Luftwaffe Fighter Aces (27 page)

The resounding victory came on 30/31 March when the RAF struck in force at Nuremberg. It was one of the few times when almost everything favoured the defenders. The spoof raids were all identified in good time and 246 night fighters were scrambled to deal with the main force, most being assembled over a radio beacon right on the bombers’ course. Higher winds than forecast scattered the bomber stream over a wide front, while atmospheric conditions were such that condensation trails from the exhausts of the bombers’ engines formed at a much lower height than usual.

A bright half moon in a clear sky shone on the ghostly white contrails, making the bomber stream visible from many miles away. The scene was set for slaughter: the
Nachtjagdflieger
could hardly fail to find targets on such a clear night. A running battle developed over the next 200 miles, its path marked by fires on the ground, each denoting a shot-down bomber. Helmut Schulte, (25 victories) of
II/NJG
5, takes up the story:

Normally our biggest problem was to find the bomber stream but on this night we had no trouble. I found the enemy at a height of 6,000 metres. I sighted a Lancaster and got underneath it and opened fire with my slanting weapon. Unfortunately it jammed, so that only a few shots put out of action the starboard inner motor. The bomber dived violently and turned to the north, but because of good visibility we were able to keep him in sight. I now attempted a second attack after he had settled on his course, but because the Lancaster was now very slow we always came out too far to the front. I tried the
Schräge Musik
again and after another burst the bomber fell in flames. Our plane [a Bf 110] stalled but I was able to regain control 2,000 metres lower.

Schulte accounted for three more bombers that night, and other
Experten
also notched up multiple victories. The best performance of all was by Martin ‘Tino’ Becker, a former reconnaissance pilot who joined
I/NJG 4
in 1943, opening his score in September of that year. In his first mission of the night, a
Zähme Sau
, he shot down three Lancasters and three Halifaxes. After refuelling and rearming, he was sent to a
Himmelbett
box, where he accounted for a further Halifax, for a total of seven. What makes his performance even more creditable was that as his Bf 110 was not fitted with
Schräge Musik
he was forced to rely on his standard forward-firing armament. He survived the war with a total of 58 confirmed night victories.

The nervous strain of night fighting was tremendous: the stealthy approach, wondering if the rear gunner was already taking aim; the risk of collision in the dark; the lurking British intruders—all took their toll. Helmut Schulte, four victories already to his credit that night and his
Schräge Musik
jammed, encountered another Lancaster south of Nuremberg. His first attack came to naught because he had forgotten to arm his front guns; the bomber spotted him and began to corkscrew. He followed at a distance until it settled down, then closed in behind. He later recalled:

At first he didn’t object to this formation flying and he must have been watching me as I got into position again. As soon as I opened fire he dived away and my shells passed over him. I thought that this chap must have nerves of steel: he had watched me formate on him and then had dived just at the right time. He had been through as much as I had—we had both been to Nuremberg that night—so I decided that was enough.

It was also enough for Bomber Command. Of the 795 bombers that set out for Nuremberg, 94, an unacceptable 12 per cent, failed to return. Of these, 79 fell to the
Nachtjagdflieger
, who shared two more with the Flak.

However, not all the German fighters had seen action. A notable failure that night was Schnaufer, who was a little too clever for his own good. Attempting to intercept as far forward as possible, he headed for the coast, missed the bomber stream completely and never caught it up. Also unlucky were the Bf 110s of
II/NJG
6. Initially sent too far north, they also failed to get among the bombers.

Nuremberg was the
Nachtjagdflieger’s
last great victory. The Normandy invasion punched a great hole in the early warning screen, through which the Allied bombers were directed. A concerted attack on the German oil industry followed, reducing output to well below the minimum necessary. Pilot training virtually ceased, and defensive operations were severely curtailed by lack of fuel. Efficiency suffered.

In December 1944 the
Nachtjagdflieger
claimed a mere 66 victories—0.7 per cent of bomber sorties flown. In the process they lost 114 fighters. The greatest hazard was the ubiquitous Mosquito, which by now ranged the length and breadth of the Third Reich to hunt down German fighters. So extreme did this become that
Experten
took to returning to base at very low level to escape the attentions of the British aircraft. At night this was not without risk, and it became ironically known as
‘Ritterkreuz
height’. Hans Krause (28 victories),
of I/NJG 4
, developed his own unique method of returning home. Lining up on the runway at 3,000 metres, he asked for the runway lights to be switched on briefly. Having taken his bearings, he dived steeply, pulled out hard to mush off excess speed and touched down on a darkened airfield. His only comment on this amazing performance was that if a Mosquito shot him down, at least he had plenty of time to bale out! He survived the war.

Nachtjagdflieger
resistance was at a very low level for the final months of the war, but the
Experten
could and did hit back hard. Of the 43 recorded occasions when five or more victories were claimed in a single night, eight took place in February/ March 1945. But by then the night air war was lost.

Galloping weight increases made the performance of the Bf 110 demonstrably inadequate, and production ceased in December 1944, although the aircraft remained in service to the end. The Ju 88C was replaced by the G series from 1944. This was an altogether more capable machine, and equipped almost all of the night fighter force in the closing months. Among the
Experten
who flew it were Helmut Lent of
NJG
3, with 102 night victories before his death in a landing accident on 5 October 1944; Heinz Rökker of
2INJG
2, with 63 at night; Paul Zorner of
II/NJG 100
, with 59; Martin Becker of
IV
/
NJG
6, with 58; Gerhard Raht of
I/NJG
2, with 58; and Heinz Strüning of
9/NJG 1
, with 56. The last was shot down and killed by a Mosquito on Christmas Eve 1944.

The Heinkel He 219 was introduced during 1943, but for various reasons only 268 were built. Brochure performance figures were impressive, and for this reason the failure to get the aircraft into service in large numbers is often cited as an example of German mismanagement. The truth is more prosaic: the brochure figures could not be matched. In addition, its extremely high wing loading made the aircraft unmanoeuvrable at altitude. This inevitably raises the question: could Manfred Meurer have avoided colliding with his victim if he had been flying a more manoeuvrable aircraft? That we shall never know!

As with the day fighters, competition between pilots was fierce. At the beginning of 1943 Helmut Lent led with 49. Trailing him were Reinhold Knacke and Ludwig Becker with 40 apiece. One year later Lent was still on top with 79, but the fast-scoring
Prinz
Heinrich zu Sayn-Wittgenstein now lay second with 68. Knacke was killed while trying to land his badly damaged fighter on 3 February 1943, while Ludwig Becker was shot down in daylight later in the month. Way back in 14th place lay Schnaufer with 42, but 1944/45 saw him surpass the others with 79 victories to bring his score to 121. To bring this feat into perspective,
the next highest scorers during this period were Heinz Rökker and Gustav Francsi with 56 each, followed by Martin Becker with 52.

PRINZ
HEINRICH ZU SAYN-WITTGENSTEIN
One of two aristocratic
Experten
in the
Nachtjagdflieger
(the other was
Prinz
Egmont zur Lippe-Weissenfeld with 51 night victories), Wittgenstein started the war as a bomber pilot but transferred to night fighters in August 1941. As
Kommandeur
of
I/NJG 100
he flew on the Russian Front, where he scored 29 victories. Transferred to Reich defence, he scored rapidly and reached second place by 1 January 1944 with 68 victories, just behind Lent.

The first three weeks of that month saw Wittgenstein add another 15 to his total, but Lent stayed just ahead. Then, on the night of the 21st/ 22nd, Wittgenstein took the lead for the first time. He was never to savour his triumph. Immediately after his fifth victory of the night he was caught from behind by a Mosquito. He baled out, but apparently hit the tailplane of his doomed Ju 88. His parachute failed to open.

Wittgenstein was totally dedicated to his craft. He is reputed to have once made his radar operator stand to attention in the cockpit (quite how this was supposed to have been done is a mystery) and confined him to quarters for three days for losing a contact. And this in the middle of the bomber stream! Resuming the mission, they shot down three bombers, after which he pardoned the man and awarded him the Iron Cross First Class!

On the night before his death Wittgenstein shot down three bombers and had a very narrow escape. Radar operator Friedrich Ostheimer takes up the story:

… I already had the next aircraft on my screen; almost as a matter of routine we flew up to the target.
Prinz
Wittgenstein came pretty close to the Lancaster, which was being flown very erratically. On this occasion, too, a burst from
Schräge Musik
blew a big hole in the wing and started a blazing fire. This time the British pilot reacted unusually: he remained at the controls of his burning machine and dived down on top of us. Our
Prinz
too, whipped the Ju 88 into a dive, but the blazing monster came closer and closer and hung in visual contact over our cabin. I had only one thought: ‘We’ve had it!’ A heavy blow staggered our aircraft,
Prinz
Wittgenstein lost control of the machine and we went into a spin, plunging down into the night.

Wittgenstein recovered control 3,000 metres lower and headed for the nearest airfield. Damage was severe—six feet torn from the starboard wing and a large hole in the rear fuselage. A belly-landing followed, which ripped the floor away, sending chopped-up pieces of turf hurtling through the cabin. Next morning, in a new machine, Wittgenstein flew back to base to meet his appointment with destiny

HEINZ-WOLFGANG SCHNAUFER
Unlike many of the top night
Experten
, Schnaufer joined the
Nachtjagdflieger
straight from training to fly
Himmelbett
sorties with
II/NJG 1.
His first victory came on 2 June 1942, and for the next year or so his scoring was steady if unspectacular. His combat report from 29 May 1943 reads:

At about 00.35 hours I was directed on to an incoming enemy aircraft at an altitude of 3,500 metres. It was located on the [airborne radar] and after further instructions [from Dr Baro, his operator] I made out a four-engined bomber at 00.45 hours, about 200 metres away above and to the right. I attacked the violently evading bomber from behind and below at a range of 80 metres, and my rounds started a bright fire in the left wing. The blazing enemy aircraft turned and dived away steeply, hitting the ground and exploding violently at 00.48 hours.

The timetable was ten minutes from ground control directive to visual contact, but only three minutes from visual contact to the target hitting the ground. The chase was slow and painstaking, the strike swift and deadly.

By August 1943 Schnaufer’s score had reached 23 and he became
Staffelkapitän
of
12/NJG 1.
At about this time he teamed up with talented radar operator Fritz Rumpelhardt, with whom he developed an almost telepathic understanding and shared 100 victories. Prior to this Schnaufer had had two regular operators, Baro, with whom he shared twelve, and Erich Handke, eight. Handke later struck up a successful partnership with Martin Drewes. The other member of the most successful crew in the
Nachtjagdflieger
was Wilhelm Gänsler, a marksman with exceptional night vision. Gänsler shared in 115 victories, 17 with Ludwig Becker and 98 after joining Schnaufer.

With Rumpelhardt on the radar, Schnaufer’s score rose rapidly. Four Lancasters fell to his guns on 16/17 December of that year, bringing his score to 40. The weather was atrocious that night, and he felt his way in
to land beneath a cloud base at barely 100 feet—a further testament to his flying skill.