North Africa! Where was the Luftwaffe?
- From: BernardZ <bernardZ@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 23:14:43 +1000
The following is a quote from a book "Alamein by Stephen Bungay" p139
which I invite comments in particular on the conclusion. Talking about
the lack of air support from the Luftwaffe in Sep 1941 and the question
asked where was the Luftwaffe he states.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Luftwaffe was there all right, but it was pursuing an agenda
of its own. Since the first wing of JG27 had arrived in North Africa in
April 1941, it had become apparent that they had in their ranks a real
superstar, the twenty-one year old Hans-Joachim Marseille, who was
indeed to become known as 'the Star of Africa'. He had first flown in
action in the Battle of Britain in mid-August 1940. He was shot up
several times, making a forced-landing after two weeks, and baling out
into the Channel two weeks after that. He was posted to another unit,
JG52, but his commander, the future head of the post-war Luftwaffe,
Johannes Steinhoff, found him to be unmanageable and transferred him to
I./JG27 to get rid of him. He arrived in the desert having filed seven
claims. Marseille spent hours alone practising. He had a wonderful feel
for an aircraft and an amazing eye for judging speed and distance, the
rarest of all gifts. He honed those skills until he was the best shot in
the Luftwaffe. He perfected the technique of diving on a circle of P-40s
or Hurricanes, knocking one down with a few shells, zooming up and then
doing it again. On 6 June 1942, he shot down six P-40s of 5 Squadron
SAAF in twelve minutes in this way, taking his score to 81. On 18 June,
he passed 100 and was whisked off to Berlin to pick up a Knight's Cross
with Swords and Oak Leaves and do some photo-shoots. However, his
greatest day was 1 September. Flying three bomber escort missions, he
claimed 17 British fighters. Fifteen of them correspond to actual
British losses. No other pilot had ever shot down so many of the enemy
on a single day. His armourer calculated that he had expended the
astonishingly low average of 15 shells on each victim.
Marseille made a wonderful warrior-hero, and was the most famous
German serviceman in Africa after Rommel, a real Aryan superman.
However, warrior-heroes do not win modem wars. Shooting down British
fighters did not stop the bombers. Instead of attacking them, which
would in any case have been rather a dangerous thing to do, most of the
pilots of JG27 milled about watching in awe as Marseille exhibited his
graceful if gory skills, and making sure that nobody interfered.
Protecting their superstars was a full-time job. Marseille's own wingman
flew 100 sorties before making his first claim. On 1 September, German
pilots only made 26 claims in all. The British actually lost 20
fighters. Therefore, assuming, as seems most likely, that Marseille got
15 of the 17 he claimed, all the rest of the 100 or so German fighter
pilots between them only got five. The British lost no bombers at all.
The Luftwaffe's emphasis on creating superstars had created a very
strange culture in the fighter units. The commander of jG27, Eduard
Neumann, commented after the war that 'most of the pilots in Marseille's
Staffel acted in a secondary role as escort to the "master"'. It was
hard, he added, for newcomers to gain successes. Given the nature of air
fighting, it was difficult for any new pilot in any air force, but some
of the old hands in JG27 appear to have actively discouraged them from
doing so. Another pilot of I./JG27 has observed that some squadron
leaders had the attitude, 'There is only one man who has the right to
shoot down enemy aircraft =3F me!' Internal rivalry over star status took
precedence over military effectiveness. The events in the air on 1
September are an extreme illustration of the impact these prima donnas
had on the furtherance of the Axis cause.
--
Self control is what keeps us from being rapist.
Observations of Bernard - No 100
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