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Was Sturmstaffel 1 the only "ram" staffel?

Discussion in 'Air War in Western Europe 1939 - 1945' started by Skipper, Dec 10, 2006.

  1. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    The story of Sturmstaffel 1 is well known. Those who voluntered to be part of this staffel knew that if they had no other alternative, they would ram allied bombers rather than go home without a claim.
    Could it be that other Luftwaffe airmen also rammed bombers on a more or less regular basis? It could be accidents of course, but when you have two forced landings the same day, and from the same unit, the question deserves to be asked. For instance, on May 11 1944, two fighters rammed B-24s over France, one of these was Waldemar Radener, an experienced flyer (he was slighty wounded that day). They could also have been hit by debris.
     
  2. Erich

    Erich Alte Hase

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    you should probably take a look at the SturmFw element of my webpages with Neil page. Sturmstaffel 1 materials are not that well known due to the errors involved, but take hart a new book is forthwith from friend Barry Smith who will cover the mysterious rammings.

    Friend O Bösch while in the 11.Sturm/JG 3 in may of 44 was in process of being shot down by return fire in the B-17 bomber stream and had elected to "go for it" ramm but could not and had to bail out of his flamed Fw 190A-8 Sturm
    W.Radaener was not in a Sturm unit in may of 44 so it would of been conincidence or just debris, let alone an accident which was the usual case.
    the base conception although a written doc was suppose to be signed after Sturmstaffel 1 Gruppenkommandeur Moritz in JG 3 did not as well as his 3 staffeln Kommandeurs hold the pilots to their signed oath. Pilots were too important than silly heavily laden a/c........... on it goes, I have atruck load of info on the Sturm units
     
  3. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Thanks Erich I was hoping you would be the one to help me with this question. It could have been an accident and Waldemar Radener and Waldemar Busch were probably both hit by debris. Let me know when Barry smith publishes his book. I am not a sturmstaffel specialist, but I would be interested to read about this Staffel. There are however some single examples from other Staffels when fighters deliberately rammed. Andreas Reissle, a young pilot from JG11 for instance, rammed Colonel Kenneth Martin's
    P-51 over Saarland in february 1944 and got the Iron Cross for capturing the highest ranked U.S. airman (both survived their crashes)
     

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