With a brick in the pants
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
Cat. No. 84118
On the boxart of this March release, Piotr Forkasiewicz has created a dramatic scene that takes us back to the summer of 1943 and the battles between the crews of Allied four-engine bombers and German fighters. There are a number of fascinating details in Piotr's painting and I recommend a close look at it. The bomber belongs to the 303rd Bomb Group, and the Focke-Wulf belongs to I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 11. This unit was formed in April 1943 from parts of JG 1. When American daylight raids on Europe resumed in early 1943, the Luftwaffe command needed to strengthen the defence of the German Bight area. The Luftwaffe gradually reinforced its units in Western Europe and built up new ones as well. After the initial shock of the US raids that began in the summer of 1942, the Germans developed air combat tactics and a strategy of directing their own fighter units against bomber formations to avoid Allied fighter escorts as far as possible.
From JG 1, which, until then, was in charge of the German Bight strategic area defence, were separated two Gruppen to shape the basis of the sister unit JG 11. From I./JG 1 with Messerschmitts Bf 109 G was formed II./JG 11 and from III./JG 1 armed with Focke-Wulfs Fw 190 A was formed I./JG 11.
The Masters of the Air series shows the harsh realities of the service of bomber crews, but the situation of their opponents was not much easier. It was part of I./JG 11 that was the only Luftwaffe unit to intervene against the raid on Norway on July 24, 1943, which was shown in the second episode of the series. The target was the submarine base at Trondheim and also Herøya with its nitrate plant and the aluminium and magnesium plants, which were still under construction at the time. The raid took the German command by complete surprise. It was so effective that the Germans had to quickly look for another supplier of metals for aircraft production.
A small group of Fw 190s under the command of Staffelkapitän Hptm. Erwin Linkiewicz attacked the B-17s without success. American gunners sent into the sea two Fw 190s. Both pilots were killed, including the formation leader. As we know, one B-17 damaged by flak made it back and another Flying Fortress from another unit took refuge in neutral Sweden where it was interned. Linkiewicz, a 30-year-old fighter pilot, was born in Zabrze (Hindenburg) in Upper Silesia. His body was found washed up in Denmark on August 12, 1943, and was buried at Frederikshavn.
The raid was the first part of what was known as the Blitz Week under the Operation Gomorrah. It was a series of bomber raids conducted in a coordinated manner over eight days and seven nights by RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF Eighth Air Force. The British later referred to it as the German Hiroshima. German ports and manufacturing plants were targeted (some repeatedly). Approximately forty thousand residents, soldiers, forced labourers from the occupied countries and inmates perished.
During this week-long Allied operation, I./JG 11 shot down 16 B-17 bombers, lost five Fw 190s and two pilots. The I./JG 11 later distinguished itself during the August raid on Schweinfurt, in which it scored seven B-17s, the highest number of victories by a single Jagdgruppe on that day. Three of unit´s Fw 190s were seriously damaged. One of its blackest days was February 10, 1944 and the raid on Braunschweig. The I./JG 11 lost eight aircraft, four pilots were killed and two were wounded. Although the Americans lost 30 bombers in combat in very difficult weather conditions, the fighter escorts, who, thanks to the auxiliary tanks, could already protect their big brothers deep into Germany, caused together with the bomber gunners the loss of fifty German fighters, 17% of the German machines deployed.
From the German point of view, the emblem of the 2./JG 11 perfectly described the situation of both warring sides. Pilot Franz Steiner created the drawing for himself. It shows a man doing a big job in an American top hat, but his trousers are pulled up around the hat. Steiner wanted to express what he thought about fighting bombers: “First we shit on them, and then we shit our own pants”. When in the summer of 1943 the commander of the 2nd Staffel, Hptm. Schnoor announced a best design competition for his unit's emblem, among the entries was Steiner's drawing, which his comrades entered into the competition without his knowledge. Schnoor chose this drawing with great interest and Steiner was given a leave of absence as a reward.