Arctic Bf 109 and Bf 110 Aces by John Weal

Author:John Weal
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781782008002
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-02-18T16:00:00+00:00

Feldwebel Heinrich Bartels’ Gustav being checked by the ever attentive ‘black men’. Note the combined Staffel and Gruppe badges below the windscreen and the solid disc – also visible in the previous photograph – on the rear fuselage. This latter identified III. Gruppe and was carried in the respective Staffel colours of white, black and yellow

Exactly five minutes prior to this, 8. Staffel’s Feldwebel Heinrich Bartels had also claimed the first of two P-40s which, together with a single P-39 Airacobra, raised his personal tally to 49.

On 27 March Leutnant Theo Weissenberger was back on form, accounting for four of that day’s 14+ victories. On this occasion, however, he was bested by the Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 5, Oberleutnant Heinrich Ehrler, who got five. Other familiar names – the likes of Hans Döbrich and centurion-to-be Feldwebel Jakob Norz – had to settle for one apiece.

Although the emphasis of this narrative is naturally focused on JG 5’s successes, it should not be forgotten that the Geschwader’s two Arctic Gruppen were by this time suffering a slow but steady rate of attrition of their own. In fact, 27 March also saw the last of the month’s seven losses when two Unteroffiziere failed to return from the combined bomber escort and freie Jagd mission to the Murmansk area that had proved so fruitful for Ehrler and Weissenberger. As might be expected, the bulk of the casualties came from the ranks of the less experienced pilots, but such was the growing strength and confidence of the enemy that soon no one would be safe.

And indeed the very next morning Leutnant Theo Weissenberger himself had a narrow escape. Scrambled to intercept an incoming Shturmovik raid on Petsamo, Weissenberger was able to claim three of the Il-2s escorting Airacobras before his own ‘Yellow 4’ took a hit and he was forced to belly-land out on the open tundra not far from Salmijärvi. Although the machine was written off, Theo Weissenberger was unhurt and quickly found. Less than four hours later he was back in the air again.

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