KITS 07/2021

Hptm. W. Moritz, CO of IV.(Sturm)/JG 3, Memmingen, Germany, July 1944

Wilhelm Moritz joined German army service in 1933 and was assigned to the Luftwaffe afterwards. The outbreak of WWII found

Moritz flying Bf 110 with II./ZG 1. In the summer of 1940, he was reassigned to 6./JG 77 and served as CO of 11./JG 1 in April 1942.

He was transferred to JG 51 on the Eastern Front in September 1942, there he shot down 25 aircraft. On October 19, 1943, he was

appointed Staffelkapitan of 6./JG 3. The JG 3 was a component of the fighter network tasked with the defense of the Reich (Reichsverteidigung). Moritz became the CO of its IV. Gruppe on April 18, 1944. This Gruppe specialized in the use of heavily armed

and armored single-engine fighters against Allied four-engined bombers. He was relieved of his command of IV. Gruppe on

December 5, 1944, following a nervous breakdown and after recuperation he took over command of the Luftwaffe replacement

training unit IV./EJG 1. Moritz found his way back to a combat unit before the war ended, as he became CO of II./JG 4 on April 18,

1945. He held this post till the end of the war. He was credited with 44 victories and was awarded the Knight's Cross on July 18,

1944. Moritz's aircraft carried the standard Luftwaffe fighter camouflage scheme. Aircraft of IV./JG 3 had black engine cowls. The

double chevron identifies the Gruppe leader's aircraft and the wave marking on the rear fuselage was carried by aircraft of the

IV. Gruppe. Fuselage protective armor plates were light gray or unpainted. Most of the JG 3 aircraft carried the unit marking on

the engine cowl, but available photographs cannot confirm whether this was the case with this aircraft.

WNr. 682181, Fw. Hubert Engst, 6.(Sturm)/ JG 300, Löbnitz, Germany, early 1945

A native of Krauschwitz, Hubert Engst was born on November 10, 1921 and on completion of flight training in July 1943, he was

assigned to JG Hermann (later redesignated as JG 300), specialists in the use of Wilde Sau tactics (night attacks against bombers using single-engine fighters). Here, on his first combat flight and only three hours after his arrival he would shoot down

a Stirling bomber. Hubert Engst flew with the 5. and later 6. Staffel of JG 300, the unit integrated from the beginning of its existence into the structure of the Defense of the Reich. According to the sources Engst shot down some 20 aircraft. He was shot

down twice himself. Remains of his Fw 190A-8/R2 WNr. 681361 “Yellow 7” were discovered in 2011 near Otin close to Jindrichuv

Hradec. They are part of the collection of the local museum there nowadays. Hubert Engst lived in the former East Germany

after the WWII and died in 1981. The standard RLM74/75/76 scheme was complemented by JG 300 colors and markings from the

end of the war in the shape of a blue-white-blue band of prescribed 900 mm overall width. A horizontal strip designating aircraft

of the II. Gruppe was painted over the band, its yellow color was specific to the planes of the 6. Staffel.

INFO Eduard - July 2021

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