Italy

Gustav Ohmert came to 1./JGr. 200 after serving with 1./JG 77 in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. Involved in numerous combats, had been shot down by Spitfires and bailed out north of Cassino on 11 November 1943; shot down a Kittyhawk on 14 December; and been shot down again five days later, after which he did not fly again until mid-February. By this time his Staffel was defending Northern Italy against American heavy bombers. His next accredited success was a B-17 downed near Fiume (Rijeka) on 18 March 1944, followed by a B-24 in the Pola–Trieste area on the 24th. On 21 April he injured his right leg and compressed a vertebra in a belly-landing but continued flying. Ohmert’s last scramble from Lavariano took place on the 24th, in Bf 109 G-6, “3” and he claimed P-47 near Laibach (Ljubliana). Although logged as »anerkannt« (recognised) this claim does not appear in surviving lists of accredited victories.

France

Posted to Jagdgruppe Süd in Southern France, Ohmert was flying with his new unit just 12 days after his last mission with 1./JG 77. Throughout May, he was repeatedly in the air on sorties of about 60 minutes’ duration and logged as »Einsatz« (operation) but these appear to have been either practices or routine patrols, since he did not mark any of them as a »Feindflug« (flight against the enemy). He flew a Bf 108 marked “1” and an Ar 96, “9” as well as several Bf 109 G-6 (mainly “11” but also “3”, “8”, “9”, “10”, “13”, “14”, “15”, “17”, “21”, “23”, “24”, “27” and “30”).

A combat sortie (his 75th) finally came on the morning of 27 May, in action with “15” against a reported 90 Liberators escorted by about 30 Lightnings, Thunderbolts and Mustangs in the Nîmes-Montpellier area.

He took off three more times that day: twice on a 60-minute »Einsatz« plus a half-hour reconnaissance in “21” to an unstated location during the evening. Ohmert was next scrambled (flying “3”) on 7 June but did not contact hostile aircraft. Sorties in Staffel strength followed on the 8th and 11th but are not recorded as combat operations. More fruitless scrambles took place on the 16 and 18 June while the 19th saw Ohmert making “FT” (radio telephony) flights to and from Lyon-Bron.

The late afternoon of 23 June brought a “reconnaissance of partisan position” from Orange in Fi 156 RR+XX with Ogefr. Georg Klauka in the passenger seat, while next day Ohmert ferried Bf 109 G-6 “1” to Aix-les-Milles which was to be his base from now on. He joined in the interception of American heavy bombers on the 25th and the following day took off in search of an Allied reconnaissance aircraft but did not find it. A scramble on the 29th was again without contact an another hunt for a recconnaissance aircraft, on 1 July, was similarly unsuccessful. On the evening of the 2nd he made no fewer than five “retraining” flights in Fi 156 RR+XX with one Riener as his passenger, the longest of these lasting nine minutes; the next day he made one such flight with Kaufmann as well as another fruitless chase after another reconnaissance plane.

Ohmert shot up a B-24 on 5 July but his guns jammed, claiming again on the 12th and 14th (a Liberator and a Mustang respectively). Although in the latter case he noted “accredited (Flak witnesses), 1 point”. Whilst my interpretation of his handwriting is uncertain, Ohmert appears from 14 July onward to have described his “1” as a Bf 109 G-6/U4. He continued flying with JGr. 200 until 25 July when 20 bandits were sighted in the Orange–Avignon area but were not engaged.

Staffelkapitän, Hptm. Georg Seckel, signed off his Flugbuch on 27 July and the inference must be that he left Aix-les-Milles on or shortly after that date. Why cannot be deduced from his log entries but the Gruppe’s total pilot strength actually rose by four between 24 and 30 July, exceeding the number of aircraft on hand. Conversely, pilots ready for operations fell from 19 to 9 over the same period.

Germany

His next recorded flight is on 14 August, from Hohensalza to Strausberg, East of Berlin, from which base he flew both training and operational sorties on the Bf 109 G-14 until late February 1945.