Last sorties of JG 300 April 1945 - Salzburg Ainring Jagdgruppe 300 - Edit

A selection of rare photos of Jagdgruppe 300 and/or JG 300 wrecks most probably photographed at Salzburg Ainring during April/May 1945 following the capture of the airfield by US forces recently sold on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B32-WWII-665th-Eng-35mm-Slide-Bf-109-Me-109-/170888625109#ht_974wt_1165

More from this seller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B30-WWII-665th-Eng-35mm-Slide-Captured-FW-190-ME-109-/170888625021

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B33-WWII-665th-Eng-35mm-Slide-Bf-109-Me-109-/170888625136#ht_974wt_1165



Note that the (probably) Erla-built G-10 (see photo above) features blue/white/blue fuselage bands and a short Gruppe bar. Jagdgruppe 300 was 'officially' established through the amalgamation of II. and III./JG 300 in April 1945 and is mentioned in a Luftflottenkommando 6 ORB dated  03 May 1945 (!) but as the following account indicates probably only 'existed' on paper.  It is hard to believe that anybody was still applying Gruppe Balken in April 1945 - especially since III./JG300 & IV./JG300 never utilised Gruppe markings, while I./JG300 had already been disbanded - but had Bf109G-10s in the WNr. 491000 series. 

Adapted from the history of JG 300 published by Editions Larivière entitled 'Bataille dans le Ciel d'Allemagne' by Jean-Yves Lorant and Richard Goyat (my translation..), the following is probably the only personal account to make mention of a 'Jagdgruppe 300'...

On 30 April 1945 , in one of the final actions of the war for JG 300, III./JG 300 put up four Messerschmitt Bf 109 G‑10s and K‑4s from Klein Karolinenfeld to fly a ground attack sortie against US forces driving deep into southern Germany. The pilots had instructions to fly on to Salzburg Ainring once their mission was completed. The Schwarm was led off by Fw. Arnulf “Timm” Meyer (9. Staffel) and headed out at low-level for an American motorized column north-west of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Aside from Meyer, three other experienced pilots were airborne for this last sortie: Uffz. Klaus Lambio (former wingman of Ofhr. Grothues) as well as Unteroffiziere Jochen Stiege and Günther Obst (9. Staffel). “Timm” Meyer never forgot the events of 30 April:

"....Towards the end of the morning, in something of a daze, we took off from “Wiese Kreuzstraße” . This was my first and last sortie at the controls of a 109 K-4. Passing over the front lines, my ship was seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, my engine quickly losing a lot of revs. I had to turn back. I indicated to Klaus Lambio that I had to turn for home and that he was henceforth in command for the rest of the sortie. He acknowledged my message with his usual calm, asking me if I was wounded. I replied in the negative. He wished me good luck and that was the last I heard of him for many long, too long, years...."

Only Lambio and Stiege managed to reach Salzburg-Ainring, to where several other Luftwaffe units had also fallen back. Just as the two pilots were climbing down from their aircraft, the airfield came under attack from Thunderbolts.  Klaus Lambio was able to recall his arrival at Salzburg-Ainring years later:

"...In front of my 109 I saw a mechanic throw himself face down in the grass… It was at that moment that I realized that the roaring engine noise I could hear was not familiar. Streaking past to my left barely twenty metres off the ground, two Thunderbolts roared low overhead, strafing aircraft and installations and setting off a widespread stampede for cover. Then two or three other Americans released napalm bombs. I saw two P‑47s disappear off to the south trailing smoke. In the mid-distance a parachute swung for a few seconds above the trees of a small wood.  None of this was really important any more as Salzburg-Ainring was going to be our last airfield and would soon come under threat from the enemy advance. Hauptmann Fritz Lonzius put in a quick appearance a few moments later and brought us together in front of an ad hoc command post. It was then that I realized that a few III./JG 300 pilots had managed to land on this field. More arrived towards the end of the afternoon, landing at the controls of two Messerschmitt Bf 109s and a Bf 108. There was no more than a handful of us men left now. For the first time, “Timm” Meyer and Werner Maybohm were absent from this roll call. About twenty pilots and around one hundred male and female mechanics, had preferred to surrender to the Americans rather than undertake the dangerous road journey to Salzburg. We were told that henceforth our new designation would be “Jagdgruppe” 300 and not Jagdgeschwader 300. For my part, I flew no further combat sorties prior to the capitulation, apart from one short airfield protection flight on 2 May 1945 in the 109 marked with the double chevron of Hauptmann Lonzius. As I recall Lonzius had fled to Linz in a Bü 181 that same day. Our Gruppenadjutant Willi Miholek even claimed that he had put on the overalls of a Gefreiter mechanic in order to avoid interrogation and get home more easily. At Salzburg-Ainring, our principal concerns were food and shelter. The last drops of fuel were siphoned off from the tanks of the numerous abandoned aircraft.."

Bückers with bazookas - Bü 181 'Bestmann' mit Panzerfäusten (1)

Above; Bücker Bü 181 'Bestmann' WNr 501659 was built in Czechoslovakia in early 1944 and served at the FFS A/B 23 in Kaufbeuren with the Kennung RM+HE where it was converted to mount Panzerfaust bazookas in the final weeks of the war. Today it is exhibited at the Deutsche Technik Museum in Berlin. Photo courtesy Marc Hasenbein.

Below; first published in the Modell Magazin issue of 3/83 this was for a long time the only known photo of a fully-armed Panzerfaust-toting Bücker Bü 181 'Bestmann' seen here undergoing trials with the Panzerfaust Versuchskommando (test detachment) at Trebbin on 01 April 1945.

According to Christian Möller in his book “ Das letzte Aufgebot..” , “ kaum jemand weiß, dass die deutsche Luftwaffe kurz vor dem Kriegsende ab April 1945 langsame Schulmaschinen vom Typ Bücker Bü 181 als Schlachtflugzeuge gegen die Bodentruppen der Alliierten eingesetzt hat - very few know that shortly before the end of the war the German Luftwaffe was employing in a ground-attack role slow training types such as the Bücker Bü 181 against Allied ground forces” .

Of course in his inimitable style – his Nachtschlacht book featured well over a 1,000 footnotes - author Möller then provides a footnote detailing a lengthy list of references which prove if anything that there has, on the contrary, been a decent amount of (mostly German-language) coverage, including magazine and web articles, devoted to the late-war combat role of the Bücker Bü 181. I will be covering a few of these over the course of some forthcoming blog posts.

Cover illustration from Christian Möller's “ Das letzte Aufgebot..”  - click on the image to go direct to publisher Helios

Of course I'm being a little unfair to Christian and  I guess the point is nonetheless worth making again for those Luftwaffe 'enthusiasts' who cannot see past the jets and other so-called Wunderwaffen; the reality of late-war collapse was that for every single advanced jet fighter or bomber being put into service by March/April 1945, the Luftwaffe in its death throes was hurriedly deploying antiquated biplanes or obsolescent ab initio type trainers in a combat role- either night ground attack Nachtschlächter or 'tank-hunting' Panzerknacker. With training schools closed and the Luftwaffe starved of fuel - these types did not demand much in the way of piloting skills or even require much gasolene - Bückers and Arados were thus hastily formed into a host of Kommandos and “attack” Staffeln in the forlorn hope of being able to continue the fight to the bitter end. Inexperienced ex-instructors were being ordered to launch perilous early-morning or late-evening ground attack missions against Allied supply columns or tank spearheads with the most derisory of means - the Bü 181 Schulflugzeug (trainer) mounting Panzerfauste rocket launchers on and under the wings. These Panzerfauste bomb-toting Bückers – aerobatic-capable, low-wing, unarmoured monoplanes- were barely able to manage 150 km/h and featured side-by-side seating and dual control columns. It was even planned to re-equip the III. Gruppe of the famed Junkers Ju 87-equipped Schlachtgeschwader 2 with these machines.


In a last-ditch attempt to stem the flow of Allied armour pouring into southern Germany 3. Panzerjagdstaffel was just one such ad-hoc tank-hunting Staffel deployed in the Panzerbekämpfung (tank hunting) role from mid-April 1945 - it was planned to establish some fourteen similar anti-tank units comprising twelve aircraft and some twenty pilots with the units divided between east and western fronts. Established at Kaufbeuren in early March 1945, the Bü 181 trainers of 3. Panzerjagdstaffel were crewed (pilot/observer) by qualified flying instructors from Flugschule A/B 23 under Staffelsfuehrer Oberleutnant Karl-Heinz Dragenscheck. Some details of this unit's exploits - one of the few to actually see service - were given in an issue of Flugzeug classic magazine during 2006. Boring in at low level at barely 150 kph, the intrepid pilots had trained to close to within 500 m of enemy tanks before pulling up to around 20-30 metres altitude and then diving on their targets, unleashing the rockets at a distance of only some 100 metres before banking sharply away in order to escape the blast wave from the exploding rocket. To nullify Allied air supremacy, sorties were to be flown at the crack of dawn or as darkness was falling.

"....Die Bü 181 der 3. Panzerjagdstaffel erhielten am 19. April 1945 ihre Feuertaufe. Sechs Bestmann starteten um 20.20 Uhr vom Flugplatz Ringingen aus in den Raum Tübingen. Zwar entdeckten die Besatzungen keine Panzer, konnten aber einige alliierte Lastkraftwagen zerstören. Einen Tag später, an Adolf Hitlers letztem Geburtstag, wiederholten die Bücker ihre Angriffe. Im Morgengrauen des 24. April startete die 3. Panzerjagdstaffel zum vermutlich letzten Kampfeinsatz...."

Airborne from Ringingen six Bü 181s of 3. Panzerjagdstaffel (tank hunting squadron) underwent their baptism of fire against Allied armour at 20h20 in the vicinity of Tübingen on 19 April 1945. Although the crews (pilot and navigator) failed to locate any tanks, a number of Allied trucks were destroyed. The sortie was repeated on the following day. 3. Panzerjagdstaffel flew what was probably their last sortie of the war at dawn on the 24th. In this instance the targets were not even Allied tanks but abandoned German aircraft left on the field at Memmingen. After this the unit fell back via a number of different airfields to the Bavarian Alps before the personnel surrendered to the Americans at Reit im Winkl on 9 May 1945.... As can be seen in the photo (bottom) the Panzerfaust rockets were fired by means of Bowden cables laid across the wings from the cockpit and the engine cowl mounted a crude aiming device. In practise the upper wing mounted rockets were only rarely fitted - the exhaust gases at launch had a tendency to set the wooden wing surfaces on fire!
Prior to the unit's first sortie there was an event of some note - one of the unit's Bü 181 was stolen by two defectors - former flying instructors Unteroffiziere Hans Ficker and Werner Diermeyer. The two 24-year old officers appropriated one of the light trainers at dawn on 19 April 45 and flew off to Switzerland at the controls of the machine illustrated. Ficker had lost his brother during the Battle of Britain and had himself been badly injured in a crash during October 1944. By January 1945 the lack of fuel for training had effectively ended the careers of the two flying instructors, both now likely candidates to be re-mustered as infantry or as flak crews. Dying a heroes' death for Volk und Vaterland in some muddy trench was not for Unteroffizier Diermeyer. Diermeyer had at one point been offered a chance to re-train on the Me 262 but in the chaos of the last months of the war nothing had come of this. At some stage during the story Diermayer had got wind of the aerial activities taking place at Kaufbeuren. So instead of reporting to barracks in Hoersching, Ostmark (Austria) for infantry service, Diermayer made his way to Munich where he met up with Ficker. The two men carefully prepared their flight and on the evening of 18 April 1945 made their way out to the airfield. Luck was on their side. Training for the first anti-tank missions had just been completed and the following day the tank hunting Bü 181s were to fly their first combat sorties. At that moment an air-raid alarm sent everyone to the bunkers and the two men were able to enter a hangar where the Bü 181 assigned to the Staffelkapitän of 3. PzJgSt was being serviced. Ficker managed to get the engine started, taxiied out onto the field and quickly getting airborne the two men headed for Bregrenz and the Swiss border, touching down at Duebendorf some ninety minutes later. Post war this particular machine served - along with five others - in the Swiss Air Force before being retired in the mid-fifties. 

Lt. Klaus Bretschneider´s Focke Wulf 190 Nachtjäger

Over at his German Nachtjagd blog Luft.hanseatic has written a number of most interesting posts dealing with the camouflage and markings of wilde Sau single-engine night fighters. The Bf 109 of JG 302's Fritz Gniffke, featured elsewhere on this blog, and the Fw 190s of II./JG 300 are just two of the subjects considered. His careful analysis of the available documentary sources and web sites warrant a detailed reply and JG 300 historian Jean-Yves Lorant was kind enough to respond with rare photographs and log-book entries, specifically in this first post, on the question of Lt. Klaus Bretschneider's 6./ JG 300 Fw 190 A-7 Neptun. We will look again at Gniffke's 'Yellow N 7' shortly.

Bretschneider's FuG 217 Neptun radar equipped Fw 190 A-7 seen at Rheine during early 1944 (above) was one of the  many photographic highlights of Vol I of the two volume history of JG 300 written by Jean-Yves Lorant and Richard Goyat, which according to the Eagle Editions web site is now sold out for the English-language edition. Captioned as 'Yellow 1 N' the image depicts  II./ JG 300 mechanic Wilhelm Beissel seated on the horizontal stabiliser. Camouflage netting has been partially unfurled over the forward fuselage and the wings. The ground crew have carefully avoiding covering the antennae of the FuG 217 Neptun radar which are set obliquely across the upper wing surfaces and in the MG cowl cover. Beissel, who passed away shortly before publication of the book and Lorenz Foag, seen in the 'darker' view of this same aircraft, have both confirmed Bretschneider's 6./JG 300 A-7 Neptun was indeed - as would be entirely logical for a 6. Staffel machine - 'Yellow 1 N'. The JG 300.de website has the '1' in red and we can categorically state that this was not the case. We have pointed out quite a few errors on that site in the past, eg Kurt Gabler's 'Red 8' attributed to Lt. Rudi Winter, Herbert Kaminski identified as Kurd Peters, not identifying green numbers on 11./JG 300 aircraft etc etc. This is another. Note that Klaus Bretschneider flew through the 'wilde Sau' period with 6. Staffel. Note Bretschneider's victory markings on the rudder - even aside from any personal testimony this aircraft simply has to be 'Yellow 1 N'.

Furthermore the small letter 'N' for 'Nacht' (or Night) utilised by JG 300 during the wilde Sau period was indeed RED - again confirmed by eye-witness accounts. M. Lorant wrote to say that as it happens he has recently spent some darkroom time on this same image  The original wartime print measured just 2,5 cms x 4 cms (!) and was slightly out of focus. M. Lorant has been able to 'clean up' the photo and we can now republish it in good enough quality to be able to identify the Werknummer. Close examination of the digital version of the photo negative allows the viewer to discern the last five digits - 40300. For Bretschneider's A-7 this gives us a WNr. of 340300. The 'enhanced' image is reproduced here courtesy M. Lorant. Click on the image below to see a close-up. The illustrators of the two volumes of the JG 300 history (Sundin for the French edition, 'Bataille dans le Ciel d'Allemagne, Editions Lariviere, 2005, Tullis for the English edition) both took educated guesses on their artwork but, aside from the incorrect WNr., in our opinion Claes Sundin's artwork published in the French edition of the JG 300 history is visually most realistic.

 

Although Klaus Bretschneider flew through the 'wilde Sau' period with 6. Staffel, there is, in M. Lorant's view, more of a case for considering that the photo of Bretschneider climbing from the cockpit of Fw 190 A-6 '3 or 8 N' depicts a 5. Staffel machine - hence a red Kennziffer in this instance. It is important to remember that serviceability issues meant that relatively few wilde Sau aircraft were operational at any given time, that wilde Sau sorties were often flown in isolation and that pilots could be assigned aircraft very much at the last moment.  Log book entries also show that wilde Sau pilots often flew a number of different aircraft over a period of time - more of this in another post.

new Luftwaffe books - Jagdwaffe emblems, David Isby's 'The Decisive Duel', Me 262 bomber and recce units Osprey, Valiant Wings Heinkel He 219 Uhu 'Airframe Album'

There has never been any doubt that the fighter arm was pivotal in introduction of the unit emblems with the Luftwaffe. Since, however, the Luftwaffe developed no classification system to register or even monitor its emblems, the emblem motifs and the motivations behind their introduction were to a great degree lost following the collapse of the Third Reich. The Emblems of Jagdwaffe 1936-1945: A More Complete History by Sinisa Sestanovic offers a plausible theory on the emblems' motifs and origins, and establishes the existence of some previously unknown emblems. The centrepiece of the book is the artwork of more than 300 emblems restored to their former glory, a step beyond Karl Ries's groundbreaking design from the 1960s. The said artwork is complemented by 27 photographs and 12 scale-drawings that illustrate the emblem positions on the fighter aircraft in use by the Jagdwaffe between 1936 and 1945. The book is aimed at the enthusiasts and serious researchers alike. Self published, approx 280 large format pages 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1439286450/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Chris Simmonds writes;

"..I have personally checked a number of the book's emblem artwork against known and clear emblem photographs and can only applaud Sestanovic for his unswerving accuracy and attention to detail. His artwork is both clear and of a size at least three times bigger then that of the artwork in Ketley's new book "Luftwaffe Emblems". For scale modellers this, I am sure, will be big bonus. Lastly, at the end the book is a welcome selection of very clear and well produced period images of aircraft carrying some of the emblems previously discussed.
Highlights for me must be probably the best and fullest pre-war selection of emblems published so far. Second must be potted history of each unit and it's relation to past units and its subsequent evolution, whilst this information is available elsewhere such as Holm's website, having it in conjunction with the emblem is very helpful when trying to identify the unit of an image. Lastly must be the emblem artwork themselves easily the most accurate of any Luftwaffe book publish before or present..."

Read the full review at amazon.co.uk

Got my copy today. Let's face it, anything Me 262-related with the names Forsyth and Creek plastered over the cover is an essential purchase. While I don't really care for the Osprey format - the pics are especially small and dark here - I have to say that Jim Laurier's photo-realistic artwork is superb! In addition this volume presents the best English-language coverage of KG 51's jet operations I've read anywhere. Other units covered include  Sonderkommando Braunegg, NAG 1 and NAG 6.  Sources include Jan Horn's magisterial 'Das Flurschaden Geschwader' and Nick Beale's account of KG 51's early disastrous Western Front deployments as featured on http://www.ghostbombers.com

Chapter headings; 1/ 'That Answers the Fuhrer's Question...'; 2/ Kommando Schenk; 3/ Hitting Back; 4/ High-Speed intelligence; 5/ Bodenplatte To the Banks of the Rhine; 6/ Too little, Too Late

An appendix covers 'Unit Structure and Bases - Me262 Operational Period Mid-1944 to May 1945' and the heart of the work is the fantastic fully annotated colour plate section by Jim Laurier.

Chris Simmonds writes; " Anything by these two authors has to be taken seriously, and this is no different. All late war Luftwaffe enthusiasts will enjoy this book which features the misguided attempts to use the Me 262 as a bomber and the superb effective reconnaissance machine it also became. I have given five stars because the content is so well written, the profiles very well done. But I dislike all the Osprey books for their pathetically small format which result in small photos and cramped pages.."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Reconnaissance-Osprey-Combat-Aircraft/dp/1849087490/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343836430&sr=1-1

A 'dual biography' of two of the most significant fighter aircraft in the history of aviation. Isby's latest is a very worthwhile work that considers both the technology and the people and the interaction of the two. The book traces the story of the Spitfire and the Me 109 from their origins through the race to get them into service and the early decisive battles of WWII to their final combats over the Middle East in 1948-49. First deployed in anger over Spain during the Civil War the Me 109 enjoyed the early advantage. In many respects the technology on both sides was on a par during the early years of this story - the Emil and the Spitfire I were pretty evenly matched. But the men and the organisations, and, above all, the regimes, were different and eventually a 'technology gap' did appear  - the two stage supercharged Spit IX was - all else being equal - superior to the two speed supercharged German Gustav variant of the Bf 109 and the author explains how and why this was so. This is important for Isby's story because, as he explains, when the Spitfire finally achieved the upper hand over the 109 the Luftwaffe leadership were too incompetent, to in thrall to the leader's will, to act. The regime had largely through force of circumstance placed their hopes in new technologies that ultimately offered too few qualitative enhancements to overcome quantative differences. And while much of the 109's story is told by the 'charismatic' Fighter General or high-ranking ace, the author is aware that to fall back, for example, on Galland's memoirs, is too convenient, too much of the 'blame' is heaped on Göring, the story is too 'pat' and has suffered from too many re-tellings. So some of the Bf 109 story is told from the view point of the 16-year old forced labourer selected from among Auschwitz inmates for the Messerschmitt production line. Detailed and full of interesting facts; plenty of German-language source material has been consulted and exploited so you know that this is not some cheap catch-all rewrite of old texts but a serious mature work  - and one full of interesting facts; I for one did not know that Erhard Milch had a teenage daughter who had Downs Syndrome- Milch's 'motivation' is not just about personal enrichment or German success but to some extent simply keeping his daughter alive. The balance of the book is skewed towards the Battle of Britain of course, some 200 pages whereas only 10 are devoted to the war in the Mediterranean which is where - in addition to the Eastern Front- the Luftwaffe had most of its forces between 1941-44. Recommended.

Visit author David Isby's web site for more on this book and some interesting resources

http://spitfirevsbf109.com/

Coming soon from Valiant Wings

Airframe Album No.1: The Heinkel He 219 'Uhu'
by Richard A. Franks
The first title in a new Airframe Album series (coming August 2012) will cover the Luftwaffe's ultimate nightfighter, the He 219 'Uhu':

• Period diagrams

• Data from flight manuals and spare parts catalogue

• Walkaround images

• A wealth of pictures of the recently restored NASM example before, during and after restoration

• 3D isometric views of all variants by Jacek Jackiewicz

• Colour profiles and camouflage detail by by Richard Caruana

• 100 pages

• Publication in advance of the Revell and Zoukei-Mura 1/32 scale kit releases

Me 110 D II./NJG 1 Deelen 1940

Michael Meyer's current Ebay sales

Me 110 C of I./ZG 76 photographed in Kielce, Poland in September 1939 being refueled -Wart Hans Grohmann on the wing.

Me 110 D fitted with "Dackelbauch" (Dachshund belly) of II./NJG 1 undergoing an engine change , photographed in Arnhem/Deelen most probably during autumn 1940. Capacity of the tank was 1050 litres. It is possible that this machine was previously on the strength of ZG 76 - 2./ZG 76 was re-designated 5./NJG 1 during September 1940 - and may even have flown combat sorties across the North Sea from Norway during the Battle of Britain with that unit.

Ebay album 5./Fernaufklärungsgruppe 123 at St.Pol 1942-43 (Fw 190, Bf 109)

 Very nice album spotted on Ebay.de captioned by the seller as belonging to 5./Fernaufklärungsgruppe 123 at St.Pol between November 1942 and March 1943. 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Fotoalbum-5-Fernaufklarungsgruppe-123-Fw-190-Bf-109-St-POl-Monchy-2-WK-/120955676997#ht_49977wt_814

" Wir fliegen gegen England  " -   We fly against England. 

Rückkehr vom Feindflug  - returning from a combat sortie

Die Maschinen werden zu neuem Einsatz klargemacht  - The aircraft are readied for another mission

Verdiente Besatzungen werden ausgezeichnet  - Meritorious crews are decorated

The Staffel celebrates its 200th combat sortie

Die Staffel feiert den 500. Feindflug - The Staffel celebrates its 500th combat sortie

Gruppenkommandeur Oberstlt. Giesse visits the Staffel

The Bildwarte (camera techs) installing the cameras

Current Ebay sales of flpanzerfahrer_1

Current Ebay sales of flpanzerfahrer_1

http://www.ebay.de/sch/flpanzerfahrer_1/m.html?hash=item27c985998e&item=170884700558&pt=Militaria&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2562