Jagdgeschwader 77

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Jagdgeschwader 77
Image:JG_77_Emblem.gif
JG 77 Herz As
Active 1939-1945
Country Germany
Branch Air Force
Type Fighter Aircraft
Role Air superiority
Size Air Force Wing
Nickname Herz As
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Gordon Gollob (16 May 1942 - 1 October 1942), Johannes Steinhoff (1 April 1943 - 1 December 1944)

Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77) Herz As was a Luftwaffe fighter wing during World War II. It served in all the German theaters of war, from Western Europe to the Eastern Front, and from the high north in Norway to the Mediterranean.

Contents

[edit] Formation and unit restructures

JG 77 was formed in May 1939 with I. and II. Gruppe. III./JG 77 was formed on 5 July 1940 in Trondheim from the II(J)./JG 186. I./ JG 77 was reorganized on 21 November 1940 into IV./JG 51 and a new I./JG 77 was established. In January 1942 I./JG 77 was transferred to I./JG 5 and a new I./JG 77 was created. In April 1942 1. Staffel was transferred to Romania and designated the defence unit for the Ploieşti oil fields at Mizil. (This staffel was redesignated 1./JG 4 in August 1942.)

[edit] Service in World War II

[edit] Invasion of Poland, campaign in the West and the Balkans

I./JG 77 took part in the Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, while attached to Luftflotte 3. II./JG 77 was best in the West, and took part in the first Jagdwaffe victories in the West, which occurred on 4 September 1939, when II./JG 77 shot down 2 RAF bombers over the North Sea.

In April 1940 JG 77 took part in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. A third Gruppe was created in Norway in July, while the original two Gruppen took part in the Battle of France from 10 May 1940. After the successful invasion of France I. Gruppe initially supported Fliegerkorps X (under Luftflotte 5) in operations against Britain from bases in Norway. While the rest of JG 77 was based in France during the Battle of Britain, III./JG 77 remained deployed around Berlin. 7. & 8. Staffel was transferred to Dinan, France, in late 1940.

While I./JG 77 remained in Norway and Denmark, in May 1941 II. and III./JG 77 were used in support of the invasion of Greece and the paratroop assault on Crete. Elements of JG 77 also flew fighter-bomber anti-shipping missions, sinking the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Fiji and severely damaging the battleship HMS Warspite.

[edit] Invasion of the Soviet Union

Following the operations in Crete, JG 77 was withdrawn to Romania in order to prepare for Operation Barbarossa. During this time, III. Gruppe was in the process of converting to the new Bf 109F, a process that would be completed shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union began. As Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, started on 22 June 1941, II. and III. Gruppe plus Stab supported the advance East as part of Army Group South, while I. Gruppe served on the Finland front.

In the spring of 1942, JG 77 was involved in the heavy air battles over the Kerch Peninsula area in the Crimea. Hauptmann Gordon Gollob (86 kills) was sent from the Test Centre at Rechlin to take over as Geschwaderkommodore, and Hauptmann Heinrich 'Pritzl' Bär (91 victories) was transferred from IV./JG 51 as Gruppekommandeur to command I./JG 77. During May 1942, Bär and Gollob would dominate the air war over the Kerch area. The total victory claims tally of Jagdgeschwader 77 by 19 May was 2,011. Gollob became the first fighter pilot to claim 150 air victories in August 1942, and left JG 77 soon after, being replaced by Major Joachim Müncheberg.

[edit] Service in the Mediterranean

I. Gruppe, which was still based in Norway, was reorganized into I. Gruppe/JG 5 in January 1942, and the entire JG 77 (with a newly created I. Gruppe) was then transferred south to the Mediterranean area.

During operations against Malta from June-Oct 1942, I./JG 77, still commanded by Bär, claimed 99 aircraft shot down to add to the 900 claimed in Russia. Oblt. Freytag claimed 25 kills over Malta, Obfw. Walter Brandt claiming 14.

III./JG 77, with Geschwaderkommodore Maj. Müncheberg, arrived direct from the Russian Front, replacing Jagdgeschwader 27 in North Africa in October 1942. II./JG 77 arrived in December 1942, with 1,300 victories claimed on the Eastern Front. The two Gruppen had claimed between them a total of 775 Soviet aircraft in the last four months, with a quarter of these claimed by just four pilots(Setz, Hackl, Clausen and Reinert).

JG 77 saw extensive action against the Desert Air Force fighter-bombers, the unit's aces continuing to build their scores. During the Mareth offensive in Feb-March 1943, JG 77 claimed 18 Kittyhawks on 26 February. Total Allied air superiority led to the various JG 77 bases in Tunisia coming under constant air attack, and a large number of Bf-109's were written off on the ground. After claiming a further 23 kills, Maj. Müncheberg was killed in action with USAAF Spitfires on 23 March. Oberstleutnant Johannes Steinhoff took over as Kommodore.

Even under increasingly difficult circumstances, the Geschwader did their upmost to protect the retreating Afrika Korps forces. Hpt. Bär claimed 61 victories during their African service (45 over Tunisia), while Oblt Ernst-Wilhelm Reinhardt of II./JG 77 claimed another 51 kills. By the 20 April 1943, JG 77 were the sole fighter presence in Northern Africa. The unit flew out on 8 May, withdrawing to Sicily, leaving most of their ground crews behind. The Wing had suffered heavy losses in the air and on the ground, while claiming 333 air kills in total in North Africa. While I. and II./JG 77 returned to Germany to re-equip, III./JG 77 remained in Italy, based at Foggia, north-east of Naplesand flying sorties into Sardinia and Sicily. In mid June I./JG 77 flew into Sciacca on Sicily.

[edit] Defence of the South Front

Now based in Italy and Sicily the Geschwader, now part of FliegerKorps II (Süd), prepared for the Allies to invade Sicily. For a vivid account of Luftwaffe operations at this time see Steinhoff's book Messerschmitts over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander (Stackpole Military History Series).

During the rest of 1943 and 1944 JG 77 was stationed on the Southern Front, mainly in the Balkans Sardinia and Italy, but also in Romania. On 24 April 1944 III./JG 77 intercepted USAAF heavy bombers raiding Ploeşti, losing Hpt. Emil Omert (70 kills) killed in action. By June 1944, just two gruppen of JG 77 were the sole air defense left in Italy and the eastern Mediterranean.

[edit] Back to Germany

In 1945 JG 77 was relocated to Germany itself to help with Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich). In the last months of the war part of JG 77 was employed against Soviet Air Force in Silesia. In this area on 7 March 1945 Kommodore Major Erich Leie, a 118-kill ace, was killed in combat with Yak-9 fighters.

[edit] JG 77 Commanders

[edit] Pilots attached to JG 77

[edit] See also

Luftwaffe Organization


[edit] References

  • Jochen Prien: Geschichte des Jagdgeschwaders 77 (1992-95, Struve)

[edit] External links

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