Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westphalia"

Jagdgeschwader 72 and JG 72 are redirects to this article. For the Jagdgeschwader 72 from the early years of the Bundeswehr, see Jagdbombergeschwader 43 .

Jagdgeschwader 72 - JG 72 - Jagdbombergeschwader 36 / JaboG 36
Squadron coat of arms
active	March 1, 1961 to January 31, 2002
Country	Germany
Armed forces	armed forces
Armed forces	air force
Type	squadron
last position	Rheine (staff) Hopsten , air base
Nickname	Westphalia Squadron
Aircraft
Interceptor	McDonnell F-4 "Phantom II"

The Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westfalen" was a squadron of the Air Force and was stationed at Hopsten Air Base and in Rheine . Originally the unit was put into service as Jagdbombergeschwader 36 and converted into a fighter squadron from 1991. After the decommissioning on January 31, 2002, the 2nd squadron was maintained until mid-2006 as the "F-4F flight training center".

history

Fighter-bomber squadron 36 "Westphalia"

The squadron was set up on March 1, 1961 by Major Wilhelm Meyn at the Nörvenich air base , the location of the 31 fighter-bomber squadron . To this end, around 50 Republic F-84 F “Thunderstreak” machines were spun off from the association from which the new squadron was to be formed. Just three days later, on March 4, 1961, an advance command transferred to the new air base in Hopsten, which was supposed to make preparations for the relocation of the machines. During these preparations, the first flights of the still unofficial "Westphalia Squadron" took place from Nörvenich , before moving to the NATO training area in Decimomannu on Sardinia from April to August 31 . On their return, the aircraft landed at their new base in Hopsten and were placed under NATO control on September 1, 1961 . The squadron's official commissioning took place on December 12, 1961 by the then Inspector of the Air Force , Lieutenant General Josef Kammhuber .

On January 19, 1962, the Federal Ministry of Defense gave the order to set up a second squadron. Their primary task was to train the pilots trained in the USA for European conditions ("Europeanization"). In addition to the Thunderstreaks, the squadron was assigned six Lockheed T-33 A as training machines and two Piaggio P.149 as transporters. On March 13, 1963, the squadron's coat of arms was approved, the jumping Westphalia horse on a blue and red background, the blue symbolizing the sky and the red the earth of Westphalia .

From February 2, 1965, the fighter-bomber squadron was gradually converted to the F-104 "Starfighter" . The first machine was transferred from Manching by the then Commodore Lieutenant Colonel Lothar Kmitta himself . It was almost two years before all 52 machines were stationed in Hopsten. The old F-84F "Thunderstreak", on which the squadron had completed around 50,000 flight hours and which killed eight pilots, were sold to Turkey . After the complete conversion, the squadron was again under NATO command from December 1967. Due to the starfighters and the new “Flexible Response” doctrine of NATO, the task was changed. In an attack by the Warsaw Pact , the starfighters armed with nuclear weapons should be used. Accordingly, a QRA ( Quick Reaction Alert ) was set up, in which two machines were waiting to be started ready at any time. They stood in a specially secured area of ​​the air base, access to which was strictly controlled due to the nuclear weapons stored there and only a few people were allowed to enter. From 1972 the NATO doctrine changed again, according to which not every squadron equipped with star fighters had to be able to use nuclear weapons. Accordingly, the fighter-bomber squadron was again equipped with conventional weapons.

Due to repair work at the air base, the squadron had to relocate to Beja in Portugal for three months in 1971 . A total of 23 machines as well as some ground equipment took this route. It arrived back in Hopsten in time for its tenth anniversary. The following year, the Piaggio P149 were replaced by the Do 28 D-2 Skyservant , which were in service until 1992. After more than 100,000 flight hours and eleven crashed star fighters, the conversion to the McDonnell F-4 "Phantom II" began on February 4, 1975 , when the squadron commodore Colonel Winfried Schwenke , later head of the military shielding service (MAD), transported the first aircraft to Hopsten . The conversion should take until the end of July 1976. Although the "Phantom" was actually intended for air defense by the fighter squadrons and was not capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the Ministry of Defense nevertheless decided to equip the fighter-bomber squadron in Hopsten with it. On the one hand, this was due to the abandoned role in the "Flexible Response" doctrine, and on the other hand to the delays in the development and production of the Panavia Tornado . This choice for the multi-purpose combat aircraft "Phantom" then also provided for an expansion of the range of tasks, after which the squadron was given air defense as a secondary task. The necessary alert was kept ready in the former QRA area of ​​the starfighter at the air base. This task was assigned to the fighter-bomber squadron in particular when Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen" was not operational.

From July 21 to September 26, 1980, the fighter-bomber squadron was the first German squadron to move to the Goose Bay base in Canada for deep flight training. Due to his pioneering work and the positive experiences gained from it, each unit has been relocated there for training once a year until 2006. On February 1, 1981 it was decided to centralize the Europeanization of the pilots due to their different levels of performance in a "Central Training Facility F-4F". For this purpose, a third squadron was set up at the fighter-bomber squadron in Hopsten, which was put into service on January 1, 1984. A short time later, in May 1984, the Ministry of Defense officially gave the squadron the traditional name “Westphalia”.

Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westphalia"

As a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification , the Air Force faced new tasks. The air defense over the former GDR had to be ensured and a squadron had to be stationed accordingly in eastern Germany. After a decision by the Air Force Command, Fighter Bomber Wing 36 was converted into a pure Fighter Wing 72. Together with the also converted Jagdgeschwader 73, two machines were alternately dispatched to the Faßberg Army Airfield as an alarm group . Due to the unfavorable infrastructure, these QRA missions were flown from Hopsten again from December 1990. After the complete conversion, the squadron was officially renamed Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westfalen" on January 1, 1991.

During the transfer of two F-4 Phantom from the Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay to the Naval Air Station Norfolk Air Show in the USA there was an aircraft accident on April 22, 1993 (internal number was 9304). The pilots Major Wolfgang Gerlach and Captain Jörg Klotz were killed.

On May 24, 1991, the first decision was made to relocate the fighter squadron to Laage in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and to combine it with the MiG-29 that had been taken over by the NVA to form a new squadron. As a result of this and the change in the mission, the third squadron of the squadron and the "Central Training Facility F-4F" were dissolved and merged with the second squadron. In April 1993 the planned relocation was stopped due to political and military changes and the squadron stayed in Hopsten.

In the years that followed, Jagdgeschwader 72 took part in several maneuvers. It received a special task in January 1997 when it transported 24 "Phantoms" of the type F-4F to Holloman in the USA, which replaced the ten F-4E models stationed there, which had reached the end of their service life. The transferred aircraft were all of the model version "LA", which had not experienced any increase in combat value . The remaining aircraft of this model version were then brought together in Hopsten so that the pilots returning from the USA would find identical machines when they were Europeanized.

With the announcement of the new Air Force Structure 5 in 2001, the end of Fighter Wing 72 was sealed. The "phantoms", which were not upgraded, were to be scrapped, and most of them were in Hopsten. The last QRA mission of the fighter squadron took place on January 7, 2002. On January 18, 2002, the first season was decommissioned. The second season followed on January 31, 2002.

Flight training center F-4F

The last Phantom 37 + 11 of the flight training center, on a socket at Wittmund Air Base.

Simultaneously with the decommissioning of the fighter squadron, the former second squadron was put into service on February 1, 2002 as the "Fluglehrzentrum F-4F" (FlLehrZ-F-4F). At the same time, the decommissioning of the non-upgraded models began. In the process, 21 aircraft were "phased out" by the end of 2004, that is, parts that were still usable were removed and the remains of the machines were scrapped. That left 18 machines that were still used for Europeanization. Due to the introduction of the Eurofighter , pilot training is now taking place in Laage. Therefore the base in Holloman was closed on December 20, 2004. Since Europeanization has not been necessary since then, there was no longer any need for the flight training center.

On December 15, 2005, the last “Phantom” landed in regular flight operations in Hopsten. Then the flyout of the remaining aircraft to Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen" to Wittmund began. To say goodbye to the squadron, extra guest planes from the other air force squadrons came. The last to start on December 20, 2005 was a completely black “Phantom” with the registration number 37 + 11 with an angular, painted Westfalen horse on both sides of the fuselage and the splintering coat of arms of the Westphalian squadron on the underside towards Wittmund . The machine stood in front of the building of the First Fighter Squadron of Jagdgeschwader 71 at Wittmund Air Base until the beginning of 2012, but has since been scrapped.

Commodore

Until the squadron was dissolved on January 31, 2002, the function of the commanding officer was Commodore . Since the flight training center that was subsequently set up was not a flying squadron, but a training unit, the function was called commander until this unit was dissolved .

Period	Commodore / Commander
March 13, 1961 to December 14, 1962	Major Wilhelm Meyn
January 1, 1963 to August 24, 1964	Lieutenant Colonel Hans Gerhard Opel
August 27, 1964 to December 31, 1969	Colonel Lothar Kmitta
January 1, 1970 to March 27, 1972	Colonel Hans Carl Freiherr von Friesen
March 28, 1972 to November 7, 1974	Colonel Wilhelm Merkl
November 2, 1974 to August 9, 1976	Colonel Winfried Schwenke
August 10, 1976 to April 2, 1979	Colonel Klaus Rimmek
April 2, 1979 to March 26, 1982	Colonel Friedrich P. Busch
March 26, 1982 to March 29, 1984	Colonel Botho Engelien
March 30, 1984 to September 26, 1986	Colonel Peter Vogler
September 27, 1986 to March 25, 1991	Colonel Manfred Quantity
March 26, 1991 to March 25, 1993	Colonel Jürgen Kolbe
March 25, 1993 to October 31, 1995	Colonel Wolfgang Conrad
October 31, 1995 to September 22, 1999	Colonel Johannes D. Hassenewert
September 23, 1999 to January 31, 2002	Colonel Hans Henning Pradel
February 1, 2002 to January 31, 2003	Lieutenant Colonel Karl Fürnohr
February 1, 2003 - Dissolution	Lieutenant Colonel Christoph Kling

particularities

Most of the Luftwaffe's squadrons have two flying squadrons, whereas the squadron in Hopsten had a third flying squadron between January 1984 and February 1995, the Central Training Unit (ZAE).

Two machines from the former Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westfalen" still exist today. Both are exhibited in a museum. The "Phantom" with the registration number 38 + 34 took part in the International Aerospace Exhibition Berlin in 2002 with a special painting , but was damaged during flight maneuvers when the airframe warped. After the exhibition, it was brought to the Bundeswehr Air Force Museum in Berlin-Gatow . Its tail unit shows the coat of arms of the "Löwenstaffel" ("Vestigium Leonis", German: "The Lion's Trace"), the former first squadron of the Jagdgeschwader.

A second "Phantom" with the registration number 37 + 36 started on December 9, 2003 at the request of the Slovak President Rudolf Schuster in the direction of Košice . After demilitarization, it has been in the technology museum there since February 27, 2004.

Web links

• History, photos and videos of Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westphalia"
• History of Jagdgeschwader 72 "Westfalen" on bw-flyer.de ( Memento from June 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Website of the traditional community of Westfalengeschwader 36/72

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 19.5 ″  N , 7 ° 28 ′ 7.5 ″  E