III./EJG 2 (page 3)

April 1945

Two Me 262s bound for Lechfeld since 28 March were still unaccounted for on 3 April. Werk Nummern 110726 and 110639 had left Berlin-Staaken with intermediate landings planned for Burg-bei-Magdeburg and Erfurt-Bindersleben and the ferry unit Fl.ÜG 1 wamted to know what had happened to them.

Meanwhile Lechfeld was asking Gen. Josef Kammhuber, in his capacity as Göring’s Plenipotentiary General for Jet Aircraft, saying that the interview office at Landsberg should continue screening candidates ‘or whether supply for EJG 2 will take place through some other channel’; III./EJG 2 currently had 77 pilots of whom 52 were untrained while the 25 whose training was complete were ready for handing over to II./JG 7. The Gruppe’s aircraft complement was given 16 Me 262 A-1 and three Me 262 B-1 with five of them currently unserviceable. During the day the General der Aufklärungsflieger’s conversion detachment under Maj. Schole had handed over seven Me 262 A-4 reconnaissance models ‘to operational units’, leaving it with two instructors and no aircraft. Also at Lechfeld were 9 Me 262 A-1 and 2 Me 262 A-4 of the Quartermaster General’s reserve. Mention was also made of a pilot of II./EJG 2 who had been at Lechfeld for a fortnight and whose ‘immediate collection [was] requested’. This may have been Ltn. Karl-Heinz Hoffmann who later joined JV 44.

A directive also went out that volunteers for day and night fighting who had already seen action in single-seat fighters were to be sent to the Gen.d.J. interview office ‘at present at Lechfeld near Augsburg’. Kammhuber was also asked whether preliminary twin-engined training on the Si 204 should continue.

The strength of III./EJG 2 on 7 April was: 27 (22) Me 262. Since the previous day three aircraft had come on to strength and one had gone to the QM reserve. Some four pupils had moved on to II./JG 7, leaving 47. The next day’s figures were 26 (19) Me 262s, three having come on to strength while two were lost and two went to the reserve; six more pupils had arrived, bring the total to 53. The Operations Officer of IX. Fliegerkorps (Jagd) was preparing to redeploy jet units to Bavaria, giving orders on the 8th that advance detachments at three hours’ readiness were to be despatched as follows:

	I./JG 7	to Lechfeld
	III./JG 7	to München-Riem
	I./KG(J) 54	to Fürstenfeldbruck

On arriving they were make ready to receive their parent units as soon as possible. A signal from IX. Fl.Kps. about Jumo 004 engines stated that on 8 April at Lechfeld there was a shortfall of ‘6 jet units, ops. 4 jet units, Chief QM Reserve’. Nevertheless, eight reconnaissance pilots were undergoing conversion training on an Me 262 borrowed from III./EJG 2. Next day, 29 pilots were sent off to II./JG 7 at Brandenburg-Briest and a request was passed to Kammhuber to allocate Linz-Hörsching to III./EJG 2 so that one Staffel could carry out training there; this was becoming urgent as activities at Lechfeld were being curtailed by ‘constant alerts’. The Gruppe’s position on the 10th was 21 (17) Me 262s; two aircraft had gone off strength and three pilots had joined.

Under the guise of III.(Einsatz)/EJG 2, the Gruppe—or more likely its instructors—had been flying combat operations under the auspices of 7. Jagd Division while jet airfields became repeated targets for USAAF bombers during early April, III./EJG 2’s bases included:

	5 April	Two Me 262s against Marauder incursions over central Germany: 3 certain kills, no losses. Unterschlauersbach: 150 heavy bombers from 1111–1230 (GMT+2), 200 craters on the landing ground, lighting and water out. From an Allied analysis of ‘Reaction to USAAF attacks on targets in SOUTH GERMANY’: Jet a/c based in the MUNICH area were operating between 1055/1140 [GMT+2]. From 1110 they were vectored on a northerly course on to the bombers which were said to be 18 miles away. There was no evidence of combat in R/T. From 1126 German a/c were returning to base. They were warned of Allied fighters to the S.W. of their airfield. They landed about 1140. Other landing activity in the MUNICH area was heard between 1110/1140; one formation of jets was told at 1116 to land at LECHFELD as Allied fighters were still over their own base.
	8 April	Unterschlauersbach: 500 HE bombs from 1204–1220, heavy damage to landing ground, many barracks heavily damaged, one hangar hit. Airfield closed to landings.
	9 April	Two Me 262s against Marauder incursions over central Germany: 3 certain kills, no losses. München-Riem: severe damage to buildings and hangars, landing ground and runway badly hit; at least 6 dead and 50 wounded; one Ar 96, one Ar 234, two Me 262 and an He 111 destroyed, 20 ther aircraft damaged. Lechfeld: numerous HE from 1739–1748, runway and landing ground badly hit, several buildings and barracks damaged. One He 175 [sic] destroyed, one Fi 156 damaged. Unterschlauersbach: shot up by eight P-47s at 1305, six aircraft damaged (type not reported). A report from Maj. Kröchel at Lechfeld to to Luftflotte Reich stated that 200 Fortresses had targeted the landing ground and dispersals with heavy damage to the former. No one had been hurt but an Me 262 had suffered 40% damage and ‘All available forces have been set to night work.’
	11 April	Lechfeld: strafed, no damage. Unterschlauersbach: two strafing attacks by Mustangs, 13 aircraft destroyed (details outstanding).
	14 April	Four aircraft against Allied strafers in Bamberg area: 1 kill, no losses.
	15 April	Six Me 262s against Marauder incursions over southern Germany: successes and losses not reported. Allied analysis: 14 Me 262s scrambled against Marauder raids. Claims 1 Mustang certainly, 1 probably shot down.
	17 April	Eight Me 262s against Marauder incursions over southern and southwestern Germany: 1 certain kill, no losses.
	18 April	Two Me 262s: 2 certain kills, 1 aircraft and pilot lost.
	19 April	Four Me 262s against incursions by four-engined bombers into the Protectorate.

continued on next page …

navtag

Lechfeld and the He 162

On 30 March 1945, Ltn. August Hachtel had advised the General der Jagdflieger that he would soon be in a position to start ferrying He 162s from Heinkel at Wien-Schwechat to Lechfeld. Leutnant Büttner’s He 162, W.Nr. 310006 and Uffz. Dobrat’s W.Nr. 312018 left Bernburg for Unterschlauersbach on the afternoon of 1 April but failed to arrive. On 8 April, with the Red Army closing on Vienna, eight He 162s duly arrived in Lechfeld under Hachtel’s charge. He had another eight pilots (apparently in Linz-Hörsching) of whom six were suitable for the Me 262, so asked whether the pilots mentioned should go to III./EJG 2 for retraining. However II./JG 1 on other orders on the 8th directed Ltn. Pankraz and an unnamed Unteroffizier to fly their He 162s not to Lechfeld but to Riem where they were to refuel and carry on to Memmingen.

On the 17th, Gen.d.J. ordered the disbandment of the Stabsstaffel of JG 1 with its personnel going to fill out the Einsatzstaffel of II./JG 1 under Ltn. Harthel [sic] in Memmingen (which would surrender to the US Army nine days later). Meanwhile a Schwarm of II./JG 1 under Hptm. Riedl would take over operational testing previously carried out in Lechfeld by the Stabbstaffel; its operational aircraft would be supplied by the Kommando der Erprobungsstellen (Experimental Establishments Command). The same day, KdE’s outpost in the south signalled Rechlin about 13 He 162s ‘being transported to Lechfeld for ops.’ This would require an He 111 to fly down from Heinkel’s Rostock factory with ‘three examiners, among them Urban and Rauch’ as well as nine senior prototype workers plus diagrams, handbooks, other documents and a supply of distintegrating belt mechanisms to feed the planes’ cannon. An He 111 was not able to carry 12 passengers, so apparently multiple trips were envisaged.

These arrangements, if ever set in train, were overtaken by eight days later when II./JG 1 was wound up in favour of strengthening the I. Gruppe.