Strana 32
#84212BOXART STORY
The fates of military aviators can be intricate
and interconnected. Such were the lives of the
Austrian Josef Pöhs and the German Wolfgang
Späte.
Pöhs was born on March 14, 1912, in Altkettenhof
No. 7, in what is now Schwechat, Vienna. His father
Leopold, a warehouse clerk, came from Mährisch
Kromau (Moravský Krumlov), while his mother
Berta Nowotny was Viennese. An Austrian proverb
says every Austrian has a Czech grandmother, and
Pöhs was no exception, his paternal grandmother
was Anna Chvátal.
Pöhs became a glider pilot and worked as
a mechanic at the Aspern aeroclub. In 1934,
he joined the Austrian armed forces and, after
qualifying as a military pilot, became an NCO in
the Austrian Air Force aerobatic team. After the
annexation of Austria by the Third Reich, “Joschi”
Pöhs was assigned to 2./JG 76 (later 5./JG 54), and
took part in the fighting in Poland, France, and
over Great Britain. During this period, he achieved
seven victories and was promoted to the rank of
Leutnant.
In January 1941, Oberleutnant Wolfgang Späte
joined 5./JG 54. Until then, he had served as
a reconnaissance pilot, had worked as a glider test
pilot before the war, and in 1938 had won the 19th
Rhön Gliding Competition. Späte’s parents came
from Dresden, and his father Kurt was a wealthy
agricultural entrepreneur. Born on September 8,
1911, Späte is usually listed as a native of Dresden.
However, in his 1990s correspondence with
Jaroslav Hradec, he stated he was born in
Podersam (Podbořany) in the Sudetenland, then
part of the Kingdom of Bohemia. His father owned
farmland there, later lost during Czechoslovak land
reform in the 1920s. The most likely explanation is
that Späte was born in Podbořany but baptized in
Dresden (no local birth record exists). His sister
was born in Dresden, while his youngest brother
Helmut, killed in France in July 1943 as a night
fighter, was born in Podbořany on August 17, 1917.
The family thus lived between Saxony and the
Bohemian lands.
During the attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941,
Pöhs shot down a Blenheim and a Hurricane. Späte
scored his first victory with another Blenheim, and
two more bombers of this type were shot down
by the commander of 5./JG 54, Oberleutnant
Hubert “Hubs” Mütherich. It is not particularly
surprising that this trio of officers became the
most successful fighter pilots of 5./JG 54 during
the first three months of combat against the
Soviet Union. Their Staffel, which was part of
II./JG 54, was deployed in the Baltic region and
went through heavy fighting, some of which,
according to one JG 54 officer, could be compared
to battles against the RAF.
When Mütherich was killed on September 9, 1941,
in combat with Soviet fighters, he had 43 victories
to his credit. On the same day, Pöhs recorded his
41st kill, while Späte claimed his 29th opponent
and took command of 5./JG 54. Pöhs then achieved
two more victories but was transferred in mid-
September as an instructor to Erg.Gr./JG 54.
The aircraft “Black 9,” depicted on the box art,
was for a long time Josef Pöhs’s personal aircraft.
It is best documented in a photograph taken from
the rear left. The issue is that there are patches
of snow visible on the ground around the aircraft.
Axel Urbanke pointed this out in Luftwaffe im
Focus No. 18 and, based on this detail, dates the
photograph to the end of September 1941. Axel
was able to identify that only one victory marking
on the rudder does not refer to a Soviet aircraft,
which corresponds to Späte’s score at the end
of September. However, according to researcher
Georg Morrison, Späte rarely flew “Black 9.” His
personal aircraft was “Black 4.” He conducted
several test flights with “Black 9” on August 16, 1941,
then flew it again on September 24, October 5, and
finally on February 22, 1942. The victory markings
on the decal sheet in the kit are therefore designed
to represent how the aircraft would have appeared
when “Joschi” Pöhs had this number of victories.
In May 1942, Wolfgang Späte became the
commander of Erprobungskommando 16, which
was tasked with testing rocket and jet aircraft.
At that time, Pöhs was flying at the Rechlin
test center, but by the end of June he began
familiarizing himself with the Me 163 A within
Späte’s team. During the development of the Komet,
Pöhs devised several design solutions, including
the transport dolly for moving the Me 163 on the
ground. He was tragically killed on December 30,
1943, in Bad Zwischenahn in an accident involving
Me 163 AV8 (CD+IM). This aircraft had previously
been most often flown by his colleague Rudolf
Opitz.
Späte survived the war within JG 7, flying
the Me 262. In 1956, he joined the Bundeswehr
and became a flight safety inspector. Given his
hazardous experience testing the Me 163, he was
well qualified. He later authored and co-authored
several books.
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Antonis Karydis
Pöhs and Späte
INFO Eduard32
May 2026