Info on Nachtjagdgeschwader 6.

Well guys, I'm just sitting here putting some details together in about 6/7 letters to living Nachtjäger veterans so I thought I would add another chap to the list.....
First flying in NJG 5, Peter scored 9 victories. Now in II./NJG 6 he scored a Wellington on July 21, 44 and 2 victories on September 11, 1944 being Lancasters. Was flying the Bf 110G-4 in NJG 5, later the Ju 88G-1 in II./NJG 6 and now on December 4, 44 flying the Ju 88G-6 and scoring 3 Lancasters on this night. In 6./NJG 6 on December 27, 44 was in the process of shooting down a Lanc and was confirmed, but hit by 2cm German fla, with his left engine aflame and buried the a/c in the snow smashing his forehead into his relexvisior thus keeping himslef and his crew out of operations until February 45. Another 2 victories over Lancasters on the night of February 23, 45 and his last kills being on March 7, 1945 over 2 Lancasters, on his second victory he received return fire from an RAF gunner and had engine failure, losing height he and his crew bailed out near Crailsheim, while he set the a/c on autopilot until it lost height and crashed.
On March 19, 1945, Peter became Gruppenkommandeur of I./NJG 6 and remained at this position until captured by US forces on 30 April 1945. He had 24 victories and received the Deutsche Kreuz. Unfortunately his flugbuch and other documents were taken from him by US troops at the time of surrender........
Peter had excellent grasp of the English language during the war and therefore was used many times to interview shot down RAF bomber crews. Peter is still with us and lives in Central Germany and I consider him a wonderful friend.

continued...........

E

 

Grrrrrrrrrreat stuff Erich... Do you think he would do a sort of Interview for this forum? if so, I can contribute a few quid...

He sounds like he had a very interesting career, and I wonder what he would say about life as a POW of the US Army??

 

more..........

Hauptmann Leopold Fellerer, received the RK on April 8, 1944, the DK on February 6, 1944. First started flying as a bomber pilot and on November 18, 1940 was Technical Offizier in II./NJG 1 and on February 10/11, 44 scored his first kill. In 4./NJG 1 and then in November of 41 flew in 5./NJg 2 but back again in 11./NJG 1 on October 1, 1942. On the 10th of that month he became staffelkapitän of 3./NJG 1 and then transferred into 5./NJG 5 flying the Bf 110G-4. he became gruppenkommandeur of II./NJG 5 which later became III./NJG 6 and in January of 1944 he and his gruppe were flying day missions against US heavy bomber formations. Leopold scoring 2 B-17's. His greatest night came on January 20/21, 1944 when he scored 5 bombers. For his recognition of 34 victories, Leopold was given the RK. Leopold had 450 missions and 41 victories including 1 Russian DC-3. Sadly he was killed in and airplane crash with his Cessna near Mautern/Krems on July 16, 1968.

Major Gerhard Friedrich received the RK on march 15, 1945. He started his flying career with the TRansport units over operation Kreta and was flying in unit KG z.b.V. 106. Transferred in the night fighter arm in 1942 and into III./NJG 1 and scored his first victory on June 16/17, 1942. He became staffelkapitän of 10./NJG 4 on january 1, 1943 scoring several kills. On August 1, 1943 he was in 1./NJG 6 and on July 12, 1944 he became gruppenkommandeur of I./NJG 6 flying the Ju 88G-1. presented the RK after 29 night victories. On the night of March 16/17, 1945 at 21.00 hours, he and his crew shot down a lancaster but his fire hit the bombload and both the lanc and his Ju 88G-6, coded 2Z+LB were both destroyed. Gerhard and his crew, Lt. Lewerenz, Ofw. Giessen and Uff. Meyer were all killed, with the remains of their aircraft crashing in the Nähe. His total victories stood at 30.

continued.......Otto please edit for the archiv's.

E

 

Hey, this is working again ! neato ! ok, looking at your post Carl about Peter. Peter is very private and he has given his full account in Hunters of the Reich(Night Fighters) by David P/ Williams. this book also covers aces Peter Spoden, a great guy, Werner Hoffmann and Georg Hermann Greiner also with Oberst Wolfgang Falck another great guy and father of the German night fighter arm.......Peter usually makes reference to this work when relating some of his experiences. He seems to answer simple questions which is just fine with me. i would love to say yes Carl, but at this time probably not, which is unfortunate. I've got to hunt through more but it looks like I have info on maybe 3 or 4 more of the well known aces of the night fighter wing then it starts to get a little tough as I amy have info on some of the others victories and losses.

arg, my hands are dead.......more later.....

E

 

Great stuff Erich. Also, a bit of info for you. Speaking of a Herr Greiner--I know someone who lives in or near Dallas that is said to be related to him. I met this person about 5-6 yrs ago--I havent thought about this in almost all that time.

 

Carl :

Would this be John Greiner ? If so we have chatted many times and he has sent several letters off to Hermann Georg, but is still uncertain if there is a relationship going on. I believe that there may well be.

I've got some info for you that I will send to one of your other e-mails.....

E

 

Im not 100% sure of his first name, but I do think it was John. Also, if this helps--he owns a few Ace Hardware stores in the area, and is pretty wealthy by now.

Also--im in A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N for the email info---pant pant...

 

Yikes, now I'm stumped Yes, the name is John and he is a musician by trade. Plays the sax actually and is a die-hard a/c modeller. Maybe both John's are related to Georg in some way.......heck it's a small world. Stuff comin at ya tomorrow Carl before I head out for 4 days.

E

 

Heh heh, watch that name be the Geerman version of John Smith.

 

Carl :

I'll think I'll ask John next week what his replies were from Hermann Georg and then go from there. Just received an e-mail from Peter Spoden whom I did the short bio on for this postings, he is doing extremely well. I will write him next week and see if he is open to others sending notes to him. A dear friend and 5 victory winner Günther Wolf is quite ill. Günther lives about 7 miles away from Peter and after the war they both served in the present day Lufthansa flying old semi-beat up Ju 52's and slightly more modern transports. Günther served in NJG 5 and wrote his own life's story called "Turbulenzen eines Flieger-lebens" back in 1998. I was going to pursue writing him but am not sure now if he is feeling that ill.
Will finish the rest of the other RK gents of NJG 6 next week after I return from business.

E

 

Sounds great to me.. Paul shared some nice info with me about the 2nd top most scoring German Sniper. Write him as I will--soon as I can find his address again apparently his replies are very fast.

 

just a bump.

 

the big **(bumb)**

Still interested in continuation of these men's bios ?

E

 

Id sure like to hear more. Great stuff!

 

Me too if you have the time--we got the beer--miller beer.

 

Ok guys then in about two weeks I'll post some more. Rats, wish I had a scanner, have enjoyed Friedrichs posts with the scanned pics of Wehrmacht generals which help the bio's/text tremendously. Hoping that St. Nick hear's my call for Christmas, of course that was what I was hoping for last year..... well let's see what happens when my work slows down a bit.

E

 

Sounds good to me and if I could afford it--i'd buy you a scanner for x-mas.

 

Great work, anyway, guys! Thanks!

 

****( Bump)****

More bio's this week before the weekend !

E Pauke, pauke !

 

Hauptmann Josef Kraft

Born on February 8, 1921 in Vienna, Austria
Received the RK on September 30, 1944 as an Oberleutnant and the EL as a Hauptmann on April 17, 1945 (# 838). The DK on July 23, 1944 and the EP on March 31, 1944.

Started out as a Fahnenjunker in the Luftwaffe on April 1, 1040 and in Ocotber 42 was on Stab./NJG 4 and then moved to 6./NJG 5 on December 1, 1942. First night fighter kill on the night of August 27/28 1943 and by the years end had 7 victories. In January 44 he started scoring heavily with 3 bombers to his credit on Jaunuary 5/6 44 and 3 more on the 30/31 of January as his 15-17th kills. Into 8./NJG 6 in may of 44. and he socred a total of 26 victories while here in this staffel. In June of 44 transferred to Hungary with his III. gruppe against Russian a/c. With combined RAF/Soviet ops here in Hungary he scores a total of 4 soviet DC-3's, 13 Wellingtons and 4 other four enigne bombers. On July 27, 1944 he transferred into 7./NJG 6. After his 44th victory he is awarded the Ritterkreuz. By October 44's end his unit is moved back to Germany for Reich defence. On December 6, 1944 Josef is once again transferred, this time to 12./NJG 1 as staffelkapitän and in February and march of 45 he scores his last victories, the last on March 22/23, 1945.
129 missions, 12 of these during the day. 56 night victories, 4 of them Soviet a/c.
Josef passed away in 1993.
_________________________________________________

Hauptmann Heinz-Martin Hadeball

Born: April 22, 1921 in Kahren close to Cottbus
Received the RK on July 27, 1944, the DK on February 7, 1944 and the EP on August 9, 1943.

He was a Leutnant in E./NJG 1 on June 22, 41 going by the nickname Hannibal. In 7./NJG 1 and scored his first kill on the eve of 12/13. July 41. 4 kills on April 1, 1942 while in 8./NJG 4 and by the end of 42 he had a total of 8 victories. He became Technical Offizier in IV./NJG 4 and then on April 1, 1943 Staffelkapitän
of 12./NJG 4. somewhere in august of 43 he was transferred into 3./NJG 6 flying the Bf 110G-4, then following this short period back into a training section of 2./NJG 1. During the time of 1943 he scored a further 18 victories. On April 25, 1944 he was the Kommandeur of I./NJG 6 and then on July 12, 1944 he was sent to the Stab./NJGr 10, the radar weapons test unit. He receives the RK after a personal score of 32 kills. On October 15, 1944 he is moved to 3./NJGr 10 flyng a variety of Bf 110G-4 and Ju 88G's, then he is moved again back to the Gruppen Stab./NJGr 10. At war's end he and the stab are captured by US troops but he is handed over to the Soviets. He is finally released from soviet captivity in 1946.
350 missions, 33 night victories.
From what I have learned Heinz-Martin has passed away sometime in the 1960's ? I have a wonderful full front pic signed by him.

all for now but it continues...... !

E