Night Fighter Squadron 3

Night Fighter Squadron 3
active	March 1941 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	air force
Branch of service	Air force
Type	Jagdgeschwader
structure	Squadron staff and 4 groups
Insinuation	3rd hunting division
equipment	Bf 110 , Ju 88 , Do 217
Squadron commodors
First commodore	Colonel Johann Schalk

The Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 was one of the first squadron of the Air Force in World War II , which is primarily for night hunting was created and used. After its formation in October 1940, the squadron initially flew in the Mediterranean region . Subsequently, his four groups were deployed mainly in the Reich aviation defense. There the squadron was responsible for protecting the north German coastal area. The NJG remained in action with all four groups until the end of the war.

Calls

The I. Group of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (I./NJG 3) had existed since October 1, 1940. The NJG 3 squadron did not exist at that time, however, as only this squadron group had this name. The group originally emerged from the fifth group of the (Z) training wing 1 and therefore still had the wing identification L1. From February to October 1941 the I. Group flew missions in the Mediterranean area. There against Malta, among others . On September 1, 1941, the II. Group was set up. The operational areas were Schleswig and Westerland . The list of the III. The group took place on November 1, 1941 with airfields in Stade , Nordhorn and Lüneburg , this was between the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1944 on the Danish sites of Grove and Aalborg . The squadron of the 3rd Fighter Division was tactically subordinate , with the squadron headquarters in Stade. In the meantime, the squadron identification had changed to D5. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg , which was bombed from July 25 to August 3, 1943 during Operation Gomorrah , was in the protection area of ​​the squadron and of both the commanding general of the fighter pilot Josef Kammhuber . After the Hamburg disaster, the Luftwaffe leadership developed the Wilde-Sau night hunting method .

In the autumn of 1943, Luftbeobachterstaffel 2 , based in Stade, was assigned to the squadron. She was later integrated into the fourth group of the squadron. In the spring of 1944 the squadron was distributed as follows:

• Squadron staff: Stade
• I. Group: Vechta
• II. Group: Planlünne
• III. Group: Stade and the
• IV. Group in Westerland on Sylt.

After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the squadron flew there on the invasion front. In August 1944 it was withdrawn from this mission and relocated to the Reich territory as a unit. There the I. group was in Schleswig , the II. In Gütersloh , the III. Group in Düsseldorf and the IV. Group in Wittmundshafen ( East Friesland ). The squadron was responsible for the operational protection of the north German coastal area. Parts of the squadron specialized in intercepting English courier machines on their way to Sweden . Later operations were carried out in long-distance hunting over England and with the night strike groups. In November 1944, the squadron gave its IV. Group to the Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 , but in return received the original III. Group of the same squadron; now, however, under their new name IV. Group NJG 3. At the end of 1944 the squadron staff was still in Stade, the I. Group in Grove , the II. in Schleswig and Husum and the III. in Stade; the IV. group, on the other hand, in Varel . The squadron experienced the end of the war in the area of ​​Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. The squadron also flew a few Focke-Wulf Ta 154 machines from autumn 1944 .

In May 1945 the squadron flew unified aircraft of the type Ju 88G under Colonel Radusch and was structured as follows:

group	Rank	Surname
I. group	Captain	Husemann
II group	Captain	Bunny
III. group	Captain	Barthe
IV. Group	Captain	Tober

Squadron commodors

Rank	Surname	date
Colonel	Johann Schalk	August 1941 to August 1, 1943
Colonel	Helmut Lent	August 1, 1943 to October 7, 1944 (killed in an accident)
Colonel	Günther Radusch	November 1944 to May 8, 1945

Web links

Commons : Nachtjagdgeschwader 3  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

• Wolfgang Dierich: The air force associations 1935-1945 - structure and short chronicles - a documentation. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1976.
• Dietmar Hermann: Focke-Wulf Nachtjäger Ta 154 “Mosquito” - development, production and troop testing. Lemwerder Stedinger 2006, ISBN 978-3-927697-46-1 .
• Ernst Obermaier: The Luftwaffe Knight's Cross bearers 1939–1945. Volume I, fighter pilot, Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, Mainz 1966.
• Werner Girbig: Start at dawn - A chronicle of the sinking of the German hunting rifle in the West in 1944/1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-6130-1292-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Dierich p. 67.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dierich p. 68.
3. ↑ Hermann p. 52.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Girbig p. 279.
5. ↑ Obermaier p. 196.
6. ↑ Obermaier p. 33.
7. ↑ Obermaier p. 69.