Jagdgeschwader 54

Jagdgeschwader 54
Squadron badge
active	May 1, 1939 to March 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	air force
Branch of service	Air force
Type	Jagdgeschwader
structure	Squadron staff and 4 groups
Installation site	Herzogenaurach
Nickname	Grünherz Squadron
Aircraft type	Messerschmitt Bf 109 Focke-Wulf Fw 190
Second World War	Western campaign Battle of Britain Balkan campaign Eastern front
Squadron commodors
First commodore	Martin Mettig Major
Last commodore	Dietrich Hrabak Colonel

The Jagdgeschwader 54 was an association of the Luftwaffe in World War II . Because of its coat of arms, it was also called the Green Heart Squadron.

Lineup

The 1st group of Jagdgeschwader 54 was created on May 1st, 1939 from the 1st group of Jagdgeschwader 333 in Herzogenaurach . The equipment consisted of Messerschmitt Bf 109D-1 . After relocation to Fürstenwalde , on May 15, 1939, it was renamed to II. Group of Destroyer Squadron 1. On September 13, 1939, Group I of Jagdgeschwader 70 was again renamed in Herzogenaurach, Group I of Jagdgeschwader 54. The group was equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109E-1 and E-3.

In February 1940 the squadron staff was established. From June 1940 the II. And III. Group formed from the renamed I./JG 76 and I./JG 21. In July 1943 a fourth group was set up on the Eastern Front.

history

On November 1, 1939, Group I was relocated to Böblingen . She took over the border security on the Upper Rhine .

As part of the western campaign , the staff and all three groups took part in the advance into the area of Rouen and Orléans . For this purpose, they were subordinate to the 5th Air Corps of Air Fleet 3 .

After that, the entire squadron fought against British bombs from airfields in the Netherlands. When the Battle of Britain began in August 1940, JG 54 was relocated to Calais (including Campagne les Guines and Le Touquet ). By the end of 1940, 43 pilots had died.

The squadron remained in the west for the first three months of 1941, with the headquarters in Le Mans until the end of March , and the II./JG 54 and III./JG 54 were also here for a short period of time.

From April 1941 these two groups took part in the Balkan campaign, while I./JG 54 was stationed in East Prussia .

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 of the Grünherzgeschwader

After the German attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941 , the squadron was the only fighter squadron in the Luftflotte 1 association to secure the air space over Army Group North as it approached Leningrad . On April 4th and 5th, 1942, it took part in the Eisstoss company. Together with parts of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 and 2 , Kampfgeschwaders 1 and 4 , it attacked warships of the Baltic Fleet in the Leningrad port. Here, the battleship were damaged, Oktyabrskaya Revoljuzija by four bomb hits, the cruiser Maksim Gorky by seven goals medium caliber cruiser Kirov and Petropavlovsk and the destroyer Silnyj each by a severe hit, and the destroyer Grozjashchi , the minelayer Marti and the training ship Svir by easier hits. The destroyers Stoyki and Svirepy as well as the submarines M-79 , P-2 and P-3 were also damaged . The squadron remained mainly deployed in the north of the Eastern Front until the end of 1942, although the II./JG 54 was deployed in the central section in August 1942.

The III./JG 54 was used from March 1943 from airfields in Oldenburg and Schwerin in the defense of the Reich. The Dutch military airfield Deelen was also used by three different groups in the first half of 1943.

The other two groups and the fourth group, which was newly established in July 1943, remained on the eastern front , meanwhile converted to Focke-Wulf Fw 190 .

After the I. and II. Groups had been constantly relocated within the Eastern Front, they fought in the Kurland area from July 1944 . There they remained in the Kurland basin until the capitulation in May 1945. The IV. Group, which had been set up on the Eastern Front in July 1943, was relocated from the Eastern Front to the defense of the Reich in September 1944 and disbanded in February 1945 due to a lack of aircraft and pilots.

The III. Group took, stationed & a. in Villacoublay , in Normandy took part in the fighting against the Allies and was renamed IV./JG 26 in early 1945.

Awards

The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and higher levels were awarded to 55 squadron members.

Surname	Knight's cross	Oak leaves	Swords	Diamonds
Hrabak, Dietrich	October 21, 1940	November 25, 1943
Philipp, Hans	October 22, 1940	August 24, 1941	March 12, 1942
Lignitz, Arnold	November 5, 1940
Bob, Hans-Ekkehard	March 7, 1941
Rudorffer, Erich	May 1, 1941	April 11, 1944	January 26, 1945
Trautloft, Johannes	July 27, 1941
Mütherich, Hubert	August 6, 1941
Pohs, Josef	August 6, 1941
Ostermann, Max-Hellmuth	September 4, 1941	March 12, 1942	May 17, 1942
Eckerle, Franz	September 28, 1941	March 12, 1942
Late, Wolfgang	October 5, 1941	April 23, 1942
Seiler, Reinhard	December 20, 1941	March 2, 1944
Kempf, Karl	February 4, 1942
Beißwenger, Hans	May 9, 1942	October 3, 1942
Hannig, Horst	May 9, 1942	January 3, 1944
Stotz, Max	June 19, 1942	October 30, 1942
Change, Joachim	August 21, 1942
Nowotny, Walter	September 4, 1942	September 5, 1943	September 22, 1943	October 9, 1943
Full, Carl	September 19, 1942
Schilling, Wilhelm	October 10, 1942
Siegler, Peter	November 3, 1942
Heyer, Hans-Joachim	November 25, 1942
Götz, Hans	December 23, 1942
Zweigart, Eugen-Ludwig	January 22, 1943
Rupp, Friedrich	January 24, 1943
Broennle, Herbert	March 14, 1943
Fink, Günter	March 14, 1943
Ademeit, Horst	May 1, 1943	March 2, 1944
Kittel, Otto	October 29, 1943	April 1, 1944	November 25, 1944
Jung, Heinrich	November 12, 1943
Long, Emil	November 22, 1943	April 11, 1944
Wolf, Albin	November 22, 1943	April 27, 1944
Sterr, Heinrich	December 5, 1943
Scheel, Günther	December 5, 1943
Loos, Gerhard	February 5, 1944
Döbele, Anton	March 26, 1944
Philipp, Wilhelm	March 26, 1944
White, Robert	March 26, 1944	March 12, 1945
Tegtmeier, Fritz	March 28, 1944
Teumer, Alfred	August 19, 1944
Brandt, Paul	September 5, 1944
Rademacher, Rudolf	September 30, 1944
Wernicke, Heinz	September 30, 1944
Resentment, Helmut	October 6, 1944
Eisenach, Franz	October 10, 1944
Koall, Gerhard	October 10, 1944
Missner, Helmut	October 10, 1944
Wernitz, Ulrich	October 29, 1944
Klemm, Rudolf	November 18, 1944
Thyben, Gerhard	December 6, 1944	April 8, 1945
Wöhnert, Ulrich	December 6, 1944
Hoffmann, Reinhold	January 28, 1945
Schleinhege, Hermann	January 28, 1945
Broch, Hugo	March 12, 1945
Kroschinski, Hans-Joachim	April 17, 1945

Commanders

Squadron commodors

Rank	Surname	time
major	Martin Mettig	February 2, 1940 to August 25, 1940
Colonel	Johannes Trautloft	August 25, 1940 to July 5, 1943
major	Hubertus von Bonin	July 6, 1943 to December 15, 1943
Lieutenant colonel	Anton Mader	January 28, 1944 to September 1944
Colonel	Dietrich Hrabak	October 1, 1944 to May 8, 1945

Group commanders

I. group

• Major Hans-Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel, September 15, 1939
• Captain Hubertus von Bonin, December 28, 1939
• Captain Erich von Selle, July 2, 1941
• Captain Franz Eckerle, December 20, 1941
• Captain Hans Philipp, February 17, 1942
• Major Reinhard Seiler, April 15, 1943
• Major Gerard Homuth, August 1, 1943
• Captain Walter Nowotny , August 10, 1943
• Captain Horst Adameit, February 4, 1944
• Captain Franz Eisenach, August 9, 1944

II group

• Major Kraut, July 4th 1940
• Captain Winterer, July 11, 1940
• Captain Dietrich Hrabak , August 26, 1940
• Major Hans von Hahn, November 19, 1942
• Captain Heinrich Jung, February 21, 1943
• Captain Erich Rudorffer, August 1, 1943
• Captain Herbert Findeisen, February 1945

III. group

• Captain Fritz Ultsch, June 6, 1940
• First Lieutenant Günther Scholz (i. V.), September 6, 1940
• Captain Arnold Lignitz, November 4, 1940
• Captain Reinhard Seiler, October 1, 1941
• Captain Siegfried Schnell, May 1943
• First Lieutenant Rudolf Patzak (i. V.), February 1944
• Captain Rudolf Klemm (i. V.), February 1944
• Captain Rudolf Sinner, March 1944
• Major Werner Schroer, March 14, 1944
• Captain Robert Weiss, July 21, 1944
• First Lieutenant Hans Dortenmann (i. V.), January 1945
• First Lieutenant Wilhelm Heilmann (i. V.), January 1945
• Major Rudolf Klemm, February 1945

IV. Group

• Captain Rudolf Sinner, July 30, 1943
• Captain Siegfried Schnell, February 11, 1944
• Captain Gerhard Koall (i. V.), March 1944
• Major Wolfgang Spate , May 1944
• Captain Rudolf Klemm, October 1, 1944 - February 1945
• Captain Fritz-Karl Schloßstein, March 1945 - April 1945

Supplement group

• First Lieutenant Zilken, October 1940
• First Lieutenant Eggers, March 1941 - January 1942

Known squadron members

• Claus von Bohlen and Halbach , (1910–1940), German industrialist
• Dietrich Adolf Hrabak (1914–1995) was in 1970 as major general in the air force of the German armed forces , general of the combat units in the air force office
• Anton Mader (1913–1984) was a brigadier in the Austrian Armed Forces
• Wolfgang Späte (1911–1997), was from 1956 to 1962 a flight safety stage manager in the German Air Force
• Johannes Trautloft (1912–1995) was in 1970 as a lieutenant general in the air force of the German armed forces, commanding general of the air force group command south

literature

• John Weal: Jagdgeschwader 54 "Grünherz". (= Aviation Elite Units No. 6) Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1-84176-286-5 .
• Wolfgang Dierich: The air force associations 1935-1945 . Outlines and short chronicles, a documentation. Ed .: Wolfgang Dierich. Verlag Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 1993, ISBN 3-925480-15-3 (703 pages).

Web links

Commons : Jagdgeschwader 54  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich: The Air Force Associations 1939-1945. Outlines and short chronicles. A document. Heinz Nickel Verlag, Zweibrücken 1993, ISBN 3-925480-15-3 , p. 54.
2. ↑ Leo Niehorster : Battle for France, German Order of Battle 3rd Air Force, V Air Corps 10 May 1940 , accessed on August 30, 2015.
3. ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, April 1942 , accessed on July 14, 2013.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich: The Air Force Associations 1939-1945. Outlines and short chronicles. A document. Heinz Nickel Verlag, Zweibrücken 1993, ISBN 3-925480-15-3 , pp. 54-55.