Kampfgeschwader 54 Volume II by Peter Taghon (Lela Presse 28/02/25)

Another imminent publishing event for Luftwaffe enthusiasts - volume II of Peter Taghon's huge history of KG 54 is due at the end of next week. From the publisher's blurb; (adapted and translated by this blogger) 

 " ..With its skull and crossbones emblem Kampfgeschwader 54, the Totenkopfgeschwader, was one of the few Luftwaffe bomber/combat units to fly from the first to the final days of WWII, and has long warranted a detailed history. With its origins in KG 254, KG 54 made a modest entry into the war, with just a single Gruppe engaged in September 1939 in Poland. In April 1940, its second Gruppe, formed during the Phoney War, took part in the fighting in Scandinavia. Then, the following month, the Geschwader was increased to three Gruppen and launched in the Westfeldzug: the campaign in the West. With its third Gruppe disbanded after suffering heavy losses throughout the May/June engagements, KG 54 fought in the Battle of Britain, continuing its missions over England during the Night Blitz. In June 1941, the two Gruppen were deployed in the USSR during ‘Barbarossa’, completing large numbers of missions but suffering such heavy losses that they were recalled to the Reich at the end of the year. However, the military situation had become such that the Totenkopf was forced to disperse its forces, with I./KG 54 moving to the Mediterranean and II./KG 54 returning to the USSR (with a brief period in France). During the aerial assault against Malta, I./KG 54 operated in concert with K.Gr. 806, subsequently renamed III./KG 54. These two Gruppen supported Rommel's Afrika Korps before being joined in 1943 in Sicily by II./KG 54, the Gruppe taking part in the final battles over Africa (Tunisia) which is where this new Volume II picks up the story..

Now at full strength, KG 54 fought the Allied landings in Sicily before being withdrawn to mainland Italy. The Totenkopf left the Mediterranean for good at the end of 1943, returning to the West. It was then deployed again over England as part of the bloody and futile operation ‘Steinbock’. Casualties were so high that II./KG 54 was disbanded in April 1944. Two months later, the Geschwader - once again reduced to two Gruppen - faced the Allied landings in Normandy on missions that were just as costly in terms of men and equipment. Fighting tooth and nail, KG 54 returned to the Reich where, in September 1944, it became a fighter unit equipped with the famous Me 262 jet. However, the aircraft still suffered from serious ‘teething problems’, and KG (J) 54 - despite having been reinforced by a second Gruppe - was hardly able to stand out against the vastly superior Allied air forces, and was decimated. On 8 May 1945, the surviving personnel of the skull and crossbones Geschwader surrendered, their numbers then being mainly dispersed in Austria and Czechoslovakia. 

Volume II contains 392 pages, over 650 photos, 17 colour profiles and period documents. Volume I has been available since October 2024..."

Below; from volume II, a 6./KG 54 Ju 88 in Bergamo, Italy

Hello Peter, many of us are no doubt eagerly awaiting Vol II of your KG 54 book. Can I please ask you a couple of questions for my blog report?

How long did you spend researching KG 54 and how much time did you spend writing these two huge volumes?

Hello Neil,

It’s not easy to say exactly how much time I’ve spent researching KG 54. It all started for me in the mid-1980s with my research on Luftwaffe operations during the Westfeldzug. Through this, I made a lot of contacts with pilots and crew members of the Lehrgeschwader. Some of them had extensive documentation and had also been active in Belgium in 1944. It didn’t take much encouragement from them for me to start writing the history of their Geschwader. That KG 6 would follow was only natural.

Once I had finished working on KG 6, I looked for a new subject. During my research on the Westfeldzug, I had already made quite a few contacts with crew members and pilots of KG 54. I also had extensive communication with Sigmund Radtke from the Traditionsverband KG 54. However, most of my contacts had only been active during the western campaign or had been shot down over England as early as 1940-41. A few went on to have rather impressive careers. So, I already had a decent amount of documentation on KG 54.

By coincidence, the archive of Sigmund Radtke, the author of the book on KG 54, had been passed on to my good friend Ulf Balke. Part of it had already been given to Morten Jessen, but both Ulf and Morten were willing to make the archive available to me. That’s when I discovered that Radtke had far more information than he had used in his book. In addition, I found a lot of supplementary material in the Bundesarchiv.

I got even luckier—through my contacts at the AMC, I was able to access their archive as well. They turned out to have a large collection of photographs, some interesting logbooks, and, most importantly, the diary of Hauptmann von Brunn. He had been very active in the final years of the war, and his notes proved to be of great value for that period.

How long I spent researching/writing is hard to say. A large part of it was done in the 1980-90s (mainly focusing on 1940-41), and after that, I worked on it in small steps until I finally decided to tackle the chronicle in earnest, which led me to resume intensive research. That was during the peak of the COVID period. Writing itself took about 3 to 4 years, partly alongside the research. I did this partly in my free time while I was still working, and then for about a year and a half as a retiree—spending a considerable number of days working on it full-time.

Peter, there were plenty of great images in volume I and I've already been fortunate enough to have seen some of the highlights from volume II. Do you have any particular favourites?

Which photos interest or appeal to me the most? Most readers will undoubtedly be very interested in the photos of the Me 262. There are so many photos that I find fascinating, but the ones I have the strongest emotional connection with are the photos that started it all. For example, during my research on the Westfeldzug, I came across a couple of photos in an infantryman’s album showing the crashed Heinkel 111 of Hauptmann Willers in Scheldewindeke. Through Sigmund Radtke, I got in touch with Willers himself. He was very eager to visit his crash site again. That was a truly special experience, and his information proved very valuable for the chronicle.

Even more significant was a photo of a He 111 that had crashed in Oudekapelle—also a KG 54 aircraft. I had no idea who the crew could be, but one of the infantrymen had taken a clear photo of the pilot. I sent the photo to Sigmund Radtke, and he immediately recognized him as the future Ritterkreuzträger Ernst Petzold. I was able to get in touch with him, sent him the photos, and he turned out to be very interested. He immediately invited me over, and through him, I gained an incredibly interesting insight into his long career within the Geschwader. So, if you ask me which photos appeal to me the most, then yes—it would have to be the photos of Willers and Petzold.

Peter, thank you for helping to put together a nice presentation for the Luftwaffe blog and thank you for allowing me to to translate some extracts of your KG 54 history into English (coming soon)

No problem! Many thanks for the publicity! I know Lela Presse appreciate it. Can I conclude by saying that I’m very lucky that Michel at LeLa Presse took the risk of publishing two such voluminous books. Cheers!

Below; ground crew pose for a souvenir snapshot in front of "B3+AP" flown by Staffelführer of 6./KG 54 Oblt. Karl-Egon Hellwig. Hellwig and his crew were shot down over Kent on the evening of 21 January 1944, crashing at Sellindge (between Ashford and Folkestone). Hellwig was killed.

 

Oblt. Eberhard von Brunn, attached to the Stab./KG 54 noted in his diary; 

 "..In the late evening of 21 January, the crews received their instructions on the the airfield where I. Gruppe was also located. We learnt that the attack we had been planning would be aimed against London, which few had anticipated. We had assumed that this operation ('Steinbock') would concentrate on ports, airfields, certain industrial installations or even Allied troop concentrations and supply depots in order to disrupt the invasion preparations. None of us were happy about the situation... We were loaded with  high explosive 'Sprengbomben' (1000 kg container) and a 500-kg  incendiary 'Brandbombenbehalter' container and took off from Marx at 6.33pm in the dark. Given the weight of the ordnance, I could only with difficulty maintain 330 km/h and the climb performance of the Ju 88 was just as abysmal. Of the fast bomber designed as such in 1940, there was nothing left. We flew alone over Deventer and Ijmuiden (on the coast of the Netherlands) to within twenty-five kilometres of central London. We then turned towards the city and dropped our cargo. In the sky, but also on the ground, the target was well marked by light ('Leuchtbomben') or incendiary bombs. We attacked horizontally. The defences were terrible. Over London, we were greeted by searchlights and flak. But the enemy appeared to have been caught by surprise because no night fighters intervened. During subsequent operations, the defences strengthened. One weapon surprised us. We called it 'Fliegerschreck' - airman's terror. It consisted of rockets fired in salvoes. We could see fifty rockets going off below us (later there would be more) and a few seconds later, the same number of explosions in the sky at around five thousand metres. After three seconds, a large cloud of dark smoke rose from some two hundred points. We assumed that the rockets were dispersing highly explosive projectiles. Hence this cloud of smoke. We also thought that some of the shells were coming down by parachute. During our four subsequent missions over London, no one could tell us anything about this weapon..." 

These 'anti-aircraft rockets' were undoubtedly the so-called 'Z' rocket batteries. The first were equipped with a single launcher, the Projector, 3-inch Mark 1. As this equipment did not give complete satisfaction, it was improved, with rockets subsequently being launched in large numbers in powerful salvos. The Projector, 3-inch, No 2, Mk 1 was a double launcher, while the N°4 Mk 1 and Mk 2 could fire thirty-six rockets simultaneously. On this first ‘Steinbock’ mission, London's defences were limited. Despite this, one of the KG 54 Ju 88s 'B3+AP' flown by the crew of Oblt. Karl-Egon Hellwig (the Stafü of 6./KG 54, below) was shot down by F/Lt John Hall and F/O ‘Jock’ Cairns flying a 488 Sqd Mosquito for their first victory..

 

(blogger note;  the  grave of the 30-year old Karl-Egon Hellwig who was from Hamburg can be visited in Hawkinge cemetery. His crew Uffz. Johann Jehle, Uffz. Walter Flossmann and Fw. Roland Kühnert bailed out successfully and were taken captive)

 

Morton's editor and author Dan Sharp on his new " Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe -Jet Fighters "

 

I recently posted a quick over-view of a very nice hardback published by Mortons - ‘Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe - Jet Fighters 39-45' which rather failed to do justice to what is a very nice and impressive publication. As the blurb puts it, author and researcher Dan Sharp has written ' the most complete and detailed account [..]..of German WWII jet fighter development' ever compiled. In comparison my review came across as a little lacklustre no doubt. I spoke to Dan subsequently to discuss his new work. With Dan's permission  here are some of his insights into German jet fighter development. His 'five-star' book is recommended reading for all Luftwaffe enthusiasts.

".. Hello Neil! I saw your review of my Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Vol. 1: Jet Fighters 1939-1945 and was glad that you were sufficiently interested in the book to review it. I wouldn't normally respond to a review in this fashion but I really wanted to clarify one or two points you raised.."

"...You said in your review that you thought this was a 're-published' title. It is in fact a totally new work. A vast amount of effort in researching primary source documents went into it and it is, I believe, the most comprehensive account of jet airframe development programmes in WW2 Germany ever written. The cover artwork did appear on a 'bookazine' which sold out of its very limited print run five years ago. While my book does of course describe some of the better known jet projects that were under development it goes much further. In fact I'd say I've included every single known jet design ever worked on in Germany during WW2 (and several that were unknown prior to the publication of this book). Each one is set in context, the dates given are backed up by period sources, the details of every known jet fighter requirement, specification and design competition are given. This is something no previous book has ever done..."

"...You said that some designs featured are based on only the sketchiest detail or the odd drawing. This is true and I point this out clearly and indicate the archival sources for every design where they exist, complete with full references. Again, this is something no previous book on German WW2 aircraft development has ever done before. Using my book, anyone could go to, say, NASM, or IWM, and see the original source material for themselves. Previously it was impossible to say whether a cited source was genuine or not. And if it was genuine, to check whether the author's translation/interpretation was accurate. I can tell you that certain sources cited (without giving a location for the document) by certain other authors have been misleadingly interpreted and embellished to say the least. I can provide concrete examples of this..."

"..The section on the Me 163's early development supersedes that written in Ransom's Me 163 Volume 1 and indeed I'm currently helping him to update his book for a reprint, based on the new archival information that I have recovered..."

"..Similarly, my fully referenced account of the single jet fighter competition(s) supersedes those of both Forsyth and Koos, since I found all the original material they had based their versions on plus a great deal more, which altered the timeline and enabled me to provide a more accurate account of what happened and when. I believe also that I have added previously unknown details to the development history of the Me 262 as well..."

"...One of the problems with writing about 'secret projects' (in fact every aircraft ever made started out as a 'secret project' - the term should really be 'early aircraft development') is that the reality is actually rather mundane. There's really nothing 'Wunderwaffen' about any of it. The Germans were methodical in calculating the likely performance of their aircraft designs and the competitive process was fairly rigorous. Outlandish designs were usually proposed for a good reason and rejected for equally good reasons. There's very little in the way of big personalities backstabbing one another, bribery and corruption or Nazi propaganda distorting the procurement process or any of that stuff. It's simply the case that this was, for better or worse, a golden age for aeronautical science, with lots of new ideas (backed up by wind tunnel testing and hard maths) coming through which, it was believed, might provide an edge against likely future enemy aircraft developments..."

"..Taking into account the above I do feel your review of my book is selling it short somewhat. Of course I realise that wartime aircraft development is not your primary area of interest.  That said if anyone feels  that I have the wrong end of the stick anywhere, or if there is any area where I have clearly 'dropped a star' I would be happy to accept and acknowledge it. I would much rather know about any possible misinterpretations so that I can amend them when the opportunity arises. I know some authors will deny anything is ever wrong with their work and will defend demonstrably flawed histories to the bitter end - but I'm not that way inclined. There's always more to discover and more to learn and if you think someone else has done any of it better than me, please tell me!.."

"..I have tried to get this across in my book, with maximum use of contemporary documents to dispel any suggestion of inaccuracy or fantasy (again, certain authors in this field do not seem to be above simply making things up). If anyone can demonstrate that anything is wrong with my account - I would love to know about it so I can better understand what really happened!.."

"..Incidentally, I note from your blog that you are still reading Ron Ferguson's "He 219 An Illustrated History".. You may be aware that, in parallel, Rich Carrick and a team of authors have been working on another He 219 book which will follow Martin Pegg's revised Hs 129 book and the Forsyth/Creek Ar 234 book under the Chandos banner. .."

"..Documents on the aircraft types featured in my book are relatively few and far between, so during the course of my research I happened to scoop up vast quantities of irrelevant material to find bits and pieces on 'projects'. As part of this process, I've dredged up most of the same documents Ron Ferguson has used to build his book - and a whole lot more. I have located some 62 period documents on the He 219 (accounts of meetings on it, test centre reports, comparisons with competing designs, reports on engines for it, armament for it, proposed developments of it etc. etc.). Through the use of these documents, some of the questions Ron Ferguson leaves unanswered in his book can in fact be answered - such as the precise date of its cancellation - and some blanks can be filled in, as well as providing the colour of verbatim accounts of meetings on the He 219..." 

"..My point is that even if something doesn't seem immediately relevant to the aircraft developments I might be writing about at the time, I aim to collect and absorb absolutely everything to do with every aspect of German WW2 aircraft development. It is the only way, I believe, to get a complete picture of what was happening!.."

"..I have also been helping Francis L. Marshall with updates for his Bf 109 T book - such as providing the original specification for a carrier fighter from 1935 (making the overall development programme several years longer than originally thought).It's amazing how much is still out there to be found and how uncovering this material about 'projects' can literally rewrite the history of famous in-service types!.."

 With excellent production values  "Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe  -Jet Fighters " is  a large book of over 300 pages and some 600 photos, drawings, diagrams and conference translation transcripts printed on glossy paper which describes the convoluted genesis of the jets and jet projects that were under development or attained operational status during the period 39-45. To quote another reviewer writing on Twitter, " ..a fascinating analysis of original German sources that haven‘t been tapped before, doing away with old myths and providing new insights. Highly recommended! .."

Forthcoming - The Messerschmitt Me 210/410 story, Jan Forsgren, Fonthill

now available to pre-order from Fonthill is a new book from Jan Forsgren on the type. According to the Fonthill site the book is due in July;

"..In 1938, the Reichsluftfahrtsministerium (German Air Ministry, RLM), issued a requirement for a new twin-engine heavy fighter to replace the Me 110. This type of combat aeroplane was known as Zerstörer (Destroyer). The first prototype flew in September 1939. The Me 210 proved very difficult to fly, having numerous deficiencies. It was said to be deadlier to its crews than the enemy. Nevertheless, the Luftwaffe ordered the Me 210 into production. Operational trials began in late 1941, but it was eventually acknowledged that the aircraft had to be redesigned in order to be accepted into Luftwaffe service. The whole Me 210 debacle proved a huge scandal. A redesigned variant, the Me 410 began to reach Luftwaffe units in mid-1943. Even if the Me 210 and Me 410 were similar in appearance, the latter had to be re-worked to erase the extremely poor reputation garnered by the Me 210. The Me 410 proved a quite successful aeroplane, being used as a heavy fighter and for reconnaissance duties. Its closest Allied equivalent was the British DH 98 Mosquito. More than 1,500 Me 210/410s were built in Germany and Hungary, with only two Me 410s surviving today..."

" Hi Neil ..I've just submitted the last edit before paging to Fonthill for the Me 210/410 book. The release date is provisional, but I hope it will be released later this year - July according to the Fonthill site. At around 270 pages my book will feature a general history of the Me 210/410, as well as the Ar 240, including details on development, combat, variants, units, foreign operators (Hungary and to a much lesser extent Japan), foreign evaluation, production, preservation and much information on individual aircraft..."

Jan Forsgren very graciously granted me a fantastic interview on the publication of his Ju 52 book on this blog here


recent 210/410 images from expired ebay auctions (not in the book!)

Verbandsflug KG 51 Hornisse...

Bf 110 units in the Battle of Britain by John Vasco - Wingleader

Having been very enthusiastic recently about the new Wingleader magazine with its lovely landscape format on thick glossy paper, I was equally as pleased with my copy of John Vasco's Bf 110 units in the Battle of Britain ( Vol I) . This really is a lovely piece of work. With one picture per page I thought it looked very impressive and  I'm surprised nobody has really done it before.. it really maximises the quality of each image and is great for those all-important details...

Subtitled "Modeller's photographic archive " Volume II - now available to pre-order - is another Wingleader production in A-4 landscape format with, in many instances, a single photo per page. Regular blog readers will recall that John Vasco featured in the first of my author interview series and I quite distinctly recall him saying that he had no more book plans....so never say never I guess.

I asked John about his new Wingleader titles..

" ...I am pleased with Part 1 of the Bf 110 in the Battle of Britain book. Part 2 is with the publishers at the moment, and once final proofing/corrections are done, it should hopefully be out around April-May time -certainly before the middle of the year.

How did the books come about ? I had continued to gather Bf 110 photos and in conversation with Simon Parry I said I could probably do a Bf 110 volume. I then went through what I had and advised them of the likely total of photos, and matters moved on to considering two volumes. So it was a venture to capture every Staffel during the BoB, with the caveat that not every recce unit might feature, as some might only have had one or two Bf 110s, or photos simply did not exist for the period in question. Fernando came in for the profiles...

The landscape format allows for the photos to feature the aircraft larger, rather than smaller had the format been in portrait style. It works well, and I am pleased with the outcome. Volume 2 will be every bit as good as volume 1, with the odd surprise for good measure...

Piotr, the artist who did the cover for Volume 1, has also done the cover for Volume 2. Equally as good!..."

Volume II is currently available to pre-order from the Wingleader site - as a special edition Vol II will have 128 pages. Order both Vol I and II together and get free postage in the UK.

Also on this blog; 

The story behind the Luftwaffe book - John Vasco's 'Bombsights over England -Erprobungsgruppe 210 in the Battle of Britain' here

“Mosquitos over Berlin” - a chat with Andreas Zapf; Moskitojagd, Kurt Welter and Me 262 jet night fighters

The history of the two-seater versions of the world's first jet fighter has been somewhat neglected. That has not stopped more than a few 'urban myths' taking root around these machines, especially in their role as 'night-hunters'. However Andreas Zapf has virtually single-handedly corrected this state of affairs with his huge " Mosquitos über Berlin. Nachtjagd mit der Messerschmitt Bf 109 und Me 262 " published earlier this year by VDM. Adapted, built and deployed in virtually the last months of the war from the Messerschmitt Me 262 two-seater training aircraft, the history of this aircraft and its employment by the so-called Kommando Welter against the fast  Mosquitos of Bomber Command - a machine which was all but "invincible" - is described in what will undoubtedly be the last word on the subject - "Mosquitos over Berlin". Andreas recently took time out to sit down with us at the Luftwaffe blog to discuss the book, Kurt Welter, Me 262 night fighters and Moskitojagd !

 “...Late in the summer of 1944, the skies over the Reich were mostly dominated by the Allied air forces. The heavy bombers of the USAAF at day, those of the RAF at night. In addition the fast de Havilland DH.98 ‘Mosquito’ of the Light Night Striking Force roamed the skies over Germany – and with little or no opposition went more or less unchallenged. Besides the ever present Flak, there was not much they had to fear. ‘Not much’, however, is relative. With their fast and agile Messerschmitt Bf 109s, some specialized units such as 10./JG 300 and later II./NJG 11 operated especially against the fast ‘Wooden Wonder’. And starting in December 1944, the first nocturnal missions using the Me 262 jet fighter were added to the threat. Starting out as ‘Kommando Welter’ and being taken into regular operations as 10./NJG 11 later, a handful of skilled pilots flew the single-seater Me262 A and later the Me 262 B-1a/U1 twin-seater to counter the nightly Mosquito attacks. A new book by German author Andreas Zapf book shines a light on the almost untold story of the Nachtjagd with the Me 262. 596 pages, 160 b/w photos, 69 reproduced documents, 24 maps and flight maps are adding to a story reproduced from material hidden in archives around the world, flight logs, written accounts and many hours of personal discussions with those involved. Enjoy the untold story of a unique unit and their nocturnal stalking of the famous ‘Mosquito’...”

Hello Andreas. Congratulations on the publication of your impressive new book ! I've reproduced the jacket blurb above by way of an introduction to our discussion. Firstly, how did you come to research and write the story of “Mosquitos over Berlin”?

Hello Neil – and “thank you very much for the flowers!” – and of course, thank you very much for taking the time to have this little talk about my book and our mutual hobby.

As for choosing the topic, that was pure coincidence – I took over a collection from a fellow researcher some years back who has been writing his books on the German Nachtjagd and other topics a few years back in the 1980s. Contained within the lot was a copy of a Luftwaffe Flugbuch (“flight log”) showing nocturnal flights with Messerschmitt Me 262 B-1a/U1. And there have been letters between the original owner of the files and a variety of pilots that flew the Me 262 with “Kommando Welter”.

This sparked my interest and I started to comb the available literature, just to find out that it was an absolute “stepchild”, hardly mentioned at all and where it was, with a variety of “truths” that were not backed by any sources one could fall back to. In other words: I was unable to say if the previous authors worked on fact, fiction, or hearsay. So I set out to improve and update the story – how difficult could it be? One small unit, a few aircraft, only a couple of months towards the end of the war… naïve and foolish, I can tell you…

Being a Bundesluftwaffe officer, a wreck recovery archeologist and airfield series author, I guess your father inspired your interest in WWII Luftwaffe ?

I think, any boy growing up and and developing a love for books sooner or later raids his father’s “library”. I don’t know what other boy are finding – but besides the usual suspects, my hunting grounds were filled with books about air war, the Luftwaffe and all that. Not a few books but plenty of them. I remember having read Werner Girbig’s “Die nicht Zurückgekehrten” and Toliver/Constable’s “Holt Hartmann vom Himmel!” amongst the first ones… it just caught up with me later, I guess. So yes: inspiration certainly came from that side.

Back to Mosquitos. I'm intrigued to know just how big a problem they were for the Germans. Did you work out how many raids Mosquitos actually flew against Berlin during the war? I read somewhere that they were overhead on 36 consecutive nights? 

One of the last things I did before wrapping up and getting the book ready for the printers was a trip to Los Angeles to meet one of the nicest guys I have ever had the honor to meet: Jorg Czypionka. Jorg was a flight instructor with FFS A/B 115 in Austria for most of the war, then was posted to 10./JG 300, stayed with it when II./NJG 11 was formed from it, and finally was posted to 10./NJG 11 in March 1945.

When he read the manuscript, his comment was “ ..so much on the Mosquitos and in comparison it almost looks like we didn’t even fly anymore!” . That hurt a little because I knew they did everything to do their job in a world that was rapidly falling apart around them – so I went and did the math – and amended a chapter in my book, so let me quote myself:

“..Taking March 1945 as an example, we can review the entire set of morning and evening reports of the Luftwaffeführungsstab Ic which lists the missions flown against Mosquito bombers attacking Berlin. They are listing 33 missions with Me 262, spread out across 13 nights. An additional 8 flights with the Ta 154 ‘Moskito’ – also hunting for the fast twin bomber – are documented. Plus seven aircraft of an unidentifiable unit. All in all, a total of 48 missions.

The Light Night Striking Force in return has reached full strength and weather denied flying only on two occasions. Without looking at the early returns, dropouts for other reasons, etc. the Mosquitos mounted some 2,280 missions to Germany. The Luftwaffe pilots were hopelessly outnumbered.

From September 1944 to May 1945, 180 missions against Mosquitos to Berlin are documented, around 60 of them for the jets. During that time frame, the Light Night Striking Force mounted more than 11,000 combat missions to Germany.”

I think, these numbers give anyone of us an idea of the odds during those final months of the war. And yes, the more squadrons the Light Night Striking Force assembled, and the more Mosquitos were readily available, the more flights they managed to pull of – and indeed, the prime target became Berlin. It was rarely the only target during the nightly missions – but it was regularly on the target list and yes, 36 consecutive nights sounds about right.

I'm sure many think that the Me 262s deployed as night fighters were bomber killers as they were by day. This isn't the case though is it? Did the Kommando regularly fly by day as well? I know Becker has one recce Lightning Abschuss? 

Initially, the Me 262 of “Kommando Welter” and more importantly the later 10./NJG11 were primarily tasked to intercept and shoot down the Mosquitos bound for Berlin. And only those. Jorg Czypionka told me that on more than one occasion, when the raids were targeting other cities, even close by, they were not given permission to engage. It was Berlin only. Different story during daytime though – here, the otherwise “useless” jets were indeed tasked to intercept Mosquitos and F-5Es on recce missions. Becker got one that is confirmed and I think, I can pin another F-5E on Fritz Reichenbach. But all in all, not on more than maybe 5 – 10 days.

Because the jets were so fast even hunting Mosquitos was fraught with difficulty wasn't it ? - high-closing speeds, no way of slowing down to accurately aim and fire?

Yes, the Me 262 was fast, sometimes too fast. Combined with the relatively low speed of the Mk108 rounds, this gave the pilots not more than one or two seconds to actually aim and fire. Karl-Heinz Becker misjudged and had to fly through the debris of ‘his’ F-5E, subsequently belly landing his bird. Lt. Herbert Altner tried to reduce thrust too quickly on his first flight with the Me 262 B-1a/U1 and experienced a flameout with subsequent loss of the twin seater. It was not an easy attack, especially not at night. You need to remember: despite the Me 262 B-1a/U1 being “the symbol” for Welter’s night fighting activities, only one pilot ever flew her in combat. The others were flying barely modified Me 262 A single-seaters… no speed brakes, a somewhat fragile engine control, darkness all around… today, we would call any pilot flying under these conditions a “reckless flyer”.

How did Welter manage to persuade the powers-that-be that he warranted his own 'Kommando'? Because of his success in 10./JG 300? He was after all still relatively unknown and a junior officer wasn't he ? We hear so much about Hitler wanting the 262 as a bomber and yet here he is apparently authorising the type to fly at night as a fighter? And can you explain what 'Objektjagd' was - the 'Objekt' being Berlin I assume?

Well, that’s a bunch of questions there. First of all, let’s clarify “Objekt”. Yes, the “Objekt” was the to-be-protected target, for the Me 262s mostly Berlin. In other words: rather than hunting free, the night fighters were bound to the Objekt where they used the searchlights to guide them to their prey.

The question about how Welter got to his “Kommando” is an interesting one. Honestly, I never found an answer. There are different stories told, some of them range from “possible” to “bullshit”. Unfortunately, the war may have erased all documented evidence and time certainly has obscured the memories of those that talked about it in the recent years.

The only thing that I know is that Welter got his Knight’s Cross in October 1944 – and documents from Rechlin show the first preparations of their Me 262s (which Welter initially was allowed to use for his trials) around End of October/early November 1944. And on December 12, 1944, Hermann Göring authorizes the trials formally, initially with 3 Me 262 (Welter) and 3 Arado Ar 234 (Bonow). But the first ideas of using the Me 262 (and also the Arado Ar 234) as night fighters dates back to a time before Welter got the Knight’s Cross.

So all I can say is that it looks like he got the “Kommando” the formal way – not, as some are suggesting, by pulling off a stunt flight then then being summoned to Göring. And he may have gotten it because he was in the right place at the right time. After all, he was a successful and skilled night fighter, he got a high decoration and he was eager to improve his success rate.

In your reading and research did you get a better idea of Kurt Welter, the person and the pilot - he was presumably the gifted night fighter that some say but perhaps a little obsessive and 'difficult'? I read in Peter Cronauer's article in Flugzeug Classic (2014) that Welter avoided flying from around mid-March 1945 and drank a lot. And of course filed many unfounded claims?

One of the predicate rules of me writing is “in dubio pro reo” – “if in doubt, for the accused”. Of course, when you deal with Kurt Welter, the first thing you come across is the classification as blunt liar and as an over-claimer. But I think, the story is not that straight forward. But let’s start with the beginning of your question: yes, I learnt a great deal about Kurt Welter and I am happy to say that it was enough to dedicate an entire chapter of 25 pages to his biography.

He certainly was a gifted night fighter and someone described him as a man with “cat’s eyes”. My friend Jorg claims his landing skills were about average but in the air, he was a gifted fighter and skilled marksman. Those that knew him in their letters (and Jorg in person) describe him as “demanding” and maybe a “womanizer” but I have not heard a bad word about him from all that I got from Karl-Heinz Becker, Herbert Altner, and Jorg Czypionka.

He also was what we would call ‘quick-tempered’ today. On the other hand, it seems he also was an ‘organizer’, a man that could get things done. I never met him, obviously, but what I am seeing is a man that – like so many others – went through a war, aged before his time and most certainly suffered the consequences from a world falling apart around him.

Did he drink? I would guess so – but many of them did and as one of the night fighter pilots told me: ‘We never knew if we had another day to live so hell, yes, we drank as if there was no tomorrow.’ – and some of them certainly drowned their fear and despair. But for all I know, he was not the alcoholic that some describe him today.

Did Welter avoid flying? Another good question – again, those that knew him said he always was the first to fly and if there was only one aircraft available, it would have been his. I know he was grounded for some time in February. I know he never flew the twin seater in combat. But did he duck out and put the others in harms way? I did not find a single piece of evidence for that. He was certainly flying in March – when the unit lost their home base, Burg near Magdeburg, after the USAAF raid on 10 April 1945, they supposedly were able to save most of the aircraft and bring them to Lübeck – but there are also intercepted messages about low combat readiness. In general, not too many flights were flown from Lübeck, as it seems – and maybe Welter was busy on the organizing side rather than the combat side.

Which brings us to the last topic and my apologies for the lengthy answer: his claims. First and foremost, I have deliberately denied my book a “scoreboard”. There is too little evidence to create one. But if you search the Internet, you will find more than once place that lists the claims attributed to Welter.

The most interesting question is: where did those claims come from? For Karl-Heinz Becker, we have the Abschussmeldungen. Also a single one for Herbert Altner. But I have yet to see anything for the others, including Welter. I know that Hans Ring and Emil Nonnenmacher compiled their list of Luftwaffe claims and I know that all the dates for Welter are contained in a shortened list of their research which I have a copy of. BUT: no sources given. And what distinguishes these entries in their list from all others: they only got a date but never a time.

You can also use the morning reports of the Luftwaffe-Führungsstab Ic which at least list the claims – but never attribute a claim to a specific pilot. So from my perspective – and that is what I did – we can trace the claims and numbers but except Becker and Altner, we have a truly hard time to put names to most of the other claims.

Then you need to imagine the situation: dark, clouds, no radar, an excess of speed – you fire at your opponent and the Mosquito corkscrews (which was their evasive maneuver) – what does the pilot think and report? It happened to Karl-Heinz Becker and I was able to get in touch with the son of his “victim”. The 30 mm rounds almost severed the tail of the Mosquito…almost. The bird limped home and Becker claimed a kill. It was not on purpose.

Other way round: Welter in his famous letter says he brought down a Mosquito by ramming it. We all went “..bullshit, that’s a clear fake!”. Yet, for one of his early claims while with JG 300 a Mosquito crew files a combat report for exactly the same place Welter claimed and almost exactly the same time: they reported that a Bf 109 (Welter was flying Bf 109 with 10./JG 300 at that time) rammed them and took off parts of their wing so they lost control temporarily before being able to fly home…

All in all: there is evidence for “over-optimistic” reporting – but I doubt that Welter bluntly lied. And I am not even sure that all the reported “claims” are actually claimed by him…

In Manfred Jurleit's book Kurt Lamm talks about a dispute and a falling-out that he had with Welter. How did his pilots regard Welter himself?

As I said: “in dubio pro reo” but Kurt Lamm’s account in Jurleit’s book and in one or two letters that I have copies of is not in line with any evidence I was ever able to find. I don’t want to judge a man that I don’t know and who cannot defend himself anymore – so let me kindly say: I think, Kurt Lamm’s account on Welter might be more “shining a light on Kurt Lamm” than “giving an honest account of Welter”.

As I said earlier: his other pilots – especially Karl-Heinz Becker and Kurt Altner who may have known him best amongst those that we have accounts from never had a bad word to say about the man. Yes, 'womanizer', yes, “quick-tempered”, yes, “demanding.” – but I never heard “coward”, “drunk”, or “liar”.

What was the significance of the 27-28 March 1945 Berlin raid? 

That night is – from a personal and non-personal point of view – maybe the single most interesting night to look at when looking at the history of Me 262 night fighting.

From a distance, it is a night at the end of March 1945 which was the most successful and busiest month for Welter and his pilots. Especially in the second half of the month, the conditions improved and they regularly were able to deploy multiple machines night after night. It is a glimpse at the “what if” scenario – if they had more men and machines available, if they had not lost their base early April 1945, if…nobody here wants that “if” but it also shows that the night fighting activities could have been scaled up and what it could have looked like. Then, of course, the date marks the first operational nocturnal flight of the Me 262 B-1a/U1 – the first-ever combat mission of the radar-equipped Me 262. Everyone else was flying on Mosquitos caught in the beams of the search light – but Lt. Herbert Altner and his radio operator, Uffz. Reinhard Lommatzsch, were able to roam free… until their engine flamed out, costing the unit “Rote 12” and Reinhard Lommatzsch his life.

Finally, it is the night that my good friend Jorg Czypionka shot down “his” Mosquito – a fact that he regrets to this day because it cost the life of the Mosquito’s pilot. I did a separate article (which I intend to translate to English and publish as an eBook like the JG 3 article of mine currently available on amazon) – it’s a perfect night to shine the limelight on men of both sides, the fate of those that perished and those that survived and had to live with the burden of the survivor.

Is there an English translation of 'Mosquitos over Berlin' coming do you think? Your own English is so good you could probably do it yourself. How did you get to master English so well anyway?

When I published the book through VDM, I sat down with Heinz Nickel and discussed the language – we agreed on German being the first shot. However, we both know that a good portion about the book is also about the fate of the airmen of the Light Night Striking Force. And I have been in touch with some of the families who all were very interested and eager to explore what their fathers or grandfathers were up against.

Personally, I want an English version – and sooner than later, because I know about the interest in the rest of the world. We are working on it but we need to find a publisher that we can liaise with. The ball is in VDM’s field so to say – but I know, they are after it and I hope, we can see development in spring next year.

In fact, I have also discussed doing the translation myself and then publish an English version through VDM. The problem is marketing and distribution, especially distribution: if you ship a book of 2.5kg from Germany to any buyer outside Europe, the postage is excessive. Which in return would reduce the sales because barely anyone would be able to pay almost the same for postage than for the book itself. Which makes it financially unattractive to any publisher without international distribution channels.

You also need to consider: an eBook is unfortunately not an option – I tried that in English and with amazon’s self-publishing platform with my much shorter story on JG 3’s adventures on the Eastern Front in 1941 and that worked well. But the Mosquito book is far more complex in layout and won’t work as eBook…so back to the drawing board with finding a suitable publisher.

My English – well, that is a story for itself, but I can safely assume my old English teacher would be somewhat amazed. It has to do with the way foreign languages were taught in school at the time I still went there (back in the 1980s and early 1990s): text, grammar, full stop. Mostly not even talking the language throughout the lesson. When I started my professional career though, I was placed in a multi-national project team with an American project leader… they made sure my language skills improved rather quickly. And I hade the great chance to spend 5 months in the Bay Area and California in 1996, working with our consultants in their office. That did the job but some people claim you can still hear a trace of a Californian accent…

What projects do you intend to work on next? 

Nachtjagd somewhat is a burnt topic now – my friend Theo Boiten is just releasing his updated series of Nachtjagd-Books and it is just great. Jean-Yves Lorant and Richard Goyat did a wonderful job on JG 300 and the Mosquito hunters of 10. Staffel. I still have a lot of Mosquito material but for the moment, I am caught up with something else.

Initially, I wanted to work on my own grandfather’s story  - he was with a heavy artillery unit, first in the West, then later at the Siege of Leningrad. In preparation, I looked at the operations around Maastricht and Eben-Emael on 10 May 1940 – which included a lot of Stuka activities. At this point, I am gathering data but it might well be that I switch from one of the fasted aircraft of World War II to one of the slowest. And it might well be the Stukas that are going to receive my attention over the next few years!

Thanks Andreas,  there's a link to your site below with more on the book and ordering information. All the best for the book and your future projects!

https://www.nachtjagd-me262.org/

The story behind the Luftwaffe book(s) - a Luftwaffe blog interview with Jochen Prien

Hello Jochen, thank you for being willing to appear on the Luftwaffe blog and for answering my questions. Could you please relate a little about yourself as writer and historian?  How did you come to write the history of JG 53 ?

Well, there are two different questions there! What can I say about myself as a writer and historian ? That's a difficult one. I’m not an educated historian, just someone very much interested in recent German history, in particular that of the Luftwaffe. I have commented on my motivation in several earlier posts on TOCH and LRG – suffice it here to say that a main drive of my occupation with the Luftwaffe fighter force is the fact that I’m truly grateful to live in a time in which so far no one has fired a shot at me other than my father’s generation which was deprived of their youth and had to go through the war instead. Therefore I feel obliged to try to create a forum where the names of those which fell victim to the war are preserved.  And one thing I can say for certain as a writer is that I want to come as near to the actual facts as possible; at the same time I want to overcome long living legends and most of all the remnants of Propaganda and Nazi ideology which is still evident in several publications dealing with the Luftwaffe up to this day.  

As for JG 53 – well, I certainly did not wake up one day being struck by the idea that I should write the unit history of JG 53. In fact it was much rather a matter of coincidence. In 1985 I was asked to team with Gero von Langsdorff, Hans Ring and Winfried Bock to research and write the history of JG 3, this being a project of the verterans association of the Udet Geschwader. It ended in dismal failure as the association and in paticular its president proved to be totally incapable of any sort of reasonable co-operation and support and, what was even worse, aiming at censoring the manuscript to bring it in line with their perception of history. So, deeply frustrated we quit this project.

While this was still going on and with nothing at hand to spend time on the JG 3 project, I continued my search for material for my collection. In mid 1986 I came into contact with Julius – Jule – Meimberg who invited me to his home asking me to show him what material I had on JGs 2 and 53. Back then it was still possible to stuff all of it in a laundry basket and so I drove to Münster. I returned with all of his albums and documents but had to leave my material with him as security. Two weeks later I swapped my binders for his material. On this occasion he sort of casually enquired why I shouldn’t write the unit history of JG 53 – he had an uncanny persuasiveness and on the background of my JG 3 frustration he quickly talked me into his project so that I accepted.

Next time we met – around September 1986 - Jule had gathered four more JG 53 veterans, Helmut Bennemann, former Kommodore, Alfred Hammer, long time Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 53 and former Gruppenkommandeur of IV./JG 53, Wolfgang Dreifke, former Geschwader-Adjutant and finally Walter Rupp, flamboyant former Kapitän of 3rd Staffel. Together they signed a recommendation addressed at all former members of JG 53 to help me research and write the history of their Geschwader. This document over the next year opened the vaults of several hundred former pilots and ground-crew men of JG 53, leading to a steady flow of both documents and photos. The year 1988 was spent with writing the manuscript, the first part of which was published in 1989 if I remember it correctly. Unfortunately the printing and binding quality of Vol. 1 produced by Flugzeug Verlag was so bad that I decided to publish the remaining two volumes myself with the help of Struve Druck, generously assisted by a loan given by Jule and the other four sponsors – they gave it with the provision that only as much had to be refunded as the sales of the books allowed, the rest à fond perdu. It was paid back in total.

What was your first published article/book? 

My first published article / book  ? – that’s an easy one! In Luftfahrt International Issue 11/ 1980 I published an article dealing with the red bands on the engine cowlings of JG 53’s Bf 109 Es during the BoB entitled "Rote Ringe - Jagdgeschwader 53". Looking back at it now it was sort of poking in the mist yet it alerted the late Michael Payne who became a very good friend for many years.

How did your interest in the Luftwaffe develop - your father won the Ritterkreuz but was not an aviator I believe? 

My father was in fact responsible for my interest in Luftwaffe matters in general and in the Bf 109 in particular, not because of his own war-time experience as a tank officer but because he started to build scale models in the early fifties, lining them up on a nylon thread above my bed. So when I went to bed and when I woke up as a child there were always a string of aircraft models dangling from the ceiling above me. This of course triggered my interest to build models on my own – and the Bf 109 was the most appealing in my eyes ( and still is ).               

How do you recall writing and researching in the pre-internet pre-personal computer era? The jacket ‘blurb’ on the original German language edition of both the JG 53 and JG  77 histories if I remember correctly explained that the text was type-written and photo-statted to produce the finished work? 

It was totally different in many ways. Research was done by going personally to as many archives and museums as possible, in Germany and abroad, such as the Studiengruppe Luftwaffe, the Bundesarchiv and the BA/Bildarchiv, the BA at Kornelimünster, Sammlung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, IWM, ECPA to name just a few. Archives in the US could only be approached by writing letters. The most comprehensive means of information were micro-films with lots of original Luftwaffe documents stored but it was quite a cumbersome procedure to exploit the information. Most of the work was done by writing letters and using the telephone. It was all much slower than today and the waiting for a return letter was often enervating. There can be no doubt however that it was much more difficult then to create a comprehensive representation of for instance a unit history.

One thing however was much better then – there were still many former pilots and ground-crew men around who were willing to help and still had a good memory.

Yes, it is true that all three volumes of JG 53 and the first two of JG 77 were written with a simple NEC writing system with the text being stored on numerous floppy-discs. The text was printed and the photos inserted by Struve Druck.        

Just how much time is devoted to the writing and research of your JfV series? how is the work load shared with your collaborators? There are now some 18-20 volumes in this series..is the ‘end’ in sight or is it still ‘open-ended’?

Don’t ask me how much time is devoted to writing and research – a lot! In our team I’m responsible for the text and the photos, whereas Gerhard checks the loss lists and Winfried contributes the information for the claims lists and re-checks the loss lists and the text. Of course we constantly discuss many issues underway. 

The end of the JFV series is in sight. After Vol. 13/IV, V and VI containing the statistical parts of the service over Germany and France in 1944 as well as Norway against the Western allies  there will be most likely either one big or two medium volumes covering the Mediterrannean ToW in 1944. The final major chunk dealing with 1944 will be the East, most likely two or three volumes. That will leave us with 1945 – no idea yet how best to tackle this.    

Some of your work has been published in English, but most of it has not - why is this ? Would you not achieve a wider readership if you published in English for example? 

Well, I’m a native German dealing with a German topic so it is not entirely unusual that this is done in German. But yes, I would be very happy if at least the JFV series could be published in English but so far it has been impossible to find a publisher for such an undertaking, even less so as there is no guarantee that the series will actually ever be completed. Even the prospect of a substantial up-dating of the manuscript and an equally substantial addition of new photo material has so far not triggered any tangible interest. 
  

What do you think of the Osprey ‘Aces’ series - more to the point would you ever consider writing a book for Osprey, as some otherwise serious researchers have started to do. And people like Erik Mombeeck have launched their own book series such as ‘Luftwaffe Gallery’. Would you ever consider releasing your research/collection in this more ‘accessible’ type of format?

Well, I'd certainly be prepared to offer my material gathered over the last 20 years for a revised English version of the JFV series but I’m not planning anything like Mombeek’s Luftwaffe Gallery. 

I have never seen a copy of the Osprey “ Aces “ series so I cannot comment on that. Yet I cannot imagine to write something about aces as this is a subject I do positively dislike for several reasons.

That's an interesting comment. I suspect you dislike the fact that many of the aces achievements may be taken out of context and inflated in importance as they possibly were by wartime propaganda?

In my opinion there is way too much emphasis being laid on the phenomenon of German fighter aces and their scores in Luftwaffe publications, often not far away from wartime propaganda; to me they were just a part of the overall picture and certainly not the most important one. From  a distance of almost 80 years the number of claims filed should no longer be sufficient reason to focus on this small group of pilots: it seems more appropriate to acknowledge the fact that all pilots, the old hares like the young newcomers, had but one life to lose and that the unnamed pilots that perished in the war deserve the same space in the history of the German fighter arm as do the so-called aces. At the end of the day the number of claims a fighter pilot scored for me is not enough – at least even to this day - to elevate him above the rest.        

You also comment in your Gruppen histories from time to time on the German fighter aces 'naivety' and their naive 'world view' (cf. letter from Badum in JG 77 Teil II where he describes Russia as being 'dirty'). In your Intro to JG 27 you of course also recognise that the ace pilots were part of the Wehrmacht which made possible AH's policy of conquest  ..among other things..

When I comment on the naivety of the German fighter pilots in Hitler’s war on several occasions this is in most cases not intended to be critical in the sense of an accusation; nobody who was not around then or in any comparable situation since and had to go through the same experience is entitled to criticize those young men for their perception of the countries and the population they were sent to. It’s just very striking in many cases to see just how much they were caught in the results of their (school-) education, intensively formed by the Nazi ideology, being led by a spirit of German superiority that left no space for scepticism or even criticism with respect to the part Germany played in the war. Another frequently encountered theme was the comparison between the social and economical situation in several – predominantly eastern and south-eastern – countries and the circumstances back home, almost inevitably leading to the conclusion that Germany was the superior nation. In not really few cases this comparison and the resulting high self-esteem led to the credo that Germany through the Wehrmacht was in fact called upon to bring order to the occupied countries. The tragedy was just how far the often – really or just imagined - good intentions were from the reality of the Nazis' war aims. A very wide field indeed and certainly too much to be addressed here comprehensively.              

  

 I read a while ago that you were updating your Gruppe unit histories?

That‘s just a side-line – it’s true that in the spare time between the completion of another volume and the start of the next I have started to re-write the histories of JGs 53 and 77 on the basis of the vast amount of new information which has become available over the last 20 or so years. Work on JG 53 has reached the end of 1940, that on JG 77 early October 1941. I cannot say whether these efforts will ever lead to complete new unit histories – it’s just very interesting and helpful to amalgamate the wealth of new information with the old manuscript.   

Jochen, I believe you are a partner in a law firm and work as a barrister. What are you planning for your retirement and will you have more or less time for research and writing ?

Retirement is not yet an issue with three sons still to finish school or university; and honestly I have no concrete plans other than – if possible – to retire in 2021.  

We hear a lot about today’s generation having little or no interest in the events of 75 years ago that shaped our world -are your own sons interested in your work/ the subject area at all?’

My three sons, different as they are, are all interested in German history but not directly through my work and not in Luftwaffe matters in particular. They all made feeble attempts at modelling but this didn’t last long. But we can – and do – discuss historical issues for hours on end which is great fun and quite inspiring at times.

Which of your many publications are you most proud of ? Could you describe the most rewarding aspects of the book production process? And some of the frustrations?

I’m not particularly proud of any of the books I have published – for me it’s not a matter of pride. When I sometimes re-read some of the older volumes I arrive at thinking that it wasn’t really bad but given time and the necessary means most of it could have been done better.

The most rewarding aspects certainly were the many postive, sometimes very personal reactions from former pilots and ground-crew men who felt that the the unit histories had done their service and their deprivations justice. This of course mainly applies to the unit histories of JG 1 / 11, 53 and 77 and – to a lesser extent – those of JGs 3 and 27. Work on the unit histories brought me in touch with a number of very interesting, sometimes outstandig personalties, the most prominent one being Julius Meimberg. Just as rewarding was the fact that through my occupation with the Bf 109 and the Luftwaffe fighter units I made friends with many very decent fellow historians all over the world – if I started to name them here I fear that I might forget one and therefore refrain from it. But they are many and I’m glad to have made their acquaintance or even gained their friendship.

Frustrations – yes, there are many but they don’t go deep and are not worth to go into detail here. As my good friend John Beaman once put it – swatting gnats.        

Thank you Jochen for responding to an approach from the Luftwaffe blog and on behalf of the air warfare enthusiast fraternity, thank you for your work!

"...You're welcome. One last thing .. the photo of myself was taken today (03 September 2018) on the North Sea coast on the island of Sylt where my wife and I spent a most enjoyable short weekend. And no, I have no photos either of Gerhard or Winfried – as far as I know Gerhard and Winfried have never met personally, the three of us have most definitely never met up together. So no photos of the crew - I'm not sure that they would be a sales incentive anyway!..."

Below; the latest volume in the huge ‘Luftwaffe fighter unit‘ series from Jochen Prien....Volume 13 part 3, nearly 700 A-4 pages covering Jan-Sept 1944, entitled "Operations in the West".
The Jagdfliegerverbände series and Jochen Prien's individual Gruppen histories are available via his website at http://jagdgeschwader.net

Paypal accepted and orders are expertly packaged and processed rapidly!



Also on this blog; more stories behind the Luftwaffe books!

author interviews with  Eddie Creek
                                      Robert Forsyth
                                      Jean-Yves Lorant
                                      John Vasco
                                      Jan Forsgren
                                      Alexander Steenbeck

The story behind the Luftwaffe book. Interview with Classic Chevron co-founder and author of " JV 44 - The Galland Circus " Robert Forsyth

Robert Forsyth has studied the history and operations of the Luftwaffe for many years and as co-founder of specialist publisher Classic/Chevron, he has worked full time in publishing since self-publishing his ground-breaking  "JV 44 - The Galland Circus" (1996). He subsequently researched, wrote and published "Battle over Bavaria: The B-26 versus the German Jets" (1998), "Mistel: German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945" (2001), and "Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerikabomber" (2006 - with Eddie J Creek)







"..with Gerhard Kroll (centre), former Fw 190 D-9 pilot of III./JG 26, and my old friend, Dave Wadman (right), at the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, Arizona, October 1990. Behind us is the museum’s Fw 190 D-13...."

Hello Robert! It's great to welcome you to the 'Luftwaffe blog' as part of our author interview series. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thanks too for raiding that old shoe box of photos and coming up with the captions!  Right, firstly, how did your interest in JV 44 develop?

How far do you want to go back?

I had a typical 1960s boyhood diet of Biggles, war comics and war films which sparked my interest in the machinery and drama of the Second World War. When I was nine, my mother took me to see the film Battle of Britain. I suppose that really ‘did it’. I thought the yellow-nosed Bf 109s looked sleek and business-like, and I think I was perhaps sub-consciously intrigued by how the Luftwaffe, led by a buffoon-like Göring in the film, could have successfully invaded most of Europe and be threatening Britain.

I then bought endless Airfix kits and my bedroom ceiling was hung with badly made and painted Bf 109s and He 111s. I think there was a lone 1/32nd P-47 which I bought because it was so immense.

One day in 1970, I was walking past a local bookshop and in the window I spotted a big book, with a red cover, called Warplanes of the Third Reich. By now I was ten. I walked into the shop, found a copy on the shelf and flicked through it. It was by a man called William Green and it was amazing. I hefted it over to the counter and asked the lady how much it cost. It was very heavy and very expensive. I put it back on the shelf. I went home and asked my mother if I could empty my building society savings account (funded over the years by birthday and Christmas presents) to buy ‘a book’. She seemed to be quietly impressed at her little boy’s literary enthusiasm and agreed. I toddled off, got my money out, but when I told her what the book was, she was perplexed, not a little angry and probably somewhat concerned at her son’s deepening interests in the ‘enemy’.

Roll forward to the mid-1980s (in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s my interests were given over to rock n’ roll, beer, girls and work in that order), I had what was almost an epiphany when I read Johannes Steinhoff’s The Last Chance. I thought it was – and still is – a fascinating and wonderful insight into life on the ‘other side’, when Germany was losing the war, yet had such an amazing example of technology in the Me 262. I then quickly devoured his first book, The Straits of Messina. My first idea was to write a biography of Steinhoff. In around 1986/87 I wrote to the General, but received no reply. I was particularly interested in the story of JV 44 and what ‘actually happened’ and decided, notwithstanding a lack of response from Steinhoff, to start researching the unit with the goal of writing a book.

There was no internet or email in those days, so I joined the Gemeinschaft der Jagdflieger as an associate member and went to Germany to the meet the association’s secretary, Horst Amberg, who was very helpful. Through him I was able to contact several former pilots who had been associated with JV 44. I went on to meet and interview Adolf Galland, Walter Krupinski, Hans-Ekkehard Bob, Franz Stigler, Klaus Neumann, Erich Hohagen, Herbert Kaiser and others. I also spoke at length with Eduard Schallmoser who lived in South America at the time.

Additionally, I wrote to several German Luftwaffe historians such as Gebhard Aders, Werner Held, Hanfried Schliephake and Heinz Nowarra, not really having any idea what to expect, but it was Manfred Griehl who was most helpful with advice on how to locate documents etc., and I visited him and Hanfried Schliephake.

You presumably ran into Eddie during the research for this book?

I remember buying the last copy of Monogram Publications’ Jet Planes of the Third Reich by Smith and Creek that Motorbooks in London had in their shop. That would have been around 1986. At that time, it was awesome. Fortunately, it mentions Eddie’s home town at the time in the introduction of the book. I called directory enquiries, they gave me the number and I just gave him a call. He was very gracious and friendly, and it was the beginning of a thirty-year-plus friendship. Eddie invited me down to his home along with a bunch of other UK-based enthusiasts and hosted a barbecue.

From that, he and Richard Smith set up ‘Staffel 90’ during 1990 as a way of re-establishing ‘Gruppe 66’ the original, but defunct, Luftwaffe research group. It was all a bit loose, but we had all corresponded regularly (by post – no email!) and held a few gatherings. I recall the core group being Eddie, Richard, Martin Pegg, Steve Coates, Nick Beale, Mike Norton, Tom Willis and myself, but we also welcomed Phil Butler, Jerry Scutts, Steve Ransom and Chris Thomas at different times. We used to get together at Eddie’s house in Sussex and would also make mass trips to research at the IWM in London where we were given pretty free reign, thanks to Phil Reed, as well as to what was then the Public Record Office at Kew where if you wanted photocopies you got them on yellow A3 paper and paid 10 pence a sheet. No cameras.

Why decide to self-publish and so lavishly, back then it was not exactly the done thing?

To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it. I was still researching the book, and working in London in the shipping industry, doing a lot of travelling. Eddie had just retired. On one occasion, I took a few days off and went with Eddie on our first trip to the IWM document repository at Duxford. It would have been about 1993.

In one of those life-changing moments, after a day looking at dusty files, Eddie and I went for a beer in a local hostelry and he asked me what I was going to do about publishing my book. I said I hadn’t the faintest idea. He said, ‘Well, why don’t we do it?’ At first I thought that was barmy, but after a good night’s sleep, the next morning over breakfast, I asked Eddie if he was serious. He was. I wasn’t particularly happy at that point in my day job, and I was very fortunately in the position of being able to afford to take six months off work. I meekly asked my wife if she would allow me to take six months off to write the book on the basis that we would publish it ourselves and I would then return to work. She was wonderful and agreed.

We really had no idea what we were doing, but we had the Monogram books as a model, for whom Eddie had written, and a very good friend of mine was an excellent graphic designer. I also had contacts with a small printer in Norfolk. So off we went.

I quit work, finished the book and "JV 44 – The Galland Circus" was published by our fledgling imprint, Classic Publications, in May 1996. I was fortunate enough to get an introduction from Adolf Galland shortly before he died, but he never saw the book.

I think, in total, in those days it cost a terrifying £30,000 to put together and print a first run of 3,500 copies. Funnily enough, in the end, exactly 4,400 copies of 'JV 44' were produced. I own the rights to the book and I’m thinking perhaps of doing a revised, smaller format, signed limited edition or POD volume one day. I also wrote about the unit for Osprey Publishing, in which I was able to include the memoirs and photos of Josef Dobnig, which I did not have for The Galland Circus.

Above  ;   "...with Eddie Creek at the Duxford Air Show in September 1996. Classic Publications had just launched and this was our second major outing after the Tangmere Aeromart. The Aviation Bookshop kindly allowed us some table space to sell ‘JV 44’...."

Below;  "...the original Classic Publications team: from left, Eddie Creek, Arthur Bentley and myself, at the IPMS UK National Exhibition at Telford in November 1996. Eddie built the stand and we covered it with a red tablecloth that belonged to my mother. Behind us is some of Eddie’s original airbrush artwork for the book...."

Below;   "...with French researcher, the late Eric Larger, who was staying with me at the time and who was a great help in setting up the stand. I remember Eric would give a wonderful, Gallic shrug as he walked past many of the Luftwaffe models, declaring in his heavily accented favourite expression, that their camouflage was ‘completely maaaaad!’...."

Had you already had the idea for the ‘Luftwaffe Colours’ series at that stage?

After JV 44 Eddie and I got together with Martin Pegg and published his Hs 129 book and then Eddie’s and Richard Smith’s Me 262 series. I never actually went back to work! The idea for 'Luftwafe Colours ' came a little later. Back in the early 1990s, Jim Kitchens had put me in touch with Eric Mombeek, who I knew from his excellent JG 1 history as published by John Vasco. I got to know Eric quite well and when we set up Classic, he suggested Eddie and I go over to Belgium to meet him to discuss potential projects.

It was on the way back home on the cross-Channel ferry from our first visit to see Eric in 1997, that – again over a drink! – Eddie and I came up with the concept of Classic Colours using Eddie’s and Eric’s substantial photographic collections as a basis. At that time, we were also just in touch with Tom Tullis in the States, who was one of the first illustrators to use computer software to ‘paint’ aircraft profiles. So the whole thing was born. It ended up running to 40 titles.


Below;    "..At the IPMS National Exhibition at Columbus, Ohio in 1997 to where we had shipped a few copies of our second book, Hs 129 Panzerjäger! by Martin Pegg. They sold out within an hour. From left to right: model shop owner/wholesaler, Mike Bobe; our good friend and modeller, Bob Hanes, Eddie Creek, Dennis Davison, who is a superb aircraft illustrator, and myself...."

Above;   "...at Columbus with my good friend, Dr. James Kitchens. Behind Jim is one of Dennis Davison’s prints..."

Above;  " ..with the late Jerry Scutts (right) at a book launch at the RAF Museum at Hendon ca. 1999. We had just collaborated on ‘Battle over Bavaria: The B-26 Marauder versus the German Jets – April 1945’, a kind of sequel to ‘JV 44’ which came about as a result of a stream of correspondence from former B-26 crews in response to the first book.."

Below ;   "..With former Mistel pilot Rudi Riedel of 6./KG 200 during the preparation for my Mistel book, in Bremen, 2000..."

left;   "...By the mid-2000s we had taken an office and small warehousing area in a building on my cousin’s farm in East Sussex. Standing outside the entrance to the office is the ‘Classic team’. 
Seen here with Eddie and myself are my good pals, (far left) Tim Brown, profile and graphic artist, and designer whose illustrations and design is seen in many titles published by Classic and Hikoki, whom we also used to work for; and (second from left) Mark Nelson, a talented designer who has worked on some 100 titles for our various imprints..."






Why has Classic not yet done a multi-part series on the Bf 109? A book per sub-type could be interesting, Emil, Friedrich, Gustav x2 for example?

Find me the author willing and ready to do it!

Or an airfield series (for example)?

We did look at this a few years back, after Classic Publications was bought by Ian Allan Publishing, but we could never get the idea off the ground (I don’t think there’s a pun in there anywhere).

Why the (superb and sumptuous) V2 book, since that was not a Luftwaffe weapons system?

That was something that Crecy Publishing, who bought Classic from Ian Allan in 2014, approached us about doing. Fortunately, I’d worked with Murray Barber, the author, before on an associated title for my own Tattered Flag Press imprint. He really knows the V2 and is a wonderful guy to work with. Crecy were committed to the book and we had quite a bit of ‘elbow room’ on photo content, which is really stunning. We were also fortunate to be able to work with Mark Alloway, who did the superb colour graphics. I explained to Crecy that the V2 was a German army project, but they felt it was OK to ‘fit’ the book into the Luftwaffe Classics series.

What is the book you’ve had to work ‘hardest’ on to get it to publication and why?

If you mean to get commissioned, possibly two Luftwaffe titles: the excellent Ju 287: Germany’s Forward Swept Wing Bomber by Stephen Ransom and Peter Korrell with Peter Evans or Nest of Eagles: Messerschmitt Production and Flight-testing at Regensburg 1936-1945 by Peter Schmoll which we bought in from the original German publisher. This is no reflection whatsoever on the authors’ work whatsoever – far from it. They are superb studies, which is why I felt they should be published if at all possible. But it’s hard to get a publisher to invest significantly in books about really specialist types that did not get beyond prototype stage or books about production. Happily however, they did get published. The Ju 287 seems to be quite sought after now on the second-hand market.

If you mean in terms of production, then perhaps Camouflage & Markings of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana 1943-45: A Photographic Analysis through Speculation and Research by Ferdinando D’Amico and Gabriele Valentini. A superb book, but it was very complex and challenging in terms of content and presentation.

And the most ‘straightforward’?

Happily, most of our projects have been very enjoyable and straightforward to work on.

I believe there were discussions with Jochen Prien about publishing his Jagdfliegerverband series in English? Would this not sell well? And some of his other books - the unit history devoted to IV./JG 3 immediately comes to mind for example - should be in English shouldn't they ?

They are superb books. When Dr. Prien started work on his Jagdfliegerverband series, we were still working on Classic Colours, so there was a bit of a question as to how they could be presented as Classic books. It was also difficult to get a commercial publisher to commit to a series that was open-ended. There was also the issue of the cost of translation. It certainly needs to be done.


How do you feel about your books now selling for hundreds of $$$ in the second-hand market? Other publishers, for example Lela Presse, are just about to start doing limited edition reprints of their OOP titles. Is this something you would suggest that Crecy do?

I guess that’s the market. Look at second-hand vinyl records. The same thing. They’re like the new ‘antiques’. Many of our early titles were produced on film which has deteriorated over the years, or they have fallen victim to changes in computer software, so they cannot simply be reprinted. You have to start again. That means those copies of such titles out there tend to fetch premiums. Also some of the early titles did not get to the States in significant numbers which fuels demand now. Crecy have indeed reprinted some Classic titles, such as the Ho 229 and Do 335 (which I believe is about to get a second reprint).

What is the future of book publishing in general and Luftwaffe research in particular? Has the internet caused a decline in the amount of magazines and books sold as some suggest?

Well, yes..but as far as publishing is concerned though, more and more people will just do it themselves, which is great from one perspective: there are no barriers. The tools are there. When Eddie and I started Classic Publications, there was no email, no internet, no Amazon, no PayPal, no social media, no blogs. We just depended on snail mail and the fax machine. Magazine advertising was prohibitive, but people like Barry Rosch were brilliant: Barry set up the wonderful ‘Luftwaffe Verband’ magazine – which kind of followed on from Gruppe 66’s ‘Archiv’ which was printed on a photocopier! There was – and still is, actually – something of a mystique about the process of publishing, which I have never really understood. Now the tools are there and anyone can publish, as it becomes increasingly affordable, which also includes the development in digital print technology allowing lower runs. There are more private courier mail services and so on. This is fantastic. BUT – I urge a degree of caution. I once attended a seminar at the London Book Fair at which an experienced and respected industry ‘talking head’ pontificated over the question ‘What is the Point of a Publisher?’ In answer, he responded, quite bluntly, ‘Over hundreds of years, publishers have saved the world from millions of crap books!’ There is, I believe, some truth in this. What concerns me, not as a publisher or editor, but as a reader and enthusiast, is that I increasingly read books, both commercially and self-published that contain errors in content – either editorially or in terms of production. Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect book, but editors, designers, proof-readers, copy-editors and publishers are there to iron these things out and to also take a risk. Are standards in decline? Yes, possibly. As to the future of Luftwaffe research, I have no idea. It would make an interesting discussion. What I am becoming aware of is an increasing and worrying dependency of ‘quick research/quick answers’ on the internet. Having said that, the ability to order digitized documents on line from archives such as the UK National Archives is fantastic. On a slightly different issue, I do think certain official repositories need to get real about the charges they apply to individuals for photographs.

But do you find the process rewarding still?

To bring an author’s book from concept to publication has always been rewarding for me personally. As a business, we’ve either published or produced some 300 books now – aviation, military, history, biography, motor sport, wildlife and author-funded projects, and I have worked with more than 100 authors around the world, many of whom have English as a second language, but aviation remains my core passion and I just hope we continue to see fresh blood and impetus in our little niche. I am very honoured to be on the Editorial Board of The Aviation Historian which is run by my good friends, Mick Oakey and Nick Stroud. Those guys do a fantastic job and it’s really heartening to see them going from strength to strength as an independent.

You’re now doing quite a bit of work for Osprey: can you tell me something about that please?

Yes – with three exceptions, I don’t really have any ‘big’ projects in me anymore, so the smaller-scale projects for Osprey suit me perfectly. Nowadays, I spend my time working from home, from where I work on production work for publishing clients (aviation through to self-publishing – we just worked on a wonderful children’s’ book about hedgehogs!), as well as getting involved as a consultant in a start-up venture which is very exciting and also writing, of course, which I enjoy greatly. The Osprey books give me a chance to visit (or re-visit) subjects which I would never have done, and I know the guys at Osprey feel strongly that their titles are aimed to a great extent at bringing in new readers by perhaps awakening interest – so I believe they serve a purpose. I remember, myself, the wonderfully innovative Osprey/Aircam series from the 1970s/80s which I still have. And aside from the various ‘Aces’, ‘Combat Aircraft’, ‘Duel’ and ‘X-Planes’ titles, I was delighted that Osprey gave me a chance to publish ‘Shadow over the Atlantic’ last year which is an account of the operations of FAGr.5.

Robert, one final question. Can you tell us what you are currently working on?

Well... on a very different tack, I’m working on the history of my favourite band, the Climax Blues Band. I first heard their music played on the British ‘pirate’ station Radio Caroline in 1976 and have loved it ever since. Next year sees the 50th anniversary of the band’s first album, so a couple of years ago I decided that was good enough reason to write a book. It’s been a wonderful thing to do, and I have been fortunate enough that all the surviving members of the band, as well as families, management, roadcrew, sleeve designers and many others have come on board to support the project – and I’ll be self-publishing it! Limited edition, collectors’ item probably. Then I’m also working with Eddie Creek on a detailed history of KG 76’s Ar 234 jet-bombers on the Western Front, based on unit documents, which are amazing. That’ll hopefully be ready in a year or two. Other than that, in a couple of years, I hope to re-start work on the two projects that are very close to my heart: Shadow over England will be an account of the Luftwaffe’s air-launched V-1 offensive against the British Isles and I also want to get back to my biography of Generalfeldmarschall Dr.-Ing. Wolfram Frhr. von Richthofen which I have neglected for too long. When – and if – that gets done, I’ll hang up my boots.

Below;  "  taken on one of my visits to Götz Freiherr von Richthofen in Hamburg, with a portrait of his father behind..."

Robert, thanks again for your time, for answering my questions and good luck with those projects!

" ...Shadow over the Atlantic – fresh out of the box, 2017..."

Between 1943-45 Fernaufklärungsgruppe 5 “Atlantik” acted as the eyes for the U-Boats, flying missions of up to 18 hours at a time over the Atlantic. Equipped with big, four-engined Junkers Ju 290s fitted out with advanced search radar and other maritime ‘ELINT’ (electronic intelligence) devices, Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr) 5 ‘Atlantik’ undertook a distant, isolated campaign far out into the Atlantic and thousands of miles away from its home base in western France. Listen to Robert discussing his latest book 'Shadow over the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe and the U-boats: 1943–45'  at
http://ww2podcast.com/ww2-podcast/52-shadow-atlantic/


Also on this blog; more stories behind the Luftwaffe books!

author interviews with  Eddie Creek
                                      Jean-Yves Lorant
                                      John Vasco
                                      Jan Forsgren
                                      Alexander Steenbeck