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BOXART STORY
In mid-September 1942, Oblt. Hermann Graf,
the commander of 9./JG 52, received Diamonds
to the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and
Swords for surpassing the 200 air victories
mark. Propaganda didn't want such a media star
to fall in combat or into enemy hands. Therefore,
in late January 1943, Graf became commander
of the operational training unit Erg. Gr. Ost in
France. In this capacity, he finally got around
to his passion, which was football. It was then
that the red tulip marking first appeared on his
Fw 190.
Before the war, Graf was trying to qualify for
the Germany national football team, and in the
process he met the legendary German player
Sepp Heberger for the first time. This footballer
later became famous as coach of the West
German national team that won the 1954 World
Cup final, in a match later dubbed the “The
Miracle of Bern”. In the second half, the German
team completely outclassed the Hungarians,
thanks to Adidas soccer cleats and probably
also thanks to Pervitin, which was officially
used by the German armed forces during the
war.
Graf and Heberger met again in 1941, when
they organised the participation of first league
footballers in a friendly match between the
German military mission and the Romanian
team. In early 1943, Graf tried to organize
a football team to relax and increase physical
fitness. His men, however, had little affinity for
the sport. Though, he was soon approached by
a soldier from a neighbour unit named Bruno
Klaffke, a football player, and Graf quickly
arranged for his transfer to his own unit.
Heberger took advantage of Graf's contacts
and gave him the idea of pulling top German
footballers to Graf's unit. They were assigned to
ground personnel and it saved a large number
of them from death at the front. Heberger also
helped Graf train them.
Thus Graf's football team “Red Hunters” (Rote
Jäger) was formed. They got the “red” nickname
from the colour of the jerseys donated by
a prominent German businessman. One of Graf's
superiors was suspicious of his communist
sympathies. Gradually, 20 first league players
from Germany and Austria were concentrated
on the Rote Jäger team. From August 1943
to November 1943 they played a total of
29 matches, 22 of them victorious. A detailed
overview can be found here.
When Graf became CO of the high-altitude
fighter unit JG 50, he managed to take the
football team with him. The same was repeated
when he was appointed Kommodore of JG 1,
later the players followed him to JG 11 and in
October 1944 moved with him to the Eastern
Front to JG 52. Graf at that time was unable
to perform combat flights due to the effects of
a serious injury and so he gradually recruited
JG 52 aces for his Stab. They were Lt. Karl
Gratz (138 v., KC), Oblt. Heinrich Füllgrabe
(67 v., KC) and Lt. Anton Resch. Gratz became CO
of 10./JG 52 in January 1945 and Füllgrabe was
killed in late January 1945 after being hit by flak
in a “Green 2”.
Hermann Graf also provided his Stab with
latest equipment. Although JG 52 is considered
one of the German units that used exclusively
Messerschmitt Bf 109s, Graf was the exception
to this rule. In December 1944, in addition
to eight Bf 109 G-14/U4s and one Bf 109 G-14,
he had three Fw 190 A-9s, which outperformed
the Messerschmitt at low level flights. However,
Graf had one Focke-Wulf (unsuccessfully)
converted to the DB 605 engine, much to the
displeasure of his mechanics! No further
records of the Fw 190 at Stab JG 52 are yet
available.
Of the approximately thirty victories achieved
by the airmen of Stab JG 52 in 1945, mostly
during the battles in Silesia, Anton Resch scored
22. For achieving 88 kills he was awarded the
Knight's Cross on 7 April and by the end of
the war he had gained three more victories.
In the last days of the war, Stab, I. and
III./JG 52 moved to Deutschbrod (now Havlíčkův
Brod, Czech Republic). Among the wreckage at
this base probably ended up not only Hartmann's
plane from I./JG 52 with a black tulip on the
nose, but also several Bf 109 K-4s of the Stab
JG 52 with red tulips and small fuselage numbers
placed behind the cross. Graf's Stab JG 50
aircraft were already similarly marked in 1943.
In a private collection in the Czech Republic is
part of the engine cowling of a K-4 which, apart
from the camouflage in shades of grey, bears
part of the red tulip . For a more detailed study
of the fate of Hermann Graf I recommend the
excellent publication Graf & Grislawski A Pair
of Aces by Christer Bergström.
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
The Red Hunters
Text: Jan Bobek
#84197
INFO Eduard36
January 2024