Gordon M. Gollob

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Gordon Mac Gollob

Gordon Max "Mac" Gollob (* 16th June 1912 in Vienna , † 7. September 1987 in Sulingen ) was a fighter pilot of the Air Force during the Second World War . For the sake of an American friend who was of Scottish descent, his parents gave him the nickname "Mac".

Life

Youth and pre-war

Gordon Max Gollob wanted to become an engineer and aviator from an early age . In 1930 he acquired the A and B gliding license and soon became active as a flight instructor, construction inspector and construction manager. During this time he studied mechanical engineering for four semesters at the Technical University in Graz . In 1933 he joined the armed forces as an artilleryman and went through a three-year officer training course at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt . As a lieutenant , he took over the training of young pilots on September 1, 1936. After the connection of Austria to the German Reich Gollob was born on June 1, 1938, first lieutenant and a few months later squadron officer in the destroyer squadron 76 .

Second world war

After the outbreak of the Second World War , Gollob was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class on September 5, 1939 after being shot down several times with his Messerschmitt Bf 110 in Poland . As a relay pilot, he flew with the occupation of Norway . After several successes at Newcastle , Trondheim , Narvik and the Shetlands , he received the Iron Cross 1st class. He then came to Jagdgeschwader 3 ( Udet ) on the English Channel .

In 1941 Gollob became a captain and group commander on the Eastern Front . After 24 kills, he received the Cup of Honor on July 21, 1941 for special achievements in the air war . Six weeks later, on September 18, 1941, after 34 kills, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . After 81 enemies had been shot down, he received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on October 26, 1941. On May 20, 1942, he became commodore of Jagdgeschwader 77 . Within four weeks he recorded 107 kills and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords on June 23, 1942 and was soon promoted to major . On August 30, 1942, he was the third soldier in the Wehrmacht to be awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, and up to that day he was the first soldier to have shot 150 people.

He was then banned from flying by Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler and was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 3 on the French Channel coast. Gollob campaigned for the series production of the Me 262 , which in his opinion could have turned the air warfare around. Under the most primitive circumstances, Gollob and engineer Karstensen built the first “Neptun J” radar system , which never went into series production; a reliable radio control device that was used at night and still led to high losses for the allies over northern France. Enemy machines could be detected in a sector 180 degrees ahead and up to six kilometers away.

In autumn 1942 he was transferred to the task force for modern fighters , where he tested numerous new types of aircraft. On September 18, 1944, the general of the fighter pilot, Adolf Galland , dismissed Colonel Gollob from the hunting staff. After differences of opinion with Göring , Galland was dismissed and replaced by Gollob on January 31, 1945.

April 1945 he was in the air force hospital in Kitzbühel . At the end of the Second World War he was taken prisoner by the Americans , from which he returned in 1946. Gordon M. Gollob flew a total of 340 missions and achieved 150 aerial victories, 144 of them in Russia.

After the war

After being a prisoner of war, Gollob initially earned his living from articles in aviation magazines and lectures. In 1948 he became general secretary of the Association of Independents in Austria . In November 1951 he became sales manager at Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz -Werken in Bremen . Gollob and his wife Elisabeth Lüning (1913–2007), whom he married in Graz in 1943 , had two sons and a daughter. Since his wife came from Sulingen , the family moved from Kitzbühel in September 1951 to where he later retired and died on September 7, 1987.

Awards

Museum reception

The rudder of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 Gollobs is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum , on which a large number of his kills are painted.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Obermaier: The Air Force Knight's Cross bearers. Volume I fighter pilots 1939–1945. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann Mainz 1966; ISBN 3-87341-065-6 ; P. 29.
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 341.
personal data
SURNAME Gollob, Gordon M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gollob, Gordon Max (full name); Mac (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian air force officer and fighter pilot
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1987
Place of death Sulingen