Jagdgeschwader 54
Jagdgeschwader 54 |
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Squadron badge |
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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 .
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 |
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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 |
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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
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Leo Niehorster : Battle for France, German Order of Battle 3rd Air Force, V Air Corps 10 May 1940 , accessed on August 30, 2015.
- ^ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, April 1942 , accessed on July 14, 2013.
- ↑ 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.