Jagdgeschwader 27

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=Jagdgeschwader 27


caption=
dates= 1939-1945
country=Germany
allegiance=
branch=Air Force
type=Fighter Aircraft
role=Air superiority
size=Air Force Wing
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname="Afrika"
patron=
motto=
colors=
identification_symbol=
march=
mascot=
battles=
notable_commanders=Eduard Neumann
anniversaries=
decorations=
battle_honours=

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 [Bergström 2007, p.18.] . 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 [Bergström 2007, p. 116.] .

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 would 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. "Hpt." Marseille alone claimed 17, destroying eight P-40s in 10 minutes during one sortie over Alam Halfa. However it believed that at least two, and as many as four of Marseille's "kills" were not shot down. [Weal 2003, p. 86.]

However, author Stephen Bungay pointed out the limited 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, while the rest of the Luftwaffe pilots shot down another five confirmed aircraft: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:quote|This points out another very basic difference between German and Allied combat philosophy. While the Allies tended to hunt in packs and compete vigorously for kills, the Germans, at least in North Africa, tended to let the best pilots "have at it" while the novices would tend to sit back and enjoy the show. This is one reason the loss of an asset like Marseille was so devastating to the Luftwaffe in Africa. That kind of emotional destruction would not likely occur in Allied squadrons [ [http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/hanstate.html Hans-Joachim MarseilleBy Major Robert Tate, USAF] ] .

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. [ Weal 2003, p. 89.]

=Overclaiming=

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. [Russell Brown, 2000, p. 281] 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. [Brown 2000, p. 282] 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. [Christopher Shores & Hans Ring 1969, p.178.] Brown states: "clearly in the combat of 15 September, there could not have been seven accurate eyewitness reports, let alone "twenty" [emphasis in 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." [ Brown 2000, p. 282] During September 1942 some pilots including Karl-Heinz Bendert were involved in falsifying claims. [http://www.luftwaffe.cz/bendert.html]

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 [Manrho & Pütz 2004, p. 282: After researching JG 27s records only 15 pilots were lost as a result of "Bodenplatte". A further 3 were lost in unconnected operations.] . 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 des Eisernen Kreuzes".

tatistics

Gruppenkommandeure

I./JG 27

JG 27 pilots killed or missing in action

[http://www.luftwaffe.be/miajg27.html 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.

ee also

Organization of the Luftwaffe during World War II