BOXART STORY

#7463

Catcher 1

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

The aircraft of the fighter ace Hans Dortenmann have already appeared in our kits several times. The first one was the Fw 190 A-6

“Black 7” of 2./JG 54. It was in this plane that

in February 1944 he crossed path with the

fighter ace Capt. I. M. Astakov of the 49th IAP.

Later it was his famous Fw 190 D-9 “Black

1” from IV./JG 26 (formerly III./JG 54) which

was probably the longest serving Dora in the

Jagdwaffe.

Hans-Joachim Dortenmann was born on

December 11, 1921, in Weingarten, Württemberg. He joined the armed forces in December 1939. In early 1940 he was assigned as

a machine gunner to the 1st Kompanie, Infanterie-Regiment 390. This regiment saw

heavy fighting on the Maginot Line and Dortenmann's 1st Kompanie was the only part of

it to complete the entire French campaign.

At the beginning of June, he received the

Iron Cross 2nd Class.

In 1941 Dortenmann received pilot training

from A/B Schule 2 and in 1942 from A/B

Schule 116. The latter unit recommended his

further specialization in single-engine or

twin-engine fighters. He therefore underwent fighter training with JG 103 and finally

was transferred to the operational training

unit of EJGr. Ost, which specialized in Eastern Front battlefield.

In mid-October 1943 he was finally assigned to a combat unit. He reported to

3./JG 54 “Grünherz”. In early December he

was transferred to 2./JG 54 and on February

6, 1944 he managed to achieve the first vic-

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INFO Eduard

tory mentioned in the introduction. By April

1944 he had gained fourteen confirmed victories.

On June 5, 1944, his 2nd Staffel was assigned

to III./JG 54, which fought in Western Europe and fought in Normandy after the Allied

landings. The move to the western battlefield from the Eastern Front took the lives

of many German fighters before they could

adapt to the different conditions and combat tactics. But Dortenmann succeeded, and

when his Staffel commander fell, he himself took over command on June 17. Under

the cockpit of his Red 1 was the inscription

Hascherl 1, which in Swabian dialect means

“catcher”.

He achieved his first success on the so-called Invasion Front in the evening of June

22, 1944, shooting down a P-47 near Rouen.

Two days later, on June 24 in the morning,

Dortenmann was in another battle near

Évreux. Three squadrons of Mustangs III

from the No. 122 Wing were flying at 2,000

meters when a formation of Fw 190s from

III/JG 54 and II./JG 26 plus Bf 109s from

III/JG 26 attacked them from above. The RAF

pilots claimed seven Fw 190s destroyed and

one damaged plus one Bf 109 destroyed. One

or possibly two Bf 109s were shot down in

this fight and one bailed out pilot was shot

at by a Mustang. Fw 190 pilots from II/JG 26

reported three kills, but only two were confirmed. Dortenmann's III./JG 54 reported six

kills, of which Hptm. Emil Lang rather optimistically claimed four, while at least two

Fw 190s were shot down.

In this battle Hans Dortenmann was the first

airman to achieve a victory. He attacked

a Mustang at an altitude of 1,800 meters.

First he hit the enemy in a left turn from

a distance of 80 meters and some bits of the

British machine fell off. Then he attacked the

same plane again, some 30 meters from the

rear and below. As a result of his fire, large

pieces fell off the lower fuselage. The Mustang crashed in a field at 7.15 and exploded.

Dortenmann and Uffz. Schleef, who confirmed his victory, stated that the pilot stayed

in the cockpit.

No. 19, 65 and 122 Squadron RAF took part

in the fight, but only No. 65 Sqn. suffered

losses. Four Mustangs did not return from

the fight. Three pilots managed to survive

and make it to the unit, these were F/Lt B.

W. Clapin, F/Sgt E. T. Williams and Sgt. D. C.

Webb. Dortenmann's probable victim was

twenty-three-year-old F/Sgt William Arthur

Summer, who did not survive the fight.

He is buried in the Dreux Communal Cemetery.

Dortenmann was shot down two days later

with his Red 1 in a dogfight near Paris but

bailed out. At the end of December 1944 he

became commander of III./JG 54 and on New

Year's Day 1945 led it in Operation Bodenplatte. He achieved a total of 38 victories, completed 150 combat sorties and was awarded

the Knight's Cross in April 1945. With eighteen kills on the Fw 190 D-9, he was probably

the most successful fighter pilot of this type.

July 2022