Everything about Jagdgeschwader 27 totally explained
Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG 27) Afrika was a
World War II Luftwaffe Geschwader. It was most famous for service in the
North African Campaign, supporting the
Deutsches Afrikakorps.
Formation
The
Geschwader Stab (headquarters staff) and
I. Gruppe/JG 27 were formed in
Handorf,
Germany on
1 October 1939. The emblem of
I Gruppe, featuring a map of
Africa, originated with the
Gruppenkommandeur in
1940,
Hauptmann Helmut Riegel (killed in action
20 July 1940) who was born in
German South West Africa.
II. Gruppe was formed in January 1940 in
Magdeburg. In July 1940,
I./JG 1 was transferred to
JG 27 as
III. Gruppe.
From July
1941, a
Spanish contingent flew with the
Geschwader as
15./JG 27.
IV. Gruppe was formed in June
1943 in
Kalamaki,
Greece.
Wartime service
Western and Eastern Europe
JG 27 saw considerable action both during the
Battle of France as part of VIII.
Fliegerkorps, scoring heavily against Allied bombers during the crossing of the
Meuse river. 285 claims for aircraft destroyed were made, Hauptmann
Wilhelm Balthasar (of 1./JG 1, by July renamed 7./JG 27) becoming top scorer of the campaign with 24 air kills and 13 ground kills.
Hauptmann Adolf Galland the Geschwader adjudant to
Geschwaderkommodore Oberst Max Ibel, also made 14 claims during the campaign.
Based near
Cherbourg for the
Battle of Britain, JG 27 had a relatively inauspicious campaign, claiming 146 aircraft downed although losses of pilots were heavy with 83 Bf -109E's lost, and 58 killed, missing or POW by December 1940.
In November JG 27 redeployed back to Germany for re-equipping and rest.
In April 1941 the Geschwader briefly served in the
Balkans, before (with the exception of I./JG 27) participating in the
opening offensive against the
Soviet Union on the central front in June 1941. On the first day of action
Major Wolfgang Schellmann bailed out over Soviet territory when he collided with a
I-153 Chayka fighter flown by a Lt. Kuzmin. Kuzmin was killed in the collision but Schellmann managed to bail out. Attempting to make his way back to German lines he was captured and later murdered by
NKVD troops. In September a Spanish Air Force volunteer staffel was attached to JG 27, becoming 15.(span.)/JG 27. Recalled to Spain in January 1942, 460 missions were flown on the Eastern Front for 10 air kills claimed.
In November the Gruppen were returned to Germany for re-fitting.
In the period
22 June 1941 -
5 December 1941 Jagdgeschwader 27 had destroyed 289 Soviet aircraft in the air in exchange for 26 losses, the unit lost a further 11 on the ground.
North Africa
I. Gruppe had been sent in April 1941 to
Gazala,
North Africa in order to support the
Afrikakorps. Under the astute command of
Hauptmann "Edu" Neumann, on of the Luftwaffe's most capable field commanders,
I. Gruppe would quickly improve its performance.
On 19 April
I./JG 27 claimed its first four victories in air combat: one by
Oberleutnant Karl-Wolfgang Redlich,
Staffelkapitän of
1. Staffel, provided
I./JG 27 with its 100th victory of the war.
In September, the group was joined by
Hpt. Wolfgang Lippert’s II./JG 27, which had achieved 43 victories in a three-week stint on the Eastern Front.
II. Gruppe was now equipped with the
Bf109F-2/Trop . The arrival of
II. Gruppe permitted
I./JG 27 to rotate back to Germany, one
Staffel at a time, to exchange its war-weary "Emils" (Bf 109Es) for brand new "Friedrichs" (109Fs). The whole process would take well over a month. With the arrival of
III./JG 27 from Russia in late October, by December the whole of
JG 27 was in North Africa. The
Geschwader units on the Eastern Front had claimed over 270 aircraft during operations in 1941, for just 16 aircraft lost in air combat.
The
Geschwader had an immediate impact on the campaign, which had up until then been dominated by the
British Commonwealth's
Desert Air Force.
JG 27 now became synonymous with the
Afrikakorps and the campaign in North Africa, providing Rommel's army with fighter protection for virtually the whole Western Desert campaign, from late 1941 until November 1942.
Fighting against the Desert Air Force's generally inferior
Hawker Hurricanes and
Curtiss P-40s, which were often flown by inexperienced and under-trained pilots, the Bf-109s inflicted heavy losses, although servicability in the harsh conditions and chronic fuel shortages greatly reduced the effectiveness of the
Geschwader. On
March 24 1942,
Leutnant Korner shot down a
Douglas Boston, the 1,000th victory for the
Geschwader.
On 23 March
III./JG 27 sent a small detachment to Kastelli,
Crete. On 5 May, a fourth
Staffel was added to the
Gruppe:
10.(Jabo)/JG 27.
Jabo or
Jagdbomber was the German term for fighter-bombers.
Leutnant Hans-Joachim Marseille and
Oberfeldwebel Otto Schulz were each awarded the Knight’s Cross on 22 February (for 50 and 44 victories respectively). Schulz was promoted to
Oberleutnant although he'd be shot down and killed after 51 claims on
17 June.
On
7 August a
Schwarm from
5./JG 27, led by
Oberfeldwebel Emil Clade, chanced upon a
Bristol Bombay transport of
No. 216 Squadron RAF. The Bombay was carrying a special passenger: Lt Gen.
William Gott, who had been appointed Commander of the
British 8th Army, only hours previously. Clade’s first pass forced the lumbering Bombay to crash-land. All but one of those remaining inside, including Gott, were killed when
Unteroffizier Schneider carried out a strafing run. Gott was the highest ranked British soldier to be killed by enemy fire in the Second World War. His death led to the hurried appointment of a replacement commander for the 8th Army, a relative unknown named
Bernard Law Montgomery.
On 1 September 1942, as the
Afrikakorps assaulted Allied positions at
El Alamein,
JG 27 had their best day, claiming 70 Allied aircraft for 6 losses of their own.
Hpt. Marseille alone claimed 17, destroying eight P-40s in 10 minutes during one sortie over
Alam Halfa.
However, author
Stephen Bungay has cast doubt on the military value of shooting down fighters rather than the bombers of the
DAF which, by 1942, were attacking DAK and Italian ground units and convoy routes with increasingly damaging effects. He points out that on that day the DAF bombers were able to attack the Axis ground troops and rear echelons with impunity; while Marseille probably shot down 15 fighters the rest of the 100 or so Luftwaffe fighters shot down another five confirmed aircraft:
However, the 100 figure given by Bungay represents the
Geschwader's strength, and
not the number of German pilots that took part in the three missions of 1 September. The number of German fighters pilots that participated was 50, at most.
Major Robert Tate of the
United States Air Force seems to reject Bungay's notion of internal rivalry. Tate argues that the Allied Squadrons were far more competitive for kills:
.
In late 1942, the Allied superiority in numbers began to tell. In the space of three weeks,
Jagdgeschwader 27 was rocked by the deaths of three top aces:
Leut. Günter Steinhausen (40 kills) in air combat with Hurricanes of
No. 127 Squadron RAF, followed 24 hours later by
Leut. Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt (59 kills) in air combat with a Spitfire from
No. 601 Squadron RAF and on 30 September 1942
Hpt. Hans-Joachim Marseille, "The Star of Africa" (158 kills) was killed in an aircraft accident. By November, the intensity of operations was such that
JG 27 often had fewer than a dozen fighters serviceable.
Understandably, high combat fatigue and low morale meant the
Stab, I. and III. Gruppen of JG 27 were withdrawn to Sicily in October, to operate over Malta. They returned briefly to North Africa but then the whole of JG 27 was withdrawn from the theatre for the final time in December 1942. 'JG 27 was then replaced by
JG 77.
I./JG 27 claimed 588 aircraft shot down in the period of April 1941–November 1942. Stahlschmidt, Steinhausen and Marseille accounted for 250 of these; a huge 42% of the unit's total.
The total claims in North Africa for JG 27 were 1,166 aircraft: the
Stab flight claimed one kill,
I. Gruppe claimed 588,
II. Gruppe 477, and
III. Gruppe 100 aircraft shot down.
JG 27 lost some 200 aircraft in action. The surviving top scorers were Lt
Werner Schröer (
I/JG 27) with 61 claims and
Hpt. Gustav Rödel (
II/JG 27) who by now had claimed 52 kills.
Most of
JG27 avoided the final
defeat of Axis forces in Africa, in
Tunisia. After withdrawing to airfields in western
Cyrenica, and having abandoned a large number of its aircraft along the way, the unit passed the remainder of its aircraft to
JG 77 and were then evacuated from North Africa on 12 November.
II./JG 27 remained nearly a month longer, based at
Merduma airfield. During that month the
Gruppe lost three pilots killed for six Allied fighters destroyed. The last of these kills, a Kittyhawk, was the first kill for
Leutnant Hans Lewes of
6. Staffel, in the final sortie by JG 27 in Africa, on the morning of
6 December 1942.
Australian author Russell Brown has cast doubt on the accuracy of aerial victory claims by
JG27 pilots in North Africa. Brown, who has researched the records of individual Desert Air Force squadrons, suggests that
Luftwaffe claim confirmation in North Africa was less stringent than it had been during the Battle of Britain. Brown points out specific, documented examples of spurious verification, such as one "confirmation" by a
Panzer commander, who merely saw a "cloud of dust", after an Allied plane passed behind a sand dune. He also lists several dates on which there was significant, demonstrable over-claiming by
JG27 pilots. For example, pilots from
JG27 were credited with destroying 19 or 20
P-40s from No. 239 Wing (
No. 3 Squadron RAAF,
No. 112 Squadron RAF and
No. 450 Squadron RAAF) on
15 September,
1942. Marseille alone claimed seven kills in six minutes. However, the records of the individual Allied squadrons show a total of five aircraft lost to enemy action that day and one lost to friendly
AA fire. This analysis is supported by other authors. Brown states: "clearly in the combat of 15 September, there couldn't have been seven accurate eyewitness reports, let alone
twenty [emphasisin original], but Marseille's seven victory claims were accepted without question ... [and] other recognised
Experten, Schröer, Homuth and von Lieres submitted a total of six further [accepted] claims between them."
Back to Europe
In 1943 I./JG 27 was posted to
Luftflotte 3 (Air Fleet 3) in Northern France, while II./JG 27 went to Sicily and
Brindisi and were tasked with the protection of the supply convoys from Sicily and Tunisia. Lt Willi Kientsch emerged as the top scorer during these operations, adding 25 claims to the 17 scored in Africa. II gruppe then returned to Germany in August 1943 for Reich air defense duties based in
Frankfurt,
Wiesbaden and
Merzhausen. The gruppe, under the command of Hpt.Werner Schröer, first saw action on 6 September 1943, claiming 9 B-17's shot down. In May 1943 IV. JG 27 was formed in Greece, and was posted to defend the Rumanian oil fields at Ploesti.
I gruppe found the transition from desert warfare to anti-bomber operations difficult; many of the pilots were fresh recruits and the
experten left were unfamiliar with the European theater.
Gruppenkommandeur Hpt. Heinrich Setz (132 Soviet kills) was killed in March 1943. Hpt
Erich Hohagen, a
JG 2 veteran, was posted in to command I./JG 27, although he was badly wounded in July 1943, and the gruppe were transferred to the South of France soon after.
III./JG 27, Stab./JG 27, and IV./JG 27 remained on
Crete and the
Greek islands and were in action against the unsuccessful British landings on various Greek Islands in the fall of 1943. The Geschwader claimed its 2,000 kill on 29 September 1943.
While based at
Wels I./JG 27 increased its establishment of personnel and aircraft to double its usual complement, as the unit undertook training for experienced junior pilots from other units to become formation leaders.
On 14 May 1944 Uzz. Stadler of 7. JG 27 (still stationed on Crete) scored the last of JG 27's total of 1740 air victories in the North African and Mediterranean theaters.
In June
1944 the
invasion of France prompted I, III. and IV./JG 27 to be thrown into the battle, initially stationed on airfields around
Rheims. By September the
Jagdgruppen in France had been decimated, with JG 27 alone losing nearly 200 aircraft and 87 pilots killed and 62 wounded. (146 Allied aircraft were claimed shot down.) They were withdrawn to Saxonia for re-formation.
Meantime II./JG 27 were in Austria, working up on the Bf 109 G-6/AS high altitude fighter.
By November JG 27 was back serving with Reich air defense, flying operations in the Southern Germany and Austria against the
USAAF 15th Air Force bombing raids. On 2 November JG 27 suffered its highest losses on a single day, losing 27 pilots killed and 11 wounded to the escort fighters of the USAAF in return for 7 US fighters shot down.
The Geschwader also took part in the ill-fated
Operation Bodenplatte attacks on Allied airfields on New Year's Day
1945, losing 15 pilots. The IV
Gruppe was disbanded in March 1945 to provide reinforcements to the other Gruppen. During the last five months of the war, JG 27 claimed some 90 kills, but lost 126 aircraft.
By 8 May, the remains of JG 27 were based near Salzburg, Austria. JG 27's commander surrendered to the American forces nearby.
Although official records were lost at the end of the war, research suggests Jagdgeschwader 27 claimed over 3,100 kills for some 1,400 aircraft lost, and lost approximately 827 pilots killed, missing or POW during 1939-45. Twenty-four JG 27 pilots earned the
Ritterkreuz.
Statistics
Some of the Luftwaffe aces attached to JG 27
- Wilhelm Balthasar 23 kills with JG 27, 44 total
- Karl-Heinz Bendert 36 kills, 54 total
- Emil Clade 27 kills
- Ludwig Franzisket 43 all with JG 27, 1939-45
- Adolf Galland 14 kills with JG 27, 104 total
- Fritz Gromotka 27 with JG 27
- Gerhard Homuth 46 in Africa, 61 with JG 27, 63 total
- Max Ibel 3 kills with JG 27
- Erbo Graf von Kageneck 65 kills with JG27 (48 in USSR)
- Willi Kientsch 41 with JG 27, 52 total
- Friedrich Körner 36 kills, Africa
- Hans-Joachim Marseille 151 with JG27 in Africa, 158 in total
- Gustav Rödel 57 with JG 27, 98 kills total
- Otto Schulz 42 in Africa, 51 kills total
- Werner Schröer 61 kills in Africa, 114 in total
- Rudolf Sinner 32 in Africa, 39 total
- Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt 59 kills, Africa
- Peter Werfft 26 kills
JG 27 Commanding Officers
Geschwaderkommodore
Geschwaderadjutanten
| Hauptmann Joachim Schlichting |
1 Nov 1939 |
- |
13 Feb 1940 |
| Hauptmann Eduard Neumann |
13 Feb 1940 |
- |
20 Jul 1940 |
| Hauptmann Herbert Nebenführ |
July 1940 |
- |
12 June 1941 |
| Hauptmann Hermann Schultz |
June 1941 |
- |
30 Mar 1942 |
wounded |
| |
31 Mar 1942 |
- |
26 May 1942 |
| Hauptmann Ernst Düllberg |
26 May 1942 |
- |
16 Oct 1942 |
| |
16 Oct 1942 |
- |
|
| Oberleutnant Jost Schlang |
|
- |
4 Jan 1944 |
KIA |
| |
5 Jan 1944 |
- |
9 Mar 1944 |
| Hauptmann Geert Suwelack |
10 Mar 1944 |
- |
6 Oct 1944 |
| |
7 Oct 1944 |
- |
8 May 1945 |
Gruppenkommandeure
I./JG 27
| Hauptmann Helmut Riegel |
(1 October 1939 - 20 July 1940) |
| Major Eduard Neumann |
(21 July 1940 - 7 June 1942) |
| Hauptmann Gerhard Homuth |
(8 June 1942 - November 1942) |
| Hauptmann Heinrich Setz |
(12 November 1942 - 13 March 1943) |
| Hauptmann Hans-Joachim Heinecke (acting) |
(17 March 1943 - 7 April 1943) |
| Hauptmann Erich Hohagen |
(7 April 1943 - 15 July 1943) |
| Hauptmann Hans Remmer (acting) |
1 June 1943 |
| Hauptmann Ludwig Franzisket |
(15 July 1943 - 12 May 1944) |
| Hauptmann Hans Remmer (acting) |
March 1944 |
| Hauptmann Walter Blume (acting) |
3 April 1944 |
| Hauptmann Ernst Börngen |
(13 May 1944 - 19 May 1944) |
| Major Karl-Wolfgang Redlich |
(20 May 1944 - 29 May 1944) |
| Hauptmann Walter Blume |
(30 May 1944 - 11 June 1944) |
| Hauptmann Rudolf Sinner |
(12 June 1944 - 1 August 1944) |
| Hauptmann Siegfried Luckenbach (acting) |
30 July 1944 |
| Hauptmann Diethelm von Eichel-Streiber |
(August 1944 - 30 November 1944) |
| Hauptmann Johannes Neumayer |
(1 December 1944 - 11 December 1944) |
| Hauptmann Schüller (acting) |
11 December 1944 |
| Hauptmann Eberhard Schade |
(12 December 1944 - 1 March 1945) |
| Leutnant Buchholz (acting) |
1 March 1945 |
| Hauptmann Emil Clade |
(3 April 1945 - 8 May 1945) |
II./JG 27
| Hauptmann Erich von Selle |
(1 January 1940 - 1 February 1940) |
| Hauptmann Walter Andres |
(1 February 1940 - 30 September 1940) |
| Hauptmann Ernst Düllberg (acting) |
since 8 August 1940 |
| Hauptmann Wolfgang Lippert (acting) |
(4 September 1940 - 1 October 1941) |
| Hauptmann Wolfgang Lippert |
(1 October 1940 - 23 November 1941) |
| Oberleutnant Gustav Rödel (acting) |
until 25 December 1941 |
| Hauptmann Erich Gerlitz |
(25 December 1941 - 20 May 1942) |
| Hauptmann Gustav Rödel |
(20 May 1942 - 20 April 1943) |
| Hauptmann Werner Schröer |
(20 April 1943 - 13 March 1944) |
| Hauptmann Fritz Keller |
(14 March 1945 - 7 May 1945) |
| Major Walter Spies (acting) |
KIA 12 December 1944 |
| Hauptmann Herbert Kutscha |
until 25 December 1944 |
| Hauptmann Gerhard Hoyer |
KIA 21 January 1945 |
III./JG 27
Hauptmann Joachim Schlichting, 9 July 1940
Hauptmann Max Dobislav, 7 September 1940
Hauptmann Erhard Braune, 1 October 1941
Hauptmann Ernst Düllberg, 16 October 1942
Oberleutnant Franz Stigler (acting), 1 October 1944
Hauptmann Dr. Peter Werfft, October 1944
Oberleutnant Emil Clade (acting), February 1945
IV./JG 27
Hauptmann Rudolf Sinner, June 1943
Oberleutnant Dietrich Boesler (acting), September 1943
Oberleutnant Alfred Burk (acting), October 1943
Hauptmann Joachim Kirschner, 19 October 1943
Hauptmann Otto Meyer, 1 February 1943
Hauptmann Hanns-Heinz Dudeck, July 1944
Hauptmann Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert, 2 January 1945
JG 27 Knight's Cross Recipients
The following soldiers received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross or a higher grade while being assigned to Jagdgeschwader 27.
| Name |
Knight's Cross |
Oak Leaves |
Swords |
Diamonds |
| Balthasar, Wilhelm |
|
|
|
| Ibel, Max |
|
|
|
|
| Lippert, Wolfgang |
|
|
|
|
| Schlichting, Joachim |
|
|
|
|
| Homuth, Gerhard |
|
|
|
|
| Rödel, Gustav-Siegfried |
|
|
|
| Redlich, Karl-Wolfgang |
|
|
|
|
| Franzisket, Ludwig |
|
|
|
|
| Graf von Kageneck, Erbo |
|
|
|
| Marseille, Hans-Joachim |
|
|
|
|
| Schulz, Otto |
|
|
|
|
| Reinert, Ernst-Wilhelm |
|
|
|
|
| Stahlschmidt, Hans-Arnold |
|
* |
|
| Körner, Friedrich |
|
|
|
|
| Schröer, Werner |
|
|
|
|
| Bendert, Karl-Heinz |
|
|
|
|
| Steinhausen, Günter |
* |
|
|
| Ettel, Wolf-Udo |
|
* |
|
|
| Kientsch, Willy |
|
* |
|
|
| Remmer, Hans |
* |
|
|
|
| Düllberg, Ernst |
|
|
|
|
| Börngen, Ernst |
|
|
|
|
| Gromotka, Fritz |
|
|
|
|
| Werfft, Dr. chem. Peter |
|
|
|
|
JG 27 pilots killed or missing in action
JG 27 KIAs and MIAs
Sources
Bergström, Christer (2007). Barbarossa - The Air Battle: July-December 1941. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2.
Manrho, John, Pütz, Ron. Bodenplatte: The Luftwaffe's Last Hope–The Attack on Allied Airfields, New Year's Day 1945. Ottringham, United Kingdom: Hikoki Publications, 2004. ISBN 1-902109-40-6
Prien, Jochen & Rodeike, Peter & Stemmer, Gerhard. Messerschmidt Bf 109 im Einsatz bei Stab und I./Jagdgeschwader 27 1939 - 1945. struve-druck, Eutin. ISBN 3-923457-46-4
Russell Brown, 2000, Desert Warriors: Australian P-40 Pilots at War in the Middle East and North Africa, 1941-1943 (Banner Books: Maryborough, Queensland; ISBN 1-875-59322-5, p. 281
Shores, Christopher & Hans Ring, 1969, Fighters over the Desert. Neville Spearman Ltd, London.
Shores, Christopher and Hans Ring- Fighters over the Desert: The Air Battles in the Western Desert, June 1940 to December 1942' (Arco 1969)
Shores, Christopher- ' Mediterranean Air War' (Ian Allen 1974)
Trevor Constable & Col. Raymond Toliver - 'Horrido!' (Bantam 1977)
Various- 'The Battle of Britain- Then & Now'(Plaistow Press 1987)
Weal, John (2003). Jagdgeschwader 27 'Afrika'. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-841765-38-4.
Wübbe, Walter. Hauptmann Hans Joachim Marseille Ein Jagdfliegerschicksal in Daten, Bildern und Dokumenten (in German). Schnellbach, Germany: Verlag Siegfried Bublies, 2001. ISBN 3-926584-78-5.
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