KITS 04/2023

WNr. 0142481, Fw. Otto Kittel, 2./JG 54, Krasnogvardeyjsk, Soviet Union, February 1943

Otto Kittel was born on February 21, 1917,

to German parents in Korunov (German:

Kronsdorf, since 1945 Krasov) near Krnov in

Austria-Hungary. After the declaration of the

Czechoslovakia, the Krnov region became part of

it, but after the Munich Agreement it was one of

the territories that Czechoslovakia had to cede to

Germany under pressure from the Great Powers.

The inhabitants claiming German nationality

subsequently became German citizens. Kittel was

apprenticed as a car mechanic in Mladá Boleslav

and joined the Luftwaffe in 1939. He completed

his first combat deployment during the fighting

in Yugoslavia in the ranks of JG 54, which was

deployed in East Prussia to support Army Group

North in the advance on Leningrad during the

attack on the USSR. On June 24, 1941, Otto Kittel

scored his first two aerial victories, and on

September 14, 1943, he achieved his 100th kill.

However, he did not survive the war. His aircraft

went down in flames near Dzhūkste, Latvia, after

a dogfight with a formation of 14 Il-2s. However,

it is not clear when this occurred, it is stated to

be either 14 or 16 February 1945. During World

War II, he shot down 267 enemy aircraft, all on

the Eastern Front, ranking him 4th in the list of

Luftwaffe aces.

Lt. Leopold Wenger, 10./JG 2, Caen-Carpiquet, France, February 1943

At the end of 1941, the Luftwaffe considered

a resumption of the bombing of Great Britain and

coastal shipping. It was ordered that every fighter

unit taking part in operations against Great

Britain would include one Staffel for the purposes

of the so-called “hit and run” bombing missions.

This role was taken up by 10.(Jabo) Staffel within

JG 2. Under the command of Oblt. Frank Liesendahl,

the unit sank twenty ships for a total of 630,000

BRT of shipping in four months. Wenger’s aircraft

carried the standard day camouflage scheme of

Luftwaffe fighters consisting of RLM 74/75/76.

The fox biting a ship in two was the insignia

of 10.(Jabo) Staffel. One of the pilots of this unit

was Leopold Wenger, born on November 19, 1921

in Graz. He was killed on April 10, 1945, when he

was shot down over Vienna.

WNr. 142317, Fw. Ludwig Seif, 11./SKG 10, Sidi Ahmed, Tunisia, January 1943

An order dated November 30, 1942 redesignated

III./ZG 2 as III./SKG 10, but the unit maintained

its combat assignment for ground support,

bombing and destroying of enemy ground

assets including airfields and ports in Tunisia.

III./SKG 10 operated in the area until April 30,

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INFO Eduard

1943, when they handed over their remaining

four aircraft to II./Schl.G. 2, the unit they shared

a base with. During combat operations, pilots of

III./SKG 10 destroyed hundreds of Allied tanks

and other ground equipment, shot down thirteen

aircraft and sank or damaged twelve ships. The

aircraft flown by Feldwebel Seif was camouflaged

in RLM 74/75/76. The white fuselage band was

applied to aircraft operating in the MTO. The port

side of the engine cowl sported the III./SKG 10

unit marking, a yellow winged arrow on a blue

shield.

April 2023