In 1943 Hermann Goering sent this “motivational” communique to this commander.
“Together with the fighter pilots in France, Norway and Russia, I can only regard you with contempt. I want an immediate improvement in fighting spirit. If this improvement is not forthcoming, flying personnel from the commander down must expect to be remanded to the ranks and transferred to the easter front to serve on the ground.”
This Wing Commander and unit served with distinction is often the subject of Luftwaffe modellers.
Name the Wing Commander and the unit that so unfairly earned the scorn Herman Goering (totally unjustified and showed just how out of touch with reality he was…).
Here’s another clue. This individual was credited with 176 confirmed kills. This unit was stationed in North Africa for a short time, then evacuated to Sicily to defend both the Island and the Straights of Messina.
Erich Hartmann had 352 confirmed kills, all of which occured on the Eastern Front. Your first guess of Hans-Joachim Marseilles (before you edited your post to Hartmann) was much closer. Keep trying! [:)]
This unit served with much distinction in North Africa and fought against overwelming odds, especially in Sicily. Herman Goering was so out of touch with the actual combat and logistical problems surrounding the defense of Sicily, that he continually berated and condemned JG77 during this time period. At this stage of the war the allies had overwhelming superiorty in quality and quantity. JG77s airfields were bombed during the day by B-17, B-24 and B-26 raids, and at night by Wellingtons. The allied bombers were routinely escorted by large numbers of Spitfires, P-40s, P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts. JG77 was flying the proven, yet outclassed Bf109E-4/7 and Bf109F variants at this stage of the war.
To give you an example of Goering’s lunacy, here is a story from a book written by Johannes Steinhoff titled “Messerschmitts over Sicily”. Units of JG77 were sent on a long range mission to intercept a flight of B-17s that were flying over the Mediterranean on a bombing mission that was fairly far from the Luftwaffe fighter bases. Steinhoff and his men had flown for quite some time attempting to locate and intercept the B-17s. At this point fuel was becoming an issue and many of the Bf109’s turned and headed back to their home fields, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to return home. Suddenly, they spotted the flight of B-17s and made just one quick pass. Steinhoff managed to shoot down a single B-17 but the others had no luck, and many of them had already turned back do to low fuel.
Steinhoff managed to land his plane just as his aircraft ran out of fuel. Shortly thereafter, upon learning that only one B-17 had been shot down, Goering issued the ridiculous decree that one officer from each of the squadrons (3) that belonged to JG77 was to be court martialed on charges of cowardice! Upon hearing this discouraging news (as if the overwhelming odds against them weren’t already enough to kill their morale) all three squadron commanders volunteered to face the court martial charges instead of randomly selecting one of their men (all of whom were in no way, shape or form cowards). Fortunately Adolph Galland managed somehow to get Goering not to follow through with his “motivational” punishment.
JG77 was simply not enough to stem the tide of allied airpower at this stage of the war. The allies had huge quantities of planes, ships, tanks, men, fuel, ammunition etc. as they prepared Sicily for invasion, which they conquered in short order. JG77 often had to fly from “forward” airfields that were nothing more than a field or meadow with a bare minimum of what’s required to keep fighter squadrons up and operational. What was expected of these men and machines was so unrealistic as to be mind boggling. The German high command was still thinking in terms of the early years in WWI and didn’t grasp the technical aspects of modern air combat operations and the unique challenges this brought.
“Messerschmitts over Sicily” by Johannes Steinhoff is a very interesting read. I really enjoy the first person accounts and this is one book I’d put at the top of the list! I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys these type of books or is interested in this period of the war. [:D]
What was the combat variant (not reconnaissance) of the F-104 Starfighter that featured no air to air combat capability, who operated it and what was its role?
I believe you’re referring to the F-104F (a 2 seat, dual control trainer based on the F-104D, which used the improved engines of the F-104G). It had no radar, and was therefore not combat capable. I believe 30 of these were purchased by German for use as interim trainers.
espins1: Nope, this was a combat capable variant, that saw 24 years of active service, although it did gain limited air to air capability in the early 70’s when the 20mm canon was added (Initially the canon had been replaced by a small fuel cell).
No, not the F-104S. In fact one of the key upgrades the F-104S had was the ability to fire radar-guided missiles in addition to the IR-guided missiles that most other F-104’s were equipped with (But not the subject of the question). Also the F-104S has over 35 years of service, not the 24 that the subject saw with its original user.
A further clue. This variant’s primary weapon prior to the early-70’s refit was never owned by the country that operated these aircraft. That distinction is not unique to this aircraft in this country’s service, although this was the only aircraft in this country’s service to use this particular weapon.
One of the ironies of this particular variant was that it was purchased to replace a previous aircraft that was essentially a pure air to air combat specialist, which was the role that this F-104 variant was not equipped to do.
The CF-104 got 20mm cannon in the early 70’s when they stood down from the nuclear strike role and became conventional strike aircraft. They never were equipped with air to air capable radar units, having a pure air to mud set instead. They were equipped with US owned and controlled nuclear weapons in their role (A distinction shared with the CF-101 Voodoo’s when operating with the AIM-2, although Canada at least owned the CF-101’s secondary weapon, the AIM-4 Falcon missile)
Why we never bought Thuds, I don’t know. Since they were designed for the nuclear strike role. Maybe the Gov’t was bribed (We wouldn’t be the only ones that happened to over the F-104).
Not to hijack the thread but, isn’t it interesting how so many aircraft wind up performing in roles they weren’t really designed for? (P-38 to name one…).
Great trivia question mykroft, I enjoyed that one. So Sharkbait, you got somethin’ for us? [:)]