Info on Nachtjagdgeschwader 6.

Night fighters:



Heinkel He-219 "Uhu" (Owl)
The owl is the King of the Night, and the He-219 was, with no doubt, the King of Nightfighters. Designed in in 1940, the He-219 was to have been the Me-110s replacment, but the plane was recieved with little enthusiasim. But in 1941, with the RAF starting to systematically work over Germany's cities at night, the design was ordered into production. The He-219V-1 was soon flown at Rechlin, the German's main testing base. Test pilots soon found the He-219 to be a rare plane. It was fast (over 400 mph) and manueverable, even though it was twin engined. All of the major combatents in WWII tried to make high performance twin-engined fighters, but only Britain, German, and the USA made ones that were everything that was expected. The He-219 was no exception. Major Werner Streib flew the first mission of the He-219. In 30 minutes of combat he shot down 5 Lancasters, but wrecked the Uhu as he landed. Over the next five days a special test squadron shot down an additional 15 RAF planes, including 6 of the fast and potent de Havilland Mosquitos. He-219 was the only German nightfighter capable of facing the "Mossie" on even terms. The He-219 had one of the most powerful armaments ever used by a WWII plane. The A-5 version carried two 20mm. and six 30mm. cannon. Needless to say it devestated the RAF bombers. But production problems kept the He-219 from appearing in any large number. In total only 294 Uhus were built.







[ 20. November 2002, 09:00 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Interesting report Kai !

# 1 the top painting is of an Do 217 firing on who knows what.....Lancs ?

# 2 the He 219's in I./NJG 1 only shot down a total of 12 Mosquitos during all of 43-45. 10./JG 300 shot down over a dozen plus just in September-October 44 with their Bf 109 G-6/AS, which was far superior for mossie hunting.

# 3 the He 219 many times was not fitted with rear warning radar and was shot down many times from the rear by mossie intruders.

# 4 it did not have a third member for a shared pair of eyes to observe a kill for the crew as well as hunt for RAF night fighters.

# 5 the He 219 also never had a rear gun for defence.

# 6 the He 219 had many engine and wing failures. An excellent concept from the drawing board, but way too many variants that failed while in the sky.

# 7 first a/c to be equipped with ejection seats. Though needed for the forward crew placement in time of a bailout, the ejection installation failed on more than one occassion sending the crew through the roof of the cockpit glass thus KIA.

# 8 overall impressions were rating of a negative. NJG 5 and 1./NJGr 10 and Nachtjagdstaffel Norwegen each had 1/2 He 219 for testing purposes and their a/c's flew and landed with broken backs. Only I./NJG 1 was fully equipped although II. and III./NJG 1 tested a few a/c, the gruppen kept their Bf 110G-4's and supplemented III. gruppe with the new Ju 88G-6 whcih was superior in mym view of any of the German night fighters including the Me 262.

# 9 the newer non-flyable variants with a thrid crew member as standard and rear gun plus newer centimetric radar would of been key to the nf arsenal but these a/c never became available. Overall the NF had it been able to live long enough through 1946-47 would most likely have been equipped with the Me 262A-1a or the B two seater series.

E

 

Herbert Lütje Oberstleutnant

Born January 30, 1918 in Abbesbüttel in the Niedersachsen.

RK on June 1, 1943 as a Hauptmann the EL as # 836 on April 17, 1945 as a Major. The DK on February 15, 1943. EP on September 29, 1942.

He became a Fahenjunker in November of 1937 in the Luftwaffe, December 39 he was part of the new nachtjagdstaffel in LG 2 and from February 1940 he was in 12./JG 2 and placed in France in May of 1940. flying single engine night fighter ops with JG 2, he was transferred to the stab of III./NJG 1 in July of 1940. On September 6/7 1941 he had over 49 missions at night and finally scored his first kill. On May 1, 1942 and having 4 victories he became staffelkapitän of 8./NJG 1 flying the Bf 110. By the end of 1942 his socre rose to 15. Herbert was then involved in the Reich defence by day against the US bomber formations.....(Uk !), on March 4, 1943 he shot down 1 B-17. On March 29/30, 1943 his score stood at 20 kills. He shot down 6 RAF bombers on May 13/14, 1943 for his 23-28th victories and from this was awarded the Ritterkreuz. Sometime in June of 1943 he was and became Kommandeur of IV./NJG 6. Flying missions over Rumania in defence of the Reichs most southern borders. After a short stint over Holland in September he was moved back with the unit to Rumania flying day defence missions against the US 15th Air Force. Flying their trusty Bf 110G-4, on June 6, 1944, Herbert's bordfünker Ofw. Bogumil almost does the unthinkable ! He by chance shoots down 2 P-38's with his twin MG 81's, but in the resulting engagement Herbert's Bf 110G-4 is hit hard and crash lands their burning machine, coded 2Z+AF. More engagements against the RAF at night brings a further 6 Wellingtons to his added score as well as several Soviet recon DB-3's over the Black Sea. At the end of August 1944 his gruppe stil remained in defence of the southern sphere while the rest of NJG 6 had been moved elsewhere in the Reich. On October 1, 1944 Herbert became Kommodore of NJG 6 now flying the Ju 88G-1 and later the superior Ju 88G-6 with 4 man crew. during 1945 he scored his last 8 night victories ( 1 of which I am doing personal research on with a relative of one of the RAF's crews families.)
His Eichenlaub presentation was for Herberts score of 50 victories.
On January 18, 1967 Herbert passed away in Köln-Wahn.
He flew 247 missions, with 198 of these at night.
50 air victories, 3 during the day, and 1 a B-17.

more later ......

E

 

Thank you for this stuff Erich--Kai!--its getting me in the mood for posting Artur Phleps looooooooooonnnnnnnngggggggggg sketch.

 

Carl :

Well just don;t sit there do it ! expect sore fingers today my friend. kai, sorry for being such a negative guy about the UHU, but this was my favorite nf machine back in the 1960's until I started interviewing vets and doing some intense research on this a/c. The poor thing was best suited as Mossie fodder in my general opinion. Still a sehr Kühl looking a/c though ....

will be doing a bio on Wilhelm Johnen this afternoon once work is done. I see that the wet fog is lifting, so tootles for now

E

 

Erich, yes - it's a rather stylised Lancaster.

I've got a copy of Johnen's book 'Duel Under The Stars' here but haven't read it yet....

 

Ah yes, but a bit on a smaller scale eh Martin ?

W. Johnen's book is a good read and I think you will enjoy it.

Wilhelm Johnen

Hauptmann, and born on Ocotber 9, 1921 in Homberg/Niederrhein.

RK on October 29, 1944 as a Oberleutnant. DK on July 23, 1944. EP on March 20, 1944.

In June of 1941 he was a Leutnant in 3./NJG 1 and on March 26/27 1942 shot down a Wellington as his first air victory. After this incident he and his crew were shot down, his Bordfünker Obergefreiter Risop was killed in Bf 110D-3, werk # 4224 coded G9+FL. On October 1, 1942 he was in 1./NJG 5, and after two months transferred into 5./NJG 5. For the year 1943 he scored 7 kills and in January 1944 another 7 victories that month. 3 coming on the night of January 27/28, 1944. On March 3, 1944 with 18 kills he became Staffelkapitän of 6./NJG 5 flying the Bf 110G-4. On April 27/28 1944 after shooting down a Lancaster he and his three man crew made a forced landing in Dübendorf, Switzerland (Ooooooops !) a big mess ensued literally with many promises of the return of the radar equipped Bf 110G-4 for trade of some Bf 109's for the Swiss air force. After many promises, a load of paper work and visits from many high ranking civilian dignataries and military professionals, Wilhelm and his crew, Lt. Kamprath and Ofw. Mahle ( inventor of Schräge Musik !), were released into protective custody and returned to Germany. The beautiful Bf 110G-4 with the latest radar C9+EN was supposed to have been destroyed before the Allies could take a look at the latest German radar set.
On May 10, 1944 he became Staffelkapitän of 8./NJG 6 and with his unit helped defend the southern/south-east approaches to Germany, and on this date he shot down 4 Soviet B-25's. The Ritterkreuz was bestowed upon Wilhelm for his 33rd victory and in the Fall of 1944 he became Gruppenkommandeur of III./NJG 6 still flying the Bf 110G-4, and remaining in this position till the end.

Over 200 missions
34 victories, 4 of them in the East.
Wilhelm was a great guy and would write back to all who would send a letter / sadly he died on February 7, 2002 one week after I had received his adresse in Germany. Hals und Beinbruck Wilhelm !

E

 

Thanx Erich...I knew you had the extra information why the "Uhu" never made it big time!

It is indeed interesting to understand how different wars the day and night time fights over the Reich were. I feel like the night time battles were more like counter this and counter that from both sides. The upward shooting gun the Schräge Musik is simple but totally destructive invention. Any numbers or ideas how much less allied bombers would have been shot down without it?Or would it have mattered?

 

Kai :

Pretty incredible pic. so typical of nightime over the Reich.

good question about schrag waffen. Some pilot almost used the weapon exclusively. Others till preferred the forward firing armament. Can't imagine though being a rear gunner in a Bf 110G with the weapon's guns sitting on either side of you and firing. The noise and vibration !.....arg. Since nearly all the RAF bombers were not supplied with a belly turret or under gun positions the German twin or single weapon(s) were a definate must and continued to be a plague to RAF and US bombers flying the nights missions till the end.

Erich

 

PAUKE!PAUKE!

 

Erich--its done and Rudiger Pipkorn is the next sketch to be done and thank the good lord that its not even a full sheet of paper--in other words--it will be about 1/3 the size of the one I did for Phleps. I'll try to get back to a computer later today and post his.

 

Carl, alot of work to go on the SS bio's; of course U know that.

Looking back on the rest of the NJG 6 pilot's roster, I'll have to dig ever so deep to find more on these guys. It is interesting that at least for the night fighter guys, unless they seemed to have served together such as in Lufthansa, many don't have a clue where the rest of their kamerades are. Not many reunions are done except for the usual treffen done in October of every year. many of course are up in the high 70's and early 80's and reunions are not worth going to for several reasons. Typically health concerns. There are a couple og chaps on Carl's listing which I've tried to hunt down over the years with no success.

E

 

Unfortunately and I agree. I havent had time to check the books I have to write more bios. Fortunately--I have a few done but not posted to this site yet.

I have left to post here: Rudiger Pipkorn, Herman August Ludwig Priess, Edgar Pauad, Carl Graf von Puckler-Burghaus, Helmuth Raithel, Heinz Reinfarth and Joachim Richter and I started on Joachim Rumohr, but not near finished.

Actually checking on it--I had more done than I thought I thought all I had wa about 3-4 more done but not double.

 

a sampling of other pilots......

Erich Becker of 2./NJG 6 Bf 110G-4 4 kills

Wilhelm Engel of 3./NJG 6 Bf 110G-4 then in 1945 Ju 88G-6, coded 2Z+XL, last kill on February 23, 1945. 15 kills

Oblt. Heiner KIA on March 18, 1945 while with 12./NJG 6 over Chemnitz. 4 kills

Uffz. Benno Kratz of 3./NJG 6 9 kills

Oblt. Albert Walter of 1./NJG 6 Bf 110G-4 10 kills.

more hopefully in December...

E

 

Sorry to bring up this old thread.

I am wondering if anybody has a WWII-era photograph of Benno Kratz they could post? I have a photo of him taken just before his 90th birthday but it does not help me for comparison's sake.

Many thanks in advance.

 

whom ? was he a member of NJG 6 ?

by the way after further research over so many years. to the above pilot W. Engel was shot down on the Pförzheim raid which really gutted the old town.

man I had forgotten about this thread ............... ~
sorry Alien yes I see who Herr Kratz is now

 

He is mentioned in your post of November 23, 2002, directly above my post of today:

Uffz. Benno Kratz of 3./NJG 6 9 kills

He passed away 15 June 2009 at age 91.

Grateful for any information.

 

7 kills confirmed, read the edit I put in before your posting.

his first name was Bernard. flew the Bf 110G-4 until ? last kill number 7 in September 1944, this of course depends on the info at hand. served in 3rd staffel, then 2nd staffel and by September 44 was flying with 1./NJG 6. last rank Feldwebel but not 100 % positive on that; also think he may have been wounded in January 45 on an op that kept him out of the remainder of the war. by now he should of flown the Ju 88G-6 as this is what was the 1st staffel equipped with............will look further on that though. my NJG 6 materials are very scattered about right now.

HTH E ~

 

wow just upped the info on the man, he was wounded flying a Bf 110G-4 at 11.35 hrs and attacked by 3 P-51's and crashed-belly landed his Bf 110G-4 near Schriesheim by Hamburg. should not read in action but most likely a day-time ferry flight...... coded 2Z+HL, werk nummer 160763

date : January 25, 1945

 

Thanks for that, Erich.

Here's a picture of the late Herr Kratz taken sometimes in the early 90s. From what I am told his 90th birthday party last year was quite the affair.

I am starting to think that he is the man pictured in my other post:

http://www.ww2f.com/information-requests/35802-unknown-german.html

Upon the death of the Canadian mentioned in my other post his family discovered that he and Herr Kratz had corresponded for many years. There may have also been a visit.

Any idea where a WWII era photograph of Feldwebel Kratz may be found? I do not wish to bother his grand daughter if it is at all possible.

Many thanks.