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BOXART STORY
This dramatic boxart by Piotr Forkasiewicz
depicts one aircraft of II./JG 52 in the last
weeks of the war. This unit was commanded
by Hptm. Wilhelm Batz (237 v.) from February
1945. Apart from a few Bf 109s of the G-6 and
G-14 versions, the core of its armament were
Bf 109 G-10/U4s from the nearby WNF plant.
The unit also received several Bf 109 K-4s.
From the autumn of 1944, II./JG 52 fought in
the defence of Hungarian territory, together
with the Bf 109s from units 101. Vadászezred,
II./JG 51 and I./JG 53, which fought near Vienna
and over southern Moravia in April 1945.
Most airmen understood that the end of
the war was inevitably approaching and that
defeat would probably be terrible. They faced
overwhelming odds against Soviet ground and
air forces. At this time, over Hungarian and
Austrian territory there were also sporadic
engagements with American fighters. Yet the
pilots of II./JG 52 in the final months of the
war managed to find a way to make their lives
a little more pleasant in the microworld of
their unit. For example, announcing just after
midnight a wake-up call pretending to slightly
drunk colleagues that it was seven in the
morning.
In his memoirs Heinz Ewald, then a member
of II./JG 52 and CO of the 7th Staffel (former
6th Staffel), recalled such funny moments.
He was lucky many times during the war
(that's why he got the nickname E
-
Sau). Luck
was on his side on March 1, 1945, when he was
accidentally shot down by an SS anti-aircraft
unit near his own airfield. His friend, later
CO of JV 44´s Fw 190 D-9s, the legendary “Heino”
Sachsenberg, dealt the flak unit his own crazy
way. For more details on this incident, see the
INFO Eduard 11/2010.
A month later II./JG 52 was briefly stationed
in Wien-Aspern. Landing on a concrete
surface was not something Wilhelm Batz
and his subordinates were used to. Not only
Batz's K-4 but also twelve other Bf 109s were
damaged. On a mission from this base, Ewald
was again shot down. This occurred on April 3,
1945, during a strafing attack south of Vienna.
Bernd Barbas, in his chronicle of II./JG 52,
states that this occurred after a dogfight with
American fighters, but Ewald does not mention
any enemy aircraft. Moreover, the Americans
did not claim any victories in this area. Ewald
points out in his memoirs that in addition to
a 30mm cannon in the engine and two 13mm
machine guns, his machine was also equipped
with two 20mm cannons under the wing. After
the end of the war, very few G-14 and G-10s
were documented as being so armed, but three
G-10s with underwing gondolas are known
from Austria, for example.
The target of Ewald's Schwarm was in the
area Waltersdorf-Moosbrunn. After attacking
several columns and equipment assembly
areas, one of the wingmen reported that
a white “stream” was leaking from Ewald's
machine, probably the radiator in the wing
had been hit. Then there was an engine failure
and Ewald had to put his machine on its belly
among the vineyard hills. The left gondola
under the wing carved a furrow in the ground
like a plough. Ewald pulled the parachute out
of the machine and walked west. He soon
came under enemy fire and ran away from
the machine. Soon dusk fell and he came
upon two Sturmgeschütz riding towards his
plane. Together with them he returned to the
Messerschmitt and the tankers helped him
dismantle and salvage the radio station. It was
only during the drive back that Ewald noticed
that the tankers were from an SS unit. He was
taken by another vehicle to his airbase where
he was already presumed lost. The grateful
airmen rewarded the tankers with a supply
of aviation gasoline. During the following day,
mechanics, accompanied by tankers, took
the aircraft to the base and counted 18 hits.
The very next day, 5 April, Ewald managed to
shoot down an Il-2 Shturmovik over Vienna.
It was his 79th victory. By the end of the war,
he scored five more victories and received the
Knight's Cross.
In the final weeks of the fighting, Luftwaffe
fighter units were being disbanded also in
this part of the European battlefield. First
II./JG 51 on 12 April, five days later the same
fate awaited I./JG 53. Somehow this is how
the “white 11” (with the inscription Rosemarie
under the cockpit), which bore the overpainted
insignia of JG 53 and II./JG 51, got to Ewald's
7th Staffel. It wasthen flown by Ofw. Richter,
who didn't belong to II./JG 52, to American
captivity at Neubiberg on May 8, 1945. Heinz
Ewald was released from American captivity
in Fürstenfeldbruck on June 22, 1945.
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
The end of the war at the Danube
INFO Eduard
39
February 2024