to Alexander Steenbeck for a copy of Jörn Lehweß-Litzmann's 1987 article on his father's 'unusual aviator's career..'

Lt. Willi Kohlstrunk KG 3 and JG 2 - double amputee and Fw 190 D-9 pilot

I recently came across an obituary for this I./JG 2 pilot in Jägerblatt 1/1998. A quick 'search' revealed nothing further - just some scraps of information from a thread posted in 2010 on the TOCH forum - he was a Do 17 pilot, he had survived a crash on 20 December 1940 and flew with JG 2 in 1945. Information on him was fragmentary to say the least..

Willi Kohlstrunk was born on 24 August 1918 in Meißen, a town just north of Dresden. He joined KG 3 during the Battle of Britain (August 1940) as a Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier after qualifying from LKS 2 Berlin-Werder. He flew day and night sorties over England, III./KG 3 being based in St. Trond, Belgium. During a mission against London on 20 December 1940 his Dornier Do 17 Z WNr. 2645 was hit by anti-aircraft fire, knocking out an engine. Turning for home Kohlstrunk was unable to maintain his altitude and the aircraft gradually lost height in the cloud deck. Weather conditions were poor and the second engine started to run roughly. The bomber emerged from the cloud base at roof-top height over Belgium and the pilot elected to carry out a belly landing on the airfield - having flown 'blind' from England the crew had arrived over St. Trond, north of Liège (Lüttich). The landing proved to be catastrophic as the machine careered into a raised embankment - this was  'unintentional contact with the ground' according to the loss details..

Fl.Pl. St. Trond, Absturz um 14.25 Uhr infolge unfreiwilliger Bodenberührung. Bruch 70 %.

Kohlstrunk, Lt. 9./KG 3 Wound Badge, Bomber Operational Clasp WIC 20 December, 1940; crashed his Dornier at St Trond airfield. 1940-12-20, 9./KG 3, Do 17 Z-3, 2645,

FF Kohlstrunk, Willi, verletzt
Bo Wenzlawiak, Hans, verletzt
BF Gutzeit, Artur, verletzt
BS Hoppe, Herbert, tot

Injuries among the crew were severe. Gunner Herbert Hoppe was killed. Pilot Kohlstrunk had both his legs broken. While his left leg healed, it was four months later in April 1941 that Kohlstrunk's right leg had to be amputated below the knee. He eventually returned to second-line duties at LKS 2 during 1942 with a prosthetic limb. As the war situation deteriorated sharply during 1944 Kohlstrunk volunteered for fighter pilot training and in late 1944, now with the rank of Oberleutnant, he joined JG 2 'Richthofen' operating in the Reichsverteidigung in the Rhein-Main area. He flew sorties from January 1945 with I./JG 2 from Großostheim airfield in a Fw 190 D-9 marked 'winkel balken'. He flew eight combat sorties between 18 and 23 March 1945. Attacking US road traffic on the Oppenheim-Gross Gerau road (south of Mainz) on 23 March 1945, his machine came under attack from 354th FG P-51s and was set on fire. Kohlstrunk managed to jump clear of his burning Dora but collided with the tail fin, losing his prosthetic limb and badly injuring his right knee in the process. His injuries required another long hospital stay and were such that a second amputation of the right leg - this time above the knee - became necessary. Post-war this former youth athletics champion (3,000m) returned to his home town Meißen in the Soviet zone of occupation, eschewing crutches but necessarily walking with a very heavy limp. He eventually found employment in the West  - a large industrial concern in Frankfurt am Main. He died on 8 October 1997 aged 79 years after a long illness - 'Ich habe meine Pflicht getan'    He had always done his duty.

(additional information via Jägerblatt 1/1998)

Junkers Ju 88 A-4 KG 3 Dugino 'Blitzgeschwader' -daily ebay photo find #171

Dugino, August-September 1942, KG 3 Blitzgeschwader Junkers Ju 88 A-4. From the album of  KG 3 Bordfunker Uffz. Rudolf Dahms. Photos depicting an engine change and 'beladen' - bombed up - with a view of the bomb bay doors open and in the last images dated September 1942 'auf Feindflug' - on a sortie. Posted to the Stab./ KG 3 on 17 May 1944, Dahms survived the war. Image from his Leistungsbuch bottom showing the award of the Verwundetendabzeichen in Schwarz (wound badge in black) and the Frontflugspange in Gold (front -or operations - flying clasp in Gold for 110 sorties flown ) during August 1942. Also in the auction his Ehrenpokal. (honour goblet)

On offer here