Air battle over the Ore Mountains

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Formation of Boeing B-17 G bombers with the typical condensation strips

The air battle over the Ore Mountains , also known as "Black Monday over the Ore Mountains" , took place in the midday of September 11, 1944 over the ridge of the Ore Mountains east of the Fichtelberg near the then Sudeten German market Schmiedeberg (today: Kovářská ).

course

In 1944, there were particularly many air raids by Allied troops with the aim of destroying the synthesis plants of the German mineral oil industry. There, fuel for aircraft and motor vehicles essential to the war effort was made from coal. Mission 623 was flown on September 11, 1944 . This had ten primary goals to which u. a. Leuna (Merseburg), Lützkendorf , Magdeburg , Misburg ( Deurag-Nerag plant ), Hanover , Böhlen , Brüx , Ruhland and Chemnitz belonged. The bombing of Chemnitz was also part of Operation Frantic . For bad weather there were an equal number of alternative destinations. A total of 1131 bomber planes were in use, which were accompanied by 440 fighters for security.

The hydrogenation plant BRABAG in Ruhland - Schwarzheide . Was target No. 7. For the bombing was divided the 100th Bombardment Group, also called "Bloody hundredth" (Bloody Hundredth) was called because of the many losses and on the former British RAF -Stützpunkt Thorpe Abbotts in Diss (Norfolk) was stationed. She was part of the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces . The four-engine 36 used bomber of the type Boeing B-17 G Flying Fortress included four different scales to (349th, 350th, 351st and 418th Bombardment Squadron). The bomber group approached from the west and flew at a great height over Germany, initially without escort by fighter planes. A meeting of this association with US fighters of the type North American P-51 D Mustang of the 55th and 339th Fighter Group was planned over the Erzgebirge ridge.

The Germans noticed the approaching American planes and sent a formation of 60 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A and Messerschmitt Bf 109 G fighter planes from the Alteno and Welzow air bases . It was the II. And III. Group of the Jagdgeschwaders 4 . Around 11:40 a.m., parts of the American and German fighter planes south of Oberhof in Thuringia were involved in fierce fighting, in which 6 Germans and 2 Americans died. One of the dead, Lt. William Lewis, was only found in 2002 after an intensive search.

The main battle then took place east of the Fichtelberg on the Bohemian side. The Erzgebirge area had been spared from fighting up to this point. The German fighter squadron struck over Schmiedeberg before the planned meeting and surprised the bombers in the middle of their long-haul flight. Within a very short time, 14 US bombers were shot down and more were damaged. Shortly afterwards, the US fighters also reached the scene. They involved the mostly young and inexperienced German fighters - often their first combat mission - in aggressive fights and thus enabled the remaining bombers to fly on. Four downed US fighters face 37 kills by German fighters.

Four US bombers detonated and crashed while burning in and near Schmiedeberg. The Boss Lady broke in midair, with the stern falling onto the roof of the girls' school during class time, where it got stuck. Bomber crash sites were also near Crottendorf , Kretscham-Rothensehma , Neudorf , Gottesgab ( Bozi Dar ), Tellerhäuser and Schmalzgrube . The crash sites of the fighter pilots are even more scattered: four near Schmiedeberg, five near Weipert ( Vejprty ), but also near Bärenstein , Mildenau , Zschopau , Grumbach , Sehma , Reitzenhain , Kühnhaide , Grießbach and Börnichen / Erzgeb. The remaining US bombers were able to reach their destination and drop 53 tons of bombs over the Schwarzheide synthesis plant .

losses

  • Total loss of 19 US aircraft (15 B-17G, 4 P-51D)
  • Total loss of 37 German aircraft (18 Fw 190A, 19 Bf 109G)
  • 53 Americans killed, 54 captured
  • 21 Germans killed, 11 seriously injured

Museum of the air battle over the Ore Mountains

To commemorate the event, the Museum of the Battle of the Ore Mountains ( Muzea letecké bitvy nad Krušnohořím in Czech ) was opened on September 13, 1997, with the participation of veterans from both sides and survivors. The anti-war museum goes back to the initiative of the flight history group of Kovářská under the direction of Jan Zdiarský, who has been investigating and documenting the events and collecting material since 1985, the Slet Pilsen group , which is a member of several American military history organizations, and the community Kovářská, which provides the premises free of charge. The museum shows numerous finds from the area as well as documents and portraits in several rooms. Showcases are dedicated to the finds from Oberhof. The museum is open regularly on Saturday and Sunday.

Commemoration

An international memorial event with a military parade for the victims has been held every year since the 50th anniversary of the fighting.

The street on which the museum stands is now named after Albert E. Trommer, the pilot of the machine that fell on the school. Today's primary school was named in 1994 after the lower gunner Sgt. JC Kluttz, who was the only crew member to survive the crash.

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Melzer: The great air battle over the Erzgebirge , in: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter , 24 (2002), Issue 2, pp. 19-22. ISSN  0232-6078
  • Jan Zdiarský: Black Monday over the Ore Mountains: History of the air battle that broke out over the Ore Mountains on Monday, September 11, 1944 at noon between the 3rd bomber division of the 8th USAAF and Fighter Squadron 4 of the German Air Force. Museum of the Air Battle over the Ore Mountains: Kovářská 2001 . ISBN 80-903030-1-3
  • Kenneth Breaux: Courtesies of the Heart. Trafford Publishing, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4120-1165-5 ( Google books preview )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map with the flight routes of Mission 623
  2. ↑ 445th Bombardment Group, Sep. 1944
  3. ↑ Arrangement of the units involved
  4. ↑ Matthias Leich lives in Oberhof in Thuringia. During the day he works for a mail order company. Then he looks for war dead in the woods "I can't leave the man outside" In: Berliner Zeitung. November 6, 2002 ( online )
  5. ↑ Kenneth Breaux: Courtesies of the Heart. Trafford Publishing, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4120-1165-5 ( Google books preview )
  6. ^ Esther Schrader: The Final Mission is Completed. In: Los Angeles Times , November 2, 2002 ( online )
  7. ↑ Karl-Heinz Melzer: The great air battle over the Erzgebirge , in: Erzgebirgische Heimatblätter , 24 (2002), issue 2, pp. 19-22. ISSN  0232-6078
  8. ↑ Aircraft: 2102657 (website of the 100th bomb group foundation)
  9. ↑ Herold local history. In: Stadtbote (Thum), 16 (2014) 9, September 1, 2014, p. 8 ( PDF ( Memento from April 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ))
  10. ↑ Flight history group Kovarska (Schmiedeberg) (website of the museum)
  11. ↑ Slet Pilsen (website of the museum)
  12. ↑ 23rd International Airmen's Meeting, Kovářská September 10, 2016