In the first week of the month, a proposal was put forward for II./LG 1 to attack »Roter Hahn 1 und 2« with AB 500 canisters, filled with incendiary munitions including phosphorus. The two ‘Red Cocks’ were the north and middle bridges at Göritz, and supporting the main attacking force of eight Ju 88s would be ’troublemakers’ dropping SD 2 anti-personnel bombs and some SD 250 fragmentation weapons. This latter group would comprise six Ju 88s alongside a contingent of Ju 87s and Ar 96s drawn from II. Fl.Kps. and they were to be over the bridgehead from X+10 to X+55 minutes.

The Lfl. 6 diary for 7 April records that overnight six Nachtschlacht aircraft had attacked Lebus itself and artillery positions nearby. On the night of the 7th, II. Fl.Kps. dispatched 12 Ar 66s against Kunitz and Aurith but it was not stated whether any of these came from NSGr. 8. By the 8th a proposal had been made to move 1./NSGr. 8 to Schönfelde (a village about 2 km SW of the aerodrome at Eggersdorf, although it is possible that Berlin-Schönefeld was meant). That night, a Ju 88 attributed to Stab/NSGr. 8 provided ‘noise camouflage’ over Aurith, dropping two AB 250 and two SD 70 on that town and on Ziebingen.

The Gruppe also sent four Ar 66s and six Go 145s to bomb the railway station and road traffic in Kunersdorf as well as scattering 77,000 leaflets. The situation report for the morning of the 9th recorded 21 Nachtschlacht sorties the previous night against vehicle traffic and forming-up areas round Küstrin, Sonnenburg, Reppen, Frankfurt und Kunersdorf. The night of the 9/10th saw just one Nachtschlacht machine on weather reconnaissance round Frankfurt and another providing ’noise camouflage’. On the ‘Samland front’ north of Königsberg, Lw.Kdo. Ostpreußen dispatched 11 Nachtschlacht sorties (almost certainly by the Schwarm from 3./NSGr. 8) to harass vehicle traffic and artillery positions. For the night of 11/12 April the 1. Staffel put up 19 Ar 66 and five Go 145 sorties to bomb and strafe supply traffic around Göritz, Rathstock, Reitwein and Schaumburg. As usual, no detailed results could be observed. The Nachtschlacht effort in East Prussia amounted to 10 sorties against traffic on the Königsberg – Kumehnen road but no results could be ascertained. Brüsterort fell to the Red Army on 14 April but it is not clear when or if the 3./NSGr. 8 detachment was evacuated.

A command reorganisation took place on or about the 12th of the month, in response to Germany’s imminent division north from south as the US Army drove forward. The II. Fl.Kps. now became Luftwaffenkommando Nordost, with the 1. and 4. Fliegerdivisionen (and thus NSGr. 8) under command but its reports break down daily operations by role rather than by unit.

On the night of the 12/13th some 161 sorties were flown by units of 4. Fl.Div., primarily against Soviet artillery positions round Reppen but also taking in road traffic in the Reitwein area. On the night of the 15/16th, the eve of the Russian offensive against Berlin, it mounted 96 Nachtschlacht sorties against enemy forming-up areas in the area of Küstrin. The following night’s Nachtschlacht effort consisted of 32 sorties against the bridges between Alt-Drewitz (NW of Küstrin) and Fürstenberg as well as a ‘special operation (2 Fw 190s, 1 Ju 87) against the Oder bridges at Kienitz and Zellin, target area reached’. On the 17/18th some 25 sorties went to Küstrin but could not observe their results; the next night there were 56 without loss against the bridges plus harassment of targets in the Küstrin bridgehead. The night of the 19/20th brought an exceptional effort: 110 Nachtschlacht harassment sorties around Müncheberg (on the main road from Seelow to Berlin) and Wriezen. Reporting now broke down as OKL relocated from Wildpark-Werder near Potsdam to Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. Strengths were still being reported as late as 20 April, when the Gruppe had 37 (29) Ju 87, 8 (8) Go 145 and 3 (2) Ar 66 while a rather misleading organisation chart of the Nachtschlacht arm for that date places it under Lfl. 6 and shows the 1. and 2. Staffeln with the Ju 87 and the 3. Staffel with the Ar 66.

Reportedly, all flying units had left Werneuchen by 16 April, the ground staff following suit four days later. Ernst Hörger, a veteran of 1./NSGr. 8, recalled his penultimate mission as a flight from Neuruppin (about 62 km NW of central Berlin) on 2 May against the airfield at Oranienburg, now occupied by the Soviets. Such was the pace of the German collapse that from base to target was only 33 km. After this Maj. Trnka declared the war over and dismissed his men and Hörger decided to fly to somewhere held by the Western Allies, strafing a group of vehicles en route. After crash landing his Ju 87 he evaded the crew of a British scout car and set off home. By the 6th, NSGr. 8 was listed under Fl.Div. 15 at Hohn but without aircraft. In the wake of the German surrender NSGr. 8, with 15 officers and 130 men, was within the ‘sphere of Luftgau XI’ which covered Schleswig-Holstein and whose HQ had by now withdrawn to Brekendorf, around 11 km SSE Schleswig. Luftwaffenkommando Nordost ended the war at Schleswig-See and a post-surrender document credits it with 887 aircraft as of 19 April, falling under the command of Luftflotte Reich (Northern Area).

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