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eduard
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Info Eduard - June 2011
Following article draws largely from my article
published in the journal REVI No. 51. For those
keen readers able to understand Czech I highly
recommend the read if you want to know more
details about the following story. Jagdgeschwa-
der 54 „Grünherz” is best known for its deploy-
ment on the Eastern Front, particularly in the
area south of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
However, various parts of JG 54 came few ti-
mes also to southern Finland. Probably the best
known example is the deployment of JG 54 in
the Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey.
II./JG 54 under the command of Major Erich Ru-
dorffer was transferred on 16. June 1944 from
Petseri (Pskov) in Estonia to South Finland. At that
time the unit consisted of 3 Staffels (4. to 6./JG
54), but only 2 were sent to Finland (4. and 5.
Straffel). Their main airbase was Immola in sou-
theast Finland. The II./JG 54 was quite strongly
equipped. It possessed 50 Fw 190s including 30
modern Fw 190 A-6 while the rest were mainly
A5 and A-4 versions.
II./JG 54 was part of task force under the co-
mmand of Stukaieger Kurt Kuhlmey (500 mi-
ssions, RK). This task force that carried his name
(Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey) was composed from
several different units. Their task was to help
Finns to defend Southern Karelia and along with
II./JG 54 ghters utilized also Stuka dive bom-
bers of I./SG 3, ground attack Fw 190s of I./
SG 5 and reconnaissance Bf 109s of 1./NAGr
5. Logistics was covered by TGr 10´s Savoia-
-Marchetti SM.81 own by Italian crews.
Soviet offensive started on June 9 and at the
beginning Finns had to defend themselves. Air-
craft of GV Kuhlmey landing in Immola was quite
unexpected by some Finnish airmen. This could
be found in book Fighter over Finnland by E. A.
Luukkanen. Deployment of this task force was
signicant support for the Finns. For approxima-
tely 40 days of a main deployment (SG 5 was
active in this area even in August) this Gefecht-
sverband´s ghters shot down 126 planes during
984 sorties and ground attack crews threw 709
tons of bombs.
One of the JG 54 pilots arriving to Finland was
Uffz. Koller. At that time he had almost 20 victo-
ries to his credit and was attached to 5. Staffel.
He was considered as one of experienced pilots
and his Staffelkapitän (at that time Oblt. Wolf-
gang Schilling, 63 v., RK) often asked him to lead
4 ship or 2 ship formations.
Uffz. Koller ew one mission in the afternoon of
June 17. He used machine with marking “black
12”. In this part of WW II it he was not allowed
to have a personal machine, however he perfor-
med with this very “Black 12” so far 21 missions
during May and June 1944 including about do-
zen combat sorties. The rest were liaison, trai-
ning, test and other ights.
He took off from Immola at 16.58 and short-
ly after 17.30 his ight engaged 10 Jak -9 -
ghters. He shot down one of them at 17.40 in
grid 26 Ost-91/3/8/2 (aprox. NE of Perkjärvi).
H. Koller hit enemy ghter 500 meters above
ground level. The victory was witnessed by Lt.
Heinz Wernicke (117 v., RK) who shot down 15
minutes later an Airacobra near Rautu (Sosnovo)
300 meters above the ground. The tail of Ko-
ller´s machine was hit during the combat, but he
was able to reach Immola very soon and safe.
At Immola Koller received congratulations from
his wingman Ofhr. Hanns-Veit von Obernitz (la-
ter secretary of JG 54 members under the Ger-
man ghter pilots association). It was Koller´s
20th victory which was in frame of 5th Staffel
eduard
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Info Eduard - June 2011
and Black 12
Photo above: Junkers Ju 87 D „Stuka“ from 1./SG 3
(part of the Gefechtsvebrand Kuhlmey) on its stand
at the south area of the Immola base, summer 1944.
Finnish soldier helping with maintenance of Fw 190 A-6
„white 4“ from 4./JG 54 on the Immola base.
Jan Bobek
Hauptmann Kurt Kuhlmey (left) having conversation
with soldiers (one Finish and two Germans). For his duty
in Luftwaffe he was awarded by Knight Cross. At the
end of WWII he served as a CO of SG3 and SG 2,
while number of his combat missions went over 500.
After the war he became to be the very rst German
airman to be trained in USA as a jet pilot. Then he
served in several posts in the NATO Budesluftwaffe,
including CO of 5th Luftwaffendivision.