wilde Sau Bf 109s of JG 302, Fw. Andreas Hartl - Bundesarchiv photo find #12

More interesting schemes for the new 1:24 scale Airfix Gustav. Not strictly speaking a 'photo report' - these are screen grabs from Wochenschau broadcast No 709/1944 which can be viewed in decent quality in the Bundesarchiv digital Lesesaal (see link below).   According to the commentary these images show Bf 109 G-6/R6 night fighters - committed almost exclusively on day sorties from April 1944 - returning back into Ludwigslust from a (training) sortie during March 1944. Given the 'clues' in the report these are almost certainly from II./JG 302 - all have red fuselage bands, a II. Gruppe bar and the fuselage codes preceded with the large 'N' for 'Nacht'. The starboard wing lower surfaces are black. (note the cannon gondola in the nearest G-6 to the camera in the image below). Pilots are seen dismounting and reporting in to their Gruppenkommandeur, Maj. Treumund Engelhardt, a former KG 2 bomber pilot. The Wochenschau film moves on to show a successful 'Nachwuchs', identifying the pilot who features in the footage describing a victory in front of his comrades as Fw. Andreas Hartl. Hartl was a wilde Sau ace with 6./JG 302. 

Above;  Hartl reporting in. Note the large infra-red light on the lower wing of his Gustav (in the cross), which identified the wilde Säue to German anti-aircraft batteries on the ground. In addition the wilde Sau usually removed the pilot head armour as can be seen in the previous images.

Below; Hartl congratulated by a comrade in front of his 5. or 6.Staffel G-6 'N 1+ bar' (?)  6. Staffel usually equates to yellow numbers - and on p214 of JfV 13/VI  Jochen Prien states Hartl was flying 'yellow 5'. The footage though does not appear to show Hartl climbing down from 'yellow 5'. Hartl is principally seen in front of 'N 1' (see first screen shot above, maybe red, but certainly darker than the yellow octane triangle alongside it). 'Red N 1' may of course be the aircraft of the Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 302 during this period, Oblt. Karlheinz Seeler...

According to the Wochenschau commentary and as apparently mentioned in an OKW Bericht, Hartl had shot down 11 bombers in just his first seven combat sorties, including four (sic!) during the night of 24-25 March 1944 which saw over 800 RAF bombers over Berlin. Even Welter and Wischnewski only managed two apiece on that raid so this information is very doubtful. (Boiten gives Hartl just three confirmed and five unconfirmed victories in total). Note the pilots are wearing life-jackets - despite operating over central/western Germany - and the dust cover is still over the cannon barrel in the view below, so the footage may just be posed for the cameras. Andreas Hartl was shot down and killed on a day sortie on 8 April 1944 as recalled, below, by his 6./JG 302 comrade Fritz Gniffke.  (translation by this blog)

“..on 8 April 1944 at around 12:15 – and somewhat to our consternation -we were put on thirty-minute readiness. Few, if any of us, had had any combat experience by day. Then at 13:00 the green flare soared into the sky over the airfield – the signal for the forty Messerschmitts of our Gruppe to get airborne! This on its own was an impressive spectacle, but then twenty minutes later we made visual contact with an armada of B-24 Liberators ploughing through the skies over Braunschweig. I can still recall closing in on and opening up at less than 100 metres distance on two of these lumbering machines, making no evasive manoeuvres whatsoever. The starboard wing of one of the American bombers was a sheet of flame. I was unable to observe further as we soon found a gaggle of Mustangs on our tails and after some thirty minutes of wild turning and diving during the course of which I lost 4,000 metres altitude I was able to give the American fighters the slip and landed at Ludwigslust bathed in sweat. We learnt that we had lost one of the best pilots in our Staffel during this encounter - Fw. Andreas Hartl was machine-gunned by P-51s as he hung under his parachute..." 

Fritz Gniffke (6./JG 302)

Thanks to Anders Hjortsberg and Jaroslav "Alan Grey" Mazanec for help with this post. Gniffke account extracted from "Luftwaffe fighters -Combat on all Fronts" Vol I by Neil Page (Mortons, 2021)

Bundesarchiv digitaler Lesesaal

Anders Profile Paintshop

Oblt. Franz Barten & Uffz. Heinz Girnth of III./ JG 53, July 1944 Lippspringe

Currently on offer via Michael Meyer's Ebay sales is this better quality repro of Uffz. Heinz Girnth's "schwarze 11" of III./ JG 53 (8.Staffel) photographed at Bad Lippspringe during July 1944 where the Gruppe was based on Reich's defence duties and shown on this blog just a few days ago.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Luftwaffe-Flugzeug-Me-109-G-6-schwarze-11-8-JG-53-Lippspringe-Juli-1944-/380686337464?pt=Militaria&hash=item58a2ac85b8

Girnth's Bf 109 G-6 "Black 11" is profiled by Thierry Dekker in part IV of Jean-Louis Roba's history of JG 53 (Lela Presse, July 2013). Girnth survived the war and filed some 11 victory claims. Informal snapshot of the same pilot, below..

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Luftwaffe-Flugzeug-9-JG-53-Flugzeugfuhrer-Uffz-Heinz-Girnth-Lippspringe-/380683629886?pt=Militaria&hash=item58a283353e

 Above, a different view of a well-known photo depicting Uffz. Heinz Girnth in front of another Erla-Haube fitted G-6 at Bad Lippspringe, July 1944.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Luftwaffe-Flugzeug-Me-109-G-6-der-9-JG-53-Bad-Lippspringe-Juli-1944-/380686337647?pt=Militaria&hash=item58a2ac866f

Below; pilots of 9./JG 53 photographed in April 1944 on the airfield at Tuscania. From left, the Staffelhund "Bello",  Staffelkapitän  Oblt Franz Barten, Uffz. Robert Harder, Uffz. Paul Mang and Uffz. Heinz Girnth.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Foto-Luftwaffe-Flugzeug-9-JG-53-Franz-Barten-RK-Flugzeugfuhrer-Tuscania-1944-/380683629954?pt=Militaria&hash=item58a2833582

Barten is another of those virtually unknown 50+ Jagdwaffe aces. He flew with 2./JG 77 at the outbreak of WWII and took part in the Westfeldzug and the Battle of Britain and returned three victories before I./JG 77 was redesignated IV./JG 51 in October 1940. By the end of 1941 flying in the East he had achieved some 25 victories. He was wounded in action during November 1942 with his score at 42 and did not return to combat flying until June 1943 when he was posted to 7./JG 53. He became Staffelkapitän of 9./JG 53 in July 1943 with the death of previous incumbent Oblt. Hans Roehrig on 13 July 1943. Having returned some 55 victories (Meyer gives him 52 ) in 895 combat sorties, Franz Barten was shot down and killed by P-47 Thunderbolts on 4 August 1944, apparently 'murdered' while hanging under his parachute, after being strafed by his victors. His chute came down in the vicinity of Reinsehlen. Two of his 55 'kills' were B-24s over Italy during 1943. He was awarded a posthumous RK on 24 October 1944 and promoted to Hptm..

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

'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