Anton Mader (officer)

Anton Mader (born January 7, 1913 in Castelnuovo , Dalmatia , † February 19, 1984 in Vienna ) was an Austrian officer who served in the Armed Forces of the First Republic of Austria , in the Air Force of the Wehrmacht and in the Austrian Armed Forces . He retired as a brigadier .

Life

Mader served in the air force of the federal army in 1938 as a lieutenant in the 6th squadron of Jagdgeschwader II and was accepted into the air force of the armed forces after Austria was annexed . From April 1, 1938, he took over the 3rd squadron of Jagdgeschwader 138 as squadron captain. On November 1, 1938, he changed to the 3rd squadron of Jagdgeschwader 134 in the same role before it was renamed Jagdgeschwader 76 on May 1st, 1939. On September 26, 1939, he went to the 2nd squadron of his squadron as a squadron captain. On February 29, 1940, he moved as a captain to Jagdgeschwader 2 to lead the 1st squadron. With this squadron, which was equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E, he took part in the western campaign and from August 1940 in the Battle of Britain . For this purpose, the squadron was subordinate to Fighter Pilot 3 of Air Fleet 3 .

On May 26, 1941, he moved as group commander to Group II of Jagdgeschwader 77 . This was at the beginning of the German-Soviet war of the air fleet 4 subordinated to the south of the Eastern Front. He remained in this position until June 1, 1942 and was awarded the Luftwaffe's Cup of Honor and the German Cross in Gold . On July 23, 1942 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , meanwhile as a major . On April 1, 1943, he took over the newly established Jagdgeschwader 11 as a squad commodore . This squadron, which was partially equipped with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 , was based on northwest German bases and was supposed to fight incoming Allied bomber units. On September 1, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in this position , before taking over Jagdgeschwader 54 on January 28, 1944 , which was subordinate to Luftflotte 1 in the north of the eastern front . He led this until September 1944. At the end of the war in May 1945 he had won 86 victories.

In 1956 he joined the air force of the federal army and was a brigadier in command of the aviation brigade before he retired.

Web links

• Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section L – R. (PDF) 2016, pp. 175–176 , accessed on May 12, 2018 (English).