more Knight Cross wearers signed photos

Leo Schumacher, Bf110 ace credited with 23 victories. He flew with these Units: 2./ZG76, 6./JG1, JG3, EJG2, JV44, JV44 was Galland's elite unit flying the Me262 jet. Schumacher flew with JV44 at war's end



Rudolf Trenkel, Rudolf Trenkel was credited with 138 victories in over 500 missions. Of the 138 victories recorded over the Eastern Front, at least 42 were IL-2 Sturmovik ground attack aircraft




Johannes Naumann, Johannes Naumann flew with JG-26 and is credited with 34 victories on the Western Front, in April of 1945 he flew Me262s while serving as Group commander in III/JG-7



Rolf-Gunther Hermichen, Rolf-Günther Hermichen flew 629 combat missions and shot down 64 enemy aircraft, 11 of them he downed flying the Bf 110. On the Western Front he shot down 53 enemy aircraft, including 26 four engine heavy bombers.
On 20 February he shot down four B-24s , on 6 March he shot down three B-17s and on 8 March again shot down four four-engined bombers in 20 minutes. He was very sucessful against heavy bombers... On 26 March 1944, after his 61st victory, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz. His 64th, and last, kill was over a P-51 on 24 April. He ended operational flying in May. In the dying days of the war he became Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 104. With this unit he was awarded the Eichenlaub on 19 February 1945



Heinz "Esau" Ewald, Heinz Ewald flew as Gerd Barkhorn's wingman in JG52 and is credited with 85 victories in 396 combat sorties



Alfred Grislawski, Alfred Grislawski was credited with 133 victories in over 800 missions. He recorded 24 victories over the Western Front, including 18 four engine bombers. Of his 109 victories recorded over the Eastern Front, 16 were IL-2 Sturmoviks

 

you are fortunate about Hermichen unless you were close to him and a serious German historian none would achieve a signature from him the last 15 years, besides being ill now he was quite torn back after war about the losses his JG 11 took and the air war in general taking so many lives

 

Thanks Erich

I have 3 of his signatures so far, I kinda like this one the best and I just got it about 2 weeks ago,
most of the signatures I get from my main source were signed in the early 1980s and in the 1970s. My source is a member of the Knights Cross association. He has had a lot of access to the knights cross wearing soldiers, sailors and pilots and he is a friend of many of them. His collection of signed photos is in the thousands and I am very grateful to him for selling me many of the photos in my collection

regards

 

I can imagine he does, the responder to you first inquiry in Remy is also a friend of the OdR, KC assocaition and Paul has met quite a few of the German award winners as well as being a known experten on the Narva battles

 

I am always leary of posting any biography on my photos because I am not an expert on the history of all of these soldiers and new research is always coming up with new or contradictory information.

I thought it would help some people with understanding why I have the photo or who the guy is and what he is known for.

Usually I just do a quick search on the person if it is not someone that I know a lot about and post a brief amount of information.

Unfortunately with post war history being researched and updated so much it is difficult to find the latest source that has the most accurate info.

Maybe I should just go back to posting their name as it is not my intent to imply that the brief amount of history I post on each photo is the most update date and accurate description of the person's accomplishments. Especially with late war accounts, as you can see and know a lot about yourself the number of victories claimed or credited to some of these late war aces can vary greatly depending on the source.

It really is not my intent to get into in depth descriptions or discussions as I am just posting these photos for people's enjoyment and any information that is not correct or disputed I would be glad to change so that everyone has an accurate idea of each soldier's accomplishments

 

you work with what you have, many of us are on top of the latest information's just due to the fact of whom we know or what we have acquired for the last 45 plus years, even much of that needs to be gone through and eliminated as what I am doing now with old news from the 1960's which is just plain wrong, at least the fireplace is stoked and the house nice and warm on this gorgeous fall day in the Sphere.

think you would agree we should be constantly learning and not stuck on just one plain of thought .......... so with that keep posting many of our interests are far ranging you can simply see that right on this varied site. guess we need to remember what we post from our photo archiv's not everyone will be interested and that is something like over 90 %, but it is all history nonetheless.

 

a few more newbies for my signed photo collection


Hans-Henning Freiherr von Breust, Bomber pilot, received the Knight's Cross and Oakleaves as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of III. / Kampfgeschwader 27 "Boelcke" also received the the Spanish Cross in Gold in June of 1939



Kurt Kuhlmey, one of the most famous Stuka pilots, He was awarded the Knights Cross in July 1942. He held commands in the following units; 1./StG 1, II/SG 3, SG 3 and SG 2, He was also commander of Detachment Kuhlmey whose actions in Finland were of great importance for the outcome of the continuation war. The unit played an instrumental role in the halting of the Soviet fourth strategic offensive at the battles of Tali and Ihantala. Kuhlmey was involved in all of the following campaigns; Poland, Norway, France, Great Britain,Malta (including the 10 January 1941 attack on the aircraft carrier Illustrious), Soviet Union, and Finland

 

Gunther Krech, U-558, On 10 patrols he sank 19 ships for 100,771 tons and damaged 2 ships for 15,070 tons. Of these were 1 auxiliary warship sunk for a total of 913 tons and 1 ship a total loss for a total of 6,672 tons.



Klaus Scholtz, U-108, On 8 patrols he sank 25 ships for 128,190 tons one of these was an auxiliary warship, the British armed merchant cruiser AMC Rajputana for 16,644 tons, in the Straits of Denmark.




Kurt-Ceasar Hoffmann, Commander of the Battleship Scharnhorst

 

Gunter Frenzel, Frenzel won his Knights Cross as a Feldwebel as a member of 11./Kampf-Geschwader z.b. V. 1. Frenzel is famous for leading Operation XYZ, in 1941. While flying his JU-52 transport plane in Libya, he touched down for refueling. Frenzel was given an RAF uniform and introduced to his crew, which consisted of similarly dressed Luftwaffe personnel who had been trained to speak perfect english. He was to replace one pilot trained for the mission, who had taken ill. His mission: fly to the Belgian Congo, land at a new Allied supply base for refueling, take off, and then bomb the very based they had tricked into giving them fuel. The plan worked, and all three Wellingtons made it back to safety.

 

Very well known man over here... Surprise surprise...Thanx for the autograph don´t recall seeing one before.

 

Kai,
here is another signed photo that I have of Kurt Kuhlmey

Kurt Kuhlmey


thanks for the input Kai

 

Thanx again! Hope to get one or more for myself later on. The Stukas and FW190´s were a crucial part of stopping the Red Army in summer 1944 in the Finnish front.