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 {Ace of Hearts) 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 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. In fighter-bomber operations against the Royal Navy, III./JG 77 claimed some 34,000 tonnes of shipping sunk, including the 22,000 ton freighter 'Hellas' as well as damaging the RN cruiser HMS Fiji and a destroyer. On 22 May, Oblt Wolf Huy and Oblt Kurt Ubben attacked the Royal Navy’s Force “C” off the islands of Kythera and Antikythera. Both pilots gained bomb hits on 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. The Jagdgeschwader scored quickly ; Oblt. Walter Hoeckner of 6./JG77 claimed 8 of 10 Tupolev SB-2s claimed on 25 June by III./JG 77 and on 26 June Oblt. Kurt Ubben shot down 4 SB-2s. That same day Ofw. Reinhold Schmetzer claimed 5 SB-2s shot down. In the period 22 June - 5 December 1941 the unit, and its attachment I.(J)/LG 2, destroyed 1,166 Soviet aircraft, in return for 52 losses in aerial combat and two aircraft on the ground[1].

By early 1942 German Army Group South and Luftflotte 4 in the eastern Ukraine had three fighter units at his disposal: III./JG 52 at Kharkov-Rogan, I.(J)/LG 2 (later redesignated I./JG 77) at Mariupol, and III./JG 77 on the Crimean. Due to the adverse weather and the numerical weakness of the Soviets in the region, III gruppe and its sister units had little contact with the enemy, so that in January 1942, III./JG 77 recorded a 2.7 to 1 victories to loss ratio, a ratio far below the average for the other eastern Front Jagdgruppen.

The war in the Crimea flared up in late February 1942 after a Soviet offensive aimed at relieving the Sevastopol area and pushing the Germans from the Crimea. III./JG 77's Oblt. Wolf-Dieter Huy claimed the Gruppe's 600th victory on 11 March, but was badly injured. Although combats on 16 March yielded 10 victory claims, three Bf 109s were lost. Soon after, III./JG 77 was returned to Germany for a period of rest. Replacing III gruppe was II./JG 77 after a three-month refit in Germany. Led by the capable and experienced Hptm. Anton Mader, the gruppe claimed 21 Soviet aircraft for no losses on 19 March. Four days later, II./ JG 77 bounced a group of 247 lAP Yak-1s and shot down two, killing 21-kill ace Major Mikhail Fedoseyev. In ten days of intensive operations II./JG 77 managed to achieve sixty victories against just four combat losses.

Meantime in the Southern Ukraine sector of Mius were I./JG 77, commanded by Hptm. Herbert Ihlefeld. Of the 62 victories claimed by I./JG 77 in April 1942, (without losses) some 43 were claimed by Ihlefeld and his wingman, Oblt. Friedrich Geisshardt. On 22 April, Ihlefeld passed the 100-victory mark, while Geisshardt attained his 60th claim. Two days later Ihlefeld was awarded the 'Swords' to the Ritterkreuz and was promoted to the rank of Major. Shortly afterwards he was taken out of operations to be trained as a Geschwaderkommodore.

Hauptmann Gordon Gollob (86 kills) was sent from the Test Centre at Rechlin to take over as Geschwaderkommodore on 16 May 1942, and Hauptmann Heinrich 'Pritzl' Bär (91 victories) was transferred from IV./JG 51 as Gruppekommandeur to command I./JG 77. The total victory claims tally of Jagdgeschwader 77 by 19 May was 2,011.

The fighter units directed against Sevastopol - III./JG 3, plus II./JG 77 and the returned III./JG 77 - were led by Hptm.Gollob. When Sevastopol fell after a month's battle, the Germans had claimed 123 Soviet aircraft shot down against 30 of their own destroyed or severely damaged. During the summer of 1942, Bär and Gollob would dominate the air war over the Kerch area. 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 from Jagdgeschwader 26.

[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 Reinhardt).

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 Bf109'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. It was as a tribute to Müncheberg that the red heart emblem was adopted as JG 77's badge. (Müncheberg had been Staffelkapitän of 7. JG 26 in 1940-41 who had first used the red heart motif.)

The experienced Oberstleutnant Johannes Steinhoff took over as Kommodore.

Even under increasingly difficult circumstances, the Geschwader did their utmost to protect the retreating Afrika Korps forces. Hpt. Bär claimed 61 victories during their African service (45 over Tunisia), while Oblt Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert of II./JG 77 claimed another 51 kills and I/JG 77's Oblt. Freytag claimed 19. 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 Ploieşti, 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 the Reichsverteidigung (Defense 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] Commanding officers

[edit] Geschwaderkommodore

[edit] Gruppenkommandeure

[edit] I./JG 77

  • Hauptmann Johannes Janke, 1 May 1939
  • Hauptmann Walter Grommes, February 1941
  • Major Joachim Seegert, June 1941
  • Hauptmann Herbert Ihlefeld, 6 January 1942
  • Major Heinz Bär, 11 May 1942
  • Oberstleutnant Armin Köhler, 31 July 1943
  • Hauptmann Lutz-Wilhelm Burkhardt, 19 August 1943
  • Hauptmann Theo Lindemann, 30 November 1943
  • Hauptmann Armin Köhler, May 1944
  • Hauptmann Lothar Baumann, 1 August 1944
  • Major Münnichow, 24 December 1944
  • Hauptmann Joachim Deicke, 10 Januar 1945
  • Hauptmann Heinz Grosser, 17 April 1945

[edit] II./JG 77

  • Oberstleutnant Carl-Alfred Schumacher, 1 May 1939
  • Major Hilmer von Bülow-Bothkamp, 30 November 1939
  • Hauptmann Karl Hentschel, 31 March 1940
  • Hauptmann Franz-Heinz Lange, 9 September 1940
  • Hauptmann Helmut Henz, 23 April 1941
  • Major Anton Mader, 26 May 1941
  • Oberleutnant Heinz Dudeck, 7 March 1943
  • Major Siegfried Freytag, 13 March 1943
  • Hauptmann Emil Omert, 29 January 1944
  • Major Armin Köhler, 4 April 1945

[edit] III./JG 77

  • Major Heinrich Seeliger, 5 July 1940
  • Major Alexander von Winterfeldt, October 1940
  • unknown, 2 August 1941
  • Major Kurt Ubben, 5 September 1941
  • Hauptmann Karl Bresoschek, 10 March 1944
  • Hauptmann Emil Omert, 3 April 1944
  • Hauptmann Karl Bresoschek, 24 April 1944
  • Oberleutnant Erhard Niese, 6 June 1944
  • Major Armin Köhler, August 1944

[edit] Ergänzungsgruppe/JG 77

  • Oberleutnant Schultz, March 1941
  • Major Albert Blumensaat, May 1941
  • Major Kurt Fischer, 1 July 1941

[edit] Staffelkapitäne

[edit] Ölschutzstaffel/JG 77

  • Oberleutnant Günther Hannak, April 1942

[edit] Pilots attached to JG 77

[edit] See also

Organization of the Luftwaffe during World War II

[edit] References

  • Bergström, Christer (2007). Barbarossa - The Air Battle: July-December 1941. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2.
  • Jochen Prien: Geschichte des Jagdgeschwaders 77 (1992-95, Struve)
  1. ^ Bergström 2007, p. 116.

[edit] External links