Jagdgeschwader 3

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Jagdgeschwader 3

Active	1939-1945
Country	Germany
Branch	Air Force
Type	Fighter Aircraft
Role	Air superiority
Size	Air Force Wing
Nickname	Udet
Commanders
Notable commanders	Heinz Bär (1.6.44 - 13.2.45)

Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3) Udet was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. It operated from Great Britain in the West, to Stalingrad in the East. It was named after Ernst Udet in 1942.

1 History
2 Geschwader Kommodoren
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Campaign in the West (1940)

Jagdschwader 3 "Udet" was formed on 1 May 1939 in Bernburg/Saale from JG 231. JG 3 was one of the Luftwaffe's fighter units that took part in the Battle of France where the unit claimed some 179 aircraft shot down. Oblt. Lothar Keller was top claimant with 10 kills, and I./JG 3 Gruppenkommandeur Maj. Günther Lützow scored 9.

JG 3 later flew intensively in the Battle of Britain. On 21 August 1940, Oberstleutnant Lützow was appointed Kommodore of JG 3. He recorded 8 more victories during the aerial battles over England. Lützow was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 18 September. By the end of 1940 its most successful pilots were Oblt. Erwin Neuerberg (11 claims) and Lt Helmut Neckel (9 claims). The Geschwader lost some 51 pilots killed or POW July-December 1940.

[edit] Campaign in the East (1941)

The Geschwader took place in Operation Barbarossa from 22 June 1941 onwards, and during the offensive against the Soviets JG 3 claimed its 1,000 aircraft destoyed on 30 August. Lützow became the second Experte to achieve 100 victories, when he downed three Russian fighters near Moscow on 24 October. Lützow was then grounded. On 27 June 1941, Hauptmann Gordon Gollob was made Gruppenkommandeur II./JG 3. He claimed 18 victories in August and achieved 37 victories in October, including 9 aircraft shot down covering over the Perekop Isthmus on 18 October and 6 aircraft on 22 October. He was awarded the Eichenlaub on 26 October for 85 victories. He led II./JG 3 until November 1941.

[edit] Reorganisation and the Battle for Stalingrad(1942)

In mid-September, I./JG 3 were ordered back to Germany for rest and refit. However, a number of I. Gruppe pilots remained in Russia serving with III./ JG 3. After refitting with Bf 109 F-4 fighters, I./JG 3 was ordered to relocate to bases in Holland in December 1941. On 6 January 1942, it became II./JG 1, with a new I. Gruppe being raised.

By early 1942 JG 3 was awarded the honour name Udet ( after Ernst Udet) and was then often simply referred as "Jagdgeschwader Udet" thereafter. In May 1942, Lützow led most of JG 3 back to Russia and commenced operations in the Kharkov area. There followed intensive operations through the Crimea, and in the drive towards Stalingrad. Again JG 3 was one of the Luftwaffe's top units, fighting on the Southern Front, reaching 2,000 claims on 28 May 1942. On 12 August, Major Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was appointed Kommodore of JG 3.

Meantime, following re-equipment with the new Bf 109 F-4 (trop.), II./JG 3 were relocated to Sicily at the beginning of January 1942, and were involved in the fighting over Malta during the spring of 1942. In June 1942, the Gruppe was transferred back to the East where it joined in the advance on the Stalingrad front, suffering heavy losses. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Stab./JG 3 were based at Pitomnik, where Wilcke directed all day fighter operations over the city. During the summer offensive of 1942, the Geschwaderstab/JG 3 recorded 137 victories, of which Wilcke claimed 97. On 19 September, Leutnant Wilhelm Lemke was awarded the Ritterkreuz for 59 Victories.

When Russian forces encircled Stalingrad, the Geschwaderstab/JG 3 was transferred to Morozovskaya-Öst, outside the pocket. JG 3 then provided the famous Platzschutsstaffel which defended the besieged 6th Army in Stalingrad until late 1942. Six volunteer pilots of II./JG 3 formed a defence Staffel within the rapidly contracting Stalingrad perimeter, and despite often only having 2 or 3 Bf 109's servicable, in the last 6 weeks of the siege claimed some 130 Soviet aircraft shot down.

[edit] Continued fighting in the East, and home defence (1943)

II./JG 3 was relocated to the Kuban bridgehead in February 1943. Oblt. Wolf Ettel proved the 'star' of JG 3 around this time, claiming 28 kills in March 1943, 36 in April, and 20 in May. Intensive operations around the Kerch peninsula followed in April. In July 1943 II. and III./JG 3 at this time were part of Luftlotte 4 and flew in Operation Zitadelle, the tank offensive launched around the Kursk salient. On 5 July 1943 alone the II gruppe claimed 77 Soviet aircraft from a total claimed of 432, Oblt. Joachim Kirschner claiming 9 kills and Gruppenkommandeur Hpt. Kurt Brandle claiming 5.

As Allied bombing raids in Germany increased during mid 1943 each of the gruppen of JG 3 were in turn recalled to Germany to defend the homeland on so called Reichsverteidigung duty. I. /JG 3 moved back to Germany in April 1943, but did not go operational until June 1943. Equipped with the new Bf 109G-6 Kanonenboote with two 20mm cannon in underwing gondola, I./JG 3 were slowly worked up as a 'bomber-killer' unit. This long training period paid dividends as the gruppe started to shoot down impressive numbers of USAAF bombers without the heavy losses incurred by many Jagdgeschwadern thrown into the battle with less preparation. Lt. Franz Schwaiger was by this time I./JG 3's current top scorer with 56 claims.

By late summer 1943 III./JG3 were also flying the Bf 109 G-6 and Bf 109G-6/R6. On its return to Germany, the Stab/JG 3 was based at Mönchengladbach. On 4 December 1943, Hpt. Wilhelm Lemke (131 kills) was killed in combat with P-47s of the 352nd Fighter Group.

As with most Reich Defence fighter units, JG 3 suffered heavy losses through early 1944 against the increasing numbers of USAAF escort fighters, losing many irreplacable experten. On 15 March 1944, Hpt. Emil Bitsch (108 kills)was shot down and killed by USAAF P-47 fighters. On 23 March 1944, Wilcke led JG 3 in an attack on a USAAF bomber formation near Braunschweig. During combat, Wilcke shot down his 162nd victory, a P-51, but was then shot down and killed by fighters of the 4th Fighter Group. On 19 April 1944, Oblt. Otto Weßling (83 kills) was shot down and killed in combat near Eschwege. Wilcke's successor as Geschwaderkommodore of JG 3 was Major Friedrich-Karl “Tutti” Müller, the CO of IV. /JG 3. The 140-kill experte was however killed in a landing accident at Salzwedel on 29 May 1944.

[edit] Battering Rams (1944)

With the increased pressure caused by the American bombing raids through late 1943 and early 1944,a new method of attacking the bombers was proposed by Major Von Kornatski, an associate of Adolf Galland; simply for specially armoured fighters to get in as close to the bombers as possible before opening fire, even (as a last resort) deliberately ramming the bomber. It was dangerous and, to most experienced aces, foolhardy, but predicted results were such that a special staffel was formed to test the tactical viability. Sturmstaffel 1 was the first experimental unit to fly the so-called Sturmböcke (Battering Rams) Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft and was attached to JG 3. Such was their success that in April-May 1944 the Sturmstaffel was expanded into several specialised bomber 'killer' gruppen, one of these being IV./JG 3, led by Hauptman Wilhelm Moritz. Sturmstaffel 1 was redesignated 11./JG 3 in May 1944. On 12 February 1944, Major Friedrich-Karl Müller was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of IV.(Sturm)/JG 3. He claimed three USAAF four-engined bombers on 8 March to record his 120th-122nd victories. Their most notable success was on 29 April 1944, when IV/JG 3 attacked a wing of 40 B-17's on a mission to Berlin and claimed almost half the bombers shot down.

Flying modified Fw190A-R8's with extra armour and wing-mounted 30mm MK-108 cannons, IV.(Sturm)/JG 3 became both renowned with the Lufwaffe and feared by the USAAF bomber crews. Oblt. Werner Gerth, Staffelkapitan 14./JG 3, was shot down 11 times and was finally killed when his parachute failed to open after ramming a B-17 (his 27th claim). Due to their added weight and lack of speed, the Sturm aircraft had to be escorted by conventional fighters.

II. and III. gruppe, JG 3 were thrown into the Operation Overlord air battles over the Normandy beach-head in June 1944, and with the other 23 Gruppen committed were decimated by the hordes of Allied fighters present. On 10 August, 10.(Sturm)/JG 3 was renamed 13.(Sturm)/JG 3. On 16 August 1944, 13./JG 3 Staffelkaptain Oblt. Ekkehard Tichy (25 kills) was killed when he rammed a B-17; Tichy had lost an eye a year earlier but had continued flying combat missions.

On 5 December 1944, Major Moritz was relieved from command of IV./ JG 3 due to a complete nervous breakdown.

[edit] Jet fighters and the final offensives (late 1944-1945)

In November 1944 II./JG 3 was separated from the Geschwader in order to re-equip with the Me 262 jet fighter and become part of the first jet fighter Geschwader, Jagdgeschwader 7. A newly formed II./JG 3 was raised from a former bomber unit at the end of 1944; this new Gruppe was transferred to the East in early 1945 to counter the Soviet air offensive. Hopelessly outnumbered, and hampered by lack of fuel, II./JG 3 fought on until the collapse of the Reich.

Some 6,400 air victories were claimed by JG 3 by this time.

During Operation Bodenplatte, the massed attack on Allied airfields on 1 January 1945, Jagdschwader 3 was one of the few German fighter units to carry out their operations successfully, destroying about 60 Typhoons and Spitfires in a 20 minute attack on the 2nd TAF airfield at Eindhoven.

In February 1945, IV./JG 3 moved to the Eastern Front, undertaking freie-Jagd and ground attack missions on the Oder front.