Hunting Association 44

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Hunting Association 44

Jagdverband 44.svg

Identification of the Fw 190 D-9 fighters used to protect the JV 44
active January to May 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces air force
Branch of service Air force
Nickname Association of Experts
Aircraft type Messerschmitt Me 262
commander
First commodore Adolf Galland
Lieutenant General
Last commodore Heinrich Bär
Lieutenant Colonel

The Jagdverband 44 (JV 44) was a fighter pilot unit of the German Air Force during World War II . Although the JV 44 never had more than 12 operational aircraft and despite its short period of use from February to April 1945, the association set up by Adolf Galland achieved a high level of recognition as a so-called expert unit, both within the Air Force and among the Allies. The jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262 served as the emergency aircraft . The circumstances that led to the formation of the association are, on the one hand, to be seen against the background of the looming war defeat and, on the other hand, are also characterized by a deep rift within the air force between the top management level - especially Göring - and a large number of association leaders up to to General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland himself. The JV 44 is to be seen as unique within the Luftwaffe in two respects: It cannot be classified in any structure that existed at the time, even the designation contradicted all the rules that had been in effect until then, and the unit was still under Göring's express order to run as a completely independent association, which was not allowed to have any connection with other air force units.

history

prehistory

In November 1944, Galland, like many other top ranks of the Luftwaffe, was summoned to a meeting organized by Göring at the Gatow Air War Academy in Berlin. The aim was to find ways to restore the Air Force's operational force in the shortest possible time. This meeting, known as " Areopagus ", of 40 experienced officers from the fighter, bomber, and reconnaissance attack aircraft units, however, had no effective results. A group around Galland, Steinhoff , Bär and Lützow (who acted as the head) tried to improve the position of the fighter pilots against the "bomber people". The air force command held the fighter rifle primarily responsible for ensuring that the Allied bombers were able to destroy industrial plants and cities to such an extent. The bomber group mainly consisted of Pelz, Herrmann and Ulrich Diesing . Pelz even offered Göring that all available bomber pilots could be retrained for jet fighter bombers because the fighter pilots were too exhausted for that.

Göring made Galland personally responsible for many failures and dismissed him on January 23, 1945 as general of the fighter pilots. Galland's intimate enemy, Gordon Gollob , was appointed as his successor . Lützow was sent into "exile" as a hunting guide in Northern Italy. Other experienced fighter pilots, also known as experts in internal parlance at the time, fell out of favor with the Air Force command. For example, Bär, who had been a squadron commodore of Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3) since mid-1944, received a punishment transfer to a training unit on February 13th as commander of III. Group of the supplementary hunting squadron 2 (III./EJG 2). Steinhoff, who had taken over III./JG 7 after Nowotny's death on November 7, 1944, was relieved of this post in mid-December 1944 because of alleged inactivity and was not given a new command.

Lineup

According to Gollob, Galland himself was to take over the 4th squadron of Jagdgeschwader 54 as a punitive transfer in January 1945 , which flew support for the trapped German troops in the Kurland basin . This did not happen, however, because on the intervention of Albert Speer this transfer was canceled by Hitler personally. Galland saw his only moral rehabilitation chance in taking over a task force again, in a formation that flew the Me 262. This was the aircraft that he had already flown as a prototype in 1943 and was able to recognize its superiority over conventional fighters.

Göring conveyed to him Hitler's decision that he had to set up a unit in echelon strength, with which he should prove the superiority of the new technology. He should organize the procurement of the aircraft himself. The unit should act completely independently, there would be no subordination to a fighter division, air corps or air fleet. Contact with other hunting units should not take place. He could also name it himself, as long as the name Galland did not appear in it. Galland decided on Jagdverband 44. The reasons were speculated that the year of his dismissal played a role and the 44 was exactly half the designation number of his first unit, the J 88, in which he served in the Spanish Civil War.

Brandenburg-Briest, where the III./JG 7 was already stationed, was to serve as the berth for the new unit. His plan was to set up a "self-sufficient" unit with a nominal 16 jets, divided into two small four-machine squadrons and a group staff with eight jets. Koller, as General der Flieger, supported Galland in the formation with personnel of the 16th Squadron of Jagdgeschwader 54, which was currently being renamed to 7./JG 7. Johannes Steinhoff was recruited as an important factor in the development . The personnel backbone of the unit was formed by a large number of experienced and in some cases highly decorated fighter pilots, some of whom Galland also brought to JV 44 from school units.

At least three Siebel Si 204s were procured from the holdings of the Luftwaffe's flight instructor school, which were used for navigation training and training in flying a twin-engine aircraft. The first training flights were completed with these machines between March 4 and 18, 1945; the first Me 262 arrived at JV 44 on March 14. On March 18, Lieutenant General Kammhuber ordered the immediate operational readiness with a strength of 20 aircraft. The training program continued well into March, with the aircraft mostly armed in order to be able to conduct patrol flights at the same time. Because of the many highly decorated pilots such as Gerhard Barkhorn , Walter Krupinski , Günther Lützow and Hans-Ekkehard Bob , it was jokingly claimed within the Air Force that "the Knight's Cross is part of the service suit" in this association .

commitment

The Jagdverband 44 won, despite enemy air superiority, during its eleven weeks of service in aerial combat 24 victories, losing three Me 262s against the mostly western allied air forces. Most of the unit's Me 262s were devastated by Allied attacks. The Jagdverband 44 never had more than 12 operational Me 262s and thus reached a maximum of the strength of a hunting squadron . The last deployment with the participation of Lieutenant General Galland took place on April 26, 1945 with six jet fighters against an Allied rapid combat formation of the Marauder type . After Adolf Galland was wounded, the association was led by Lieutenant Colonel Oskar-Heinrich Bär . On May 3, 1945, the last aircraft of the association were blown up at Salzburg Airport and the members of the association became American prisoners of war .

equipment

The emergency aircraft

Messerschmitt 262

In JV 44, the Me 262 fighter was flown in different versions, mostly with an armament of four 30 mm MK 108 automatic cannons . However, a prototype with an automatic 50 mm MK 214 A cannon was also used. Many of the Me 262s used in Jagdverband 44 were also equipped with R4M missiles.

Space protection swarm

Since the Me 262 was vulnerable during take-off and landing due to its sluggishness caused by the engines (the turbines only tolerated slow load changes), which the Allied fighter pilots quickly recognized and exploited, Galland created its own fighter protection, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 and D-11 was equipped. The machines operated at heights of up to 500 m. In order to avoid fire from their own anti-aircraft units in combat, the FW 190 of the arena protection were provided with a striking color scheme on the underside. A red base coat with white stripes enabled the flak gunners to differentiate between their own and enemy aircraft. The unit was led by Lieutenant Heinz Sachsenberg.

Markings and camouflages

The machines supplied to the association directly from the factory were fitted with a privacy screen that was very similar to the one used at the beginning of the war. The fuselage including the side surfaces and the upper sides of the wing were sprayed green (RLM 83) throughout, the undersides were painted gray (RLM 76). The machines had the license plates similar to a 1st squadron in a normal squadron, i.e. white numbers without group identification.

It is noteworthy that the JV 44 aircraft did not have the Reich Defense marking , which in other units consisted of a single or multi-colored band in the rear fuselage area. The machines that were taken over from other units after their dissolution were not disguised and also retained their identifiers. The two Me 262 aircraft used for training purposes were given a red or white S as their identification. The Fw 190D-9 of the space protection swarm were sprayed red with narrow white stripes on the underside to enable the flak to better distinguish between their own and opposing piston engine aircraft in the vicinity of the space .

literature

  • Adolf Galland : The first and the last. The fighter pilots in World War II. 14th edition. Schneekluth, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-7951-0503-X .
  • Cajus Bekker : Attack height 4000. A war diary of the German Air Force. Buch und Welt, Klagenfurt 1964 (21st edition (revisited and edited for the paperback edition by the author). (= Heyne books 1, Heyne general series. Vol. 975). Heyne, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-00296- 2 ).
  • Robert Forsyth: Jagdverband 44 Aviation Elite Units No. 27, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84603-294-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joachim Brückner: End of the war in Bavaria 1945 . Ed .: Military History Research Office. 1st edition. Rombach GmbH + Co Verlagshaus KG, Freiburg im Breisgau 1987, ISBN 3-7930-0190-3 , p. 144 .
  2. Archived copy ( Memento from August 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )