Fighter Squadron 8

Jagdfliegergeschwader 8 ; "Hermann Matern" ; (JG-8)
	; ; Cockade of the LSK aircraft of the GDR
active	December 14, 1954 to September 30, 1990
Country	GDR
Armed forces	NVA
Armed forces	NVA Air Force
Branch of service	Aviation forces
Type	Type of fighter pilot forces
Strength	approx. 600 soldiers and 100 civilian employees
Insinuation	1. LVD
Squadron location	Marxwalde today Neuhardenberg airfield
Former locations	Preschen airfield until 1960
Web presence	JG-8
Last commander
Squadron commander	Lieutenant Colonel Siegfried Lahmer
insignia
squadron	III
Aircraft
Fighter aircraft / ; helicopter	MiG-21

JG-8, TG-44 Neuhardenberg

JG-8, TG-44 Neuhardenberg,
(formerly Marxwalde)

The Jagdfliegergeschwader 8 (JG-8) was a flying unit in regiment strength of the NVA air forces in direct subordination of the first air defense Division . Since 1972 it has borne the honorary name of Hermann Matern .

history

The squadron was on December 14, 1954 as the 2nd command of the III. Aero clubs of the Barracked People's Police set up. The original location was Preschen airfield . The first equipment consisted of Yakovlev Yak-11 school fighters .

On December 26, 1956, the JG-8 was incorporated as a flying task force in the 1st Air Defense Division of the NVA . From 1957 the equipment was done with fighter aircraft type MiG-15 and MiG-17 . On January 2, 1960, the squadron was relocated to Marxwalde airfield . On January 1, 1961, the name was changed to Jagdfliegergeschwader 8 , initially abbreviated as JFG-8, later as JG-8. In the 1960s there was a conversion to MiG-21 type fighters . On March 1, 1972, the squadron was given the traditional name "Hermann Matern" after the GDR politician and member of the National Defense Council, Hermann Matern, who had died a year earlier .

The special colloquial expression for this fighter pilot association was "egg squadron"; a parody of the self-creation of the squadron: "eggs for every breakfast, all kinds."

Display board from the traditional room of the former Jagdfliegergeschwader-8 for the delivery of twelve MiG-21 fighters of the unit to Syria during the Yom Kippur War 1973 with the names of the squadron members involved. (today in the airfield museum Cottbus )

During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the NVA's JG-8 provided twelve MiG-21M machines including personnel to the Syrian air force at the Aleppo location . According to official information as well as eyewitness testimony, the NVA personnel only assembled and flown the machines and were not involved in fighting. The planes were brought to Syria by air by Soviet Antonov An- 12s (see secret operation Aleppo ).

With the decommissioning of the NVA in 1990, the squadron was dissolved.

Commanders JG-8

Rank, name	period of service	comment
Captain Ralf Brandt	1956-1961
Major Wolfgang Büttner	1961-1968	later major general u. Kdr. FO FMTFK
Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Bohne	1968-1973	later Kdr. 1. LVD
Lieutenant Colonel Siegfried Wünsche	1973-1975	later Colonel i. G. , command LSK / LV
Lieutenant Colonel Rudolph Patzer	1975-1988
Lieutenant Colonel Jürgen Dieckmann	1979-1985	1984 Honored military pilot of the GDR
Lieutenant Colonel Michael Kernchen	1985-1987	1989 Honored military pilot of the GDR
Lieutenant Colonel Siegfried Lahmer	1987-1990

Annotation:

For frame structure see: Squadron, Air Force NVA

Aircraft types

In the JG-8, aircraft from the Soviet design office MiG were used almost exclusively . With the exception of the Yak-11, all types used were jet aircraft. The letters behind the type numbers identify the individual version of the aircraft type.

Period of use	Aircraft type
from 1954	Jak-11
from 1957	MiG-15 , MiG-17
from 1963	MiG-21

Web links

Commons : Jagdfliegergeschwader 8 - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

JG-8 "Hermann Matern". Retrieved on April 13, 2019 (as a subpage from www.ddr-lufftwaffe.de).
JG-8 "Hermann Matern". Retrieved April 13, 2019 (from LSKLV-DDR.de).

Individual evidence

↑ Fliegerstammtisch Strausberg (Ed.): Fliegergeschichten. From takeoff to landing . Facts and experiences - written down by members of the NVA aviation forces. Strausberg, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814822-3-2 , pp. 388 .
↑ Ditebert Lang, Horst Materna: The airport Neuhardenberg Marxwalde-Neuhardenberg . Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-922912-44-3 , p. 31-36 .
↑ The Syria Mission. Retrieved on May 16, 2010 (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).

52.613 14.242667Coordinates: 52 ° 36 ′ 46.8 " N , 14 ° 14 ′ 33.6" E

[1] Fliegerstammtisch Strausberg (Ed.): Fliegergeschichten. From takeoff to landing . Facts and experiences - written down by members of the NVA aviation forces. Strausberg, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814822-3-2 , pp. 388 .

[2] Ditebert Lang, Horst Materna: The airport Neuhardenberg Marxwalde-Neuhardenberg . Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-922912-44-3 , p. 31-36 .

[3] The Syria Mission. Retrieved on May 16, 2010 (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).