IL-2 Sturmovik 'Cliff's of Dover' - COD game skins

COD game skin by asisbiz Bf 109E1 2(J).LG2 Red 10 Lottin airfield 1939

COD game skin by asisbiz Bf 109E1 2(J).LG2 Red 12 Lottin airfield 1939

COD game skin by Erik Schramm ES Bf 109E-7 1./LG2 (W14+x) Hans-Joachim Marseille France 1940

COD game skin by Erik Schramm ES Bf 109E-7 1./LG2 (W14+x) Hans-Joachim Marseille France 1940 NM

COD game skin by Erik Schramm ES Bf 109E-7 1./LG2 (W14+x) Hans-Joachim Marseille France 1940 SNM

ES Erik Schramm http://www.adlerhorst-hangar.com/

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 10 Lottin airfield 1939

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 10 Lottin airfield 1939 V01

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 10 Lottin airfield 1939 V02

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 12 Lottin airfield 1939

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 12 Lottin airfield 1939 V01

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 12 Lottin airfield 1939 V02

COD asisbiz Bf 109E1 2./(J)LG2 Red 12 Lottin airfield 1939 V03

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Luftwaffe pilot Adolf Johann Buhl

Units: Legion Condor, 1(J)/LG-2 (5/40), Stfkpt in 1(J)/LG-2 (Channel)

Awards: Spanish Cross, EK 1 & 2, Fighter Operational Clasp

Known Aircraft: Bf 109E-3 WNr 0702 'White 9+x' (7/40 St Ingelvert), Bf 109E-7 WNr 2062 (lost 9/27/40)

Remarks: MIA 27^th September 1940 over the English Channel. One victory in Spain. One known victory, his 1st, a Hurricane at Le Cateau, 18 May, 1940. His 2nd & 3rd, both Hurricanes; one at Etaples, the other at Lens/Arras, 21 June, 1940. His 4th a Spitfire near Dover on 24 August, 1940. His 5th a Spitfire near London on 31 August, 1940. His 6th a Spitfire on 2 September, 1940, no location. His 7th a Spitfire in the London/Ashford area on 6 September, 1940. His 8th a Spitfire near Maidstone on 7 September, 1940. His 9th a Spitfire at Dover on 23 September, 1940. Magnus.

Luftwaffe pilot Asisbiz database list of 9 aerial victories for Adolf Johann Buhl

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
Saturday, May 18, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Hurricane			Le Cateau
Friday, June 21, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Hurricane			Lens-Arras
Friday, June 21, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Hurricane			etaples
Saturday, August 24, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire
Saturday, August 31, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire
Monday, September 02, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire
Friday, September 06, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire
Saturday, September 07, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		18:00
Monday, September 23, 1940	Adolf Buhl	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10:40	Dover

Luftwaffe pilot Erwin Clausen

Units: 3(J)/LG-2 (9/39), 1./JG-54 (6/41 S.U.), Stfkpt 1./JG-77, Stfkpt 6./JG-77 (7/42 S.U.), Kdr I./JG-11 (8/43)

Awards: RK(5/19/42)-EL(7/23/42), DK-G(5/25/42), Rum. Order, EP, EK 1 & 2, Wound Badge(7/14/42),Fighter Oper.Clasp w/Pend.

Known Aircraft: Bf 109E WNr 5804 (75% dam 10/20/40), Bf 109E-7 WNr 6389 'White 4+x' (7/41 S.U.), Bf 109F-4 WNr 13121 (coll loss 7/14/42), Fw 190A-5/U12Y WNr 7358 'Black <<'(lost 10/4/43)

Remarks: KIA 4^th October 1943 after attacking U.S. bombers over the North Sea, 115 km NW of Borkum. He left a wife and three children. WIFA 14 July, 1942 when he collided with another F-4, piloted by Fw Ernst Reinert of 4/JG-77. Force landed his Wk# 5804 in France after aerial combat NW of Ashford on 20 October, 1940, pilot OK. 561 combat missions, 114 victories in the East, 14 four engine bombers. His first Soviet victory, a SB-2 SE of Pankenberg on 23 June, 1941, as a Fw. His first WWII victory was a Polish P-24 in the Lubien area, 9 September, 1939. His 2nd, a Hurricane at Dunkirk on 29 May, 1940. A Blenheim on 30 June, 1940, no location. His 5th a Spitfire on 9 September, 1940, no location. His 19th & 20th victories were an I-16 of 210 BBAP and a MiG-3 on 16 January, 1942. His 25th an I-16 Rata on 16 February, 1942. His 35th an I-180 on 4 March, 1942. His 40th one of five this date, an I-18 on 9 March, 1942. His 75th an R-5, along with two other victories, on 10 July, 1942. Four LaGG-3's and a MiG-3 on 12 July, 1942. His 95th a LaGG-3 on 21 July, 1942. His 102nd, an I-180 on 26 July, 1942. Three Il-2's on 9 September, 1942. Two La-5's and a LaGG-3 on 15 September, 1942. One known bomber, the B-17 at Schweinfurt, 'Mizpah-The Bearded Lady', piloted by 2/Lt Everett Kenner of 322BS on 17 August, 1943.

Erwin Clausen was born on 5 August 1911 at Berlin-Steglitz. He joined the Reichsmarine in 1931 but then transferred to the Luftwaffe in 1935 to receive flying training. Feldwebel Clausen was flying with 3.(J)/LG2 and scored his first victory during the invasion of Poland when he shot down a PWS.26 biplane trainer on 9 September 1939. He was to score further victories during the French campaign.

On 1 February 1941, Oberleutnant Clausen was appointed Staffelkapitän of 1(J)/LG2. When 1(J)/LG2 operated in support of the invasion of the Balkans, Clausen was to score three victories over JKRV Furies on 6 April 1941. Following the Balkan campaign Clausen withdrew with the unit to Eastern Europe. On 6 January 1942 1(J)/LG2 became 1./JG77. With 1./JG77 in Russia he was particularly successful. On 2 July 1941, he shot down two Russian aircraft for his 7th and 8th victories. By the end of 1941 his total had reached 18. He recorded his 20th victory on 16 January 1942 and his 30th on 24 February.

On 9 March, he shot down five enemy aircraft to record victories 36 through 40. He was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 22 May after 52 victories. On 27 June, he was appointed Staffelkapitän of 6./JG77. He achieved 45 victories in July including four in a day three times, five in a day twice and six in a day once. Clausen shot down his 100th opponent in claiming six in a day on 22 July 1942. He was awarded the Eichenlaub (Nr 106) the next day. Clausen was transferred to Erg.Gr.Süd on 1 February 1943. Hauptmann Clausen became Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG11 on 20 June 1943 peRGorming Reichsverteidigung duties. In July 1943 he shot down eight four-engined bombers. On 4 October 1943 he shot down B-24 Liberator but then he was killed in aerial combat over the North Sea attacking Allied four-engined bombers in Fw 190A-5/U12 Y (WNr 7358) 'Black <<'.

Erwin Clausen is credited with 132 victories achieved flying 561 missions. He recorded 1 victory over Poland, 3 over Jugoslavia and 14 victories over the Western front. His score includes 12 (and probably further unconfirmed) four-engined bombers and 18 Stormoviks.

Luftwaffe pilot Asisbiz Database: List of aerial victories for Erwin Clausen

No	Date	Time	A/c Type	Unit	Location / Comments
1.	9.9.1939	-	PWS-26	3./LG 2	Poland
2.	25.5.1940	-	Potez-63	3./LG 2
-	30.6.1940	-	Blenheim	3./LG 2	unconfirmed
3.	23.9.1940	-	Spitfire	3./LG 2
4.	6.4.1941	-	Fury	1./LG 2	Rezanovacka Kosa / Fury of 36 Grupa, JKRV
5.	6.4.1941	-	Fury	1./LG 2	Rezanovacka Kosa / Fury of 36 Grupa, JKRV
6.	6.4.1941	-	Fury	1./LG 2	Rezanovacka Kosa / Fury of 36 Grupa, JKRV
7.	2.7.1941	-	I-153	1./LG 2
8.	2.7.1941	-	I-153	1./LG 2
9.	4.7.1941	-	I-15	1./LG 2
10.	11.7.1941	-	I-16	1./LG 2
11.	3.8.1941	-	SB-2	1./LG 2
12.	17.8.1941	-	I-16	1./LG 2
13.	28.8.1941	-	MBR-2	1./LG 2
14.	28.8.1941	-	MBR-2	1./LG 2
15.	29.8.1941	-	MBR-2	1./LG 2
16.	29.8.1941	-	MBR-2	1./LG 2
17.	22.12.1941	-	I-61	1./LG 2
18.	29.12.1941	-	I-15	1./LG 2
19.	16.1.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
20.	16.1.1942	-	MiG-3	1./JG77
21.	23.1.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
22.	4.2.1942	-	R-10	1./JG77
23.	4.2.1942	-	R-5	1./JG77
24.	16.2.1942	-	MiG-3	1./JG77
25.	16.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
26.	18.2.1942	-	SB-3	1./JG77
27.	21.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
28.	22.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
29.	23.2.1942	-	I-26	1./JG77
30.	24.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
31.	28.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
32.	28.2.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
33.	2.3.1942	-	R-10	1./JG77
34.	4.3.1942	-	I-18	1./JG77
35.	4.3.1942	-	I-18	1./JG77
36.	9.3.1942	-	R-5	1./JG77
37.	9.3.1942	-	R-5	1./JG77
38.	9.3.1942	-	R-5	1./JG77
39.	9.3.1942	-	R-5	1./JG77
40.	9.3.1942	-	I-18	1./JG77
41.	15.3.1942	-	I-18	1./JG77
42.	15.3.1942	-	I-18	1./JG77
43.	17.3.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
44.	21.3.1942	-	I-61	1./JG77
45.	22.3.1942	-	I-61	1./JG77
46.	22.3.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
47.	22.3.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
48.	27.3.1942	-	E/a	1./JG77
49.	28.3.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
50.	28.3.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
51.	30.3.1942	-	I-61	1./JG77
52.	6.4.1942	-	I-61	1./JG77
53.	30.5.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
54.	31.5.1942	-	LaGG-3	1./JG77
55.	10.6.1942	-	Il-2	1./JG77
56.	13.6.1942	-	Yak-3	1./JG77
57.	14.6.1942	-	I-16	1./JG77
58.	2.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
59.	5.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
60.	5.7.1942	-	MiG-3	6./JG77
61.	5.7.1942	-	I-180	6./JG77
62.	5.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
63.	6.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
64.	6.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
65.	6.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
66.	7.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
67.	7.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
68.	8.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
69.	8.7.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
70.	8.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
71.	9.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
72.	9.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
73.	9.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
74.	9.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
75.	10.7.1942	-	R-5	6./JG77
76.	10.7.1942	-	R-5	6./JG77
77.	10.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
78.	11.7.1942	-	R-5	6./JG77
79.	11.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
80.	11.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
81.	12.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
82.	12.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
83.	12.7.1942	-	MiG-3	6./JG77
84.	12.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
85.	12.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
86.	13.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
87.	13.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
88.	13.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
89.	13.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
90.	13.7.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
91.	14.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
92.	21.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
93.	21.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
94.	21.7.1942	-	Pe-2	6./JG77
95.	21.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
96.	22.7.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
97.	22.7.1942	-	Hurricane	6./JG77
98.	22.7.1942	-	MiG-3	6./JG77
99.	22.7.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
100.	22.7.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
101.	22.7.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
102.	26.7.1942	-	I-180	6./JG77
103.	5.9.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
104.	5.9.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
105.	5.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
106.	9.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
107.	9.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
108.	9.9.1942	-	I-153	6./JG77
109.	16.9.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
110.	16.9.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
111.	16.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
112.	18.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
113.	18.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
114.	18.9.1942	-	LaGG-3	6./JG77
115.	18.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
116.	19.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
117.	22.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
118.	22.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
119.	22.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
120.	22.9.1942	-	Il-2	6./JG77
121.	17.7.1943	9:42	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/TM-6
122.	25.7.1943	17:40	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/TM-7
123.	26.7.1943	10:58	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/SO-5
124.	26.7.1943	13:25	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/AO-5/5
125.	28.7.1943	9:21	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/RO-9/9
126.	28.7.1943	9:25	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/RO-6
127.	29.7.1943	9:20	B-17	Stab I./JG11	35km N Kiel
128.	29.7.1943	9:30	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/SV-6/1
129.	17.8.1943	15:36	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Niedermendig
130.	17.8.1943	15:45	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/RQ-2/5
131.	27.9.1943	11:20~	B-17	Stab I./JG11	Pl Qu 05 Ost S/UP-6/1
132.	4.10.1943	10:33	B-24	Stab I./JG11	NW Borkum

Victories : 132
Awards : Knight`s Cross with Oak Leaves
Units : LG2, JG77, Erg.Gr.Süd, JG11
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/clausen.html

Luftwaffe pilot Asisbiz Database: List of aerial victories for Erwin Clausen

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
09-Sep-39	Erwin Clausen	3.(Jagd)/LG2	PZL P-24		17.02	Lubien area
25-May-40	Erwin Clausen	3./LG2	Potez 63
29-May-40	Erwin Clausen	3.(Jagd)/LG2	Hurricane		18.10	Dunkirk
30-Jun-40	Erwin Clausen	3.(Jagd)/LG2	Blenheim		12.43
09-Sep-40	Erwin Clausen	3.(Jagd)/LG2	Spitfire		10.40
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./JG77	Hawker Fury		06.20	Listed under 3/JG77
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./JG77	Hawker Fury		06.17	Listed under 3/JG77
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./JG77	Hawker Fury		06.11	Listed under 3/JG77
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./LG2	Fury
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./LG2	Fury
06-Apr-41	Erwin Clausen	3./LG2	Fury
16-Jan-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-16 Rata
16-Jan-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	MiG-3
23-Jan-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77
04-Feb-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-10
04-Feb-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-5
16-Feb-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	MiG-3
16-Feb-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-16 Rata
02-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-10		10.25
04-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-180		07.45
04-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-180		14.20
09-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-5		10.02
09-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-5		10.04
09-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-5		10.12
09-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-18		16.40
09-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	R-5		10.00
15-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-180		15.40
21-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-61		16.30
22-Mar-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-301		16.00
10-Jun-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik
10-Jun-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik		08.25
13-Jun-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	LaGG-3		03.45
14-Jun-42	Erwin Clausen	1./JG77	I-16 Rata		04.20
02-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
05-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Pe-2
05-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	I-180
05-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	MiG-3
05-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
10-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	R-5
10-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	R-5
10-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
11-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
11-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	R-5
11-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Pe-2
12-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
12-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
12-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	MiG-3
12-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
12-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
21-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Pe-2
21-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Pe-2
21-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Pe-2
21-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3
26-Jul-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	I-180
05-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3	100m	17.24	82 211
05-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	Low Level	17.15	82 122
05-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	Low Level	17.20	83 794
09-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	2000m	16.03	92 753
09-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	50m	15.52	92 711
09-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	50m	15.59	92 714
15-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	La-5	300m	17.19	82 263
15-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	La-5	500m	17.20	82 263
15-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3	5000m	17.18	82 254
18-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	50m	13.07	92 381
18-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	50m	13.13	92 352
18-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3	500m	16.25	93 772
18-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	10m	16.55	92 354
19-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	100m	15.09	93 773
22-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	1500m	13.12	92 121
22-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik	Low Level	13.17	92 152
22-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	A-20 Boston	3300m	16.17	92 154
22-Sep-42	Erwin Clausen	6./JG77	LaGG-3	1700m	13.05	92 114
17-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	4500m	09.42	TM 6 (95km N Ameland)
25-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	5000m	18.00	TM 7 (North Sea)
26-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	6500m	10.58	SO-5 (75km W Westerland)
26-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	8500m	13.25	AO-55 (N Borkum) USAAF 42-29709 Boeing B-17F-65-BO Fortress 92BG325BS named Yo' Brother shot down and crashed into North Sea 30 km N of Borkum, Germany Jul 26, 1943 MACR-190 All 10 crew KIA.
28-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	5200m	09.25	RO-6 (ssE Wittlich)
28-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	5800m	09.21	RO-99 (Thalfang E Trier)
29-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	7600m	09.30	SU-61 (Satrup-Kappeln)
29-Jul-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	8400m	09.20	SA-35 (20km E Kappeln)
17-Aug-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	6000m	15.45	05 Ost S/RQ-25 S Stromberg
17-Aug-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	6000m	15.36	S Niedermendig
27-Sep-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-17 Fortress	6000m		05 Ost S /UP-61
04-Oct-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	B-24 Liberator			NW Borkum
04-Oct-43	Erwin Clausen	Stab I./JG11	Dogfight		KiA	Dogfight North Sea

Luftwaffe pilot Hans-Joachim Marseille

With two recent British counter-offensives having been repulsed, the stand-off on the ground continued. But now I./JG27 began to probe even deeper into Egyptian airspace, often staging through Gambut, a complex of airfields closer to the frontier, in order to increase their combat radius. Towards the close of a relatively uneventful August the newly promoted Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille, who had not scored for over two months, claimed a South African Air Force (SAAF) Hurricane just off the coast of Egypt near Sidi Barrani.It was Marseille's 14th victory. On 9 September he downed two more Hurricanes over Bardia, an important Axis base, and port, 12 miles (19 km) inside the Libyan frontier. On both 13 and 14 September Marseille was credited with single Hurricanes.

And then something extraordinary happened.

Hans-Joachim Marseille himself later described 24 September 1941 as 'the day everything suddenly fell into place'. It was on this date that his innate skills – long suspected by such as Hauptmann Neumann, but never before properly displayed – all fused as one to enable him to shoot down a quartet of Hurricanes and a twin-engined Martin Maryland bomber.
These victories boosted Marseille's score to 23. It would take several more weeks of combat to hone his 'almost uncanny' talents to perfection, but soon the young Berliner's lethal abilities became the stuff of legends: his remarkable eyesight, which meant he could detect the smallest of specks in the far distance vital seconds before anybody else; his complete mastery of aerobatics, which invariably allowed him to place himself in a position of tactical advantage; the ferocity of the assault upon his chosen target; the computer-like instinct which told him the exact moment to open fire in any given situation, however great the angle; the precision marksmanship to hit the vital spot.
In fact, it was later calculated that Marseille required an average of only 15 rounds to despatch an opponent – far fewer than any other Luftwaffe fighter pilot. He often returned from sorties which had netted him multiple kills – sometimes as many as six – with more than half his ammunition still in its magazines! Many rated him the best shot in the Luftwaffe.
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Africa - The 'Finest Hour'

…an extract from Osprey's Aviation Elite Units No.12 Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika' by John Weal
 
Osprey Publishing has kindly supplied the following Chapter-length extract from Aviation Elite Units 12: Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika'.
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Africa - The 'Finest Hour'

The presence of the Wehrmacht in North Africa, like its intervention in Greece, was due in no small measure to the military incompetence of Hitler's Axis ally, Mussolini. Just as the Italian invasion of Greece had not merely foundered on the rock of Greek resistance, but had been pushed back into Albania whence it came, so the Italian advance into Egypt in September 1940 was not simply stopped cold by British and Commonwealth troops, it was driven back halfway across Libya to the port of Benghazi and beyond.

It was to prevent the total loss of Italy's African colony that Hitler was persuaded early in 1941 to send a token 'containing' force, built around the 5th Light and 15th Panzer Divisions, to his southern partner's aid. The Führer's plans were purely defensive. He warned the force commander, one Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, that 'no large-scale operations were to be carried out in North Africa until the autumn'. But Rommel had ideas of his own as to how the desert war should be fought. Realising that the British forces opposing him were both overstretched and understrength he quickly began to prepare for a 'reconnaissance in force'.

By the time the first elements of I./JG27 touched down on the cleared stretch of desert that was Ain-el-Gazala airfield on 18 April 1941, Rommel's 'reconnaissance' had exploded into a full-blown offensive. He had already retaken all of Libya – with the exception of Tobruk – and his troops had reached the Egyptian frontier at Sollum.

As Hauptmann Eduard Neumann's Bf 109s were the first single-engined Luftwaffe fighters to be sent to Africa, they were thrown into the thick of the fighting almost immediately upon arrival. And with the situation along the Libyan/Egyptian border at a temporary stalemate, this fighting was concentrated around the perimeter of Tobruk, whose garrison – although surrounded – was a thorn in Rommel's side, and a potential threat to his line of supply.

On 19 April I./JG27 claimed its first four victories – all Hurricanes – along the 37-mile (60-km) stretch of coast separating Gazala from Tobruk. One of the pair shot down by Oberleutnant Karl-Wolfgang Redlich, Kapitän of 1. Staffel, provided I./JG27 with its 100th victory of the war. Another was the first kill for Leutnant Werner Schroer, who would end the war as the Geschwaderkommodore of JG3 'Udet', wearing the Swords, and with the distinction of being one of the few Luftwaffe pilots credited with more than 100 RAF and USAAF aircraft destroyed.

The fourth of that day's Hurricanes had gone to Unteroffizier Hans Sippel. Twenty-four hours later he would claim a Wellington, also over Gazala, only to become JG27's first African casualty the day after that when he himself was shot down and killed over Tobruk on 21 April.

It was on 23 April that ObeRGähnrich Hans-Joachim Marseille claimed his first success as a member of JG27 – another Hurricane over Tobruk. This prompted 'Edu' Neumann to remark that 'we'll make a proper fighter pilot out of you yet'. The Gruppenkommandeur never spoke a truer word. But with just eight kills under his belt, Marseille was still a long way behind I./JG27's leading trio of scorers.

These three, Oberleutnants Ludwig Franzisket, Karl-Wolfgang Redlich and Gerhard Homuth all had totals climbing into the high teens. This meant they were nearing the 'magic 20', which was still the official yardstick for the award of the Knight's Cross – the astronomical scores of the eastern front had yet to make themselves felt! And, indeed, all three would receive the prestigious decoration in the coming weeks.

On the morning of 1 May 3./JG27 clashed with a squadron of Hurricanes south of Tobruk. Staffelkapitän Gerhard Homuth and Hans-Joachim Marseille – the latter now flying as a Schwarmführer (leader of a four-aircraft section) – downed a pair of enemy fighters each. By now the few remaining Hurricanes based within the Tobruk perimeter had been withdrawn to Egypt. Their departure coincided with the easing of Rommel's latest, unsuccessful, attempt to overrun the garrison. As both sides paused to draw breath and regroup, the following fortnight saw just three victories for the Gruppe, all claimed by Gerhard Homuth.

Freed from the restraints of their Stuka-escort and patrol duties over a now fighterless Tobruk (henceforward the 'fortress' would have to rely almost entirely on its own anti-aircraft defences for protection against air attack), I./JG27 began to venture further eastwards towards the Egyptian border. And its was here that action flared up again on 21 May when 3. Staffel intercepted a raid by Blenheim bombers. They shot down five of the No 14 Sqn machines, two of which took Gerhard Homuth's score to 22 and won him the Knight's Cross.

But such successes against bombers would be very much the exception, rather than the rule, in the months ahead. JG27's desert war was to remain one of predominantly fighter combat throughout. And four weeks after intercepting the Blenheims – having added a further dozen Hurricanes to its growing scoresheet in the interim – I./JG27 met for the first time the one Allied fighter which, above all others, was to be its principal opponent, and which alone would account for almost exactly half the 600 kills the Gruppe would claim during its time in North Africa.

When 1. Staffel bounced a formation of unfamiliar enemy fighters just beyond the Egyptian border in the early morning of 18 June, they logged their three successes simply as 'Brewsters'. In fact, they were Curtiss Tomahawks of the reformed No 250 Sqn RAF. One of the trio was victory number 21 for Staffelkapitän Wolfgang Redlich, and resulted in the Gruppe's second African Knight's Cross. It would be another month before the third was awarded. This followed the destruction of a Hurricane (wrongly identified as a Tomahawk!) over the Gulf of Sollum by Gruppen-Adjutant Ludwig Franzisket on 19 July.

With two recent British counter-offensives having been repulsed, the stand-off on the ground continued. But now I./JG27 began to probe even deeper into Egyptian airspace, often staging through Gambut, a complex of airfields closer to the frontier, in order to increase their combat radius. Towards the close of a relatively uneventful August the newly promoted Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille, who had not scored for over two months, claimed a South African Air Force (SAAF) Hurricane just off the coast of Egypt near Sidi Barrani.It was Marseille's 14th victory. On 9 September he downed two more Hurricanes over Bardia, an important Axis base, and port, 12 miles (19 km) inside the Libyan frontier. On both 13 and 14 September Marseille was credited with single Hurricanes.

And then something extraordinary happened.

Hans-Joachim Marseille himself later described 24 September 1941 as 'the day everything suddenly fell into place'. It was on this date that his innate skills – long suspected by such as Hauptmann Neumann, but never before properly displayed – all fused as one to enable him to shoot down a quartet of Hurricanes and a twin-engined Martin Maryland bomber.

These victories boosted Marseille's score to 23. It would take several more weeks of combat to hone his 'almost uncanny' talents to perfection, but soon the young Berliner's lethal abilities became the stuff of legends: his remarkable eyesight, which meant he could detect the smallest of specks in the far distance vital seconds before anybody else; his complete mastery of aerobatics, which invariably allowed him to place himself in a position of tactical advantage; the ferocity of the assault upon his chosen target; the computer-like instinct which told him the exact moment to open fire in any given situation, however great the angle; the precision marksmanship to hit the vital spot.

In fact, it was later calculated that Marseille required an average of only 15 rounds to despatch an opponent – far fewer than any other Luftwaffe fighter pilot. He often returned from sorties which had netted him multiple kills – sometimes as many as six – with more than half his ammunition still in its magazines! Many rated him the best shot in the Luftwaffe.

The 'Star of Africa' was at long last in the ascendant. And I./JG27's imminent re-equipment with the Bf 109F would transform the rise into one of meteoric proportions.

It was the arrival of Hauptmann Wolfgang Lippert's II. Gruppe at Ain-el-Gazala towards the end of September which permitted I./JG27 to rotate back to Germany, one Staffel at a time, to exchange its war-weary Emils for brand new Friedrichs. The whole process would take well over a month.

Assuming the mantle of I. Gruppe, II./JG27 soon got into its African stride. On 3 October the unit claimed a trio of Hurricanes just across the Egyptian border. Forty-eight hours later another pair went down, and on 6 October it was three more Hurricanes and a brace of Tomahawks. Just like I./JG27, II. Gruppe also had its established Experten, and those who were still on the way up. Of these first ten kills in North Africa, three each had been credited to Oberleutnant Gustav Rödel, the Knight's Cross-wearing Kapitän of 4./JG27, and to one of the more promising NCO pilots of his Staffel, Oberfeldwebel Otto Schulz. This took their scores to 24 and 12 respectively.

But II./JG27 would inevitably suffer its share of casualties too. And the first combat fatality was 5. Staffel's Leutnant Gustav-Adolf Langanke, shot down by return fire from a formation of SAAF Marylands he was attacking near Sidi Omar on 7 October.

It was Otto Schulz who brought down a Bristol Bombay near Ain-el-Gazala on the morning of 27 November, taking off, claiming his victim, and landing again all in the space of just three minutes! Only a handful of these elderly twin-engined transports would appear on JG27's African scoresheets – twice with some significance. On this occasion the No 216 Sqn machine was one of five carrying troops of the embryonic Special Air Service (SAS) on their first ever large-scale raid behind enemy lines. Their objective was to destroy the aircraft dispersed on the five Luftwaffe airfields in the Gazala-Tmimi area as the prelude to a major British offensive scheduled to be launched the following day.

In the event, the SAS operation was 'not merely a failure, it was a debacle'. But the offensive opened on 18 November as planned. Intended to relieve Tobruk and drive Rommel's forces out of Cyrenaica (the eastern half of Libya), Operation Crusader would achieve both its aims.

Even nature lent a hand. Heavy rainstorms during the night of 17/18 November had turned the Gazala airfields into quagmires of mud, making it extremely difficult for the Bf 109s to operate. But an improvement in conditions soon led to fierce clashes between the opposing fighter forces. On 22 November II./JG27 claimed at least ten Tomahawks, plus three Blenheims, in a series of engagements to the south of Tobruk. It lost four of its own machines, with two pilots being wounded. One, Leutnant Karl Scheppa of the Stabsschwarm, would be killed the following day when a bomb hit the Italian field hospital to which he had been taken.

Two of 22 November's Tomahawks had been downed by Gruppenkommandeur Hauptmann Wolfgang Lippert. Twenty-four hours later he added a Hurricane, but then his own machine was severely damaged. In baling out behind the British lines, he struck the tailplane and broke both his legs. At first the fractures appeared uncomplicated. After admittance to a Cairo hospital, however, it was discovered that gangrene had set in. Lippert refused the double amputation which offered the only chance of saving his life. In the end he relented, although by then it was too late. The operation was carried out on 3 December, but he died of a massive embolism only minutes after completion of the surgery. Wolfgang Lippert was buried by the British with full military honours.

Meanwhile, 1./JG27 had returned to the fray in its new Friedrichs. The Staffel's first victory, a Tomahawk claimed on 12 November, had been a shared kill which, uncommon in the Jagdwaffe, had been credited to the unit as a whole. 1./JG27 too had been involved in the heavy fighting of 22 and 23 November, the unit's total for the two days being 14 enemy aircraft destroyed, exactly half of them falling to Staffelkapitän Wolfgang Redlich. The Staffel lost two of its own NCOs shot down and captured.

By the end of the first week of December 3./JG27 was also back in action – an event which Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille had duly marked by claiming four Hurricanes in three days. This raised his total to 29, and brought him level with his Staffelkapitän, Oberleutnant Gerhard Homuth. In a spirit of friendly rivalry, the race between the two was now on. Of the Gruppe's two other top scorers, Wolfgang Redlich was still in the lead with 36. But on 5 December, the day his latest victim had gone down south of Bir-el-Gobi, he received a posting to the office of the General Staff. His replacement at the head of 1. Staffel, Oberleutnant Ludwig Franzisket, was currently standing at 24.

Such individual successes in the air were not enough to halt the dangers developing on the desert floor below. After a shaky start, Operation Crusader was by now gathering momentum. The Luftwaffe's forward airfields around Gambut had already been captured. And on 7 December 1941 – the day the world learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour – the long siege of Tobruk was finally lifted. This posed a direct threat to the Gazala complex, the next objective in the path of the advancing British armour. I. and II./JG27 were forced to vacate their base on that same 7 December. The nearly eight months which I. Gruppe had spent at Ain-el-Gazala would be the longest deployment at any one field throughout JG27's entire time in North Africa.

The Gruppen's first step on the long withdrawal back across Cyrenaica was but a short hop from Gazala. Tmimi, where it would remain for only five days, had witnessed III./JG27's arrival from Germany just 24 hours earlier on 6 December. And when all three Gruppen were joined there by Oberstleutnant Bernhard Woldenga's Stab on 10 December, it meant that, for the first time since the Battle of Britain, the complete Geschwader was once again operating as a single entity – albeit in the midst of a general retreat!

For JG27's Friedrichs, it was very much a fighting retreat. On the day of the Geschwaderstab's arrival in North Africa, the desert-wise I. Gruppe was up in force. Hans-Joachim Marseille added another Tomahawk to his lengthening list, while Hauptmann Erich Gerlitz's 2. Staffel downed all but one of a group of six unescorted SAAF Bostons. But I./JG27 was about to lose its two most successful NCO pilots under circumstances that were more than just unfortunate.

On 13 December Oberfeldwebel Albert Espenlaub of 1. Staffel, who had scored 11 of his 14 victories in the last month alone, was bested in combat near El Adem. He managed to belly-land his 'White 11' and was taken prisoner, only to be shot later in the day while attempting to escape from his captors. Less easy to explain and condone is the loss of 2. Staffel's Oberfeldwebel Hermann Förster the following day. Förster's 13th and last, kill had been one of the South African Bostons. Now, in a dogfight with Australian Tomahawks over recently abandoned Tmimi, his machine was hit and he was forced to bale out. He was fired upon and killed in his parachute.

By this time III./JG27 had opened its desert account too. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it was the Geschwader's most successful pilot, and sole Oak Leaves wearer, who had been responsible for its first two Allied fighters brought down near Tmimi on 12 December. These took Oberleutnant Erbo Graf von Kageneck's overall total to 67. But experience gained in Russia did not guarantee immunity in North Africa, and on 24 December it was von Kageneck who was at the receiving end of a burst from a No 94 Sqn Hurricane over Agedabia.

Although seriously wounded in the stomach, he reportedly managed to nurse his crippled fighter back the 46 miles (75 km) to the Gruppe's then base at Magrun and pull off an emergency landing. He was immediately evacuated, first to a hospital in Athens, and then to another in Naples where, despite intensive care, he died from his injuries on12 January 1942.

By the final week of 1941 JG27 had completed its withdrawal across Cyrenaica. The whole Geschwader was now gathered on landing grounds around the Arco Philaenorum. This was a grandiose arch, spanning the coast road, which had been erected by Mussolini to mark the dividing line between the two provinces of his Libyan empire: Cyrenaica to the east, Tripolitania to the west.

Having had to abandon and blow up a number of their machines on almost every one of the half-dozen or so airfields they had occupied, however briefly, during the recent retreat, the Gruppen were in something of a sorry state. But although bloody, they were unbowed. On the morning of 25 December Major Neumann, Kommandeur of I./JG27, summoned the Kapitän of his 1. Staffel, Oberleutnant Ludwig Franzisket.

'We've got just four serviceable '109s left, 'Ziskus'. Fly up and down the coast road at medium height so that the ground troops can get to see a few German aircraft for Christmas at least.'

Oberleutnant Franzisket did as he was bid, but the effect was the very opposite to that intended. The traffic along Rommel's one major supply route had been subjected to Allied fighter-bomber attacks too many times in the past. As soon as the four aircraft were spotted approaching, every vehicle screeched to a halt as its occupants dived for cover at the side of the road. The end came as the Bf 109s circled above an Italian encampment near El Agheila. A well-placed 20 mm anti-aircraft round shattered Franzisket's canopy, sending a shower of splinters into his face and eyes. The wounds required specialist medical treatment, and 1. Staffel would not see their Kapitän again until March 1942.

Franzisket did not miss very much. By mid-January 1942 Operation Crusader had all but run its course. True, General Auchinleck's latest offensive had retaken nearly all the ground captured – and then lost – during General Wavell's pursuit of the Italian army across Cyrenaica a year earlier, but it had not engaged and destroyed the core of Rommel's forces. And it was the latter who now staged a surprise counter-attack.

On 29 January Rommel recaptured Benghazi (the fourth time the capital of Cyrenaica had changed hands in less than a year!), and by mid-February he was once again in possession of the airfields around Derna. Here the wily 'Desert Fox' would pause for the next three months.

Aerial activity during this period has since been described as 'limited'. But such a term is relative, and the high scorers of JG27 were still taking their toll of enemy machines. In February the entire Geschwader moved back up to fields around Martuba, to the south-east of the Derna complex. Here, they would operate in conjunction with other Luftwaffe units stationed in the area, including the Stukas of I./StG 3, as the NahkampfGruppe Martuba (Martuba Close-support Group). Commanded by the Kommodore of
JG27, this ad hoc force was later rechristened the Gefechtsverband (Combat unit) Woldenga.

On 9 February 3./JG27's Gerhard Homuth and Hans-Joachim Marseille had been level at 40 kills each. By month's end, however, the mercurial young Berliner was beginning to draw steadily ahead of his Staffelkapitän. Likewise, across at II. Gruppe, Otto Schulz – heaving downed five Tomahawks in ten minutes on 15 February – was also forging ahead of Gustav Rödel, Kapitän of 4. Staffel.

Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille and Oberfeldwebel Otto Schulz were each finally awarded the Knight's Cross on 22 February (for 50 and 44 victories respectively, the original '20-kill' benchmark having long gone by the board). For Marseille, it was the first significant official recognition (since the German Cross) of a burgeoning combat career that would see him wearing the Diamonds little more than six months later. For Schulz, it heralded the approaching end. Promoted to Oberleutnant and appointed II./JG27's Gruppen-TO, he would be shot down and killed claiming his 51st victim, a Hurricane of No 274 Sqn, during a freie Jagd mission near Sidi Rezegh on 17 June.

On 23 March III./JG27 had sent a small detachment to Crete. Based at Kastelli, the Jagdkommando Kreta would be slowly strengthened during the remaining months of the year as the eastern Mediterranean island grew in strategic significance. Commanded since near the close of their eastern front service by Hauptmann Erhard 'Jack' Braune (Max Dobislav having been appointed chief instructor at JFS 1 Werneuchen), III. Gruppe was already beginning to see itself as the Geschwader's 'jack-of-all-trades' unit. This view was reinforced on 5 May when a fourth Staffel was added to its numbers. As its designation indicates, 10.(Jabo)/JG27 was intended specifically for the fighter-bomber role.

On 18 April 'Edu' Neumann had organised the desert equivalent of a village fete to celebrate the anniversary of his Gruppe's first year in Africa. The bare expanse of Martuba was transformed by a colouRGul and motley collection of home-made stalls, sideshows and roundabouts. Guests from all the neighbouring German and Italian units were invited to the day-long festivities. But for I. and II. Gruppen's Experten it was soon back to business as usual. On 20 May Oberleutnant Gustav Rödel was appointed Kommandeur of II./JG27. He replaced Hauptmann Erich Gerlitz, who was to take over III./JG53, currently flying in to Martuba from Sicily to bolster the Luftwaffe's fighter presence in North Africa.

Two of the twelve Tomahawks and Kittyhawks claimed by II. Gruppe on 23 May were credited to the new Kommandeur, taking Rödel's total to 41. I. Gruppe's Oberleutnant Marseille was also regularly scoring daily doubles during this period. The two bombers he downed south-east of Tobruk on 23 May – victories number 63 and 64, claimed as Douglas DB-7s – were, in reality, a pair of No 223 Sqn Martin Baltimores flying that unit's first operational mission with the new type.

Three days later, on 26 May, Generaloberst Erwin Rommel launched the offensive which would take his Afrika Korps all the way to El Alamein. But first he had to smash a breach in the Allied lines, which now stretched from Gazala, on the coast, some 40 miles (65 km) inland down into the desert to the fortress of Bir Hacheim.

Released from their Gefechtsverband Woldenga duties, JG27's fighters, reinforced by Gerlitz's III./JG53, played a decisive part in the first six weeks of chaotic fighting that was the Battle of Gazala. On 3 June Hans-Joachim Marseille had his most successful day yet, destroying six Tomahawks in little more than ten minutes to the west of Bir Hacheim. Remarkably, he achieved this feat using just his two machine-guns, as his cannon having jammed after firing only ten rounds! These six Tomahawks of No 5 Sqn SAAF raised Marseille's total to 75, for which he was awarded the Oak Leaves on 6 June.

At the other end of the scale Oberstleutnant Bernhard Woldenga had not added to the four victories he had achieved in Russia. In fact, ill-health had prevented him from leading the Geschwader on operations over the desert. And on 10 June he was promoted to the first of the staff postings which would elevate him to the position of Jafü Balkan. He did, however, leave one tangible memento of his time as CO of the Geschwader – a Stab emblem based on the shield he had earlier designed for I./JG1. The main difference was that the three small Bf 109 silhouettes were now pointing upwards. Critics of the original badge had expressed the view that the nose-down attitude of its three fighters suggested they were fleeing!

Woldenga's departure set in train a whole string of new appointments. Major Eduard Neumann replaced him as Geschwaderkommodore, Hauptmann Gerhard Homuth became Kommandeur of I./JG27 and Oberleutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille took over as Kapitän of 3. Staffel.

Exactly one week later, on 17 June, a brace each of Tomahawks and Hurricanes, claimed near Gambut, took Marseille's score to 99. He was exhausted and ready to call it a day but, encouraged by the other three members of his Schwarm – 'Come on, Jochen, now for the hundredth!' – he felt honour-bound to oblige.

A lone Hurricane shot down in flames into an anti-aircraft emplacement south of Gambut airfield made Hans-Joachim Marseille only the 11th Luftwaffe fighter pilot to reach a century – but the first to achieve this total against the western Allies alone!

He even found time to go into a steep climb three minutes after despatching the low-level Hurricane in order to add number 101 (a high-flying photo-reconnaissance Spitfire which, if identified correctly, was the first for the Geschwader since the Battle of Britain), before returning to the familiar surroundings of Ain-el-Gazala, which I./JG27 had re-occupied just 24 hours earlier.

The following day, 18 June, Marseille departed in a Ju 52/3m for Berlin, where he was to be presented with the Swords to his Oak Leaves. He was delighted with the ceremonial of the occasion, but revelled even more in the rapturous welcome his hometown accorded him during his subsequent weeks' leave. It was the celebrities and stars whose attention he had once courted who were now falling over themselves to be seen in the company of the Reich's newest national hero.

Meanwhile, back in the desert things were happening fast. On 21 June the 'fortress' of Tobruk, which had withstood an eight-month siege the year before, had been taken within a matter of days. Seventy-two hours later the Afrika Korps crossed the Egyptian border in force. Rommel's Panzers did not stop until they bumped into the main Allied line of defence, the northern flank of which was anchored at a small halt on the coastal railway called El Alamein.

During this period 'Jack' Braune's somewhat overshadowed III. Gruppe were also achieving a number of successes. On 15 June Oberleutnant Hans-Joachim Heinecke – Kapitän of 9./JG27, and recently posted in from JG53 with 18 kills already to his credit – had claimed the Geschwader's first four-engined heavy bomber... a portent of things to come! The B-24 Liberator had been part of a small Anglo-American force searching for Italian naval units off the Egyptian coast.

Another of Braune's newly-appointed Staffelkapitäne, Leutnant Werner Schroer of 8./JG27 (ex-Adjutant of I. Gruppe), also began to make his presence felt. Taking over on 23 June with his score standing at 11, he would more than double this figure within a fortnight.

Between 24 and 26 June Major Neumann's Stab and all three Gruppen staged forward from their fields around Gazala and Tmimi, via Gambut, to gather briefly at Sidi Barrani. It was the first time their wheels had touched down on Egyptian soil – or should that be sand? In the next couple of weeks JG27's fighters would move up closer still to the Alamein front, as both sides prepared for the decisive battle which neither could afford to lose. From early July until late October I. and II. Gruppen would operate primarily out of Quotaifiya, little more than 30 miles (50 km) from the frontline.

Throughout July Homuth and Rödel's pilots whittled away at the opposition. Their victims included nearly every operational type to be found in the Allied Air Forces' armoury – and possibly one that wasn't, for the 'Gladiator' claimed by 2. Staffel's Leutnant Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt near El Daba on 7 July appears more likely, in retrospect, to have been an Italian CR.42! Unabashed, 'Fifi' Stahlschmidt brought down a trio of Hurricanes the next day, taking his score to 30, before adding a further 17 kills by mid-August to earn himself a Knight's Cross.

It was another imminent Knight's Cross winner, Feldwebel Günther Steinhausen of 1. Staffel, who was credited with JG27's second B-24. One of six USAAF machines sent to attack an Axis convoy on 9 July, B-24D Eager Beaver went down into the sea in flames. The bomber was victory number 34 for Steinhausen. His total was standing at 40 when he
himself crashed to his death during a dogfight south-east of El Alamein on 6 September. Promotion to Leutnant and award of the Knight's Cross were both posthumous.

Twenty-four hours after Steinhausen was posted missing, Leutnant Stahlschmidt, by then Kapitän of 2. Staffel, would be lost in similar circumstances, and in the same area. He, too, would be honoured posthumously, being awarded the Oak Leaves for his final total of 59 desert victories.

Coincidentally, one Knight's Cross had been awarded on 6 September. It went to 2./JG27's Leutnant Friedrich Körner, a 36-victory Experte who had also been shot down in combat near El Alamein two months earlier on 4 July, but who had survived to become a PoW.

July had also seen Geschwader-Adjutant Hauptmann Ernst Düllberg continue a tradition which had been started back in the days of the Battle of Britain and the Balkans by claiming the Geschwaderstab's one and only kill of the entire North African campaign – a Hurricane south-west of Alamein in the early evening of the 13th.

It was on 7 August that a Schwarm from 5./JG27, led by Oberfeldwebel Emil Clade, chanced upon another of the occasional Bombay transports of No 216 Sqn. But this machine was not carrying SAS troops (who had long since taken to using jeeps for their forays behind Axis lines). It was instead on the daily flight from Heliopolis to pick up wounded from the front for transport back to hospital in Cairo.

At one forward landing ground, however, the Bombay's 18-year-old pilot, Sgt H E James, was ordered to wait for a special passenger. This turned out to be Lt Gen W H E Gott, who, only hours previously, had been appointed Commander of the 8th Army, and who now needed to get back to Cairo for an urgent meeting.

Rather than fly at the stipulated 50 ft (15 m) to escape the attentions of Axis fighters, the pilot elected to climb to 500 ft (150 m) on account of an overheating engine. It was his undoing. Clade's first pass forced the lumbering Bombay to crash-land in the desert to the south-east of Alexandria. Some of the crew and passengers attempted to escape from the still moving machine. All but one of those remaining inside, including Gott, were killed when Unteroffizier Bernd Schneider carried out a strafing run to finish off the stricken machine. Lt Gen Gott was the highest ranked British soldier to be killed by enemy fire in World War 2. His death led to the hurried appointment of a replacement commander for the 8th Army – a relative unknown named Bernard Law Montgomery.

The Bombay was 5. Staffel's only claim for the fortnight between 4 and 19 August. Over the same period all that 6./JG27 managed to bring down was a pair of Kittyhawks. But the remaining 4. Staffel of II. Gruppe – or, to be more precise, just one Schwarm of that Staffel – submitted claims during that time for no fewer than 59 Allied fighters destroyed! This huge discrepancy in numbers, and the lack of any witnesses other than the Schwarm members themselves, gave rise to grave suspicions. But rather than take the matter to higher authority, and possibly throw doubt and disrepute on the rest of the Gruppe, it was decided simply to break up the offending Schwarm. It should be noted that a full two months were to pass before the erstwhile Schwarmführer claimed his next victory, and that one of his NCO pilots disappeared over the Mediterranean on 19 August 'for reasons unknown' (some suggested he chose deliberately to dive into the sea rather than face accusations of making false claims and possible court-martial). The other two, however, went on to attain legitimate and respectable scores.

While tension may have been high at Quotaifiya, life for III./JG27 at Quasaba during August was more hum-drum. Only three Kittyhawks were added to the Gruppe's scoreboard, and much of the month was spent on coastal convoy patrol duties. 10.(Jabo) Staffel, which had carried out fighter-bomber raids on targets as far afield as Alexandria early in July, was now being employed against vehicle parks and gun emplacements closer to the front. And at the end of August the Staffel was withdrawn from III. Gruppe's control altogether to become part of the autonomous JaboGruppe Afrika. Finally, 31 August also saw the loss of Oberleutnant Hermann Tangerding, Kapitän of 7. Staffel, who took a direct anti-aircraft hit during a Stuka escort mission south of El Alamein. III. Gruppe's woes were not echoed back at I./JG27's Quotaifiya dispersals. And for good reason. Wearing his Swords, the Kapitän of 3. Staffel was back in Africa, and back in business. On that same 31 August Oberleutnant Marseille had claimed a couple of Hurricanes in the morning, likewise while escorting Stukas south-east of El Alamein, plus a single Spitfire in the early evening.

But it was the events of the following day which are still a source of no little controversy. Many, including RAF pilots who fought in the desert war, question the validity of Marseille's claims for the 17 Allied fighters he is reported to have shot down on 1 September (a total exceeded only by the world-record 18 achieved by Emil Lang on the eastern front – see Osprey Aviation Elite 6 - Jagdgeschwader 54 'Grünherz'). Post-war research has failed to identify all 17 of Marseille's alleged victims. It has proved,
however, that whereas he claimed all but one (a Spitfire) as Kittyhawks, at least half were in fact Hurricanes.

Although possibly two, and maybe even as many as four, of Marseille's opponents were not actually destroyed, the victories he did amass during his three sorties east of El Alamein on that 1 September make it without doubt the most successful day of his career.

Twenty-four hours later another five claims took Oberleutnant Marseille's score to 126, which won him the Diamonds. On this occasion there was to be no immediate summons to Berlin. And by the time the award was announced on 4 September his total had already risen to 132. A further dozen kills were added in the week that followed. Then, on 15 September, the sixth of seven enemy fighters credited to Marseille (all identified as 'P-46s', JG27's erroneous designation for the Kittyhawk) gave him his 150th. He was only the third Luftwaffe pilot to reach this figure.

Although Marseille's 150 brought no further decorations (at the time there was nothing higher than the Diamonds), it did result in his immediate promotion to Hauptmann. Still three months short of his 23rd birthday, Hans-Joachim Marseille had become the youngest Hauptmann in the Luftwaffe. He was also by far the highest scorer against the western Allies. But seven more victories were still to be added. They were claimed on 26 September, the 158th and last of all – a Spitfire – going down near El Hamman, another halt on the coastal railway two stops to the east of El Alamein.

But Nemesis was already at hand. The two missions of 26 September had both been flown in new Bf 109G-2/trops. The first six of these machines, which were to replace the Gruppe's trusty Friedrichs, had just been delivered, and all had been allocated to Hauptmann Marseille's 3. Staffel. One of them, Gustav Wk-Nr. 14256, was to bring about the unthinkable, and something which 158 aerial opponents had signally failed to accomplish – the death of Hans-Joachim Marseille.

On 30 September Marseille was leading his Schwarm on yet another freie Jagd behind the Alamein front when his engine began to burn. Within seconds the cockpit was full of smoke. Choking on the fumes and unable to see, Marseille sought desperately to get back to the German lines guided by instructions over the R/T from his wingman, Oberleutnant Jost Schlang. Nine minutes after the fire had first broken out, the Gustav – on its first operational flight – suddenly flipped onto its back and plunged earthwards in a steep dive. Marseille managed to extricate himself, but his body slammed heavily against the tailplane. Parachute unopened, his lifeless form crashed to the desert floor near the tiny white mosque of Sidi Abd el Rahman, just to the rear of Rommel's forward minefield defences.

Geschwaderkommodore Major Eduard Neumann, who had once prophesied that he would make a fighter pilot out of the precocious young Berliner, issued an Order of the Day. It ended with these sentences;

'His successes against our toughest aerial opponents, the English, are unique. We can be happy and proud to have counted him as one of us. There are no words eloquent enough to convey what his loss means to us. He leaves behind an obligation for us to follow his lead, both as a human being and as a soldier. His spirit will remain an example to the Geschwader for ever.'

The pilots of 3. Staffel had their own way of mourning the loss of their 'Jochen'. They shared a fig cake and listened to his favourite tune, 'Rumba Azul', on the wind-up gramophone.

Forty-eight hours later, whether at the instigation of a particularly understanding member of the Higher Command, or simply as a result of operational expediency, I./JG27 was offered a complete change of scenery. Staging via the heel of Italy, where it converted fully on to the Bf 109G-2/trop, the Gruppe transferred to Sicily to take part in the renewed air offensive against Malta. During its near three-week stay at Pacino, the unit had accounted for seven RAF Spitfires. But two pilots had been lost, one to unknown causes and the other crashing into the sea due to yet another engine failure.

By this time III./JG27 had moved forward from Quasaba to Turbiya, closer to the Alamein front. But the Gruppe's morale was at a low ebb.

Successes were still hard to come by, and its pilots were fed up of being treated as the Geschwader's 'poor relations'. This had only been heightened when they were handed II./JG27's war-weary Friedrichs, which they would continue to fly while the other two Gruppen converted to the Bf 109G – although given the latter model's early accident rate, this may have been a blessing in disguise!

Knowing of his imminent promotion to the staff of XI. Fliegerkorps, and also fully aware of his Gruppe's problems, it is reported that 'Jack' Braune had even suggested that Hans-Joachim Marseille should be appointed his successor in an attempt to inject some spirit into the unit. Whether this proposal was given serious consideration is not known. But the 'Star of Africa' was no more. And when Hauptmann Erhard Braune departed on 11 October, his replacement was ex-Geschwader-Adjutant Hauptmann Ernst Düllberg.

One bright spot in III./JG27's sea of woes was provided by Leutnant Werner Schroer. Although not in the same league as Marseille, the Kapitän of 8. Staffel had continued to score steadily. On 20 October his 49th kill earned him the Knight's Cross. Less than 72 hours later, on the morning of 23 October, a pair of 'P-46s' east of El Alamein took his tally to 51.

But III. Gruppe's troubles, imagined or otherwise, were to be overwhelmed by a far greater disaster which was to affect not just JG27, but the whole of the Axis forces in North Africa. For later that same evening 882 artillery pieces opened fire as one. Night turned into day. Gen Montgomery had begun the Battle of El Alamein.

I./JG27 was rushed back from Sicily, but not even this most experienced of desert Jagdgruppen could do anything to influence events on the ground now. By 3 November it had claimed its final 13 victories over Egypt, two of which had been credited to Kommandeur Hauptmann Gerhard Homuth raising his total to 61.

The top scorers of all three Gruppen were remarkably level at this stage. A trio of P-40s downed over the battlefield on the opening morning of Montgomery's offensive had been numbers 63-65 for Hauptmann Gustav Rödel, Kommandeur of II./JG27. Further to the west, one of a pair of B-24s claimed by III. Gruppe on 4 November provided the now Oberleutnant Werner Schroer with his 60th.

4 November was the day British and Commonwealth forces broke through the Axis front at El Alamein. Rommel's great retreat had begun. By 12 November the last German and Italian troops had been chased out of Egypt. For the British the 'Third Benghazi Stakes' were off and running. And this time it was to be a one-way race. This latest advance across Cyrenaica would not be driven back. It would continue through the Arco Philaenorum (inevitably, 'Marble Arch' to the passing British), across Tripolitania and only end with the total surrender of all Axis forces in Tunisia.

'Edu' Neumann's JG27 was spared this final ignominy. After retiring to fields in western Cyrenaica, and having been forced to abandon many of their machines on the way, Stab I. and III. Gruppen handed over most of their remaining Bf 109s to JG77. They were then evacuated from North Africa on 12 November.

II./JG27 was to remain nearly a month longer before it too passed its aircraft over to JG77 and finally departed. During that time, based latterly at Merduma, just across the provincial border in Tripolitania, it lost three pilots killed but claimed six Allied fighters destroyed. The last one of all, fittingly a Kittyhawk, went to a tyro of 6. Staffel (Leutnant Hans Lewes – it was his first victory) during the Gruppe's final sortie on the morning of 6 December.

Jagdgeschwader 27's 20-month African odyssey was over.

Reference: http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/jg27bookextractjw_1.htm

Biography
Hans-Joachim Marseille was born to Charlotte and Siegfried Marseille, a family with French-Huguenot ancestry in Charlottenburg-Berlin. It is thought his father Siegfried was a fighter pilot in World War I, however this is unconfirmed. What is known about Siegfried Marseille (according to the book German Fighter Ace Hans-Joachim Marseille -'The Star Of Africa') is that he was promoted to general in the Army in 1935. Other sources claim he was killed in action against Soviet Forces in the Stalingrad area in early 1943, once again this is not certain.

His mother and father divorced when Marseille was still a young child, his mother married again and took the name Reuter, which affected Marseille, although he retook the name Marseille in adulthood. His lack of discipline afforded him the reputation of a rebel, often getting himself into mischief, something that would plague him early on in his Luftwaffe career. During the Battle of Britain in 1940 Marseille served in Jagdgeschwader 52[1], where he claimed 7 kills, flying alongside the likes of Johannes Steinhoff and Gerhard Barkhorn. One Bf 109E which he had crash-landed (he had written off 4 aircraft in action) has been recovered, rebuilt, and repainted in the colours of 'White 14' in which he had flown the aircraft.

As punishment for insubordination (rumoured to be derived from his penchant for American jazz music, womanising and his overly 'playboy' lifestyle) and inability to fly as a wingman, he was transferred by Steinhoff [2] out to Jagdgeschwader 27 which was soon relocated to North Africa. He scored two more kills before being shot down by Sous. Lt Denis, a Free French pilot with 73 Squadron in a Hurricane. However, his Geschwaderkommodore Eduard Neumann soon saw potential in Marseille and encouraged him to self-train to improve his abilities. By this time, he had crashed or damaged another four Bf 109E aircraft, including a tropicalized aircraft that he was ferrying.

His Staffel was rotated to Germany in late 1941/early 1942, to convert onto the Bf 109F-4/Trop, in which Marseille became a star. Marseille created a unique self-training program for himself, both physical and tactical, which resulted not just in outstanding situational awareness, marksmanship, and confident control of the aircraft, but also in a unique attack tactic that preferred a high angle deflection shooting attack and shooting at the target's front from the side, instead of the common method of chasing an aircraft and shooting at it directly from behind.

His innovative and unique attack method, which was perfected by him to a method for attacking aircraft formations, resulted in his fantastic lethality ratio, and in rapid multiple victories per attack, and it is this talent that made him one of the greatest and most innovative fighter aces in history.

On June 6, 1942, Marseille attacked alone a formation of 16 P-40 fighters and shot down 6 aircraft of No. 5 Squadron South African Air Force, five of them in six minutes, including the aces Captain Pare (6 claims), Lieutenant Goulding (6.5 claims), and Captain Botha (5 claims). On September 1 he was even more successful, claiming 17 enemy aircraft shot down on one day, 8 of them in 10 minutes.

Marseille flew 4 different Bf 109F-4/Trop aircraft:

Werk Nummer 8693, in which his score rose to 50 on February 23, 1942,
W.Nr. 10056, with 58 victory bars on the rudder,
the well-known W.Nr. 10137, with the number '70' within an open-topped wreath and 31 victory bars on the rudder, and
his final F-4/Trop, W.Nr. 8673 with the early-F Variant rear-fuselage horizontal support bars welded along the lower rear fuselage seam joining the fin/rudder and the stabilizer/elevators to the next forward fuselage section, a black-outlined yellow 14, and, on the rudder, '100' enclosed within a wreath atop 51 victory bars.
 

The 1995 French-American WWII drama Diamond Swords is very loosely based on Marseille's life; its main character (played by Jason Flemyng) is named Hans-Joachim Avignon.

Death
On the 30 September 1942 Hauptmann Marseille was leading his staffel on a Stuka escort mission, during which no contact with enemy fighters was made. While returning to base, his new Bf 109 G-2/trop's cockpit began to fill with smoke; blinded and half asphyxiated by the smoke, he was guided by his wingmen Jost Schlang and Pottgen back to the German lines. By the time they reached their own lines, 'Yellow 14' had lost power and was drifting lower and lower. Pottgen called out after about ten minutes that they had reached the White Mosque of Sidi Abd el Rahman, and thus had reached friendly lines. At this point Marseille deemed his aircraft no longer flyable and decided to bail out, his last words to his friends being 'I've got to get out now, I can't stand it any longer'.

His Staffel who had been flying a tight formation around him peeled away to give him the necessary room to manoeuvre, and Marseille rolled his aircraft onto its back in standard procedure for bale-out, but due to the smoke and slight disorientation he failed to notice that the aircraft had entered a shallow dive and was now travelling at a considerably faster speed (approximately 400mph). He worked his way out of the cockpit and into the rushing air only to be carried backwards by the slipstream, the left side of his chest striking the vertical stabilizer of his stricken fighter, either killing him instantly or rendering him unconscious to the point that he could not deploy his parachute. He fell almost vertically, hitting the desert floor 7 km south of Sidi Abd el Rahman. As it transpired, a gaping 30 cm hole had been made in his parachute and the canopy had spilled out, but after recovering the body, the parachute release handle was still on 'safe', revealing Marseille had not even attempted to open it.

Hans-Joachim Marseille lay in state in the Staffel sick bay. His comrades coming to pay their respects throughout the day. As a tribute to their comrade they put on the record the 'Rhumba Azul' that he enjoyed listening to so much, it played over and over again until for the rest of the day. Marseille's funeral took place on 1 October 1942 at the heroes cemetery in Derna where Generalfeldmarschall Albrecht Kesselring and Eduard Neuman delivered an emotional eulogy.

His grave bears a one-word epitaph, Undefeated.

A war-time pyramid was constructed by Italian engineers at the site of his fall but over time it decayed. In 1989 Eduard Neuman and other JG27 survivors in co-operation with the Egyptian government erected a new pyramid that stands there to this day. It is understood that after the war, Hans-Joachim Marseille's remains were brought from Derna and reinterred in the memorial gardens at Tobruk - it was there that his mother visited his grave in 1954.

Achievements
8 victories in 10 minutes, 17 victories in one day, 54 victories in one month.
Average lethality ratio of just 15 rounds per victory.
Awarded Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, Germany's highest military honor. (one of only 27 awarded during the course of the war, ten of them to ace pilots).
Awarded Italian Gold Medal for Bravery (awarded only twice to Germans during the course of the war).
Youngest Captain in the Luftwaffe.
His 151 claims in North Africa included:
101 P-40/Tomahawk/Kittyhawks
30 Hurricanes
16 Spitfires
2 Baltimore medium bombers
1 Blenheim bomber
1 Martin Maryland bomber
Recent research has suggested that of his 151 North Africa claims, 81 can be directly attributed to Marseille via cross reference to Allied loss records, 24 can be safely rejected as no aircraft were lost or matched his combat reports, and 46 'possibles' which match to definite Allied losses shot down by German fighters, but could not definitely be attributed to Marseille or any other Luftwaffe pilot.

This discrepancy of claims to actual losses proves to be fairly typical of all WW2 combat claims for both Axis and Allied fighter aces.

The I./JG27 fighter Gruppe claimed 588 aircraft shot down April 1941 - November 1942. Marseille accounted for 151 of these; 26% of the unit's total.

Hans Joachim Marseille
The most amazing fighter pilot of World War 2
Hans Joachim Marseille, a young German fighter pilot, was the most amazing, unique, and lethal ace of World War 2. A non-conformist and brilliant innovator, he developed his own personal training program and combat tactics, and achieved amazing results, including 17 victories in one day, and an average lethality ratio of just 15 gun rounds per victory. Marseille was described by Adolf Galland, the most senior German ace, with these words : 'He was the unrivaled virtuoso among the fighter pilots of World War 2. His achievements were previously considered impossible.'

Marseille, who later became one of the ten most highly decorated German pilots of World War 2 and was nicknamed 'The Star of Africa' by the German propaganda, ('Jochen' by his friends), had a very unpromising and problematic start. At age 20 he graduated the Luftwaffe's fighter pilot school just in time to participate in the Battle Of Britain in the summer of 1940. He initially served in fighter wing 52 under Johannes Steinhoff (176 victories). In his third combat sortie he shot down a Spitfire and by the end of the Battle Of Britain he had seven victories, but he was also shot down four times, and his behavior on the ground got him into trouble. A charming person, he had such busy night life that sometimes he was too tired to be allowed to fly the next morning. He also loved American Jazz music, which was very politically incorrect in the Nazi military. As a result, he was transferred to another unit as a punishment for 'Insubordination'. His new unit, fighter wing 27, was relocated in April 1941 to the hot desert of North Africa, where he quickly achieved two more victories but was also shot down again and still had disciplinary problems.

Luckily for him, his new Wing Commander, Eduard Neumann, recognized that there might be a hidden potential in the unusual young pilot and helped him get on the right track. With his problems on the ground finally over, Marseille began to deeply analyze his combat activity, and started to improve his abilities as a fighter pilot with an intense self-training program, both physical and professional, that he developed for himself.

Marseille's self-training program
Vision - Marseille decided to adapt his eyes to the powerful desert sun and the dry desert atmosphere and to adapt his body to the desert's conditions. He stopped wearing sun glasses, deliberately exposed his eyes to the desert sun, and shifted from alcohol to milk. He also noticed that in the intensely lit dry desert atmosphere, aircraft can be detected from greater distances than over Europe and deduced that hiding and surprise are less practical over the desert than in the cloudy sky over Europe.

G-Force - Marseille worked endlessly to strengthen his abdominal and leg muscles in order to enhance his ability to sustain higher G-Force and for longer durations during dogfights better than the average fighter pilot. G-Force is the enormous centrifugal force experienced when a fighter aircraft makes sharp turns during dogfight. The modern G-suit that helps pilots sustain it was not yet invented in World War 2.

Aerobatics - Marseille used every opportunity to peRGorm breathtaking aerobatics. In addition to free entertainment to his friends on the ground, this also gave him an outstanding control and confidence in extremely maneuvering his Messerschmitt 109 aircraft.

Marksmanship - Marseille spent his unused ammunition practicing firing at ground objects and trained a lot not just in plain strafing but also in high deflection shooting while in a sharp turn, which is much harder.

Intelligence - he began to read every possible intelligence information he could find in order to maximize his knowledge and understanding of the enemy.

Tactics - That's where Marseille marked himself as a great innovator of air waRGare, and he kept improving. He claimed that in the perfect visual conditions over the desert, large formations are in a visual disadvantage against highly maneuvering single aircraft. He preferred to fight alone, with a single wingman providing warnings from a safe distance. He claimed that when fighting alone in a short range dogfight, he could quickly fire at anything he saw, while the attacked formation's pilots were confused, hesitated, and switched to a defensive position that further increased the lone attacker's chances. He also claimed that fighting alone eliminates the high risk of firing at or colliding with a wingman in such extreme maneuvering. Marseille said that in such conditions, there's a lower chance and too little time for the usual chase attack method, and preferred to use high angle deflection firing from short range while making a sharp turn. In doing so, he never used his gun sight and instead fired a very short burst at the passing target in the split second when its leading edge, its propeller, disappeared from his eyes behind his aircraft's nose. He calculated that when firing a short burst at this position, his gun rounds will hit the target's engine and cockpit, and he trained in this unorthodox aiming method on his friends (without firing) many times and perfected his ability to use it. He deduced that over the desert, a fighter pilot can become 'invisible' only by extreme maneuvers at close range, and that the intensity of the maneuvering was more important than the speed of flying.

The Hans Joachim Marseille that emerged from this self-training program was a fighter pilot with superior abilities. He saw enemy aircraft before others did and from greater distances, he could sustain higher G-Force and for longer durations, he made unbelievably sharp turns and generally achieved better peRGormance with the Me-109 than others. He greatly outmaneuvered his enemies, nullifying the significant numerical advantage they had, often becoming 'invisible' to the enemy pilots by maneuvering so fast, and using his high-deflection short range firing method he achieved an amazing record of lethality, shooting down enemy aircraft with just 15 gun rounds on average.

The Star of Africa

He first demonstrated his new abilities on Sept. 24, 1941. During a fighter sweep, he suddenly broke formation and hurried to a direction where no one saw anything. When the formation caught up with him, he already shot down a bomber. Later the same day, his formation of six Me-109s met a formation of 16 Hurricanes. Marseille and his wingman were ordered to provide cover to the other four Me-109s which attacked the Hurricanes, but after three Hurricanes were shot down, Marseille told his wingman to cover him and attacked a formation of four Hurricanes. He dived at them, leveled at their altitude, and shot down two Hurricanes in a single burst while in a sharp turn. He then dived below the Hurricanes to gather some speed again, and then climbed back to them and shot down a third Hurricane. At that stage, the two formations disengaged each other, but Marseille climbed alone to a higher altitude and later dived at the retreating Hurricanes and shot down a 4th Hurricane, his 5th victory that day, and only then flew alone back to base. 'I believe now I got it' he said to a friend.

This was the beginning of his amazing series of dogfight victories, which lasted a year until his death in an accident. His most 'classic' combat, by some analysts, was on June 6, 1942 at noon. While in a bomber escort mission, he saw a formation of 16 P-40 Tomahawk fighter and ground attack aircraft, but initially remained with his formation, escorting the German bombers. After ten minutes, he left his formation with the escorted bombers and flew alone to attack the 16 Tomahawks, but his faithful wingman followed him. Marseille climbed above a tight formation of four, then dived at them. From a range of just 200ft he selected his first victim and turned at him. From a very short range of just 150ft he fired and shot it down. He then pulled up, turned, and dived at his 2nd victim, shooting it down from a range of 150ft. The others began to dive, but Marseille dived at them, turned at his 3rd victim and shot it down at altitude of about 3500ft (1km). He passed thru the smoke from his 3rd victim and leveled at low altitude, and then climbed again. He then dived again, at his 4th victim. He fired from just 100ft, but his guns didn't fire, so he fired his machine guns from very short range and passed thru the debris from his 4th victim. At the moment he hit his 4th victim, his 3rd victim hit the ground after falling 3500ft, approximately 15 seconds between victories, an indication of Marseille's speed. The remaining Tomahawks were now all at very low altitude. He leveled at them and quickly closed distance. He found himself beside one of the Tomahawks, he turned at him and fired, hitting his 5th victim in the engine and the cockpit. He climbed again, watched the remaining Tomahawks, selected a target, dived, levelled, and fired, and passed just above his 6th victim. He then climbed to his wingman which observed the battle from 7500ft above, and then, short of fuel and ammunition, flew back to base.

In 11 minutes of combat, fighting practically alone against a large enemy formation, he shot down six victims, five of them in the first six minutes. He was the only attacker in the battle, and not a single round was fired at him. The surviving Tomahawk pilots said in their debriefing that they were attacked 'by a numerically superior German formation which made one formation attack at them, shot down six of their friends, and disengaged'. In a post-war analysis of this dogfight these pilots testified the same.

The fatal accident

The 22 years old Hans Joachim Marseille became a star, and he kept improving with experience. On Sept. 1, 1942, a month before his death he shot down 17 enemies in one day, including 8 victories in 10 minutes, in his 2nd sortie that day. During this month he shot down 54 enemy aircraft. Already the youngest Captain in the German Air Force, he was promoted to Major. He taught his methods to his friends, but none of them were able to match his level of achievements in using these methods.

On Sept. 26, he shot down his last victims, making a total of 158 confirmed air victories. He received a new Me-109 aircraft but refused to replace his faithful aircraft. His status was such that only an order by Fieldmarshal Kesselring, the supreme commander of the German forces in the southern front, convinced him three days later to use the new aircraft.

The next morning, Sept. 30, 1942, he flew his 382nd combat mission, a fighter sweep over British territory. They met no enemies, and turned back towards the German lines. Marseille then had a technical problem. His new aircraft's engine cooling system failed, the engine caught fire, and his cockpit was full of smoke. Encouraged by his fellows, Marseille flew his burning new Me-109 three more minutes until he was again over German held territory. He then turned his aircraft upside down, jettisoned the canopy, and then released himself and fell outside of the burning fighter. Bailing out is not always safe, and Marseille was hit in the chest by the rudder of his Me-109 and lost consciousness, so he did not open his parachute, and fell down to the ground and died.

Already highly decorated, he was posthumously awarded the highest German medal, the Knights Cross with Oak leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. Only 9 other German aces were awarded this medal. On his grave, his comrades wrote his name and rank, and added just one word: undefeated.

Hans-Joachim Marseille
By Major Robert Tate, USAF
With the Messerschmitt's left wingtip pointed vertically toward the bluish-green bay below, the hapless Hurricane fighter stands virtually motionless in front of the young Berliner's windscreen. Through the heavy metal framed canopy of the ,Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4, the British Hurricane with its yellow, blue, white, and red centered cockade remains clearly recognizable against the crystal blue, cloudless North African sky. Pulling back on the stick, the G forces increase and the gut-wrenching turn tightens. The German pilot's body feels as though several hundred extra pounds have been saddled around him as the high G turn presses his body firmly into his seat. From underneath his black leather and mesh flight helmet, beads of sweat roll down the German's face, burning his eyes as they remain open and fixed on the revi-optical gun sight. 3G, 3.5G, 4G. The strain increases and the young man's arm starts to weaken and grow fatigued. Tired, numb, and aching from a mission already full of air combat, there are no distractions allowed; he mustn't let his quarry get away.

A quick, cursory look inside and a firm but positive input with right rudder, Jochen, as he is known by his friends, corrects the aircraft's slight skid. Throttle full aft and maximum power, more pull on the stick and the Messerschmitt starts to gain rapidly on the brown and tan camouflaged British fighter.

 The Bf 109 begins to shudder under the ever increasing strain of the battle as the airspeed rapidly bleeds off from 300 knots indicated airspeed down to 140 knots. The tan colored Messerschmitt with the sky blue underside responds like the thoroughbred she is. Physics demands the Messerschmitt's nose to drop as the airspeed and corresponding lift falls away. Defying this law of nature, Jochen aggressively applies full top rudder with his heavy, fleece lined leather flying boot and the 109 now hangs precariously between stall and slow flight. A slight indication of stall warning and between 140 and 130 knots indicated airspeed, there is a large metallic clang that momentarily distracts the German pilot as the leading edge slats automatically slam into the extended position. This aeronautical feature increases wing camber and simultaneously decreases stall speed and decreases the British pilot's chances of survival.

Like an artist working and molding clay to create the perfect masterpiece, the 22 year old German pilot works his aircraft as an extension of his own body. Sweat pours down his back underneath his black leather flight jacket. There is a definite cold chill in the cockpit at his altitude made even more noticeable by the cool winter sun hanging high and listless in the Libyan sky. The webbed shoulder harnesses bite into his neck and stings as the sweat creeps into the raw and irritated skin. He is suddenly aware of the additional weight of the flight helmet on his head as the crushing forces of high G maneuvering continue to take hold of his thin and nearly frail body. These minor distractions however, no longer affect the German ace. He has been here before and the only thing that now matters is another victory.

Looking over his left shoulder, the RAF pilot sees the tan Messerschmitt with white wing tips perched ominously off his left hind quarter. The white propeller spinner housing the deadly 20 mm cannon and the twin 7.9 mm machine guns on the nose slowly pulling lead and setting up for the proper firing position. Fear completely grips the British pilot for he now realizes it is no rookie pilot on his tail. Every evasive maneuver attempted has been flawlessly matched and countered by the German pilot who at the same time has been able to close the distance between the two adversaries with every turn. This is definitely an expert he is fighting today! With his fate evidently sealed, the ruddy faced Englishman, paralyzed with fear, takes a final look over his left shoulder to see the Messerschmitt approaching firing position.. .

As Jochen's Messerschmitt closes in, the Hurricane begins to disappear beneath the nose of the German warbird. Young Jochen cocks his head slightly to the left and bites down on his lower lip. His large brown eyes see only the space in time where he calculates his deadly ordinance and the enemy plane will meet. It is time. FIRE!!!!

The brown leather gloved index finger closes firmly around the red firing trigger and the control column shakes violently in his right hand. The cockpit immediately fills with the acrid smell of cordite as more than thirty pounds of steel per second of 7.9 mm machine gun and 20 mm cannon shells hurtle toward the Hurricane in beautiful yellow colored tracer arcs. A quick two-second burst and the German rolls his aircraft inverted and dives down and away, certain his aim was true.

One thousand feet above the melee, the young Berliner's wingman watches the action in amazement, awe, and a certain amount of disbelief. As if by magical forces guiding Jochen's ammunition, the shells and the Hurricane meet in deadly unison. With perfect timing and precision accuracy, the bullets and cannon shells first strike the Hurricane's engine with fantastic, dazzling sparks, immediately rendering it a furnace of uncontrollable fire. Angry orange and red tongues of flame lap hungrily from the engine, belching sickening black and gray smoke extending more than 100 feet behind the stricken airplane. The damage, just beginning, gets worse as the shells quickly walk their way back along the fuselage to the cockpit. The destruction there is swift and complete, reducing the once proud British fighter pilot to a bloody, lifeless form inside the burning cockpit of his winged tomb.

'Horrido Jochen!!', exclaims his wingman. 'Victory!!'

'Hast du den aufschlag gesehen?' 'Did you see them crash?'

'Jawohl Jochen!' 'Confirmed!'

Within seconds, the 7500 pound Hurricane, a sheet of flaming metal, thunders vertically into the ocean near the Libyan harbor of Tobruk. As German fighter ace Hans-Joachim Marseille turns for home, a total of four, oily black spills are left fouling the otherwise beautiful ocean surface, marking the graves of four British fighter pilots that will be mourned by family and squadron members alike yet celebrated as four more victory marks on the rudder of German fighter ace Hans-Joachim Marseille, known throughout Germany as 'The Star of Africa,' who is to become the most successful of all German fighter pilots in the North African theater.

The morning of 30 September, 1942 was like most other late summer mornings in the North African desert, with the weather forecasted to be hot, dry and unrelenting. For the men of German fighter Gruppe I./JG-27, the anticipation of another full day of combat weighed heavily on everyone's mind. As well it should have. For the first time, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korp was in a position to be thoroughly routed and thrown out of Africa by Lt. General Bernard Montgomery's British 8th Army who, under new and more aggressive leadership, had gained their second wind and rekindled their fighting spirit. Not only were the men of JG-27 fully aware of Rommel's recent defeat at the Battle of Alam el Halfa in early September, they seemed to be caught in a perpetual battle with the harsh desert climate, a severe lack of supplies, the constant strain of aerial combat, and the ever-present threat of British commando attacks against their airfields. However, as difficult as the situation appeared for the Gruppe, and despite the recent loss of two of the more experienced pilots in the unit, individual morale was extremely high. Problems affecting other fighter units in the area seemed somewhat removed from the men at this lonely desert outpost in northern Egypt.

Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille rolled out of bed on the morning of 30 September, 1942 and was greeted by Mathias, his personal batman from the Transvaal. The strain of one and a half years of almost continual aerial combat showed heavily on his young face of 22 years. Marseille, the youngest captain in the Luftwaffe, appeared to have everything going his way. He was confident, cocky, and by far the most famous and successful fighter pilot in the North African desert. After a slow start as a fighter pilot on the Channel Front during the Battle of Britain, having downed seven aircraft while losing several aircraft himself, Marseille overcame initial weaknesses as a pilot and made his ,Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, with the big yellow 14 painted on the side, the scourge of the desert air war. During the previous 29 days, he had coolly dispatched no less than 54 British, South African, and Australian fighter aircraft, 17 of those in one day. Fourteen days earlier he had been promoted to Captain and had just been notified of being the fourth man awarded Germany's highest military award: The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds. Without a doubt, young Marseille was well on his way to becoming among the first group of Luftwaffe pilots to shoot down 200 enemy aircraft.

The morning of 30 September brought the prospect of another day's hunt in the skies over Egypt. More victories and more glory bestowed upon the young man from Berlin. But this morning, a freak accident would reduce perhaps the greatest fighter pilot of the war from the hero of the German nation to a lifeless historical footnote on the floor of the North African desert.

1997 will mark the 55th anniversary of the death of Hans-Joachim Marseille, arguably the greatest of all World War II fighter pilots. With the coming of the anniversary, the debate as to just how great the young Berliner was will certainly continue to rage within historical aviation circles.

The basis of the debate stems from Marseille's actual, yet almost mythical, combat record in North Africa. He was credited with destroying 158 Allied aircraft, all but seven of those within an intense eighteen month period in the desert. All but four of his victories were against fighter aircraft, and all were against pilots of the western nations. No other pilot destroyed as many aircraft on the Western Front as did Marseille. During this same period, although shot down several times himself, Marseille escaped death from the angry guns of Allied pilots in over 388 combat missions. Twenty-nine other German pilots would go on to score more victories than Marseille, however, those pilots scored the majority of their victories against Russian opponents on the Eastern Front.

Marseille, a German of French Huguenot ancestry, was in the words of the General of the German Fighter Arm, Adolf Galland, 'The unrivaled virtuoso of fighter pilots.' His ability to sometimes destroy entire squadrons of enemy aircraft in a single sortie is the substance legends are made of, and the kind of material ripe for critics to study and either deny or defend. Marseille is still regarded by most German Luftwaffe pilots to have been the best of the best; excelling as a marksman, an acrobatic pilots, as well as one of the best combat tacticians in the Luftwaffe. Together, the synergy created by the accumulation of these talents forged one of the most lethal fighter pilots of his era.

Marseille's superb ability as a pilot was only outshined by his uncommon, gregarious, and sometimes boyish behavior on the ground. He wore his hair long, had a penchant for practical jokes, and listened to taboo music like American jazz and swing, which was often referred to as 'Jew' and 'Nigger' music. Marseille also had a fairly popular, and sometimes unpopular, reputation as being a 'playboy.' Early in his career, he was transferred from JG-52 by his commander, the famous Johannes 'Macky' Steinhoff who said, 'Marseille was remarkably handsome. He was a gifted pilot and fighter, but he was unreliable. He had girlfriends everywhere, who took up so much of his time that he was often too tired to be allowed to fly. His often irresponsible understanding of duty was the primary reason I sent him packing. But he had an irresistible charm.' He was quickly shipped off to JG-27 and upon his arrival in North Africa, his commanders were in possession of a thick file containing his breeches of military discipline and unorthodox behavior. To say Marseille was not the typical German fighter pilot or stereotypical Aryan Teutonic Knight would be a gross understatement.

'Jochen was a practical joker; he was forever playing pranks. He came to see me and my squadron - No. 8 Staffel - one day in his coloRGul Volkswagen jeep. He called it Otto. After a talk, a cup of sweet coffee and a glass of Italian Doppio Kümmel, he got into his jeep and drove it straight at my tent flattening everything. Then he drove off with a grin stretching across his face.'
Werner Schrör, 8/JG27, 61 Kills in N. Africa

Much of the debate and refusal to substantiate Marseille's combat record originates from one day of furious air combat on 1 September, 1942 in which he claimed to have destroyed 17 aircraft in three sorties. Not only did Marseille claim 17 aircraft, but he did it in a fashion that was unheard of at the time. His victims were shot out of the sky in such a rapid fashion that many Allied critics still refuse to believe Marseille's claims as fact. But it is precisely the speed and fury involved with these kills that has been the center of the Marseille debate for the past half century. For years, many British historians and militarists refused to admit that they had lost any aircraft that day in North Africa. Careful review of records however do show that the British did lose more than 17 aircraft that day, and in the area that Marseille operated. The British simply refused to believe, as many do today, that any German pilot was capable of such rapid destruction of RAF hardware.

Facts are that Marseille is still acknowledged as among the best marksmen in the Luftwaffe. The Germans were very meticulous in filing combat reports with all relevant data to include time of battle, area of operation, opposition encountered, as well as an in-depth armorers report. At the end of a mission, the armorers would count the number of bullets and cannon shells expended during the fight. Marseille would often average an astonishing 15 bullets required per victory, and this with a combat resulting in his downing of several allied aircraft. No other German pilot was close to Marseille in this area.

'Yeah, everybody knew nobody could cope with him. Nobody could do the same. Some of the pilots tried it like Stahlschmidt, myself, and Rödel. He, he was an artist. Marseille was an artist.' Using his hands to illustrate. 'He was up here and the rest of us were down here somewhere.'
Friedrich Körner, 36 victories, Knight's Cross winner, 2 JG-27

But what made Marseille so effective in a theater of combat where so many other pilots achieved little or no success? Several factors accounted for his success in the desert with one being attributed to his superior eyesight. Legend has it that Marseille would stare at the sun for extended  periods of time in order to acclimate his eyes to the desert glare. Marseille, like American fighter legend Chuck Yeager, had the ability to see enemy aircraft long before anyone else in his formation. Since Marseille tended to see the enemy first, he was consistently able to position himself in desirable attacking positions with many of his victims obviously succumbing to the speed and surprise of Marseille's attacks. Another critical factor for his success was his superb flying ability. Through constant practice and a desire to be the best pilot in his unit, Marseille was one of the few pilots who was able to totally master his Messerschmitt fighter through the full flight envelope. He would practice his techniques over and over again, often against men in his own squadron while returning home from sorties. He was so comfortable and confident in his flying abilities that he would often break standard rules of aerial combat  by pulling his power to idle and using flaps to help tighten his turns. He would also regularly attack numerically superior enemy formations in lightening fast strikes that used the enemy's formation size as its own disadvantage. But most critical to Marseille's success was the exploitation of his superior Messerschmitt fighter over the majority of enemy fighters deployed and encountered in the desert in concert with exposing weaknesses inherent within the standard allied fighter formations used in the desert.

The DAF (Desert Air Forces: Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and South African Air Force) sometimes used what was called a Lufbery Circle, named after the American WW I fighter pilot who developed the formation, Raoul Lufbery. When encountered by a real or perceived superior force of enemy fighters, the DAF pilots would often form up in a defensive circle with one aircraft behind the other. This formation was much like the 2-dimensional wagon train circling in a attempt to both dissuade Indian  attack and to afford the best defensive firepower. In theory, if a German aircraft attacked a British fighter from behind, another British fighter would be in place to immediately shoot down the enemy aircraft daring to intrude into the defensive circle. Marseille, one not to be discouraged or scared away, developed tactics, unfortunately at the expense of several of his own Messerschmitt fighters early in his North African career, that enabled him to enter and then defeat the otherwise efficient DAF formations.

Starting at a point several thousand feet above the circle and displaced laterally a mile or so, Marseille would dive down below the formation and attack from underneath. There he would select one unsuspecting victim, line him up in his sights, and hammer one very short and deadly burst of cannon and machine gun fire from his aircraft. His aim was so accurate that he usually placed all of his shells from the engine back into the cockpit, often killing the pilot. After his firing run, Marseille would either slice through the top of the formation or stall the aircraft and spin down to safety. Once the full maneuver was complete, Marseille would set himself up for another run. By repeating this and variations of this deadly sequence, Marseille often shot down four, five, and six, aircraft in a single sortie. His movements were so fast that it was common for the unsuspecting allied pilots to think they were under attack by a large formation of aircraft. On 15 September, 1942, for example, Marseille destroyed 7 Australian fighter aircraft within an eleven minute period and on 17 June, 1942, Marseille destroyed six aircraft within a seven minute period. The table below illustrates the quickness of many of Marseille's multiple kills.

A Sample of Multiple Kill Sorties Achieved by Marseille

Victories  Date   Times of Victories
88  thru 91  15 Jun 42  1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 
92 thru 95  16 Jun 42  1902, 1910, 1911, 1913 
96 thru 101 17 Jun 42  1202, 1204, 1205, 1208, 1209, 1212 
105 thru 108  01 Sep 42  0828, 0830, 0833, 0839* 
109 thru 116  01 Sep 42  1055, 1056, 1058, 1059, 1101, 1102,
  1103, 1105* 
117 thru 121  01 Sep 42  1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1853*
127 thru 132  03 Sep 42  0820, 0823, 0829, 1608, 1610, c.1611 
137 thru 140  06 Sep 42  1803, 1813, 1814, 1820 
145 thru 151  15 Sep 42  1751, 1753, 1755, 1757, 1759, 1800,
  1802
152 thru 158  26 Sep 42  0910, 0913, 0915, unk, 1656, 1659,
  1715
  * Indicates a total of 17 aircraft shot down on this day.

Marseille's ingenious tactics were made successful because of his unique and masteRGul flying abilities. Other pilots who tried to emulate Marseille, but failed to master their own aircraft, were not as successful. It is interesting to note that two of the other most successful German pilots in the desert also used Marseille's tactics to achieve many their victories. Still many Allied historians refuse to believe that Marseille was as successful and deadly as the Germans claim. Keep in mind that during the Marianas Turkey Shoot, on June 19, 1944, US Navy pilot David McCambell shot down 7 Japanese aircraft on a single sortie, and another 9 on 24 October, 1944. Major William Shomo was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for downing 7 Japanese aircraft in a single sortie on 11 January, 1945. Many pilots on both sides of the war were credited with multiple kills on single sorties. Marseille just happened to make a deadly habit of it.

'However, there is no doubt that my true schoolmaster was Marseille; I studied his tactics for attacking the British defensive circles for a long time, tried it myself often without success - and finally, learned the lesson.. . During the fights over the convoys to Tobruk, the British introduced the defensive circle. It was very efficient, but then Marseille disenchanted it; he would dive down near the circle, pull out and zoom into it from below. He reached the level of the circle just before stalling, just in time to level off, shoot down a Tommy and start to spin to sea level, where he pulled out at the last second (it was impossible to follow him). He then climbed back to his own formation and repeated the peRGormance until the circle broke up. No other German pilot was able to copy Marseille's tricks, although all made attempts to do so, and sometimes succeeded in breaking up the circle.'
Werner Schrör,

Fighters Over the Desert, p.232

30 September, 1942. At the height of both the desert war in North Africa and the career of young 'Jochen' Marseille, tragedy was to strike the Luftwaffe such that they would never again be a serious threat in North Africa. Scheduled to fly a new ,Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2 fighter, W.Nr. 14256, Marseille was called upon to once again escort the now painfully obsolete Stuka dive bombers against ground targets in Egypt. At 1047, Hans-Joachim Marseille took off for his final sortie. After the escort mission was complete, Marseille and his squadron were directed to intercept a flight of enemy aircraft sighted south of Imayid, Egypt. No contact with the enemy fighters was made and the flight of Messerschmitts set a course for home.

At 1135, Marseille indicated that he had smoke pouring into his cockpit and it was becoming difficult to either breathe or see. Other members in the flight urged Marseille to remain with his aircraft for another couple minutes since they were still over enemy-held territory. By 1139, smoke in the cockpit was now unbearable and Marseille was forced to leave his airplane. Marseille's last radio transmission was, 'I've got to get out now. I can't stand it any more'. Now over German territory, at approximately 10000 feet, Marseille rolled his aircraft inverted in a standard maneuver to prepare for bailout. Suffering from probable spatial disorientation, possible toxic hypoxia, as well as being blinded by the smoke in the cockpit, Marseille's aircraft entered an inverted dive with an approximate dive angle of 70 to 80 degrees. At a speed of approximately 400 knots, Marseille jumped out of his damaged aircraft. Unfortunately, the left side of Marseille's chest struck the tail of his airplane, either killing him instantly or incapacitating him to the point where he was unable to open his parachute. As the other members of Marseille's squadron watched in horror, Jochen's body landed face down 7 km South of Sidi Abd el Rahman, an unfitting end to the 'African Eagle' and a foreshadowing of things to come for the Luftwaffe.

The men of Marseille's squadron were so devastated by his death that the entire I Gruppe ceased to function as a combat unit and was subsequently withdrawn from combat operations for a period of almost one month. Marseille was buried in the desert with full military honors in the military cemetery in Derna, Egypt. To this day, a pyramid, newly dedicated in 1989 stands as both a testimony and honor to his achievements on the site of some the most severe fighting in North Africa, El Alamein.

Marseille's career is one of the most interesting and stellar of any Second World War aviator. In 388 combat missions, 482 missions total, he destroyed 158 allied aircraft. All of these on Western Front. For the remaining skeptics, please note the following: In the North Africa campaign, some 1300 victories were claimed by German pilots. Of those, 674 victories were claimed by only 15 pilots, and the top 55 scoring pilots accounted for 1042 kills. This points out another very basic difference between German and Allied combat philosophy. While the Allies tended to hunt in packs and compete vigorously for kills, the Germans, at least in North Africa, tended to let the best pilots 'have at it' while the novices would tend to sit back and enjoy the show. This is one reason the loss of an asset like Marseille was so devastating to the Luftwaffe in Africa. That kind of emotional destruction would not likely occur in Allied squadrons.

Through complete and intense research of many of Marseille's claims in the desert, it can be argued that he may have indeed been guilty of some over claiming towards the end of his short and prolific career. Not that it was intentional but rather as matter of circumstances of the circus like environment his character brought to the unit. Everyone expected him to be successful on a daily basis and achieve more and more glory for their unit. Marseille in turn, certainly influenced by their enthusiasm, was so sure of his own abilities that he would sometimes fire at the enemy, break off the attack and seek the next victim without confirming the destruction of the previous target. A large percent of his victims did indeed crash land in the desert or limp back home as opposed to being utterly blown out of the sky. Regardless, even with the possibility of slight over claiming due to youthful bravado and a twinge of wishful thinking, a conservative estimate of over 130 definite, indisputable victories, equivalent to approximately ten percent of all aircraft claimed by Luftwaffe pilots in North Africa, is still a testament to this man's achievements.

Marseille: The Luftwaffe's master of the rapid, multiple kill. So deadly and effective in the aerial arena that more than 50 years after his death much debate is still centered on his accomplishments. Was he the best? My personal opinion aside, it is difficult to compare combat pilots to one another. It is much like trying to compare boxers like Marciano, Ali, Liston, Lewis, and Tyson. Too many factors play a role in the fortunes of a pilot's combat career. Marseille's record however, does speak for itself. Do I think he would have survived the war had he continued to fly and fight for another two and one-half years? Possibly not. The strain of combat in the desert had already begun to take its toll on Marseille, evident in his constant smoking and sometimes uncontrollable shaking after an intense combat sortie. Marseille tended to be much too impetuous and impatient - not being the sort of man who would pace himself for the duration. Where men like top scoring ace of all time Erich Hartmann would look over a situation and then decide to attack only when he had favorable odds, the young, brazen Marseille and his wingmen would often dive into large groups of enemy aircraft regardless of the advantage the enemy may have enjoyed. It is possible Marseille would have met a fate similar to countless other Luftwaffe 'Experten' in the skies over Germany, combating the scores of Allied bomber and fighter aircraft that roamed over fortress Europe between 1943-1945. Regardless of the speculation about Marseille and his achievements, the study of WW II combat aviation would not be complete without a look at this young Berliner's contribution to this arena and trying to understand the attributes and influences he brought to the airmen in the North African desert.

'When Marseille came to JG-27 he brought a very bad military reputation with him, and he was not at all a sympathetic fellow. He tried to show off, and considered his acquaintance with a lot of movie stars to be of great importance.

In Africa, he became ambitious in a good way, and completely changed his character. After some time there, it became a matter of some importance to movie stars to know him.

He was too fast and too mercurial to be a good leader and teacher, but his pilots adored him. He thanked them by protecting them and bringing them home safely.

He was a mixture of the fresh air of Berlin and French champagne-a gentleman.'
Eduard Neumann, Kommodore JG-27
Horrido, p.116

Marseille Facts

Born: 13 December, 1919 in, Berlin- Charlottenburg, Germany
Died: 30 September, 1942 near Sidi Abd el Rahman, Egypt

Kills: 158 154 Fighter aircraft
    4 Bomber aircraft
Awards:
- Iron Cross 2nd Class - September 1940
- Iron Cross 1st Class - Fall 1940
- German Cross in Gold - 24 November, 1941
- Knight's Cross - 22 February, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves - 6 June, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - 18 June, 1942
- Italian Medaglia d' Oro for bravery - 6 August, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds
  3 September, 1942

Promotions:
Leutnant - 1 July, 1941
Oberleutnant - April, 1942
Hauptmann - 3 September, 1942

The views expressed by Major Tate are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Air Force. Major Tate can be contacted on the Internet at: rtate@worldnet.att.net
Picture Credits:
luft0340.jpg Author's HJM Collection
luft0338.jpg Scanned from Ring And Shores Fighters Over The Desert
luft0341.jpg Author's HJM Collection
luft0345.jpg John Crandall's The Star Of Africa
luft0339.jpg German Fighter Aces HJM
luft0343.jpg German Fighter Aces HJM

I wish to thank Major Tate for his fine contribution to the Luftwaffe Resource Page.
Scott Rose

Asisbiz Database of aerial victories for Hans-Joachim Marseille

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
24-Aug-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	1.(J)LG2	Spitfire		-	Kent
02-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	1.(J)LG2	Spitfire	4000m	-	Detling
08-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		09.40
11-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3.(J)LG2	Spitfire		17.05	Sudostengland
18-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3.(J)LG2	Spitfire	5000m	-	Sudostengland
27-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3.(J)LG2	Hurricane	4500m	-	London
28-Sep-40	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3.(J)LG2	Spitfire	3500-3000m	-	Sudostengland
23-Apr-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		12.50	uber Tobruk
28-Apr-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Blenheim		09.25	North of Tobruk
01-May-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		09.15	18km S Tobruk
01-May-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		09.25	5km SE Tobruk
17-Jun-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		18.45	15-20km SE Sidi Omar
17-Jun-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.15	NE Gambut
28-Aug-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		18.00	3km NW Sidi Barrani
09-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.18	SE Bardia
09-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.12	SE Bardia
13-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.25	South of Bardia
14-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.46	South of El Sofafi
24-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Martin 167		13.30	Gambut
24-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		16.45	Buq Buq
24-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		16.47	Buq Buq
24-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		16.51	Buq Buq
24-Sep-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		17.00	Buq Buq
12-Oct-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.12	Bir Sheferzan
12-Oct-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.15	Bir Sheferzan
05-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		15.25
06-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		12.25	S El Adem
06-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		12.10	SSE El Adem
07-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		09.30	20km W Sidi Omar
08-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.15	20-25km SE El Adem
10-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.50	SE El Adem
11-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		09.30	SE Tmimi
13-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.00	NE Martuba
13-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.10	5km NE Tmimi
17-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.10	WNW Martuba
17-Dec-41	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.28	South of Bucht von Gazala
08-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.22	ENE Martuba
08-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.25	20km N Martuba
08-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		14.20	NW Bomba-Bucht
08-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		14.30	NE Bomba-Bucht
12-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.30	10km NW Tobruk
12-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.32	20km NW Tobruk
12-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.33	23km NW Tobruk
12-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.36	35km WNW Tobruk
13-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		09.25	23km ESE Tobruk
13-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		09.20	20km SE Tobruk
15-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.00	3km WSW Gambut
15-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		13.03	5km SW Gambut
21-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.18	20km NE Fort Acroma
21-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.10	10km W Fort Acroma
27-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.00	10km ENE Ain-el-Gazala
27-Feb-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.12	10km ENE Fort Acroma
25-Apr-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		10.08	10km N Ain-el-Gazala
25-Apr-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		10.06	2km N Ain-el-Gazala
10-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		09.13	25km SE Martuba
10-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		09.15	25km SE Martuba
13-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.10	16km SE Ain-el-Gazala
13-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.15	14km ESE Gazala--Bucht
16-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.05	20 k E Ain-el-Gazala
16-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		18.15	3km E Fort Acroma
19-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Kittyhawk		07.30	5km S Fort Acroma
19-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Kittyhawk		07.20	8km SW Fort Acroma
23-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	A-20 Boston III		11.06	4km SE Hafen Tobruk
23-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	A-20 Boston III		11.05	3km SE Hafen Tobruk
30-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Kittyhawk		06.05	1km NW El Adem
31-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.26	5km W Bir-el-Harmat
31-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.28	8km W Bir-el-Harmat
31-May-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.34	10km SW Fort Acroma
01-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		19.15	20km ENE El-Cheimar
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.29	10km West of Bir Hacheim
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.33	7km West of Bir Hacheim
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.28	7km West of Bir Hacheim
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.27	5km West of Bir Hacheim
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.25	5km West of Bir Hacheim
03-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.22	3km West of Bir Hacheim
07-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.13	10km NE El Adem
07-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.10	SW El Adem
10-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.35	5km NW Mteifel Chebir
10-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.50	6km ENE Mteifel Chebir
10-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.41	6km NE Mteifel Chebir
10-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		07.45	6km E Mteifel Chebir
11-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		16.25	18km NW El Adem
11-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.25	SW El Adem
13-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		18.15	3km ENE El Adem
13-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.14	2km NNE El Adem
13-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.11	3km NE El Adem
13-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.10	5km W El Adem
15-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.01	6km NW El Adem
15-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.02	4km NNW El Adem
15-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.04	8km NE El Adem
15-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.06	3km NNE El Adem
16-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		18.02	17km SW El Adem
16-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.10	5km E El Adem
16-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.11	5km NNE El Adem
16-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		18.13	10km N El Adem
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		12.08	6km SW Gambut
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane II		12.09	2km S Gambut
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.05	4km SW Gambut
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.03	3km W Gambut
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		12.02	5km W Gambut
17-Jun-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		12.12	SE Sidi Omar
31-Aug-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		18.25	15km ostw Alam el Halfa
31-Aug-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		10.03	25km ssE El-Alamein
31-Aug-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Hurricane		10.04	26km ssE El-Alamein
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.02	12km E Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.53	7km SSW El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.50	9km ssE El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.49	6km SE El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.48	8km S El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.47	7km S El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.05	23km E Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.03	20km E Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		11.01	7km ESE Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.59	15km SE Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.58	10km SE Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.56	15km SE Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		10.55	20km S Alam-el-Halfa
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		08.39	18km SSE El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.35	18km SSE El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.26	18km SSE El-Imayid
01-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		08.28	20km SSE El-Imayid
02-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		09.16	25km SE El-Imayid
02-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		15.21	18km SE El-Alamein
02-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		09.18	30km ssE El-Imayid
02-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		15.18	20km SE El-Alamein
02-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		09.24	10km S El-Imayid
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		07.20	25km SW El-Hammam
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		07.23	27km SW El-Hammam
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		07.28	30km SW El-Hammam
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		15.08	uber El-Imayid
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		15.10	2km SW El-Imayid
03-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		15.42	40km SSE El-Alamain
05-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		10.48	13km SE El-Alamein
05-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		11.00	SSE El-Imayid
05-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		10.49	SE El-Alamein
05-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		10.51	SSE El-Imayid
06-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		17.03	SE El-Alamein
06-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		17.14	SSW El-Alamein
06-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		17.16	SSW El-Alamein
06-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		17.20	SSW El-Alamein
07-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		17.43	SE El-Alamein
07-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		17.45	10km SW El-Hammam
11-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		07.42	5km WSW El-Imayid
11-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		07.40	15km SE El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.01	18km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		17.02	19km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.59	20km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		16.57	26km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Curtiss P-46		16.54	27km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.53	28km SW El-Alamein
15-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		16.51	25km SW El-Alamein
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		09.15	14km SW El-Alamein
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		09.16	15km SW El-Alamein
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		16.56	SW El-Imayid
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		16.59	10km ssE El-Imayid
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		09.13	14km SW El-Alamein
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	Spitfire		17.10	10km S El-Hammam
26-Sep-42	Hans-Joachim Marseille	3./JG27	P-40 Warhawk		09.10	12km SW El-Alamein

Fridolin 'Fritz' Volkmer

Units: 1(J)/LG-2 (5/40), 2./JG-52 (5/41)

Awards: EK 1 & 2, Fighter Operational Clasp

Known Aircraft: Bf 109E, Bf 109F-2 WNr 8107 'DE+FJ' (lost 5/20/41)

Remarks: One known victory, his 1st, a Hurricane on 29 May, 1940, no location, an Uffz at the time. Magnus Report, 5 victories. MIA 20th May 1941 after he crashed his F-2 into the Waddenzee north of Texel Holland due to bad weather.

Asisbiz database list of 1 aerial victories for Fridolin 'Fritz' Volkmer

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
29th May 1940	Fridolin Volkmer	1.(J)/LG2	Hurricane			Dunkirk

Luftwaffe pilot Herbert Ihlefeld

Herbert Ihlefeld was one of the most important aces of the Luftwaffe and, although he undoubtedly had an exceptional career and served throughout the war with several significant units, he remains also one of the least known.

Born on 1 June 1914 at Pinnow in Pomerania, Ihlefeid joined the Army's 5th Stettin Infantry Regiment in 1933, at the age of 19. On 15 July 1934, a time when aviation in Germany was the subject of rapid expansion following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Ihlefeld started a course on aviation engineering. He later joined the Luftwaffe, began pilot training in January 1935, and in March 1937 was posted to I./JG132 'Richthofen' at Doberitz where he became familiar with the He-72, He-51 and most other aircraft then serving in the new German Air Force.

Spain

With the benefit of about two years' experience as a pilot, the young, still unmarried Unteroffizier Ihlefeld volunteered for service in Spain. At the end of 1937 he joined 2./J88 and flew a Heinkel-51 in the great Battle of Teruel. At that time, most of the aircraft used by both sides still had open cockpits and as aerial combat sometimes took place at high altitude, where temperatures reached -50°F, conditions were extremely difficult and uncomfortable. On 21 February 1938, Ihlefeld achieved his first victory, an I-15, known to the Nationalists as the 'Rata'. In the course of the year, 2./J88 was re-equipped with the ,Messerschmitt Bf 109B and it was with this type of aircraft that Ihlefeld achieved eight more victories. In view of his nine Abschusse and his obvious courage, he was promoted to acting Leutnant. Returning to Germany in July 1938, this promotion was confirmed and in 1939 he was awarded the Spanish Cross with Swords, the first of his many decorations, in recognition of his service and achievements in Spain.

Adjutant to 1.(Jagd)/Lehrgeschwader 2

The newly promoted Leutnant Ihlefeld was then assigned as Technical Officer to I(Jagd)/Lehrgeschwader 2 where his abilities as a pilot brought him to the attention of his Kommandeur, Hptm. Hanns Trubenbach who, in addition to commanding I.(J)/LG2, also led the Kunstflugstaffel, the Luftwaffe's aerobatics team. Trubenbach offered Ihlefeld a place in the team which, in the months before the war, participated in various air meetings in western Europe. Due to his responsibilities with I.(J)/LG2, Ihlefeld served mainly as a reserve pilot, but he nevertheless took part in rehearsals and became an effective member of the team. Due to the imminence of war, however, the Kunstflugstaffel was in existence for only a short time.

The First Months of War

On 1 September 1939, the Wehrmacht invaded Poland, a campaign in which I.(J)/LG2 took part although, despite his impressive record in Spain, Ihlefeld was unable to increase his number of victories, nor in the subsequent so-called 'Phoney War'.

On 10 May 1940, the German Army attacked in the West and Ihlefeld was soon able to increase his score when, on 29 May 1940, he and the Kommandeur, Hptm. Bernhard Mielke, each claimed an MS 406 at approximately 20.15 hrs in the St Quentin/Chauny sector, Ihlefeld's being his first confirmed victory in the West.

1 On 1 June 1940, Herbert Ihlefeld was promoted to Oberleutnant and on the 30th he was credited with destroying two Blenheim bombers over St. Omer, thought to be from RAF Coastal Command. During this action, Ihlefeld had to make a forced landing in his Bf 109, but was not injured. On this date, too, I.(J)/LG2 was transferred to Pihen in anticipation of the battle against England.

Over England

At the beginning of July, Ihlefeld acquired his first command when he took over as Staffelkapitan of 2./JG2. On the 9th when the Gruppe was escorting some Do-17s from KG2, Oblt. Ihlefeld shot down his first Hurricane over Kent. From then on, victories came rapidly: a Hurricane on 13 August, two Spitfires on 23 August and two more on the 24th. On 30 August, when he achieved his tenth victory, he learned that his Kommandeur, Hptm. Mielke (Trubenbach's successor), had been shot down near Hastings. Ihlefeld was then appointed the new Gruppenfuhrer and led the Gruppe without any break in his flying. On 13 September, after 21 victories (not including those achieved in Spain), Ihlefeld was awarded the Ritterkreuz and on 1 October 1940, in recognition of his decoration, and also to bring his rank in line with his duties as official Kommandeur, he was promoted to Hauptmann.

I.(1)/LG2 saw little action during the Winter of 1940/41 as the Gruppe was withdrawn from operations for about seven weeks in order to recuperate at Ko1n-Butzweilerhof. Returning to the Channel on 10 February 1941, Ihlefeld resumed operations and obtained his 27th victory, a Spitfire.

Herbert Ihlefeld's 30th victory has an interesting sequel. On 26 February 1941, two Spitfires from 54 Squadron at Hornchurch led a sweep over the Boulogne/Calais sector. Spitfire KL-E (P7443), belonging to Sgt. Howard Squire, was shot down by Ihlefeld's Bf 109, the pilot making a forced landing near Calais. As the aircraft had come down close to I.(1)/LG2's base at Marek, this was an ideal opportunity to inspect the Spitfire and entertain the pilot in the mess. A Luftwaffe war correspondent later prepared a short article on the event, complete with appropriate photographs, which subsequently appeared in the Wehrmacht magazine 'Signal'. Years after the war, the negatives of these photographs were located in a photo archive in France and identified by researcher Jean-Paul Pallud, then working for 'After the Battle' magazine. Their discovery inspired Winston Ramsey, editor of the magazine, to try to reunite the former adversaries. Happily, both Squire and Ihlefeld were still alive and, on 26 July 1984, they met again on the site of Squires' forced landing so that further photographs could be taken for a 'then and now' comparison. By that time, however, Ihlefeld admitted that he could barely remember the details as all his personal possessions had been looted by Soviet troops at the time of their entry into Berlin in May 1945.

On 25 March, Hptm. Ihlefeld achieved his 35th victory over a Spitfire near Dungeness. Soon after this, I.(1)/LG2 left France as it was urgently required in the Balkans.

In the Balkans

As Germany prepared to invade Greece, Yugoslavia broke off its alliance with the Reich and it therefore became equally necessary for Germany to bring Yugoslavia as well as Greece under its control. Reinforcements in the form of men and equipment were brought to the area and on 1 April 1941, I.(J)/LG2 moved to Radomir, in southern Bulgaria, in order to participate in operations. The offensive opened on 6 April, I.(J)/LG 2 operating against Yugoslav airfields around Nisch, and during its first mission, the Gruppe was involved in a great air battle over the airfield at Rezanovacka Kosa in which eight Hawker Furies were claimed destroyed in the air and another five aircraft destroyed on the ground. Later in the day, I.(J)/LG2 flew several more missions of this type, one proving particularly successful when the Gruppe shot down two aircraft and damaged a third. However, Ihlefeld's aircraft - on this occasion he was flying Bf10 E-7 WNr. 2057, 'Yellow 1' - was hit in the engine by ground fire. The Daimler Benz cut out and, with great difficulty, Ihlefeld made an emergency landing. He was soon captured by Serbian soldiers and was held in captivity for a week, during which time he was badly treated, being beaten and several times threatened with execution. He was later freed by a German armoured unit and, with his head bandaged, returned to his unit on the 14th to say goodbye to his men, just before I.(J)/LG2 moved to Bitolj, near the Greek-Yugoslav border.

[2] Ihlefeld then enjoyed a period of leave in order to recover from his injuries but was nevertheless back with his unit in time to participate in 'Operation Merkur', the invasion of Crete, during which he shot down a Hurricane over Maleme on 26 May as his 36th victory.

In Russia

By 22 June 1941, I.(1)/LG 2 had moved to Rumania in order to participate in 'Operation Barbarossa', the invasion of Russia. From the first days of the invasion, Ihlefeld claimed various victories: two SB-2s on the 23rd and three on the 26th. These brought his total to 41 and the next clay he was awarded the Oak Leaves.

I.(J)/LG2 was then temporarily withdrawn from the front in order to protect certain strategic targets in Rumania, during which period Ihlefeld claimed six DB-3 bombers shot down on 3 August 194I.

[3] Rather than note all Ihlefe1d's Abschusse, it is only necessary to mention that by 22 April 1942, on which date he shot down two I-61s and two I-301s, his total number of victories had increased to 101. By this time, I.(J)/LG2 had, on 1 January 1942, been officially redesignated 1./JG77, the Gruppe having operated jointly with  II and III./JG77 since the start of the offensive in the East.

On 24 April 1942, now with more than the 100 victories required for a further decoration, Ihlefeld was awarded the Swords. He remained with I./JG77 for a few weeks, in which time he increased his score to 103, and was then summoned to the Fuhrer's HQ were Hitler personally presented him with his new decoration and promoted him to Major.

Kommodore

On 11 May, in order to prepare him for his future role as a Kommodore, Major Ihlefeld underwent a training course for commanding officers at the headquarters of JG51. He then took command of JG52 on 22 June 1942 but, on orders from Hitler and Goring, was formally forbidden to fly on the grounds that his irreplaceable experience had to be preserved. However, as with other pilots affected by this Order, this ban did not stop Ihiefeld from flying further combat missions although, in order to keep the matter secret, his victories were no longer attributed to him. Ironically, however, on 22 July 1942, he was hurt in a non-combat accident when he crashed in an Fi-156 while taking off from Taganrog. Although the Storch, (CQ+QC W.Nr. 4436) was 75% destroyed, Ihlefeld escaped with only slight injuries.

On 29 October 1942, Ihlefeld left JG52 in order take command of the training unit Jagdschule 3 which, in January 1943, was redesignated JG103. However, this was not to Ihlefeld's liking and, eventually, on 21 July 1943, he left to take command of JG25. This unit, formed in August from Stab/Jagdgruppe Nord, only ever comprised a single Gruppe not even the size of a Staffel and, equipped with Messerschmitt 109s, it specialised in high-altitude operations, particularly against the RAF's Mosquitoes. JG25 was in existence only for some five months, and when it was disbanded in December, Ihlefeld took over the headquarters of the 30.Jagddivision which co-ordinated the activities of JG300, JG301 and JG302, then specialising in night-fighter operations with single-engined aircraft. In this role, Ihlefeld was able to study the different tactics employed to attack the Allied bombers which swept over Germany.

During the first half of 1944, several experienced offices were lost, notably in JG2 where two Kommodore, Oberstleutnant Egon Mayer and Major Kurt Ubben, were killed within two months. Faced with a shortage of experienced officers, the Luftwaffe was obliged to break its own official ban preventing its most successful pilots from flying in combat and placed several of its great aces with front-line units. Consequently, Oberstleutnant Ihlefeld was first posted to the Stab of JG11 where he remained for just eight days until, at the beginning of May 1944, he transferred to the Stab of JG1. Here Ihlefeld quickly proved that not only was he effective against enemy fighters, but also that he was equally accomplished as a 'bomber-killer' and on 8 May, in two missions, he shot down two B-17s, his 111th and 112th victories. At the headquarters of JG1, Ihlefeld was assisting another legendary ace, Oberst Walter Oesau, but any collaboration was short-lived as 'Gull' Oesau was himself shot down and killed on 11 May. Nine days later, Ihlefeld took command of JG1 and remained with this Geschwader until the end of the war.

Following the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, Ihlefeld settled down with Stab JG1 at St. Quentin where he found himself, once again, charged with forming a high-altitude unit by bringing together the four existing Hohengruppen, III./JG1, I./JG3, I./JG5 and II./JG11, all of which specialised in the role of engaging the bombers' fighter escort. Placed under Ihlefeld's control they often occupied the same airfield. Meanwhile, Ihlefeld continued to add to his score, shooting down three Spitfires on 12 July, a P-51 and a Spitfire on the 14th a P-38 on the 18th a Lancaster and a Spitfire on the 25th and two P-51s on 27 July and 1 August.

After returning to Germany at the end of August to re-equip and gain some new pilots, JG1 then experienced dreadful losses during the Autumn battles over the Reich. On 26 November, Ihlefeld accounted for his 123rd victory, but it was a deadly battle which cost JG1 eleven killed and three wounded, including some very experienced pilots.

By the middle of January 1945, as with many other Jagdgeschwader based in the West, JG1 was sent urgently to the Eastern Front where Soviet forces were advancing on the River Oder. JG1 launched many sorties, principally ground-attack or fighter-bomber escort missions. Paradoxically, this transfer to the East benefited a great number of JG1's pilots as losses in the East were moderate at a time when those in the West were catastrophic. Undoubtedly JG1 again achieved numerous victories, and although few documents from this chaotic period have survived, Ihlefeld obviously gained some further Abschusse as his final official score reached 132 victories. A short training course on the He-162 followed, after which JG1 was ordered back to the West and was based at Leck, in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany. The Geschwader was still there in May 1945 when Germany surrendered and JG1's jet-fighters, together with its prestigious Kommodore, were captured by the British.

After 1945

After the war, Herbert Ihlefeld was not able to return to his Berlin home or his native Pomerania due to the Soviet occupation. Instead, he settled in Wennigsen, in the Hanover region, and returned to his life as an engineer. It was in this village that he died on 8 August 1995, after a long illness which, during the last months of his life, confined him to bed. He was laid to rest with full military honors in the presence of former Hptm. Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert, one of the few surviving holders of the Swords. Ihlefeld's final tally totaled nine victories in Spain in 1938 plus 132 more between 1940 and 1945, among which were no fewer than 15 four-engined bombers.
 

[1]. In this context, 'the West' refers to Germany's Western Front. Therefore this was Ihlefeld's first victory on that front and does not include those obtained in Spain. It should be noted, however, that in Paul Martin's book Invisible Victors, there are no MS-406s reported lost on this date.

[2]. This reunion was the subject of a one-page report in the aviation magazine Der Adler. 3. Again it should be noted that this number cannot be confirmed from Russian sources.

Asisbiz Database list of aerial victories for Herbert Ihlefeld

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
29-May-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Morane 406		20.12	Chauny
30-Jun-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Blenheim		15.25
30-Jun-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		15.30
09-Jul-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		17.04	Thames Estuary
13-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Blenheim		17.10	Barham
22-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		15.30	Dover
22-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		15.35	Dover
24-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		12.40	Dover
24-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		16.55	South of London
26-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		19.25	Biggin Hill
31-Aug-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		14.00	Kenley
02-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		18.20	Sheerness
02-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		14.25	Dungeness
05-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		11.10	South of London
05-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire			South of London
06-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.10	South of London
06-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		17.55	Ashford
07-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		18.30	Maidstone
07-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		18.20	Rochester
11-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.50	South of London
11-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		17.35	Ashford
15-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	2.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		15.30	South of London
24-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.25	South of London
24-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.25
27-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.10	South of London
27-Sep-40	Herbert Ihlefeld	1.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		10.50	South of London
17-Jan-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		15.50
10-Feb-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I.(Jagd)/LG2	Spitfire		13.24
14-Feb-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		13.40
14-Feb-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		13.48
26-Feb-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		14.15
26-Feb-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		14.30
01-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		17.15
13-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /LG2	Spitfire		15.45
19-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /LG2	Spitfire		19.10
19-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /LG2	Spitfire		19.08
25-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Spitfire		12.30
26-Mar-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I.(J)LG2	Spitfire		12.30	Dungeness
16-May-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Hurricane		16.50	MTO Crete Campaign
26-May-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	Hurricane
22-Jun-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		04.30
23-Jun-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	SB-2		05.50
26-Jun-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		09.10
26-Jun-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	SB-2		09.20
27-Jun-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		09.20
02-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		16.07
04-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		17.48
06-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		18.50
09-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-153		09.35
10-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	P-40 Warhawk		13.17
12-Jul-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	MiG-3		11.20
15-Oct-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	MiG-3		17.42
08-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-116		14.02
09-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		13.00
11-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	SB-3		10.15
11-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-116		10.12
22-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-15 Rata		13.25
22-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	MiG-3		10.05
27-Dec-41	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		14.00
05-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./LG2	I-16 Rata		15.00
19-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		15.15
20-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	-
20-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	-
24-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	SB-3		12.12
24-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		12.10
25-Jan-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		12.35
04-Feb-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	SB-2		12.50
04-Feb-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		15.50
11-Feb-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		14.00
17-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-26		09.00
20-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-15		16.25
20-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-26		16.50
21-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		17.10
21-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		17.09
24-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	Il-2 Sturmovik		20.50
24-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		13.40
24-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		13.38
24-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		07.02
24-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-16 Rata		07.00
27-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		17.05
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		11.42
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		11.55
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		11.48
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-5		11.40
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		09.45
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		09.45
30-Mar-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-10		1150
06-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	R-5		15.10
08-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61
19-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		09.11
19-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		15.20
19-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		11.45
19-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		11.45
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		08.10
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		14.57
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		14.56
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		14.55
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		08.12
20-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		08.11
21-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		17.13
21-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61		17.10
22-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		17.30
22-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301		12.35
22-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301
22-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-301
23-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	LaGG-3
25-Apr-42	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab I./JG77	I-61
13-Nov-43	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JGr.25	P-38 Lightning	5000m	11.58	South of Quakenbruck
08-May-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	B-17 Fortress		12.00	ET-2 (bei Verden)
08-May-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	B-17 Fortress		09.56	ET-1 (bei Thedinghausen)
12-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Spitfire	5000m	19.05	15 West S/TT-8 (Bayeux)
12-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Spitfire	5000m	19.04	15 West S/TT-9 (Carpiquet)
12-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Spitfire	5500m	19.03	15 West S/TT-9 (Carpiquet)
14-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Spitfire	1000m	19.19	UU-1 (South Caen)
14-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	P-51 Mustang	1200m	19.17	UU-1 (South Caen)
18-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	P-38 Lightning	Low Level	09.55	UC-15 (Louviers)
25-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Lancaster	3200m	19.23	TC-3 (20km ENE Rouen)
25-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	Spitfire	3000m	19.30	TC-3 (20km ENE Rouen)
27-Jul-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	P-51 Mustang	1500m	07.27	UU-AU (Caen-Lisieux)
01-Aug-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	P-51 Mustang
26-Nov-44	Herbert Ihlefeld	Stab /JG1	B-17 Fortress

Luftwaffe pilot Ludwig Lenz

Units: Stab I(J)/LG-2 (Channel)

Awards: EK 1 & 2, Fighter Operational Clasp

Known Aircraft: Bf 109 E-7 WNr 3734 '<+' (lost 15^th October 1940)

Remarks: KIA 15^th October 1940; while flying a Fighter bomber mission, a single fighters bullet hit the bomb slung underneath and exploded, spreading the wreckage over a 3 mile area at Spruce Lawn, Elham, Kent. Buried Hawkinge Cem., Kent, German Plot 'O', Row 2 Gr 2 (M.Croft). One reported victory found on 12 O'clock High Forum Board, a Hurricane over England on 10 July, 1940. Item questioned this being the first Battle of Britain victory. His 2nd, a Spitfire in the area of the Isle of Wight on 18 August, 1940. His 3rd, a Spitfire in the Dover area on 24 August, 1940.

Luftwaffe pilot Asisbiz database list of 3 aerial victories for Ludwig Lenz

Date	Pilot Name	Unit	Enemy A/C Type	Height	Time	Location
10-Jul-40	Ludwig Lenz	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Hurricane		15.05	Thames Estuary
18-Aug-40	Ludwig Lenz	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		18.50
24-Aug-40	Ludwig Lenz	Stab I.(J)/LG2	Spitfire		16.40

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• Ritger, Lynn. Meserschmitt Bf 109 Prototype to 'E' Variants. Bedford, UK: SAM Publications, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9551858-0-9.
• Savic, D. and B. Ciglic. Croatian Aces of World War II (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 49). Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2002. ISBN 1-84176-435-3.
• Scutts, Jerry. Bf 109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1994. ISBN 1-85532-448-2, ISBN 978-1-85532-448-0.
• Shores, C., B. Cull and N. Malizia. Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece & Crete – 1940–41. London: Grub Street, 1987. ISBN 0-948817-07-0.
• Starr, Chris. "Developing Power: Daimler-Benz and the Messerschmitt Bf 109." Aeroplane magazine, Volume 33, No. 5, Issue No 385, May 2005. London: IPC Media Ltd.
• Stenman, Kari and Kalevi Keskinen. Finnish Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 23). London: Osprey Publishing Limited, 1998. ISBN 1-85532-783-X.
• Taylor, John W.R. "Messerschmitt Bf 109." Combat Aircraft of the World from 1909 to the present. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. ISBN 0-425-03633-2.
• U.S. Army Air Force. German Aircraft and Armament: Informational Intelligence, Summary No. 44-32, October 1944 (Informational Intelligence Summary). New York: Brassey's Inc., 2000 (first edition 1944). ISBN 1-57488-291-0.
• Valtonen, Hannu. Messerschmitt Bf 109 ja saksan sotatalous (Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the German war economy). Helsinki, Finland: Keski-Suomen Ilmailumuseo (Central Finnish Aviation Museum), 1999. ISBN 978-951-95688-7-4.
• Vogt, Harald. Messerschmitt Bf 109 G/K Rüstsatze. Flugzeug Profile 21. Illertissen, Flugzeug Publikations GmbH.
• Wagner, Ray and Heinz Nowarra. German Combat Planes: A Comprehensive Survey and History of the Development of German Military Aircraft from 1914 to 1945. New York: Doubleday, 1971.
• Weal, John. Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front. Oxford: Osprey, 2001. ISBN 978-1-84176-084-1.
• Weal, John. BF 109D/E Aces 1939–41. Oxford: Osprey, 1996. ISBN 978-1-85532-487-9.
• Weal, John. Bf 109F/G/K Aces of the Western Front. Oxford: Osprey, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85532-905-8.
• Winchester, Jim. "Messerschmitt Bf 109." Aircraft of World War II: The Aviation Factfile. Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. ISBN 1-84013-639-1.

    Messerschmitt Bf 109 operational history Bibliography: +

• Beale, Nick, Ferdinando D'Amico and Gabriele Valentini. Air War Italy: Axis Air Forces from Liberation of Rome to the Surrender. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife, 1996. ISBN 1-85310-252-0.
• Bergström, Christer. Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941. London: Chevron/Ian Allan, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2.
• Bergström, Christer and Martin Pegg. Jagdwaffe:The War in Russia, January–October 1942. Luftwaffe Colours, Volume 3 Section 4. London: Classic Colours Publications, 2003. ISBN 1-903223-23-7.
• Feist, Uwe. The Fighting Me 109. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1993. ISBN 1-85409-209-X.
• Green, William. Messerschmitt Bf 109: The Augsburg Eagle; A Documentary History. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishing Group Ltd., 1980. ISBN 0-7106-0005-4.
• Hooton, Edward R. Blitzkrieg in the West, 1939 -1940 (Luftwaffe at War: 2). Hersham, Surrey, UK: Midland Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-85780-272-6.
• Jackson, Robert. Aircraft of World War II: Development – Weaponry – Specifications. Enderby, Leicester, UK, Amber Books, 2003. ISBN 1-85605-751-8.
• Mankau, Heinz and Peter Petrick. Messerschmitt Bf 110, Me 210, Me 410. Raumfahrt, Germany: Aviatic Verlag, 2001. ISBN 3-925505-62-8.
• Mason, Francis K. Messerschmitt Bf 109B, C, D, E in Luftwaffe & Foreign service. London, UK: Osprey Publishing Limited, 1973. ISBN 0-85045-152-3.
• Massimello, Giovanni and Giorgio Apostolo. Italian Aces of World War Two. Oxford/New York, Osprey Publishing, 2000. ISBN 978-1-84176-078-0.
• Morgan, Eric B. and Edward Shacklady. Spitfire: The History. Stamford, UK: Key Books Ltd, 2000. ISBN 0-946219-48-6.
• Neulen, Hans Werner. In the skies of Europe – Air Forces allied to the Luftwaffe 1939–1945. Ramsbury, Marlborough, THE CROWOOD PRESS, 2000. ISBN 1-86126-799-1
• Price, Alfred. Spitfire Mark I/II Aces 1939–41 (Aircraft of the Aces 12). London: Osprey Books, 1996, ISBN 1-85532-627-2.
• Punka, György. "A Messzer": Bf 109s in the Royal Hungarian "Honvéd" Air Force. Budapest, Hungary: OMIKK, 1995. ISBN 963-593-208-1.
• Savic, D. and B. Ciglic. Croatian Aces of World War II (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 49). Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2002. ISBN 1-84176-435-3.
• Stenman, Kari and Kalevi Keskinen. Finnish Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 23). London: Osprey Publishing Limited, 1998. ISBN 1-85532-783-X.

    Some of the most widely used Book References:

• Jagdwaffe: Battle of Britain: Phase One: July-August 1940 (Luftwaffe Colours: Volume Two, Section 1) Paperback Eric Mombeek (Author), David Wadman (Author), Eddie J Creek (Author)
• Jagdwaffe: Battle of Britain: Phase Two: August-September 1940 (Luftwaffe Colours: Volume Two, Section 2) Paperback Eric Mombeek (Author), David Wadman (Author), Martin Pegg (Author)
• Jagdwaffe: Battle of Britain: Phase Three: September-October 1940 (Luftwaffe Colours: Volume Two, Section 3) Paperback Eric Mombeek (Author), David Wadman (Author), Martin Pegg (Author)
• Jagdwaffe: Battle of Britain: Phase Four: November 1940-June 1941 (Luftwaffe Colours: Volume Two, Section 4) Paperback Eric Mombeek (Author), David Wadman (Author), Martin Pegg (Author)

    Magazines: +

• Airfix Magazines (English) - http://www.airfix.com/
• Avions (French) - http://www.aerostories.org/~aerobiblio/rubrique10.html
• EDUARD - https://www.eduard.com/
• EDUARD - Are in my opinion are what modelers are looking for loads of pictures and diagrams and have become a leading historical information source. *****
• FlyPast (English) - http://www.flypast.com/
• Flugzeug Publikations GmbH (German) - http://vdmedien.com/flugzeug-publikations-gmbh-hersteller_verlag-vdm-heinz-nickel-33.html
• Flugzeug Classic (German) - http://www.flugzeugclassic.de/
• Klassiker (German) - http://shop.flugrevue.de/abo/klassiker-der-luftfahrt
• Luftwaffe IM Focus (German) - https://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/
• Embleme der Luftwaffe Band-1 (German) - https://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/
• Le Fana de L'Aviation (French) - http://boutique.editions-lariviere.fr/site/abonnement-le-fana-de-l-aviation-626-4-6.html
• Le Fana de L'Aviation (French) - http://www.pdfmagazines.org/tags/Le+Fana+De+L+Aviation/
• Osprey (English) - http://www.ospreypublishing.com/
• model airplane international magazine - https://adhpublishing.com/shop/store/magazine-backissues/model-airplane-international-backissues/
• Revi Magazines (Czech) - http://www.revi.cz/

    Web References: +

• eBay - https://picclick.de/ or https://www.ebay.com
• Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com
• Wikipedia.org - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109
• Wikipedia.org - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_variants#cite_ref-100
• Wikipedia.org - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_operational_history
• Flickr.com - https://www.flickr.com/photos/farinihouseoflove/2209839419/in/photostream