Chapter 6
The Italian entry into the war on 10 June 1940 had signalled the start of a three-year campaign in North Africa that was to be fought between the Allied and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests dating back to the late nineteenth century. The British reaction to Italy’s declaration of war had been to cross from Egypt into Libya and this soon led to offensive and counter-offensive from either side. Hitler was concerned that a defeat of the Italian forces in the desert would risk Italy making peace with the Allies or, even worse, changing sides, and was soon convinced that only German intervention in North Africa would keep the Italians in the war. Hitler’s initial plan was to send a small force to contain the situation rather than to expand it.
During the opening weeks of 1941 the Luftwaffe had built up its forces in Libya to support Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The first Bf 109Es to arrive in the Western Desert were those of I./JG 27 under the command Eduard Neumann, which arrived at the small desert strip at Ain-el-Gazala in Libya on 18 April.23 Neumann had joined the fledgling Luftwaffe at its outset and had served with the Legion Condor and was credited with two victories. A veteran of the campaign in France, Neumann had been appointed Kommandeur of I./JG 27 during the Battle of Britain. While his number of victories was relatively modest when compared to others – he only scored thirteen victories during the whole war – Eduard Neumann was nonetheless one of the finest fighter leaders.
Neumann’s Gruppe was equipped with Bf 109E-7/Trops that had been fitted with ventral fuel tanks for the long transit from Germany, stopping only briefly in Sicily on the way. Neumann had become used to operating from basic airfields in Europe but conditions at Ain-el-Gazala were harsh to say the least, although the airfield would soon become the Luftwaffe’s main fighter base in North Africa. Operating from Ain-el-Gazala would never be easy. The airstrip was obviously very sandy, causing conditions similar to a small sandstorm every time an aircraft taxied or took off, but there were also small rocks spread across the field, which caused damage or even injury when blown around. There was no natural protection for the aircraft and the only cover was provided by sandbagged blast pens around the site.
The 109s of I./JG 27 were in the thick of the action straight away, the pilots claiming the first four victories on the day after their arrival. All four were Hurricanes and were shot down along the coastal strip between Gazala and Tobruk. One of the Hurricanes was claimed by Ober leutnant Karl-Wolfgang Redlich, Kapitän of the 1. Staffel, and was the unit’s 100th victory of the war. Another was shot down to the west of Tobruk by Leutnant Werner Schroer, the first of his many successes.24
Neumann was fortunate to have so many good pilots with him. Not only did he have Redlich and Schroer under his command, he had two other experienced pilots on his unit. One was Oberleutnant Ludwig Franzisket, the Gruppen-Adjutant with fourteen victories, and the other was Oberleutnant Gerhard Homuth, Kapitän of 3./JG 27, with fifteen victories. It soon proved to be a most capable unit and I./JG 27 quickly gained a strong reputation in the region; it was well-organized and well-trained, and boasted an excellent understanding of the tactics required in a desert campaign.
On the ground, the hot and dry conditions meant that sand got everywhere, causing excessive wear on engines, even with filters fitted, and the extreme heat reduced performance. However, the engine fitted to the Bf 109E, the DB 601, generally coped extremely well. Filters fitted over the air intake for the supercharger prevented ingestion of abrasive sand particles or overheating; either could cause extensive damage to the engine.
The desert war would become a war of attrition and equipment was often in short supply, not just aircraft but vehicles, clothing and food. While temperatures were constantly high, the weather conditions were not always suitable for flying as sand storms would reduce visibility to zero and even heavy rain would sometimes intervene. In the space of just an hour or two a dry sandy airfield could become a quagmire and make operations in the desert far from easy. Even when in the air, conducting operations could be difficult. Away from the coastal areas, the desert was a vast area of featureless terrain and while advancing troops on the ground were a sign of success, the great distances involved meant it was a logistical nightmare with fuel, spares and ammunition often in short supply. Furthermore, radio performance reduced over distance and often left the 109s to operate without any form of control from the ground.
However, more often than not, weather conditions were excellent for flying with clear sky and seemingly unlimited visibility, and no real obstacles by way of terrain or ground features. With few strategic targets, much of the air activity was in support of the ground forces, although the 109s of I./JG 27 were often given the freedom to operate alone and to concentrate on reducing the enemy’s strength rather than be tied up in direct support of forces on the ground. The aerial fighting tended to be along the coast, often centred over the ports of Benghazi and Tripoli that were so vital to both sides, and because the position of the front line could change rapidly it was vital for the pilots to maintain an overall, and regularly updated, awareness of the situation on the ground. Having to keep a watchful eye on movements across the desert meant that most of their time was spent at medium or low level. The desert backdrop, blue sky and glaring sun often meant the 109s would typically operate at around 6,000 feet, and the high mid-day sun meant that many preferred to operate later in the day when the sun was lower and the glare less.
The types of sorties varied enormously. The Bf 109E was capable of carrying bombs or drop tanks but whenever possible flew without external stores to increase its manoeuvrability and carried out gunnery attacks against ground targets instead. In this role the 109 was given almost complete freedom to roam. The more routine missions involved escorting Ju 87s and Ju 88s but when supporting a major offensive, such as at Tobruk, the 109s were used for a variety of tasks in addition to air combat, including attacking ships or ground vehicles, armoured or otherwise; it was in the Western Desert that the fighter-bomber came into its own.
As far as air-to-air combat was concerned there were initially no surprises on either side as it was the same aircraft types operating over the desert that had fought over southern England during the Battle of Britain just a year before. The Ju 87 Stuka, for example, would perform no better in a hot and sunny climate than it had earlier done over southern England but it still remained at the forefront of the Luftwaffe’s campaign in North Africa.
The Bf 109 and Hurricane would fight similar aerial battles to those they had been fighting since the outbreak of the war. As in other operational theatres, the Jagdwaffe found that the RAF tactics were outdated and, more often than not, defensive. JG 27 soon gained a reputation within the region with its use of the simple, yet effective, Schwarm formation, while maintaining the added protection of top cover. It proved a superior tactic in the desert and so mutual protection and responsibility were reinforced amongst the Gruppe’s new arrivals, and the unit’s discipline and preparation allowed the younger pilots to learn quickly from their more experienced colleagues.
Although JG 27 enjoyed much success, the situation on the ground had developed into something of a stalemate when Rommel was forced temporarily to abandon his attempt to take the besieged port of Tobruk until he received much-needed supplies. The 109s were often required to operate further afield, probing deeper towards Egypt, by staging through prepared airstrips near the village of Gambut, to the east of Tobruk, in order to increase their combat radius.
Despite all its success as a fighter, and to a certain extent as a ground-attack aircraft, the role of the Bf 109 would never be fully integrated into the land campaign and the Luftwaffe was never truly able to achieve the air-to-ground coordination with land forces that the Allies managed in the desert war.
The shape of the air war over the desert started to change as different types of Allied fighters appeared in the region. While the single-engine American Curtiss P-40B/C Tomahawk had not caused too much concern when it first appeared during June 1941, the more powerful and heavier-armed later variant, the P-40E Kittyhawk, with 0.5 inch machine guns replacing the 0.303 inch guns on earlier models, was a far more capable adversary; the Jagdwaffe’s failure to appreciate fully the subtle differences between the sub-variants of the P-40 often proved costly.
During September the Bf 109Es of I./JG 27 were joined by II./JG 27 led by Hauptmann Wolfgang Lippert, a veteran of the campaigns in Spain, France and the Soviet Union, and a holder of the Knight’s Cross with twenty-four victories. The arrival of Lippert’s Gruppe enabled I./JG 27 to rotate its aircraft back to Germany and re-equip with tancamouflaged Bf 109F-4/Trops.
A new offensive launched in November, Operation Crusader, brought the Allies quick and substantial gains. The Luftwaffe’s forward airstrips around Gambut were overrun, the long siege of Tobruk was lifted and Allied forces now posed a direct threat to the German positions at Gazala. After being at Ain-el-Gazala for seven months, the 109s of I./JG 27 were forced to abandon their base, along with II./JG 27, and relocate to Martuba where they were soon to be joined by the III. Gruppe; it was the first time Bernhard Woldenga’s Geschwader had been together for over a year.
The Allied offensive inevitably led to losses for the Jagdwaffe including Wolfgang Lippert, who was shot down on 23 November. Although he managed to bail out, he collided with the tail of his Bf 109F and was severely injured. He was admitted to hospital and his legs were amputated but he contracted gangrene. Lippert died of his injuries ten days after he had been shot down. Others to fall include the high-scoring Erbo Graf von Kageneck of 3./JG 27 who was mortally wounded during combat with Tomahawks and Hurricanes on 24 December. Despite his horrific wounds, Kageneck managed to get his aircraft back to base and make an emergency landing but he eventually succumbed to his wounds nearly three weeks later. Credited with sixty-seven victories and a holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Kageneck was just twenty-three years old.
The pendulum in North Africa now swung in favour of the Allies as the Luftwaffe could no longer operate freely over the desert. The lack of fuel and supplies also started to take effect. Fuel was being flown in by Ju 52 transport aircraft but these were susceptible to attack. Furthermore, having to abandon its airfields as the Allies advanced had cost the Jagdwaffe many aircraft that had been undergoing repairs as well as the loss of vital spares. JG 27, for example, was in a bad way, having been forced to abandon its aircraft and spares each time it was forced back across the desert and at one stage I./JG 27 was down to just four serviceable aircraft.
The combination of a prolonged campaign in North Africa and the onset of winter on the Eastern Front, which would restrict air operations over Russia for some months, saw the Luftwaffe increase its effort in the Mediterranean once more and amongst the top priorities was the conquest of Malta. Kesselring, who had commanded Luftflotte 2 on the Eastern Front, was appointed as the new Commander-in-Chief South and he now assumed command of all Wehrmacht forces operating in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Elements previously under Kesselring’s command were transferred from the Eastern Front and some of the units moving south were from Günther Freiherr von Maltzahn’s JG 53. One of his units, III./JG 53 under the command of Hauptmann Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke, had briefly returned to Germany to re-equip with the Bf 109F before moving to Libya in December to be joined a few days later by the Bf 109Fs of Erhard Braune’s III./JG 27. The rest of JG 53 moved to Comiso in Sicily for operations against Malta where they were joined by the Bf 109Fs of II./JG 3 led by Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Krahl.
On the island of Malta the RAF fighter defences had been reinforced and now consisted of three squadrons of Hurricanes and a Hurricane-equipped night-fighter flight. Other RAF units included detachments of Blenheim and Wellington bombers to maintain the offensive against the Axis supply lines to North Africa, as well as a reconnaissance squadron of Marylands and Hurricanes plus two Fleet Air Arm squadrons equipped with the Albacore and Swordfish.
The Luftwaffe commenced its new campaign against Malta during the morning of 20 December 1941 when Ju 88s, escorted by the newly-arrived Bf 109Fs of I./JG 53, attacked Allied shipping in the island’s Grand Harbour. The attacking force of forty aircraft was met by twelve Hurricanes and a number of claims were made by both sides. One successful pilot was Oberleutnant Friedrich-Karl Müller, now Kapitän of 1./JG 53 having been promoted after ten victories while serving with the 8. Staffel on the Eastern Front. With the advantage of height and speed, the Hurricane he engaged at 20,000 feet was his twenty-second victim of the war.
The emergence of the Luftwaffe in considerable strength over Malta once more had not been a welcome sight for the defenders. Not only had the RAF suffered losses in the air but it had also suffered losses on the ground; eleven Hurricanes were destroyed during the morning. The raiders returned again the following day. This time the Hurricanes were airborne in greater numbers but the 109s still claimed four victories, one of which was credited to Maltzahn.
There were further attacks against Malta during the following days and more victories, including further success for Maltzahn. As well as negating the air threat to the Axis supply convoys, once over the island the 109s were given free range to attack whatever they could, including flying boats moored in the bays around the island, and shipping and other smaller vessels in and around Grand Harbour.
The fiercest day of action since the Luftwaffe returned to Sicily took place on 29 December and proved costly for the defenders. The first raid of the day, some forty aircraft, occurred mid-morning and was followed by a second raid of more than twenty aircraft in the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon, a third raid, including nearly twenty Bf 109s, bombed the airfields and attacked shipping around the island. By the end of the day the 109s had claimed five aircraft and destroyed a further fifteen on the ground.
The arrival of JG 53 had a devastating effect on the defenders of Malta and, despite RAF claims, only two Bf 109s were lost by the end of 1941. This, combined with the fact that no Bf 109Es had been lost in the earlier air campaign against Malta during 7./JG 26’s time in Sicily, meant 1941 had proved to be particularly successful for the Jagdwaffe over the central Mediterranean. It might have been even more so had the Luftwaffe not had to divert its fighters to the Eastern Front to support Barbarossa during the year, but for the defenders of Malta it was a quite different story: nearly fifty RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots had lost their lives.
Meanwhile in the desert, the Allied offensive, Operation Crusader, eventually ran out of steam in the early days of 1942 due to the lack of logistical support. The heart of Rommel’s forces still remained and the Luftwaffe’s renewed offensive against Malta had eased the supply situation as far as the Jagdwaffe was concerned. With the RAF in Malta back on the defensive once more, fewer sorties were being flown against Axis shipping and supplies were once again getting through so Rommel was able to renew his offensive in the desert. Benghazi was recaptured at the end of January 1942 and Rommel was soon pressing the British defences at Gazala.
With the pendulum swinging back in Rommel’s favour once more, JG 27 moved back to its airfields around Martuba to operate as part of Nahkampfgruppe Martuba (Martuba Close-Support Group), a specialist group commanded by the Kommodore of JG 27, Oberst leutnant Bernhard Woldenga, and known locally as Gefechtsverband Woldenga (Combat Unit Woldenga).25
One young pilot serving with 3./JG 27 beginning to make a name in the desert war was Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille. At only twenty-two years old, the young Marseille was already a veteran of the earlier campaigns against Britain and in the Balkans. He was a gifted pilot and had learned his trade while flying alongside experienced pilots such as Gerhard Barkhorn, but Marseille had become a bit of a liability through his excessive lifestyle, irresponsibility and, at times, insubordination. He had joined JG 27 at the end of 1940 and it had been his new Gruppenkommandeur, Eduard Neumann, who had recognized Marseille’s potential as a pilot.
Marseille was keen to learn and his methods, at times, were quite unorthodox – he regularly carried out dummy attacks against his colleagues in order to perfect his techniques. His eyesight was excellent, which enabled him to carry out an attack from a position that others might have considered unfavourable, and his marksmanship allowed him to approach the enemy at higher speed. He was also equally as happy in a slower-speed encounter when he would reduce his speed to a minimum, using flap if necessary, to give him a tighter circle against his opponent and his deflection shooting was as good as anyone around at the time. Furthermore, he was very good at aerobatics and could manoeuvre his aircraft quickly and with natural ease.
While these qualities never guaranteed success, they had enabled Marseille to perfect a manoeuvre when engaged in combat with Allied fighters flying in a defensive circle; a standard tactic for Allied aircraft, particularly fighter-bombers, if caught at a tactical disadvantage. Marseille’s technique was to dive below the horizontal plane of the defensive circle and then to pull up from underneath his opponent. He would open fire from very close range, just as his opponent was disappearing beneath the nose of his own aircraft. Marseille would then continue climbing and once above the plane of the circle he would roll inverted and dive down behind another potential victim. The whole manoeuvre was carried out in very swift movements, and his ability to judge distance and rate of closure, combined with his skill at coping with high-deflection angles, made him a great talent in air combat.
Even after making multiple claims in one sortie, Marseille often returned with ammunition to spare. Many considered him to be the best shot in the Jagdwaffe and by February 1942 his personal score had risen to forty-six victories for which he was awarded the Knight’s Cross.
There were many other notable contributions in North Africa and amongst the best of the non-officer pilots was Oberfeldwebel Otto Schulz of 4./JG 27. Another veteran of the earlier campaigns against France, Britain and in the Balkans, during which he scored six victories, Schulz had arrived in North Africa in September 1941. Schulz excelled in the air war over the desert and his achievements quickly took him from a relatively modest total of nine victories to forty-four victories by the end of February 1942, surpassing the score of his own Staffelkapitän, Gustav Rödel. One of Schulz’s most impressive achievements occurred on 15 February when he claimed five P-40 Kittyhawks in one mission to the south-east of the airfield at Martuba.
With Malta still under an Axis blockade, a small and extremely versatile detachment of Bf 109Fs of III./JG 27, known as the Jagdkommando Kreta, was transferred from North Africa to Kastelli in Crete at the end of March.
The Luftwaffe had now flown well in excess of 10,000 sorties against Malta and had dropped 10,000 tons of bombs on the island. Britain’s Royal Navy had effectively been forced to abandon the island and supplies continued to reinforce Rommel in North Africa. With a German victory now in sight, Kesselring wanted to launch an airborne invasion of Malta while Rommel wanted the resources instead to launch a new offensive in the desert and to push on into Egypt.
Whether to allocate vital resources to Kesselring or to Rommel would be the most important strategic decision of the Mediterranean and desert war. Hitler ruled in favour of Rommel and the situation in the Mediterranean effectively reversed overnight. Malta was again given the opportunity to recover and it would not be long before British forces were once more inflicting losses on the Axis supply lines to North Africa. Furthermore, the increasing demands of the Eastern Front meant that a number of fighter units were transferred back to Russia in the spring of 1942 to continue the offensive in the east. Amongst those units to leave Sicily for the Eastern Front were II./JG 3 and I./JG 53, while III./JG 53 moved to North Africa. This left the Bf 109s of II./JG 53 as the only fighters in Sicily, although they would later be joined by I./JG 77.
Having received Hitler’s support, Rommel’s new offensive in the desert commenced at the end of May and his forces captured Tobruk on 21 June. The Axis forces now made a new attempt to break through to Egypt and the ultimate goal of the Suez Canal. In the air the Ju 87 Stukas supported the Panzers on the ground as the first encounters took place between the Bf 109s and newly arrived Spitfire Vs, with the early exchanges often favouring the more experienced Jagdflieger, many of whom were now flying the more advanced Bf 109G. The 109s of JG 27, no longer required as part of Gefechtsverband Woldenga, were reinforced by the arrival of III./JG 53, under the command of Major Erich Gerlitz, that unit having moved to Gazala from Sicily to help counter the reinforcements received by the Allies. During the next six weeks these Gruppen provided much-needed air support over the desert during the battle of Gazala.
Bernhard Woldenga would soon leave the region to take up a staff appointment and his departure led to a number of changes in command including promotion to Major for Eduard Neumann and his appointment to replace Woldenga as Kommodore of JG 27, while Gustav Rödel became Kommandeur of II./JG 27 and the impressive Gerhard Homuth, holder of the Knight’s Cross with thirty-nine victories, was appointed Kommandeur of I./JG 27.
The young Hans-Joachim Marseille, now known as the ‘Star of Africa’, having quickly acquired something that closely resembled celebrity status in the region, continued to dominate in the air. On 3 June he enjoyed his most successful day of air combat to date, claiming six P-40 Tomahawks to the west of Bir Hacheim in just one sortie. With his personal tally at seventy-five victories, Marseille was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross on 6 June and appointed Staffelkapitän of 3./JG 27. Just two weeks later he would add the Swords to become only the twelfth recipient of such high recognition after his 100th victory and he was the first to reach a century of successes against the Western Allies.
Marseille’s success coincided with the death of Otto Schulz who was killed on 17 June after claiming his fifty-first victory. Schulz was the third-highest scorer in the region behind Marseille and Freiherr von Maltzahn, Kommodore of JG 53.
One seemingly innocuous engagement over the desert took place during the afternoon of 7 August but it was one that would have an impact on the campaign in North Africa. By chance a Schwarm of Bf 109Fs from 5./JG 27 came across a lone Bombay transport aircraft of the RAF during a freier Jagd sortie behind enemy lines. The event was not unusual as Bombays were making daily flights from Heliopolis in Egypt to the Allied front line but on this occasion the Bombay was on its way back to Cairo from Burg-el-Arab having picked up Lieutenant General William Gott, the newly appointed commander of the British Eighth Army, who was on his way to Cairo for a meeting. The Bombay would normally transit at very low level, no more than 50 feet above the desert, to run the gauntlet of marauding Messerschmitts known to be operating in the area, but on this occasion was slightly higher due to an overheating engine.
Sitting higher above the desert, the Bf 109Fs, led by Oberfeldwebel Emil Clade, were looking for any target of opportunity before returning to their base at Quotaifiya to the west of El Alamein when they spotted the Bombay to the south of Alexandria. To Clade, the unescorted Bombay made an inviting and easy target, and it would have no chance against the swooping 109s. His initial attack was enough to convince the Bombay pilot to make a forced landing but, as he did so, a lethal burst of fire came from Unteroffizier Bernhard Schneider as he strafed the stricken aircraft. Amongst those killed on the Bombay was Gott.26 General Gott would be the highest-ranking British officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War and his death would lead to the appointment of Bernard Montgomery as commander of the British Eighth Army and it would be Montgomery who would face Rommel during the final decisive battles in the desert.
As Rommel’s forces advanced towards Egypt, the Jagdgruppen continued to enjoy success. On 1 September Marseille made the staggering claim of seventeen enemy aircraft in three separate sorties over El Taqua, Alam Halfa and Deir El Raghat during one day. His claims were a mix of Allied aircraft. In the morning he had been escorting Ju 87s when he engaged a mix of P-40 Tomahawks and Spitfire Vs of the RAF. Then, during his second mission at mid-day, he encountered Tomahawks and Kittyhawks of the South African Air Force and finally, during his third mission in the early evening, he claimed Hurricane IIs of the RAF.
Amongst the many successes there were inevitably more losses, including Feldwebel Günther Steinhausen of 1./JG 27 who was killed on 6 September having been credited with forty victories, for which he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Leutnant and awarded the Knight’s Cross. The following day came the loss of Leutnant Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt, Kapitän of 2./JG 27 and holder of the Knight’s Cross with fifty-nine victories; Stahlschmidt, a close friend of Marseille, was posted as missing in action just a week before his twenty-second birthday.
Marseille’s luck also ran out soon after. On 30 September he was leading his Staffel during an escort mission for Ju 87s and his short life was to end, not in air combat but following a technical problem with his aircraft. While he was returning to base the engine of his new Bf 109G-2/Trop developed an oil leak resulting in a fire. Smoke quickly filled Marseille’s cockpit, blinding him and partly asphyxiating him as he headed for home. Escorted by his wingmen, Marseille made it back over friendly territory and decided to abandon his aircraft. The standard procedure was to roll the aircraft inverted, release the harness and fall out but the smoke and fumes meant that Marseille had become disorientated. His aircraft was seen to be in a dive at the point he left the aircraft and the slipstream caused Marseille to strike the vertical stabilizer, which either killed him instantly or meant he was unable to deploy his parachute; either way, he stood no chance.
The loss of Hans-Joachim Marseille was felt by everyone in the region and his death caused the morale of the entire Geschwader to drop in a way that no other seems to have done. Promoted just days before he was killed, Marseille had been the Luftwaffe’s youngest Hauptmann at the age of twenty-two, and his achievement was recognized by him being only the fourth recipient of the coveted Diamonds. Hitler had even decided to make the award personally.
Marseille’s body lay in state in the back of a truck before his funeral took place at Derna on 1 October, attended by his Kommodore, Eduard Neumann, and Albert Kesselring. A portrait of this national hero was signed by Göring and sent to his mother, citing Marseille as the most outstanding fighter pilot in the world. Marseille was officially credited with 158 victories, all but seven of which were achieved during his time in North Africa, making him the highest scorer against the Western Allies.
Demoralized by their latest series of losses, I./JG 27 was withdrawn from the campaign in North Africa. The blockade of Malta could not last while the Luftwaffe continued to concentrate on supporting the Afrika Korps in the desert but there were a number of successes during the air battles over the island in 1942. Oberleutnant Gerhard Michalski, Kapitän of 4./JG 53, became the highest scorer over Malta with twenty-six victories during the campaign to surpass the earlier achievement of Joachim Müncheberg. Michalski would later become Kommandeur of II./JG 53 and be awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves before ending the war with seventy-three victories. Other high scorers over Malta included 22-year-old Oberleutnant Siegfried Freytag, Kapitän of 1./JG 77 and known as the ‘Malta Lion’, with twenty-five victories between July and October 1942, and Oberfeldwebel Herbert Rollwage of II./JG 53 with twenty victories between January and October.
Despite these efforts, the siege of Malta was over as the Luftwaffe’s main effort went into supporting Rommel’s forces in the decisive and costly battle of El Alamein, which would become the turning point of the desert campaign. The battle commenced on 23 October and one to achieve success during the opening morning was Leutnant Werner Schroer, Kapitän of 8./JG 27, who claimed two Kittyhawks, the first to the north-east of El Alamein and the second to the south-east. The following day he added two more to his total, a Kittyhawk in the morning and a Hurricane in the afternoon, and by the end of the first week of the battle, Schroer had claimed six more victories to bring his tally for October to fifteen. Two more followed in early November before Schroer left for the Mediterranean theatre with a total of sixty-one victories, all achieved in North Africa, making him the Gruppe’s top marksman in theatre and the second highest scorer of the North African campaign behind the inimitable Marseille. This brought Schroer a well-earned Knight’s Cross.
Having broken through the front at El Alamein on 4 November, the Allies pushed Rommel’s Afrika Korps back across the desert while Operation Torch, which commenced just four days later, saw Allied forces land in Vichy-held French North Africa in an attempt to pincer the Axis forces. Hitler ordered a build-up of strength in Tunisia to fill the gap left by Vichy troops but Torch signalled the start of the end of the campaign in North Africa.
Göring was keen to abandon North Africa but Hitler, supported by the loyalty and optimism of Kesselring, wished to hold a bridgehead in Tunisia and so a new force was formed under Oberst Martin Harling-hausen, consisting of over a hundred aircraft, most of which were fighters and dive bombers, to defend the bridgehead.
The arrival in the region of large numbers of new American aircraft, including medium and light bombers such as the North American B-25 Mitchell, the Martin B-26 Marauder and the Douglas A-20 Havoc, escorted by American fighters, mainly Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and Bell P-39 Airacobras, gave the Luftwaffe a new challenge. Individually, each of these aircraft rarely provided a match for the battle-hardened Jagdwaffe but collectively they meant that the 109s were outnumbered every time they took to the sky. As the campaign entered its final phase it seemingly did not matter how good the Jagdflieger was. He was simply outnumbered. Nonetheless, although the Luftwaffe was left with modest numbers in North Africa, its fighters remained a considerable threat to the Allies and often found the edge against new pilots arriving in theatre, although the 109s could only ever enjoy partial success against such overwhelming odds and had now become reactive rather than proactive.
By now, the number of Bf 109s available in Africa had reduced to less than a hundred and so in November some reinforcements arrived, including Bf 109Gs of II./JG 51 under the command of Hauptmann Hartmann Grasser, followed soon after by the Bf 109Fs of 3./JG 1 subordinated to Grasser as 6./JG 51. While operating from Tunisia, Grasser claimed twelve victories, his last successes of the war, and took his personal total to 103. Another to achieve success was Oberleutnant Anton Hafner of 4./JG 51. Hafner, already a holder of the Knight’s Cross, claimed his first victory in the region on 16 November, a Spitfire to the east of Bône, his sixty-third victim of the war. Within two weeks Hafner had taken his total in the region to seven. Seven more followed in the first week of December. Then, on 2 January 1943, Hafner was engaged with Spitfires and Hurricanes, and during the subsequent combat was shot down. Having bailed out, Hafner hit the rudder of his aircraft and would spend the next six months in hospital.
Amongst the welcome reinforcements to arrive in Tunisia during November were Focke Wulf FW 190A-4/Trops of II./JG 2 under the command of Oberleutnant Adolf Dickfeld, which were attached to I./JG 53 near Bizerta and would remain in Tunisia for the rest of the North African campaign. Already a holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, with 128 victories, Dickfeld was a talented pilot. His success had come while serving with 7./JG 52 on the Eastern Front but he was now the newly appointed Kommandeur of II./JG 2.
Dickfeld added five more victories to his total while operating in Tunisia but was badly injured during an accident after his aircraft struck an obstacle on the airfield at Kairouan on 8 January 1943. While Dickfeld was recovering from his injuries, his Gruppe claimed more than 150 enemy aircraft destroyed during its five months in Tunisia. Two to achieve considerable success were Oberleutnant Kurt Bühligen, who claimed more than forty victories during his short period in Tunisia, and Oberleutnant Erich Rudorffer, who had assumed temporary command of II./JG 2 from Dickfeld and achieved twenty-seven victories.
The air war raged on into 1943 and one of the last aces to fall in North Africa was Joachim Müncheberg, Kommodore of JG 77. While claiming his 135th victory on 23 March, a Spitfire, his victim exploded in front of him after a close burst of cannon fire. Müncheberg’s aircraft was badly damaged but he managed to bail out despite being severely wounded. Although he was soon found, Müncheberg, the nineteenth recipient of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, died on his way to hospital. He was just twenty-four years old.
Having earlier been withdrawn from the North African theatre following devastating losses to his unit, Major Eduard Neumann, Kommodore of JG 27, led Stab and II./JG 27 back to Sicily to provide some amount of protection for the supply convoys desperately running the gauntlet between Sicily and Tunisia. While this helped maintain some support to the last remnants of the Afrika Korps, there were at times barely a dozen serviceable 109s for the task.
By the end of April Neumann had been replaced by Gustav Rödel after Neumann was promoted to the rank of Oberstleutnant and posted to Galland’s staff in Germany. Rödel had previously led II./JG 27 and had spent much time in North Africa and knew the region well, claiming more than fifty victories in the year he had spent operating over the desert. After a short break in early 1943 he now returned to the front line and quickly brought his total to seventy-eight victories during May, for which he was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross.
Despite the courage of men like Gustav Rödel and others, such as 21-year-old Leutnant Willy Kientsch, the young Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 27 with sixteen victories over the desert, and who had added twelve more to his total in April and May 1943 during the last days of the North Africa campaign, it counted for little against such overwhelming Allied air superiority. As Germany faced defeat in North Africa, its fighters escaped while they could, although many ground personnel and large amounts of spares and equipment were left behind in Tunisia. By the end of April, the only Luftwaffe fighter presence in North Africa was JG 77, now under the command of Oberstleutnant Johannes Steinhoff, but by early May it was time for the last aircraft and pilots to leave for Sicily without the majority of the Geschwader ground crew or any spares.
The British advance westwards along the North African coast had reached Tunisia and the Axis forces were now caught in a pincer, outmanned and outgunned. Rommel himself left Africa in March. Nearly half of all supplies destined for his former forces in Tunisia failed to get through as the Allied offensive squeezed the Axis forces until their last resistance collapsed and they finally surrendered on 13 May.
Just weeks later, on 10 July, the Allies landed in Sicily. The 109s did what they could to deter the landings by attacking the landing beaches and countering the Allied fighters but one young pilot to lose his life over Sicily was Oberleutnant Wolf-Udo Ettel, Kapitän of 8./JG 27, just days after he had been awarded the Knight’s Cross for his 120 victories. Flying from Greece with their 109s fitted with long-range fuel tanks, the pilots of 8./JG 27 carried out their first ground-support missions over eastern Sicily on 15 July. Ettel claimed three successes during two days of aerial fighting before he succumbed to ground fire on 17 July while carrying out a low-level attack against Allied positions to the south of Catania; Ettel was just twenty-two years old and was posthumously awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross.
As the Luftwaffe abandoned its airfields in Sicily, Göring was again overly critical of his units and demanded an improvement in their fighting spirit but this only further dented morale. The Allies were able to mount 1,500 sorties a day during the opening days of the campaign, five times that of the depleted Jagdwaffe, which again faced overwhelming odds. Within a week of the Allied landings, it was down to less than fifty operational aircraft. Wolfram von Richthofen reinforced Sicily as best he could but it was too late. Days later the Luftwaffe units departed, some for mainland Italy, others for Greece to defend its approaches and the Aegean, and some returned to Germany. It was not long before Luftflotte 2 could barely mount fifty sorties a day against the sustained Allied effort. Richthofen’s units based in Sardinia were also under attack and suffered further losses. Elements of JG 27, 51 and 77 were moved from Sardinia to mainland Italy to resist the Allied landings as best they could but it proved to be a token effort.
It soon became clear to the German High Command that the defence of Italy was to prove futile as more and more resources were required back in Germany for the defence of the Reich. However, small numbers of Bf 109s were left behind when Italy finally surrendered on 8 September 1943. One of the last to fall in air combat over Italy was Franz Schiess, Kapitän of 8./JG 53. Schiess had achieved much success in the Mediterranean and North Africa, becoming well known for his aggressive tactics in combat, and had been awarded the Knight’s Cross after fifty-five victories. Following the Allied invasion of Sicily and southern Italy he claimed a further twelve enemy aircraft in just eleven days, seven of which were P-38 Lightnings. Promoted to Hauptmann on 1 September he was leading his Bf 109Gs the following day against B-25s attacking the rail marshalling yards at Cancello, Naples, when his unit engaged the fighter escort of P-38s. Exactly what happened to Schiess is unclear but his aircraft ‘Black 1’ is known to have crashed in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 25 miles to the south-west of the volcanic island of Ischia; he is believed to have been shot down by a P-38. At the time of his death Schiess was just twenty-two years old and amongst his sixty-seven victories were seventeen P-38s, making Franz Schiess the highest scoring ‘Lightning-killer’ of the war.
Italy’s surrender left the Aegean wide open as most of the islands had been defended by Italian forces. The Allied threat to Greece and the Balkans could not be ignored and so German reinforcements were sent to the region but these were too few, too thinly spread and arrived too late to prevent Allied landings on a number of islands. Nonetheless, the Luftwaffe still managed to achieve some success over the Aegean during the later weeks of 1943 as its campaign in the Mediterranean started to draw to a close.
Two in particular made their mark. One was Hauptmann Joachim Kirschner, Kapitän of 5./JG 3 and a holder of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, who took his overall total to 175 victories, and Feldwebel Heinrich Bartels of 11./JG 27, another holder of the Knight’s Cross, who scored twenty-four victories in just six weeks during October and November 1943. Neither would survive the war. Kirschner was killed within days, being shot down on 17 December over Croatia. Although he had bailed out safely, 23-year-old Kirschner was captured and executed by partisans. Bartels would later be killed on 23 December 1944 while defending the Reich with his personal score on ninety-nine.
By the end of 1943 the Allied ground forces were firmly established in Italy and were progressing north towards Rome, although a series of defensive lines across the Italian peninsula meant that a breakthrough towards the Italian capital was still some months away. The Allied advance now also posed a threat to the Balkans. Increased Allied air activity over the Balkans and attacks against shipping in the Adriatic meant that the Luftwaffe’s fighter resources were operationally and geographically stretched to the limit. Luftflotte 2 had been severely depleted and its units were unable to interfere with the Allied advance and provided little opposition to the Allied landings at Anzio in January 1944. As far as the High Command was concerned, the defeat in North Africa and now the Allied progress through Italy meant that the Mediterranean had become a forgotten theatre.