HISTORY

Bf 109G-10 Erla, WNr. 490249, Uffz. Hans Dahmen,

2./JG 300, Borkheide, Německo, prosinec 1944

was easy to ask too much of the DB 605.

"..On the way back home the engine blew and started

a fire. Oil came out and so there was no chance to do

anything. I just kept my cool and talked to my control

officer, who said he knew where I was, and I bailed

out..."

Another 10./JG 300 pilot was Kurt Welter, a controversial figure who went on to lead his own Me 262

Kommando against the Mosquitoes of the LSNF after his successes with 10./ JG 300. In one account he

claimed to have brought down a Mosquito after colliding with it, an event apparently corroborated by the

Mosquito crew who filed a combat report for almost

exactly the same place and time - they reported that

a Bf 109 rammed them and took off parts of their

wing so they lost control temporarily before being

able to fly home…

While the wilde Sau had been relegated to no more

than a night-time sideshow on the fringes of the

activities of JG 300, by day the Geschwader faced up

to the huge numbers of American aircraft that dominated the skies of the Reich..

Robert Jung was an enthusiastic 17-year old young

glider pilot when he was accepted for fighter pilot

training in the Luftwaffe during 1942. After attending

the Luftkriegsschule (War College) and then being

accepted for Jagdfliegerausbildung (fighter pilot

training) he was posted in August 1944 as a youthful

Fahnenjunker-Unteroffizier (officer candidate) to the

leading 'all-weather' Reich Defence Geschwader JG

300 and as he put it, ‘.. eager to arrive at the front

before it was too late.’. (‘inständig hoffend nicht zu

spät zu kommen’). Just twenty hours after his arrival at JG 300, Jung’s youthful illusions about life in

a front-line fighter unit had been shattered - every

sortie was a fight for survival against hopeless odds.

Jung later recalled that the JG 300 pilots invariably

‘..prayed for clouds..’

September 13, 1944 was one of those days. There

was huge American aerial activity over Germany well over 1,000 US bombers and hundreds of fighters were launched at various targets. It was 10h35

when the green flare signalling the order to take off

rose into the sky over the airfield at Esperstedt. The

Messerschmitt 109s of I./JG 300 took off behind the

Bf 109 G-14/AS “double chevron” of Ritterkreuzträger

Hptm. Gerd Stamp. The Gruppe could barely assemble twenty combat-ready aircraft, the last of Stamp’s

machines. This small formation was vectored over

the Halle-Leipzig sector, briefly clashed with 357th

FG Mustangs and then closed on several boxes of

B-17s between Eisenach and Coburg at around 12h15.

Opening up on a B-17 Oblt. Manfred Dieterle, Kapitän

INFO Eduard - July 2021

of 2. Staffel, at the controls of ‘Red 7’ looked on as his

target veered out of formation trailing a thick plume

of black smoke in its wake. After Gfr. Hans Dahmen

(2. Staffel) and Fhr. Otto Leisner (1. Staffel) had each

claimed a Boeing destroyed, the German pilots once

again clashed with Mustangs of the 357th FG, now

joined by P-51s of the 55th FG. After his 3. Staffel

Schwarm had been scattered, Jung's G-14 was chased by four Mustangs. In the dogfight that followed,

one of the P 51s flew in front of him - a short burst

from his three guns resulted only in the jamming of

the engine-mounted cannon. Managing to get into

a good position for a second time, Robert Jung unleashed a burst from his cowl machine guns and

saw his rounds explode against a P-51’s wing, which

appeared to catch fire. The Mustang rolled slowly

inverted and went down vertically. Despite the proximity of the ground, Jung did not have time to observe

his victim crash. He himself had taken hits fired

by one of his pursuers and had to attempt a dead

stick landing, putting his “Yellow 3” down gear up in

a field. The Bf 109 G 14/AS flipped over as it struck

the ground. The concussed pilot was pulled clear of

the aircraft and transported to the nearest hospital.

If a victory claim was filed, then it was not confirmed.

A few weeks later I./JG 300 moved to Borkheide, an

isolated village some thirty miles or so south of Berlin comprising a handful of houses and a large open

expanse of "heath-land" of sandy soil, grassy tufts

and felled pine fir stumps. The pilots and ground

crews 'lived' in underground log bunkers - a "foretaste of the coffin" according to one pilot- and spent

most of their days at cockpit readiness. The field

was surrounded by pines on three sides, in theory difficult to spot from the air - and by marauding

P-51s. On November 2 the order to go to cockpit readiness had already come through and a deathly silence had descended over the field. The pilots found

themselves alone with their thoughts, seated at the

controls of their Messerschmitts. Mechanics stood

on the wings, ready to wind up the heavy inertia

starters of the Daimler-Benz engines. Suddenly the

silence was broken by the sound of a DB 605 engine,

throttled back, flying a landing approach. A Me 109

hove into view and touched down.

Moments later, slipstream screaming across the

open ports of their wing machine guns, around fifteen P-51s of the 355th FG - the 'Steeple Morden

Strafers' – fell on the 'airfield' at Borkheide, The

P-51s had ‘discovered’ the airfield having followed

in the new arrival – a JG 3 machine attempting to

put down after combat. Unleashing a series of firing

passes that lasted some ten minutes, the ‘Strafers’

attack sent columns of thick black smoke billowing

up into the air. In the chaos and confusion some of

the Messerschmitts attempted to taxi away under

the cover of the trees, while crews scrambled for

safety. As the Mustangs departed the scene the results were spectacular -virtually half the entire aircraft complement of I./ JG 300 had gone up in flames.

At least nineteen Bf 109 G-14/AS fighters with fuel

tanks and magazines recently replenished for a sortie had been destroyed. At Jagddivsion HQ there was

consternation. Generalleutnant Beppo Schmid, CO

of I. Jagdkorps, accompanied by Kommodore Dahl,

arrived at Borkheide to inspect the damage. The

Kommandeur I./ JG 300 Hptm. Stamp only narrowly

avoided disciplinary sanctions. In fact he would soon

depart the Gruppe.

These JG 300 losses were soon replaced as the first

Bf 109 G-10s arrived at I./ JG 300 during November

1944. Production of the latest DB 605-powered Bf 109

sub-type the G-10 had started in October 1944 and by

February 1945 Erla had produced over 1500 examples. The G-10 had been conceived as a light fast fighter, perhaps the fastest of all the Gustavs, capable

of 700 km/h at 7,000 metres. In the fuselage, behind

the 400 litre main fuel tank was a 115 litre MW installation for boosted takeoff and emergency power.

The cowl MGs featured a new aerodynamic cover,

dispensing with the ugly Beulen and both the tall tail

and the tall tail-wheel could be fitted for better stability and visibility on the ground.

eduard

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