HISTORY

Parish register record of Maximilian Stotz's birth and baptism with a note about the date when he was declared dead.

Source: matricula-online.eu

Photo of Maximilian Stotz

from summer 1942 after

ward of Knight´s Cross.

Photo: Alchetron

At the time of his death, Afanasiy was single. The Navy contacted his mother Anisiya Petrovna Sofyina. The news that her son had fallen in battle must have been

devastating. However, her daughters Tatiana, Kena, Valentina, Galina, and Agrafena, and her sons Yefim and Alexander, survived the war.

Maximilian Stotz

The parents of Maximilain Stotz didn’t get any good news through 1943. Their son

was born on February 13th, 1912 in Mannswörth, not far from Vienna. His father,

Johann Stotz, was a farmer and hailed from Gottesthal in Carinthia. His mother,

Marianne, born Vit, was from Vienna. In 1933, Max joined the Austrian army and

was a mountain troops of Alpenjäger-Regiment 11 in Klagenfurt. In 1935, he asked

for a transfer to the Austrian Air Force and was trained as such at Flieger-Regiment 2 in Graz through the latter half of 1936. He reportedly displayed a talent

for flying, as indicated by his membership in the Austrian Aerobatic Display Team

from 1938. After the Anschluss, Stotz was assigned to the Luftwaffe’s 1./JG 76 (later

4./JG 54 „Grünherz“). He would get his first kill in November, 1939. During the French

campaign, he claimed twelve kills, but he was wounded during the Battle of Britain. After being transferred to the Balkans, he moved on to the Eastern Front and

in June, 1942, after his 53rd victory, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross. The Oak

Leaves addition came in October of the same year, after his 100th kill. From April,

1943, he commanded 5./JG 54, but by then, combat stresses began to leave their

mark, and his superiors forced him to take a month off. After his return to active

duty, he recorded his 177th to 182nd kills between August 9th and 15th north of Orel.

He went MIA on August 19th after an unexpected head-on encounter with enemy

fighters. He was flying Fw 190 A-6 coded „Black 7“ (W.Nr. 550 201). He parachuted

down north of Kirov in a wooded area about six kilometers behind the front line. He

was later declared killed and was posthumously elevated in rank to Hauptmann.

The reason why German authorities concluded he is dead, is not known.

Stotz’s „Black 5“

In the spring of 1943, Stotz was several times photographed with Fw 190 A-5 „Black

5“and it is safe to assume that this was his personal airplane. Several publications

have claimed that the serial number of this aircraft was 5868. This is in error, and

from the records of II./JG 54, we can conclude that actual serial number was 5888.

It was produced at the beginning of 1943 at Arado’s plant in Warnemünde, and its

complete W.Nr. was 155 888. (3)

On that fateful August 19th flight , Stotz’s „Black 5“ was in all likelihood flown by his

wingman, Uffz. Herbert Koller, who was forced into an emergency landing due to

engine failure west of Kirov. He piloted the aircraft coded „5“ only twice, both times

on that day. (4)

„Black 5“ (W.Nr. 155 888) was destroyed on October 7th, 1943, at Demidov, when

5./JG 54 officer Lt. Karl-Heinz Lüchau was shot down while flying it. He was wounded in the ordeal, but managed to take to his parachute. Sources don’t agree as to

whether he was shot down by flak or an enemy fighter. This airman was born in

1922 and initially served with 6./JG 54. After recovering from his injuries, he was

given command of 6./JG 11 in April, 1944, operating over western Europe. He got his

final, 19th, kill on June 7th, 1944 at Caen in combat with Thunderbolts. In the same

combat, however, he was shot down and killed, and he was flying Bf 109G-6/AS,

Yellow ‘20’ (W.Nr. 440623). His II./JG 11 suffered the loss of nine aircraft, five pilots

killed, one captured, and two seriously wounded.

Air combat from the Second World War still attracts a lot of attention. With the

growing access to archival material, it is easier to analyze things with greater

accuracy than ever before. However, the fact that most air combat brought tragic

consequences to not just the flyers, but their families as well, should never be

forgotten.

My gratitude goes out to Mikhail Bykov, Matti Salonen and Mr. Mikhail Alexandrovich Sofyin, nephew of A. M. Sofyin for their invaluable help in the preparation of

this article. I would like to express my thanks to Russian company OOO Centrspetsremont for help with contact to Mr. Sofyin.

NOTES:

1) In June, 1941, the 71st IAP also had several MiG-3s and Yak-1s at its disposal, and transferred

its remaining Yaks to the 5th IAP VVS KBF.

2) According to T. Wood, this was Map Reference 36 Ost/71 883. Prien cites 21 883 (the southeast section of Ladoga Lake area), but given the kill claims of this day, it appears as though there

was an inadvertent mixup between the „2“and „7“ digits in the original period documentation.

3) The actual Fw 190 A-5 with the W.Nr. 155 868 flew over western Europe on night missions

with 5./JG 302 and day missions with 3./JG 11 at the same time. It carried the code „Yellow 1“, and

on December 4th, 1943, Fw. Kurt Becker was killed in its cockpit. He reportedly crashed into the

Elbe River near Freiburg. He was a member of II./JG 302 and his body was discovered and laid

to rest at the end of February, 1944.

4) I have been in contact with Mr. Koller for many years and I have used his memories in

preparing this article. There is more information about Herbert (Heibert) Koller in the INFO

06/2011 issue at

https://www.eduard.com/out/media/InfoEduard/archive/2011/info-eduard-2011-06EN.pdf

Bibliography:

CALDWELL D.: JG 26 War Diary, Volume 2, 1943 -1945

KESKINEN K., STENMAN K.: Aerial Victories 2, Suomen Ilmavoimien Historia 26 and 27

KESKINEN K., STENMAN K.: Suomen Ilmavoimat V, 1943

PRIEN J., STEMMER G., RODEIKE P., BOCK W.: Die Jagdfliegerverbände der Deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 - 1945,

Teil 12/III, Einsatz im Osten, 4.2 bis 31.12.1943

WOODS, T: O.K.L. Fighter Claims, Chef für Ausz. und Dizsiplin, Luftwaffen-Personalamt L.P. (A) V Films & Supplementary Claims from Lists, Eastern Front (Ostfront), January-June 1943

KOLLER H.: Flugbuch

http://ava.org.ru/iap/10gm.htm

http://allaces.ru

https://pamyat-naroda.ru/

http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/

http://sovpilots.ru/

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se

D-3 class torpedo boat photographed in May 1943 in the Gulf of Finland. On board is

the crew of st. leytenant I. G. Kyselev. The boat was taken over by the Baltic fleet in

December 1941 under the designation „122“, in November 1942 it was changed to „32“

and in October 1944 to „SK-183“. The Baltic fleet used these boats not only to attack

enemy vessels, but also to land marines, supply ammunition, lay mines, escort vessels, anti-submarine operations and destroy enemy mines. Photo: Goskatalog

INFO Eduard - March 2021

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