It was only a matter of days after JG 3 had returned to Germany (Geschwaderstab and II. Gruppe to Wiesbaden-Erbenheim and III. Gruppe to Mannheim-Sandhofen) that Generaloberst Ernst Udet, the Luftwaffe’s Quartermaster-General, committed suicide in Berlin. The normally ebullient Udet – World War 1 fighter ace, interwar stunt pilot and bon viveur – had been driven to take his own life by charges levelled at him from certain quarters that it was his policies alone which had cost the Luftwaffe victory in the Battle of Britain, and were preventing the speedy conquest of the Soviet Union.
The Nazi hierarchy quickly sought to cover up the true circumstances of Udet’s death. His shooting himself with his own service pistol became ‘lost his life while testing a new weapon’. The authorities then went even further by staging a grandiose state funeral, one result of which was the loss of General der Jagdflieger Werner Mölders, who was killed in an aeroplane crash while returning from a tour of the eastern front to attend the ceremony.
Nor did it end there. In an Order of the Day issued on 1 December 1941 headed ‘Comrades of the Luftwaffe!’, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring paid fulsome tribute to Udet’s personal commitment and ‘selfless devotion to duty’. This paean of praise closed with the words;
‘His fame is undying. That is why I am today fulfilling the task entrusted to me by the Führer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht by conferring upon the Jagdgeschwader 3, in his name, the honour title Jagdgeschwader “Udet”. This will ensure that the memory of one of the greatest in the Luftwaffe will be enshrined for all time.’
The only outward signs of this signal honour would be the cuff band bearing the legend ‘Jagdgeschwader Udet’, which was to be worn by unit members on the right sleeve of their uniform jackets, and the new winged ‘U’ for Udet badge that would adorn their aircraft. Of far greater practical interest to all personnel that November and December was the arrival of their new complement of Bf 109Fs. Each machine was fitted with a sand filter. This could mean only one thing – having experienced the first snows of a Russian winter, the Geschwader’s two Gruppen were now destined for the sunnier climes of the Mediterranean!
In fact, after the German ground offensive had been brought to a halt in front of Moscow late in 1941, the whole of II. Fliegerkorps was withdrawn from the central sector of the eastern front and transferred down to Sicily in preparation for a renewed assault on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Sicily was JG 3’s intended destination too. But only II. Gruppe would make it that far. In Russia, the Red Army had not merely succeeded in stopping the German advance on Moscow. It had also launched a major winter offensive of its own in the south that soon began to threaten several important towns only recently captured by the Germans, including Kharkov, which had fallen to the 6. Armee on 24 October. This escalating danger in the east necessitated a hurried change of plans by the Luftwaffe. And among the units affected was JG 3.
After a Russian winter, the warmer climes of the Mediterranean came as a very welcome change. With one of their tropicalised F-4s basking in the sun behind them, these three pilots of the newly titled II./JG 3 ‘Udet’ discuss tactics at San Pietro, Sicily, in the early spring of 1942. Note the kapok life-jackets – essential garb for ops against the island of Malta
By the second week of January 1942 both II. and III. Gruppen were in the process of dismantling their aircraft for transport by rail down to Bari, on the heel of Italy, where they would be re-assembled for the onward flight to Sicily. It was while still at Bari in late January that III./JG 3 unexpectedly received orders to hand its Bf 109F-4/trops over to II. Gruppe and return forthwith to Messerschmitt’s Wiener Neustadt factory to collect a fresh complement of non-tropicalised F-4s, prior to returning to the eastern front. This meant that the only part of JG 3 actually to operate over Malta would be II. Gruppe (which had also taken charge of the four machines of the Geschwaderstab that had arrived in Bari).
It was while still at Wiesbaden back in November 1941 that Hauptmann Gordon Gollob had departed to take up duties with the Luftwaffe’s main test centre at Rechlin. His replacement at the head of II./JG 3 – or II./JG 3 ‘Udet’, as it should now rightly be called – was Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Krahl, previously the Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 2 ‘Richthofen’.
It was thus under Karl-Heinz Krahl that the Gruppe set out on the final leg of its journey to Sicily towards the end of January 1942. Based for a brief time at Comiso in the southeast, it subsequently moved to Sciacca, in the western part of the island. It was while here that the unit lost its only ace in the Mediterranean (quite literally!) when, on 13 February, nine-victory Leutnant Karlheinz Ponec of the Gruppenstab was reported missing after being forced to ditch in the sea due to engine damage.
Two days later, 6. Staffel’s Unteroffizier Wolfgang Vogel was credited with the Gruppe’s first Mediterranean kill – one of a small formation of Beaufighters that had just taken off from Malta en route to Egypt. It was a first for Wolfgang Vogel too, and he would go on to claim a further 21 enemy aircraft before being lost over Russia six months hence.
II./JG 3 ‘Udet’ included a number of very experienced NCO pilots among its ranks. This impressive scoreboard, kicking off with a solitary Spitfire (claimed on 16 August 1940) followed by 42 Soviet stars, adorns the tail of Feldwebel Walter Ohlrogge’s F-4/trop. But success over Malta was to elude the ‘Old Master’
But it was from San Pietro, back in the southeast of Sicily, that II./JG 3 would see the bulk of what little action it was to be involved in during its brief interlude in the Mediterranean. The Gruppe’s next success came on 22 February – the day of its move down to San Pietro. It was while escorting a trio of Ju 88 bombers to Malta on this date that 4. Staffel’s Feldwebel Leopold Münster was able to claim a Hurricane, thereby taking his personal tally to 13. More than two weeks were to pass before another Ju 88 raid on Luqa airfield on 10 March gave Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Krahl the opportunity to score his first (and last) victory with JG 3. Although claimed as a Spitfire, Krahl’s victim was in all likelihood another Hurricane.
Aircraft recognition was clearly not a strong point with the next claimant either, for Allied sources would suggest that the ‘Blenheim’ that Unteroffizier Michael Beikiefer of 6./JG 3 shot into the sea on 18 March was, in reality, one of Malta’s famous reconnaissance Marylands. The unfortunate Beikiefer did not survive his victim for long. Just 48 hours later he too disappeared into the sea during a practice flight off Gela.
The Gruppe’s fifth, and final, confirmed Mediterranean victory was a Spitfire downed over Malta on 26 March by 4./JG 3’s Leutnant Joachim Kirschner. It was only his second kill to date, but he, like ‘Poldi’ Münster, also of 4. Staffel, would later rise to become one of the Geschwader’s select band of Oak Leaves wearers and, in fact, emerge as its highest scorer of all with a final total of 175!
Oberleutnant Walther Dahl, Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 3, is obviously describing a recent encounter with the RAF. However, even he failed to make his mark in the Mediterranean – his claim for a Spitfire downed during a Stuka escort mission to Malta on 1 April 1942 was not allowed
II./JG 3’s five Mediterranean successes cost it six pilots killed, missing or captured, plus another six wounded or injured. One of the three who became PoWs was Unteroffizier Josef Fritz, shot down in a dogfight with Kittyhawks south of Tobruk on 13 April during 6. Staffel’s three-week deployment to Martuba, in Libya – 6./JG 3 was the only part of the Gruppe to actually see service in North Africa. The final loss of II./JG 3’s sojourn in the sun was Kommandeur Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Krahl, who was brought down by light flak during a low-level strafing run over Malta on 14 April. Lacking the height to bail out, Hauptmann Krahl was killed instantly when his machine crashed inverted into a stone wall.
His role as Gruppenkommandeur was filled within 24 hours by the appointment of Hauptmann Kurt Brändle, hitherto the Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 3. With 35 kills already under his belt, Brändle proved to be the ideal man for the job. He would lead II./JG 3 back from the Mediterranean at the end of April, throughout the subsequent 15 months of increasingly bitter fighting on the eastern front and still be at its head – the longest serving Kommandeur in the Gruppe’s entire history – when finally reported missing over the North Sea in late 1943.
6. Staffel was the only element of II. JG 3 to see service in North Africa. Among its pilots was the current eight-victory (and future Knight’s Cross winner) Unteroffizier Franz Schwaiger. He is pictured here (on the left in tropical kit) in front of his desert-camouflaged ‘Yellow 3’, which he has named after his girlfriend Gisela