Nachtjagd Ost - Heinz de Fries " Wir waren Nachtjäger - Kriegserlebnisse der Besatzung de Fries an der Ostfront"

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 and I shall hopefully order the book as soon as it becomes available on the AWP site. (see link, right)

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. 

Theo's book is excellent, ground-breaking. This blogger translated Günther Bertram's recollections for the book. Bertram flew He 111s in KG 4. Here are a couple of paragraphs that did not feature but which explain 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 After thirteen sorties we were withdrawn to fly mine-laying sorties from Königsberg over the bay of Kronstadt, which was the mission being carried out at that time by our Geschwader.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 another 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. 

There is more on Eastern Front night fighting in a recent Casemate volume, 'Night Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe 1943-45' (Roba/Page, Casemate, 2025) which features some decent material on NJG 100, profiles of aces such as Lechner, Scheer, and August Fischer, along with Claes Sundin's artwork. August Fischer was a Staffelkapitän in I./NJG 100 and the last Kommandeur of the Gruppe.

This blogger's "Nachtjagd Ost - Eastern Front night fighters of the Luftwaffe" is a 20-page article in 'Luftwaffe fighters -Combat on all Fronts 2' (Mortons, 2023). Page view shown covers IV./NJG 6, a night fighter Gruppe established to defend the Ploesti oilfields in Romania...

 

  

See also "Gustav Francsi: Nightfighter Ace" [leading night fighter ace on the Eastern Front] Axis Wings vol. 2 by Sven Carlsen pages 106-111  

Also on this blog;

Oblt. Gustav Francsi, leading night fighter ace on the Eastern Front I./NJG 100

Hptm. Josef 'Jupp' Pützkuhl, Eastern Front nightfighter ace

Eastern Front night fighter - zu Sayn Wittgenstein's Ju 88s

Fw. Albert Ullrich - an ace in 6./JG 77 - archive photo scan #51

 

Albert Ullrich was born 24 April 1920 in Sandweier (Baden-Württemberg). He enlisted in the Luftwaffe in 1941 and was in various flying schools (Marienbad, Karlsbad, Danzig and Magdeburg) before joining the EJG Süd (Orange). In August 1943 he was posted to 6./JG 77 then based in Italy. The Italian 'change-of-sides' took place shortly thereafter and II./JG 77 took on charge a full complement of Macchi Mc 205 fighters to make up the slow deliveries of Bf 109s that had been briefly interrupted. The Macchi 205 Veltro (or 'Maggie' as Ullrich referred to it in his correspondence..) was a 'more difficult' machine to fly ('schwieriger zu fliegen') and there were several losses - certain manoeuvres had to be flown with more speed and altitude than was usual in the Bf 109.  The 'narrow' cockpit meant that pilots could not fly with German parachute packs and had to use Italian chutes - after one bad incident it was discovered that these had been 'sabotaged' after being 'treated' with acid...

Fw. Albert Ullrich (6./JG 77) in the cockpit of a Macchi 205. Ullrich achieved his first victory  on 11 November 1943 - a B-24.

In his correspondence (dated 1991, letter #7) he described his first victory, achieved at the controls of a Macchi 205, a B-24 downed in PQ 75673 (south of Turin) on 11 November 1943;

"..a Schwarm was scrambled ('Alarmstart') under Lt. Ahlers. We were not in radio contact ('Funkverbindung') as the German sets could not be fitted in the Macchis. When I spotted the enemy aircraft I signalled this to Ahlers with hand gestures - which he appeared not to have understood. I dropped out of our formation and closed on the Viermot alone, setting one engine on fire with my bursts. On my second - and final - pass, the crew bailed out of their machine. Some six or seven men hanging under their chutes. Their Viermot went down in the vicinity of Cuneo. I do not know if the other Staffeln achieved any victories with the "Maggie" but this was the only enemy machine shot down by my 6. Staffel in the 205 .."

American troops entered the Italian capital on 4 June 1944. The next afternoon six 'waves' of B-24s and medium bombers attacked Ferrara, Forlì, and Rimini. The Bf 109s of II./JG 77 engaged them in combat from their airfield in Ferrara and claimed victories. Ullrich was airborne from Poggio-Renatico with his 6./JG 77. He encountered Liberators with fighter escort and downed his third B-24. He landed at 13:40. On 13 June  6./JG 77 was up from Poggio at around 08:20 to intercept more formations of escorted B-24s. Fw. Ullrich claimed his fourth victory against a B-24. His Staffel landed at Lavariano. By evening, the repaired runway at Ferrara allowed the two Staffeln - grounded since the bombing of 5 June - to rejoin 6. Staffel at Poggio Renatico. However, as early as the 16th, fearing a partisan attack, the Bf 109s temporarily left Poggio for Lavariano. This field was better situated for intercepting raids toward Austria. According to his own Flugbuch Ullrich downed his 5th B-24 on 22 June.

An image from Ullrich's album of Staffel comrade Lt. Franz Nägele (6./JG 77), a veteran of Russia and North Africa. Nägele claimed around 17 victories but was killed in combat on 9 June 44 at the controls of his G-6 'yellow 3', possibly this machine displaying the inscription 'Betty'.

On 11 July, during a “free hunt” JG 77 were engaged by Spitfires escorting a force of Marauders heading for a fuel depot in Piacenza. Uffz Richard Kurz (4./JG 77) was wounded at Isola Dovarese. Hampered by a drop tank he was unable to jettison, Ullrich was easy prey for the enemy fighters and had to bail out of his burning machine. Such an ordeal should have earned him two days’ rest, but given the circumstances - his Staffelkapitän Deicke was out of action having been wounded in the foot - Ullrich participated in the next day’s mission. At 09:00 the Bf 109s took off to engage a formation of B-25 Mitchells. Their defensive fire struck Fw Ullrich’s canopy. Wounded in the face and half-blinded, the Feldwebel made a belly landing near Ferrara. Sent to the military hospital, he was sidelined until September. 

A poor quality but rare image from Albert Ullrich's album, presumably showing the ace -given his preference for flying 'yellow 6' - at readiness and studying a map prior to a possible sortie. The engine cowl and wings are still covered ..

below left, long-time Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 77 Hptm. Joachim Deicke 

Ullrich shifted to the Eastern Front with his Staffel early in 1945. By now Staffelkapitän Deicke had been appointed Kommandeur of I./JG 77 and Ullrich was a seasoned ace whose experience was indispensable in 6./JG 77. He shot down his first Soviet fighter, an La-5, on 23 March 1945. He downed two Il-2s on 29 March. Ullrich left 6./JG 77 in April 1945 to be trained on the Me 262 at Lechfeld. He survived a transfer flight to Prague Rusin at the controls of a Me 262 and with a group of comrades 'absconded' in a truck as the Russians approached the city. He surrendered to American forces and was released by the French in 1947.  J. Matthews credits him with 11 'claims', six of these over Italy and five in the 'East' during the last two months of the war.

Ullrich's sorties in the East - he transferred a Bf 109 G coded (presumably) 'yellow 14' from Liegnitz to Bereschau on the afternoon of 27 January 1945 and flew this machine subsequently for the majority of his Feindflüge during February 1945. During March 1945 he flew 'yellow 1'

Ullrich logbook extract covering his last sorties on the Eastern Front through March-April 1945 - he notes a 12th Abschuss ('Abs') flying out of Eckersdorf on 3 April. Figures to the left indicate that his regular machine was '6'. Click on the image to access a larger slightly more legible version...

" Die England-Einsätze " - Oblt. Theo Rossiwall 5./ZG 26

 

Extracted from a period 'booklet' published in late 1941 ("our third Christmas at the front") for members of 5./ZG 26 and apparently written/compiled by the Staffelkapitän of 5./ZG 26 Hptm. Rossiwall and individually signed by him. I was given this on a trip to Belgium a few years ago. Rossiwall's introduction alludes to the fact that ZG 26 had by this stage of the war shot down over 700 enemy aircraft and destroyed around 1,000 on the ground and the last sentence of his diary text concludes " [..].. the end of the huge campaign in the East is slowly drawing near.."

Die England-Einsätze

 ".. the period of missions against England ('England-Einsätze') began in mid-August 1940. For obvious reasons I can't go into as much detail as I have done on the campaigns already concluded. Looking back on it though everyone says that it was the best time in terms of combat ("..so sagt jeder, dass es kämpferisch die schönste Zeit war..") We shifted from Crécy to St.Omer and found ourselves assigned the best accommodation in a small farmhouse with running water and electricity. We later moved to St. Aubin near Lisieux were we were put up in a villa with a bathroom and warm running water. In total we flew 45 missions over England, firstly against London and targets in the vicinity of the capital - usually from our Absprungshafen or 'jump-off' airfield at Théville - and then against towns along the south coast, penetrating inland as far as Yeovil and Bristol.  

The Staffel was extremely fortunate (..' Die Staffel war ausgesprochen vom Glück begünstigt..'). We shot down twenty enemy aircraft - all fighters - for the loss of just a single crew. Although this one hit us hard - Ofw. Rochel and his BF Uffz. Schöffler failed to return from an 'enemy flight' on 2 September (Feindflug or sortie). It was not until 24 September that we were enormously relieved to hear that they were both uninjured in British captivity. Uffz. Franke with his radio operator Uffz. Hübner were assigned to 6. Staffel the unit they were flying with when they were shot down on 30 August. We learnt on 13 September that they too were in British hands..attempting to put down on one engine on 2 September Fw. Müller crashed from a height of 10 metres and flipped over on his back. He himself was able to return to the Staffel in December but his Funker Uffz. Gröhl was badly injured and as I write this is still undergoing hospital treatment. On 23 August we lost Oblt. Niebuhr who was posted to take charge of 4. Staffel. He took Uffz. Thiessen with him. On 31 August Uffz. Lohoff - BF in Uffz. Leinfelder's crew - was slightly injured and hospitalised in Brussels. On 29 September Oblt. Hubel took over the leadership of 4. Staffel with his BF Uffz. Schrodt following the death of  Oblt. Niebuhr ( shot down and KIA on 27 September in Bf 110 '3U+IM' with his BF Thiessen near Arne, Dorset) Oblt. Ihrcke was transferred to 6. Staffel... "

ZG 26 Kommodore was Oberst Huth up to 31 August 1940, succeeded from 01 September by Oberstleutnant Johannes Shalk. ZG 26’s I Gruppe was commanded by Hptm. Wilhelm Makrocki through the Battle of Britain. Awarded the RK in October 1940 he was shot down on 21 May 1941 off the coast of Crete during the operation to take the island - 'Merkur'. Hptm Ralph von Rettberg headed II Gruppe during the Battle of Britain. Rettberg was awarded the RK on the eve of Barbarossa on June 14, 1941.

In addition to these aces, ZG 26’s line-up included several among the Staffelkapitäne: Hptm Wilhelm Spies (RK also on 14 June, 1941) of 1./ZG 26 later Kommandeur I./ZG 26, Oberleutnant Johannes Kiel of 4./ ZG 26 and Oblt Theodore Rossiwall of 5./ZG 26 who had replaced Hptm. d'Elsa badly wounded on 18 May. 

Above; Hptm. Makrocki with RK awarded 6 October 1940. 

A 'souvenir' photo of flying personnel and ground-crew of I./ZG 26 taken in northern France (St. Omer) probably just prior to the Battle of Britain during June. Makrocki's Bf 110 with Kommandeur chevrons is the backdrop. 

Frankreich-West.- Zerstörergeschwader 26, Oberleutnant Theodor Rossiwall am Cockpit seiner Messerschmitt Me 110 (BA Bild 101I-341-0496-33)

Bottom left;  portrait in Rossiwall's booklet of Oblt. Sophus Baagoe who claimed two Spitfires off Dover on 14 July and two more on 18 August ('the hardest day') and made further Spitfire claims on 11,12 and 13 September with 8./ZG 26. At the time of his death - just prior to the landings on Crete - he was flying with 5./ZG 26 and with around 14 claims was one of the leading Zerstörer pilots. His BF Ofw. Daniel Becker is lower right.

Bf 110 nightfighters in colour -Lt. Herbert Ludwig (Adrian Matthes 'Fliegerschicksale im Landkreis Nürnberger Land 1918-1949')

Lt. Herbert Ludwig was an instructor and one of the leading aces in II./NJG 101 and flew the Bf 110, Do 217 J/N as well as the Ju 88 G. This Bf 110 is coded '9W+BO' and has 10 Abschussbalken on the tail fin - 9 British roundels and 1 Soviet star - and was likely one of Ludwig's machines. Ludwig claimed two RAF Halifax bombers during Allied resupply ops flown over Warsaw in support of the Polish uprising in late August 1944.  Ludwig was officially credited with around 13 kills although in a March 1945 letter to his wife  he mentions that he was getting close to 20. On the night of 16-17 March, 1945, he downed two Lancasters over Nuremberg before his Ju 88 G-6 was set alight (also coded '9W+BO'). He and his crew bailed out with slight injuries. This colourful machine is Profile no. 109 in Claes Sundin's "Luftwaffe Night fighters Profile Book No. 5 ". The 81 'meander' squiggle over the standard greys would be a challenge for any modeller. Screen grabs from the Fritzlar colour footage. 

 

As a result of his injuries sustained that night over Nuremburg, Ludwig was unable to fly for several weeks. On 4 April 1945, II./NJG 101, which was based in Unterschlauersbach, was disbanded. The three best crews of II./NJG 101 were Ludwig with 13, Rasper with 11 and Dörscheln with 8 kills. These three crews were transferred to IV./NJG 6 (under Kommandeur Hptm. Martin Becker) in Ingolstadt. The remaining personnel of NJG 101 were transferred to ground combat units. From Ingolstadt and Schleissheim, Becker's Gruppe flew night ground-attack sorties against US columns. Ludwig and his crew failed to return from one of these dangerous low-level missions.

Adrian Matthes has researched and written about Ludwig and his crew and their last weeks and published his in-depth research in a book Fliegerschicksale im Landkreis Nürnberger Land 1918-1949 and on the net. Please visit his web-page at the following link.

Erlebnisberichte aus erster Hand - Zeitzeugen-versand.de - the last tragic weeks of night-fighter ace Lt Herbert Ludwig and his crew

Also on this blog;

Hasso von Zieten, II./NJG 101 - archive photo scan

Casemate Luftwaffe Nightfighter Aces 1940-43 and 1943-45 - reviews of new Luftwaffe books

 

Some reviews are appearing for the two titles published by Casemate on the Luftwaffe Night Fighter Aces..

Robey Price writes;

".. I really enjoyed Volume 1 of your new series Night Fighter Aces. I did a brief 5 star review on Amazon (USA). Looking forward to the second part.."

Kylie Newton posted a review on Aeroscale;

" I read this over a couple of days and thoroughly enjoyed the book. The text is supported by first person accounts, which are a highlight, some colour profiles, and sidebars / text blocks. The narrative is for the most part near bullet point in style, as it needs to be given the size of the subject and the length of the book..."

James Kelley posted a very complimentary review on the IPMS USA site - slightly gushing it reads as if it has been AI-generated! 

"Night Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe 1940-1943" stands as a valuable contribution to the understanding of aerial warfare during World War II. It is a must-read for aviation enthusiasts, military history buffs, and anyone interested in the human dimension of conflict..."

Reviewing Volume II '1943-45' Scott van Aken writes;

"..I particularly liked the coverage of night fighting on the eastern front, something we rarely read about. For instance, I was quite unaware that the Luftwaffe operated trains that carried the ground radar equipment. In all, it makes a great addition to the series and is a book that I know you will find of interest..."

James Kelley on IPMS USA
Scott van Aken's Modeling Madness review

Kylie Newton on Aeroscale

Luftwaffe blog at the ECPA-D (..again)

Braving the Eurostar and a terrible Parisian heatwave (36C/95F), the Luftwaffe blog recently spent three days at Le Bourget (Paris air show) and (thus far) four days at the ECPA-D in Ivry -sur-Seine. Today (Thursday 26/06) the ECPA-D was closed to visitors for a staff team-building day. I decided to go and see the 'Appel du 18 Juin 1940' exhibition at the National Archives instead and also caught the (relatively) new 'Museum of the liberation of Paris' at Place Denfert Rochereau. Later on I browsed some of the pictures I'd come across at the ECPA-D so far. As usual at Ivry there are new personnel - including a new 'directrice' of the 'Médiathèque'- and new rules and regs. Be aware perhaps that visitors are no longer 'allowed' to retrieve the photo albums directly from the shelves but have to 'request' that they be brought to the reading room. Which is all good if you know that they exist. This is probably what happens most places elsewhere of course, although I've always enjoyed the relaxed attitudes at the ECPA-D. A neat 'find' so far on this trip has been some 'new' von Werra pics from his time in Russia as Kommandeur of I./JG 53 - over three 'DAA' files there is a full 'reportage' showing the ace posing with a downed Rata along with a couple of nice views of his Friedrich being refuelled...

More 'von Werra' on the ECPA-D website here

Lt. Georg-Peter Eder JG 2

Lt. Eder (4th left) with 7. Staffel pilots (JG 2) in January 1943. Uffz. Otto Kleinert is far right. Eder's usual machine was 'white 4'.

Georg-Peter “Schorsch” Eder was born on 8 March 1921 at Oberdachstetten, a town some 50 kms west of Nuremberg. In October 1938 he joined the Luftwaffe. At the beginning of April 1939 he enrolled in the aviation academy at Berlin-Gatow. A year later he he achieved his pilot's license and was sent to training school at Werneuchen. He flew his first combat mission with 1./JG 51 on 1 September 1940 and flew with this unit for the remainder of the Battle of Britain. In May 1941 he joined 4./JG 51 and it was with this Staffel that he shot down his first aircraft, an RAF Spitfire, on 7 May.  Eder downed two Russian aircraft on 22 June 1941, the opening day of Barbarossa. On 24 July 1941, he was shot down and wounded. On 22 August, Eder collided with a Ju 52 transport aircraft on the ground at Ponjatowska in his Bf 109 F-2 (W.Nr. 9184). He was hospitalised with a head injury. He had recorded 10 victories at this time. On recovery from his injuries, Eder was sent as a flight instructor to Jagdfliegerschule 2 based at Zerbst arriving there on 1 November 1941. Eder was transferred to 7./JG 2 based in France in late November 1942..

 "I learnt that I was posted to 7.Staffel of JG 2 in Vannes commanded by my old friend Erich Hohagen. The next morning I 'discovered' the Fw 190 and spent virtually the entire day in the air getting to grips with the controls and exploring its performance. We flew a number of different types of formation exercise, always pushing the aircraft to its limits. 7.Staffel was a unit mostly composed of aces with scores that largely exceeded those of the other Staffeln. It wasn't easy to integrate a group of this quality..." **

On 30 December 40 B-17s raided Lorient. Mayer was airborne from Vannes with three pilots of his Stab " with the firm intention of putting into practise for the first time a tactic that he had been rehearsing for several weeks - the head-on attack to take advantage of the relatively weak defensive fire in the B-17 F.  In February 1943 Eder was appointed Staffelkapitän of a new 12./JG 2. On 28 March he downed a B-17, but his engine was shot up and he was injured when his Bf 109 G-4 (W.Nr. 14 998) somersaulted upon landing at Beaumont. 

According to the caption on the reverse of the image below, Eder's "blaue 1" Bf 109 G-4/R6 WNr.14988 overturned on landing following combat with B-17s. He was helped off the field by his comrades..

With his engine on fire after combat with B-17s Eder was preparing to bail out at 200m when he realised that his chute had been damaged. With his cockpit filling with smoke his 109 flipped over on rolling out of his landing. (note the considerable differences with Crandall's caption in his 'Fighters..' book. The date is incorrect).

 Eder continued to score steadily, downing his 20th victim on 29 May 1943. After claiming a P-47 and  a B-17 Herausschuss on 30 July his scoreboard had reached 31 victories. On 5 September 1943, Eder was named Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 2. He continued to sortie against US bomber formations. On 5 November, Eder was again forced to bail out of his Bf 109 G-6 (W.Nr. 20 733) and was again injured. In March 1944 Oblt. Eder was transferred to 6./JG 1. He baled out of his Fw 190 A-7 (W.Nr. 430 645) “yellow 4” following combat with a USAAF P-47 fighter near Göttingen on 19 April. On 8 May, he downed a B-24 but he was also hit and had to make an emergency landing in Fw 190 A-8 (WNr 170071) “yellow 4” at Vechta. On 29 May, after shooting down a B-17, his Fw 190 A-8 (W.Nr. 730 386) "red 24" collided with a Siebel during landing in Cottbus but Eder escaped unhurt. By the end of May he had a total of 49 confirmed victories. As the Kommandeur of II./JG 1 he saw action over Normandy following the Allied 'invasion'. On 21 June 1944 he recorded his 50th victory and on 24 June received the Ritterkreuz. On 11 August 1944 Eder took command of 6./JG 26. As Allied spearheads closed on the river Seine, Eder's Staffel was sent out on road convoy strafing missions. In an attack on Allied armour near Dreux on 17 August, Eder shot down a Spitfire at low altitude; according to his own account the enemy fighter came down between two M-4 Sherman tanks, destroying them both. A short while later he shot down a second Spitfire, which crashed on a third tank, setting it on fire. He was credited with three Sherman tanks destroyed. On 4 September Eder (now Hptm.) was appointed Kommandeur of II./JG 26, the day after the unit's previous Kommandeur Hptm. Emil Lang (173 victories, RK-EL) was downed by USAAF Thunderbolts over St Trond, Belgium. In September Eder was transfered to Erprobungskommando 262 (later Kommando Nowotny) where he was appointed Staffelkapitän of 1./Kdo Nowotny. On 19 November, Kommando Nowotny became JG 7 and Eder was appointed to lead 9./JG 7 flying the Me 262 jet fighter in combat with considerable success. Some sources claim that during the Ardennes offensive, Eder destroyed some 40 P-47s on the ground! He had been awarded the Eichenlaub (Nr 663) on the 25 November 1944 for 60 victories. On 22 January he was shot down near Parchim by USAAF P-51s and P-38s while preparing to land. He broke both his legs and spent the rest of the war in hospital at Wismar and, later, Bad Weissee where he was captured by US Army troops.  In total he flew 572 combat missions of which 150 were with the Me 262. On the Eastern Front he scored 10 victories and on the Western Front 68, of which  as many as 36 were four-engined bombers. With the Me 262 he scored at least 24 victories (most of these of course were unconfirmed). He was perhaps one of the leading scorers against US bombers, although Eder himself was downed on multiple occasions, bailing out 9 times. He was wounded 14 times.

**('Dans le Ciel de France' Vol 3)

Hans-Martin Markhoff JG 52, JG 4

 

Fw 190 A seen in early 1945 in Welzow. Attributed by Peter Petrick to Oblt. Hans-Martin Markhoff, Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 4. Previously published by Peter Rodeike in 'Jagdflugzeug 190' ...note in the lower image the new (and short-lived) 'rigid' steel drop tank and mount installation developed for 'rough field' operations. See Rodeike p300.

Hans- Martin Markhoff  had flown more than 100 sorties on the Russian Front as wingman to one of JG 52's greatest aces, Günther Rall, prior to volunteering for home defence duties in early 1944. Charged with screening the Kommandeur of III./JG 52, his chances of achieving victories in aerial combat were few and having witnessed a bombardment of Berlin while on leave in late 1943 he decided that his duty lay in defending his fellow citizens back home in Germany. He volunteered to be a Sturm (assault) pilot flying in the 'defence of the Reich'. As an experienced fighter pilot, Oblt Hans-Martin Markhoff was appointed Staffelkapitän of 8./JG 4 in September 1944 and participated in the attack on B-24s of the 445th BG over Kassel on September 27, 1944 – one of the most serious reverses suffered by the US 8th AF during their bombing campaign of Germany. Post-war he trained as an architect.

 Extract from a 12-page letter written in 1979 - Markhoff describes the 'endless waiting around' for the first combat mission of his new 8.Staffel in II.(Sturm)/JG 4. Depending on the weather the fighter pilots existence revolved around different stages of 'readiness' - 'I no longer recall how often we got airborne and failed to make contact with the enemy, usually because they had already turned for home..' Markhoff's Staffel underwent their 'Feuertaufe' or 'baptism of fire' on 11 September 1944 - '..with good direction from the ground we were guided in behind a formation of B-17s over Chemnitz at around 12:10...'

 

Hptm. Josef 'Jupp' Pützkuhl, Eastern Front nightfighter ace - new Nachtjagd/Luftwaffe aces books from Casemate,

 

Brief extract from a Jägerblatt article detailing the career of Hptm. Josef' Jupp' Pützkuhl, an Eastern Front nightfighter ace with NJG 100. 

The text describes how a 'wilde Sau' Bf 109 - running out of fuel - landed on top of his Ju 88 at the runway threshold in the darkness as he was waiting to get airborne (lighting extinguished due to prowling Mosquitos). Although apparently uninjured, he was trapped for an hour in his wrecked Ju 88 along with his BF Hänschen Klug  before being extricated. Post-war he served for several years in the Bundeswehr before becoming a film/TV actor! 

 According to Kracker he had one victory in the West, a Lancaster on 14 April, 1943. His first known Soviet victory was an R-5 on the night of 16-17 July, 1943.He claimed a PS-84 on the night of 19-20 July, 1943. The majority of his victories though were claimed during a brief period in June-July 1944, his Staffel detached to operate independently around Pinsk, as detailed in my 'Nachtjagd Ost' article  published in "Luftwaffe fighters -combat on all Fronts 2" (Mortons, 2023). His exploits included six Il-4s near Pinsk on the night of 5-6 July, 1944. An extract from August Fischer's book 'Bis der Wind umsprang';

“..the front moved nearer and nearer.. The advancing Russians were pushing our Würzburg radar trains back to areas from where they had set out when first deployed. Just five days ago, Oblt. Josef Pützkuhl (3./ NJG 100) had flown in from Pinsk..[..]…in only a few nights operations he had downed some twenty enemy aircraft - in one night, six Russian machines had fallen to bursts from his slanting armament (July 5/6, 1944); only Wittgenstein had accomplished a similar feat on the Eastern Front prior to this…”

The last 'kill' in his logbook was an Il-4 10 km E of Warka on the night of 25-26 July, 1944...

New Nachtjagd aces books from Casemate,  Volume I (40-43)  is available now, Vol II (43-45) is due at the end of the month...

new Luftwaffe books from Casemate - Luftwaffe Night Fighter Aces 1940-43

 

Two titles written in collaboration with Jean-Louis Roba, artwork by Claes Sundin, plenty of 'new' personal accounts and a selection of rare and 'new' images. From the blurb;

" On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht launched its assault on the West. One element of the West’s response was the dispatch of RAF Bomber Command ‘heavy’ bombers at night over German industrial centers. These raids had only limited effectiveness, but the inability of the Luftwaffe to chase down RAF bombers at night so annoyed Wolfgang Falck that it swiftly resulted in the creation of a credible night fighter force.

Initial trials had been flown with Bf 110s at dusk in Denmark in April, and 1. Nachtjagd.Division was founded in the summer of 1940. Its first few months were chaotic, with constant reorganizations of units, and reassignment of aircraft, but soon enough the night fighter arm was achieving steady victories—and losing crews at a similarly steady rate.

Despite the efforts of senior leadership, the Nachtjagd constantly struggled to secure sufficient personnel or aircraft, and would spend most of its life playing catch up—its radar systems regularly outdone by RAF Bomber Command’s jamming capabilities, though the development of Schräge Musik and Wilde Sau did give the Nachtjagd an edge. The first specialist Luftwaffe night fighter—the Heinkel He 219—would be trialed only in 1943.

Fully illustrated, this is a full chronological account of the night fighter units for the first part of World War II, covering major campaigns, the biographies of individual aces, and the details of the technology developed for the Nachtjagd..."

 Available now from Pen & Sword here

Oblt. Hans Kriegel, Lt. Felix Brandis, 'German eagle hunting the British lion' - ebay photo find #378

 

Note the 'Dita 13' on the nose above - usual marking of Oblt. Hans Kriegel, StaKa of 7./ZG 76 who was WIA in Bf 110 C-4 "2N+DR" in combat with a 252 Sqd Beaufighter on 28 June 1941. Kriegel was later Kommandeur IV./JG 5  (thanks to regular blog visitor Mr. Davis for spotting this one)

Emblem of 7./ZG 76 on the nose of the Bf 110 flown by Lt. Felix Brandis - image below shows him dismounting after his 3rd victory on June 1, 1941 and previously published in the JG 5 Special album ('Luftwaffe Gallery')

Peter Neuwerth's site has a page of photos of Kriegel's Bf 110s and Bf 109s here

Fw 190 A-6 'Green 13', Walter Oesau, Stab./JG 1 - ebay photo find #366

 

Manuel Rauh ebay sale, see link at the bottom. Three images of one of Oesau's Fw 190 A-6s. This 'green 13', according to the seller, was seen with JG 1. A good view of the inner gear doors usually deleted on the A-6 and spoked wheel hubs. The key 'identifier' for an A-6 is the 'Abführschacht' cartridge ejector chute in the lower wing for the outer wing MG 151/20 visible in the photo below (p202, Rodeike, 'Jagdflugzeug 190'). Oesau flew an A-5 'green 13' in JG 2 during May 1943 and was appointed Kommodore of JG 1 on 23 November 1943. Note the angled style of the figure '3', similar to the style seen on his FW 190 A-6, "green 13" WNr. 550171. Photos published in "German Fighters in the West" (Stipdonk/Meyer, JaPo 2022) show that particular aircraft with a red fuselage band and the new, ‘winged-1’ emblem of JG 1 on the engine cowling introduced by Oesau in January 1944.

Photo sold for over 300 euros, probably went to 'pimpf5175'  - a mad Frenchie. Why spend this sort of money on ebay photos only to then hide them away?

 

ZG 1 Caudron C.445 with Wespe emblem

Wolf and Rudorffer - Horridoh for the 7,000th kill at JG 54 - archive photo scan #12

 

a set of (different) low-res images from an ECPA-D photo series file ref KBZ 24 F234.  Six photos from the series were published in Tome 2 of Philippe Saintes' JG 54 history "Les Aigles au Coeur Vert" (Lela Presse) and others more recently in Jochen Prien's JfV Teil 15/II. " Einsatz im Osten 1944" 

Jagdgeschwader 54 "Grünherz" ace Lt. Albin Wolf seen on his return from a sortie flown on 23 March, 1944 in Pechory/Pskov. Kommandeur Rudorffer is seen with Wolf as the celebrations on the 7,000th victory claimed by the Geschwader get under way with the successful StaKa of 6./JG 54. Only a handful of images in this series by PK Reimers actually show much of Wolf's Fw 190. Other images in the series show the pilot being welcomed by his comrades StaKa 5./JG 54 Lang and Heinrich Sterr StaKa of 4./JG 54 while bottles of Pommery Champagne and brandy are opened to celebrate the event. Wolf had also just returned his 135th victory downing a Soviet Yak 1 fighter. The pilot's Focke-Wulf Fw-190 A 6 is seen although none of the images show the Staffel number. Wolf would be shot down and killed barely a week later 20 km south-east of Pskov (Pleskau) - on 2 April 1944 at 09:30 during combat at low altitude with a Yak-9 his Fw 190 A-6 (WNr 551142) took a direct hit from an anti-aircraft shell. Wolf received a posthumous promotion to Oblt. and the Eichenlaub. 

Ukrainian Air Force 'drone-killer' ace Vadym Vorochylov of the 204th BrTA, call sign "Karaya 1"

 

Interview extract with Vadym Vorochylov, famed UkAF 'drone-killer' ace of the 204th BrTA (Ukrainian AF Tactical Aviation Brigade). Vadym Oleksandrovych Voroshylov is a Ukrainian fighter pilot and 'Hero of Ukraine' after bringing down at least five Iranian Shahed-136 'suicide-drones' in early October 2022. He took his call sign in honour of JG 52 ace and the most successful fighter pilot all time Erich Hartmann.. 

Below; Maj. Vorochylov seeing in the New Year in front of MiG 29 'blue 43' of the 204th BrTA armed with R-73 and R-27 air-to-air missiles (AA-10 Alamo and AA-11 Archer)


(I): You are active on your Instagram page, you don’t hide your face, people in the streets recognise you and thank you. Do Russians send you threats?

(VV): Not at all. At all! I was very surprised by this. Maybe that’s because their leadership says we don’t have any aircraft and that they destroyed everything right away (smiles)? And they don’t want to say anything about Ukrainian pilots in their information space so that their citizens won’t be surprised?

Some of their media outlets said - I’ll quote them - "A Ukrainian Nazi pilot has been shot down." There was a short video where they mentioned my call sign and talked about Hartmann, who received the Iron Cross from Hitler.

(I): But the propagandists don’t mention that Hartmann was exonerated in the Russian Federation in 1997, and that they admitted unlawfully sentencing him to 10 years in the camps "for war crimes"...

(VV): Yes… The story of my call sign goes way back to 2014, when the Russians launched their propaganda machine and started calling Ukrainians "Nazis". Then my old Instagram account was hacked. I created a new one and was wondering what username to choose. I’m interested in world history and I knew about Hartmann. So I decided to sign it as Karaya. It was mostly a joke precisely because of the Russian propaganda, to make fun of them (laughs). And then it kind of stuck. Everyone knows that Hartmann was a genius pilot. He went through Stalin’s camps, then served in West Germany and even trained American pilots. He said in an interview in his old age that when he was young, he just wanted to fly and did not support the policy of his military and political leadership.

(I): By the way, when I hear the call sign Karaya, I think of it as being very similar to the Ukrainian words ‘kara’, ‘karaty’ [punishment; to punish - ed.] …

(VV): (Laughs). If you look at it like that, it makes more sense [‘Karaya’ is a German love song - ed.]. If you see parallels with Ukrainian, it sounds more relevant (smiles). 

More on Vorochylov on my 'Jet and Prop' blog here

And see the latest issue of Avions magazine issue no. 254 here

Christophe Cony  article  "Vadym Vorochylov, un curieux héros ukrainien"

Full "Ukrainska Pravda" interview with Vadym Vorochylov here

Walter Dahl's "Rammjäger" - reviewed by Hans Ring in Jägerblatt April 1962 issue

"..IMHO one of the problems with Dahl of course is all his 'invented' victories - he received the Eichenlaub in March 1945 for 92 vics (or similar IIRC..) and yet ended the war barely two months later with the always-quoted figure of 128 !! Even though he wasn't in a combat unit any longer by that stage and hadn't been since the previous December...apparently it was Dahl's wife who actually wrote/compiled his memoir (Dahl was too busy with right-wing politics to write it himself) and that the figure of 128 is pure invention.."

" Most of those pilots from every country had unconfirmed kills, cross claims, and others that simply survived. I don't understand the point in vilifying Dahl. Instead of dragging some guy's name through the dirt, why don't we just accept that in the heat of battle, miles above the earth, and 70-years later, neither us nor they had a complete picture of what was going on?.." 

Two contrasting views on Walter Dahl's combat record. Most sources quote 128 victories. Of course Walter Dahl wrote a memoir - 'Rammjäger'- which only really covers the defence of the Reich. Unusually for a Luftwaffe fighter leader it has never been translated into English. Of course biographies vary in accuracy and in general terms are often 'unreliable' when it comes to dates and exact events. 'Rammjäger' is certainly not one of those "Flugbuch" type biographies to start with. But this is Walter Dahl - last Luftwaffe 'General of fighters' (or 'Inspekteur der Tagjäger') and according to some, leading four-engine bomber 'killer' and leading Mustang 'killer'. Also according to some, the leading Luftwaffe ace of 1945 with somewhere approaching 49 claims. So why is there no English translation of his book? What is the problem? 

Well, firstly, for 1945 Dahl was not flying with a 'regular' unit!  

.." I was trying to find information about the exact date when Walter Dahl joined EJG 2 but was unable to do so. Also I was unable to find dates for his 9+ victories with EJG 2. I was assuming that more information should be known as Walter Dahl survived the war? "

Dahl's book 'Rammjäger' does not mention service with EJG 2 at all, except to state that on 27 March 1945 -Dahl's birthday-  he, and Oberst Gollob were flying in an Si 204 D to visit Heinz Bär at his jet-training EJG 2 in Lechfeld, when they were spotted by a pair of P-51s, and through Gollob's inspired flying managed to elude them. In the afternoon Dahl test-flew a Me 262 and ran into some P-47s  strafing the airfield, and he shot down two of them for his 102nd and 103rd victories. Then he says that by 4 April he had his 110th victory, but no further mention of EJG 2. Dahl also writes that he finished the war with 128 victories - a figure quoted in just about every biography of the man written since - in other words he scored nearly 20 victories in just over 3 weeks even though he wasn't flying on operations! (he mentions only undertaking a number of Erkundungsflüge - eg 24 April -which resulted in combat) I think we can conclude that a large number of these later victories were 'imaginary'.... 

" ..could or would the Inspector of Dayfighters during the last months of the Reich want to fly a lot of sorties ? Could an aggressive pilot of Dahl's standing continue operational flying if he wanted to, especially during the final months? I think he could..."

Fair enough. Only, these so-called victories were witnessed by another pilot and long-term wingman ..who was flying in another outfit at the time!  

The (grossly inflated) figures for victories claimed and listed in Dahl's book were easily disproved even in 1962! Highlighting the missions of August 15, 1944, Dahl reports 102 victories for the Luftwaffe. The actual OKW daily report published the following day quoted just 29 including 27 Viermots. 

Noted Luftwaffe historian and claims 'specialist' Hans Ring reviewed Dahl's memoir in the April 1962 issue of Jägerblatt.

Ring writes; 

'according to a diary in our possession, II./JG 300 managed only a handful of victories for a small number of losses on August 15. Dahl however states that the Sturmgruppe Bretschneider downed 36 Viermots....'  

and concluded as follows;

" ..So anerkennenswert es gewesen wäre, einem breiten Publikum einmal nicht romanhaft den Abwehrkampf unserer Jagdwaffe fortzustellen, mehr Verantwortungsbewusstsein vor der Beweiskraft präziser Personen-, Zeit-, und Zahlenangaben hätte man erwarten dürfen. Wie soll man Vertrauen auf die Richtigkeit der übrigen dargestellten Ereignisse haben, wenn mann wiederholt auf grosse Unrichtigkeiten stösst. Vielleicht sind wir etwas zu feinfühlig wenn uns ausserdem an diesem Buch seine Tendenz stört, jene Mischung aus 'Und -wir-haben-doch- gesiegt" Selbstbespiegelung und - wir können es nicht anders nennen -infantiler Idealisierung..."

 "...as commendable as it would have been to present the defensive struggles of our fighter arm to a broad public in a way that was not so novelistic, the reader should certainly have expected a greater sense of responsibility before the evidential value of precise first person, chronological and numerical data. How can  the reader have any confidence in the accuracy of the other events described when one repeatedly encounters major inaccuracies? [..] Perhaps we are reacting a little over-sensitively if we are also disturbed by the 'tendency' of this book, that mixture of 'and-yet-we-were-victorious' self-absorption and - we can't call it anything else - infantile idealisation..."

..or, in summary;  'romanhaft' 'grosse Unrichtigkeiten' 'infantil'  - novelistic, major inaccuracies and infantile !

Not surprising then that the last Luftwafe General of fighters never had his memoir translated into English.

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Fw. Rudolf Wagner 10./JG 51 - ebay photo find #360

According to the seller, a series of images from the album of  Rudolf Wagner.

".. On December 11, 1943 another JG 51 ace was reported missing – Fw. Rudolf Wagner had arrived in 10./JG 51 in early 1942 and flew as Otto Gaiser’s wingman. He recorded most of his victories during the summer and fall of 1943 and had been credited with 81 kills at the time he went missing. His RK was awarded posthumously on March 26, 1944...".  

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/ww2fotograf