Hartmann's Gustav
With 352 victories to his credit, Erich Hartmann is a fighter pilot whose name is known even to people who are not interested in the Luftwaffe. A significant topic is the number of his victories and their credibility. Of Erich Hartmann's first 100 victories, 38 claimed kills can be compared in detail with Soviet losses, as the time and place of these kills are known. I am basing this on a summary prepared by Danny Case and Nick Hector. For these 38 victories, it is impossible to trace on the opposing side 13 losses that match the circumstances of the alleged shootdowns.
With 352 victories to his credit, Erich Hartmann is
a fighter pilot whose name is known even to people
who are not interested in the Luftwaffe. A significant
topic is the number of his victories and their
credibility. Of Erich Hartmann's first 100 victories,
31 claimed kills can be compared in detail with
Soviet losses, as the time and place of these kills are
known. I am basing this on a summary prepared by
Danny Case and Nick Hector. For these 31 victories,
it is impossible to trace on the opposing side
10 losses that match the circumstances of the alleged
shootdowns. In contrast, the 21 casualties that can
be identified represent more than 60% credibility
of Hartmann's victories from this period. A similar
analysis was prepared by Ivan Lavrinenko, focusing
on the 35 victories Hartmann claimed in the fighting
over Romania between May 31 and June 6, 1944.
The analysis revealed that, unlike many of Hartmann's
colleagues whose claims were very accurate,
in reality, this darling of propaganda shot down only
one aircraft in the above period, and another six to
seven Soviet aircraft may have fallen victim to either
Hartmann or other German pilots.
Hartmann's results in the battles over Hungary at
the turn of 1944 and 1945 were similar. Authors Dan
and Gábor Horváth published a detailed analysis of
these in their book “Verified Victories: Top JG 52 Aces
over Hungary 1944-45”. Their work shows that of
the 34 victories claimed by Hartmann in the battles
over Hungary, only seven can be documented that
he definitely achieved or may have participated in.
This is no more than a 22% credibility of his claims.
By comparison, Gerhard Barkhorn's claims were
as accurate as 79% in the same period, and Helmut
Lipfert's victories have up to 93% accuracy compared
to Soviet losses. Interestingly these two airmen had
lower accuracy of their claims in the earlier period,
as documented by Ivan Lavrinenko in his book on the
fighting over Crimea in the period 1943-1944.
I would venture to say that the credibility
of Hartmann's victories declined as his career
progressed, and his claimed victories were least
accurate when some significant milestone in his
kills was approaching and there was a film crew and
photographers on the airfield. Günther Rall recalls
in his memoirs that he never wanted to appoint
Hartmann to command a Staffel, and when Rall, as
Kommandeur III/JG 52, was on leave, another officer
appointed Hartmann to command 9./JG 52 in Rall's
absence.
One of the Luftwaffe fighter units that fought
in Hungary in early 1945 was I./JG 53 under the
command of Maj. Jürgen Harder. He led this
Jagdgruppe for almost a year and reformed it into
one of the most successful units in southern Europe.
However, on January 22, he had to leave it because
he was appointed Kommodore of JG 11 with bases in
Germany. The unit was briefly led by Hptm. Ernst, but
at the end of January Hptm. Erich Hartmann, who
until then had led 4./JG 52 in Hungary as part of
II./JG 52, was appointed commander of I./JG 53. The
command of I./JG 53 was his first opportunity to take
command of a Jagdgruppe. Strangely enough, he
was appointed to such a position outside of JG 52, for
he soon returned to his “home” unit, as commander
of I./JG 52 in Silesia.
During his short service with I./JG 53, Hartmann
immediately ordered the upper surfaces of I./JG 53
aircraft to be repainted with washable white paint,
but he showed little interest in combat activity. This
was disappointing to his new subordinates. But they
explained it by the fact that Hartmann apparently
did not see much importance in further combat and,
moreover, he had already achieved all the military
honours. After a fortnight, Hartmann handed over
command of I./JG 53 to Hptm. Lipfert, who was
previously in command of 6./JG 52.
An interesting topic is the personal aircraft
that Hartmann used during this period. Marek
Ryś depicted it on the box art of the Gustav part
2 kit. At the beginning of January 1945, I./JG 53 had
two Bf 109 G-6/U4s, ten G-14/U2 (U2 is an error in
unit´s monthly summary), sixteen G-14/U4 version,
and two G-10/U4s. In several photos of Hartmann's
machine, the battery cover at the rear of the cockpit
is clearly visible, which should indicate the G-14
version. Erich Somavilla was using this plane as well
and his logbook notes this aircraft as a G-6 version.
Somavilla's personal aircraft was the G-14/AS version.
A photograph of Hartmann's Bf 109 that I discovered
years ago in the Preussischer Kulturbesitz digital
archive shows that the machine has no intakes on
the sides of the cockpit under the windscreen of the
cockpit overlay, which identifies the Erla plant as its
manufacturer. According to some researchers, it is
a Bf 109 G-6 of the Erla factory of the 412xxx or 413xxx
series. I dare not confirm whether this is the case
or not. Production of these series ended in August
1944, and both the Bf 109 G-6/U2 and Bf 109 G-14 were
produced in the blocks mentioned. Anyway, when
building scale model of this Hartmann´s aircraft as
per the instructions in the kit manual, use the correct
windscreen and also the bulge on the right side of
the engine cowling. Photos of the Hartmann aircraft
can be found on the Falke Eins blog by Neil Page.
Erich Hartmann pictured in the spring of 1944 after
being awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross.
Photo: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Tulip markings were introduced by Hermann Graf on his aircraft in 1943. After he became Kommodore of
JG 52 in the autumn of 1944, this pattern also appeared on several of Erich Hartmann's aircraft, as well as
on the machines of the Stab JG 52. During Hartmann's brief tenure with I./JG 53, the black tulip also adorned
his personal aircraft with the Gruppe commander's markings. Following Hartmann's departure from the units,
some of his tulip-patterned aircraft were reassigned and utilized by other pilots.
Hartmann's
Gustav
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April 2024