Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Marek Ryś

Cat. No. 84188

Hans-Joachim “Jochen” Marseille was born in 1919 in Berlin and was a descendant of Huguenot immigrants. He came from a difficult family background and had strong ties to his younger sister Ingeborg, who was murdered in 1941, and “Jochen” was reportedly unable to cope with her death. With 158 victories, he became the most successful German fighter pilot fighting against the Western Allies. In 1938, he joined the Luftwaffe and one of his instructors was Julius Arigi, one of the most successful Austro-Hungarian fighters of the First World War.

On August 10, 1940 Marseille was assigned to 1.(Jagd)/LG 2, which at that time fought in the Battle of Britain. He flew as wingman (Kaczmarek) of StFw. Helmut Goedert and achieved his first victory on 24 August. He gradually added six more enemy kills to his tally with this unit, but his Staffelkapitän, Oblt. Adolf Buhl had difficulty with him. A report he prepared on the young airman on 6 September, after four weeks with the unit, shows that the undisciplined Marseille had been reprimanded, given three days of light imprisonment and five days of detention. According to Buhl, however, Marseille flew with wisdom and courage. He was honest and friendly with his colleagues and was above average intelligence. In difficult situations he handled himself with poise and aggressiveness, and after four weeks he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class. The Gruppenkommandeur Herbert Ihlefeld also gave him a positive assessment in December 1940.

In December, Marseille was transferred to 4./JG 52 under the command of Johannes Steinhoff. Among “Jochen's” colleagues in this Staffel was Gerhard Barkhorn. But “Jochen” did not stay there long either, apparently the reason again being disciplinary problems. Steinhoff later commented: “Marseille was constantly undisciplinned, but he was an excellent flier. Something was wrong in his family. He never wanted to see his father again.”

In February 1941 he was transferred to 3./JG 27. He had a brief deployment in the Balkans with his new Staffel, but by April he had already scored his first victory in Africa. When Marseille told his new Staffelkapitän, who was Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt, about the difficulties he had had with his previous units, his new superior asked him, “And you want to become a big eagle here?” Marseille answered quite frankly, “The biggest!”

By the end of 1941 he had 36 victories to his credit. He often scored several kills in one day. After achieving his 50th aerial victory on 21st February 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross. He received the Oak Leaf Cluster in early June after achieving his 75th victory, and in the same month he also received the Swords for his 101st aerial victory. In June 1942 he was appointed commander of 3./JG 27. In early September 1942, after achieving 126 victories, he received the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross. Between 31st August 1942 and September 26, he achieved 57 victories, 17 of these were achieved in a single day, on 1st September. In September 1942, he was promoted to the rank of Hauptmann. Marseille had versatile skills in both piloting and gunnery. He did not hesitate to maneuver in enemy formation at low speed and to perform deflection shooting. He also tried to rescue downed enemy airmen in the desert and dropped news of their fate on the other side of the front. Marseille was killed on 30th September 1942 at Sidi Abd el Rahman while jumping from his machine with damaged engine. News of his death was carried even by the Allied press. A small pyramid was erected at the site of the tragic end. He was nicknamed the “Star of Africa” and Adolf Galland called him “the unrivalled virtuoso among fighter pilots”. Marseille was known for his bohemian life, his relationships with famous female artists. He ran a bar in the desert outposts called “The Blue Cave” and his favorite song was “Rumba Azul”. In 1957, a German-Spanish feature film “Der Stern von Afrika” was made about him.

The question remains, of course, how successful a fighter Marseille actually was. Researchers Dan Case and Nick Hector conclude that 135 kills can be documented out of the Marseille´s total of 158 officially certified and five unconfirmed victories. Marseille thus has an 82.8 % accuracy rate for his claimed victories.