Strana 58
Bf 109F-4/Z, WNr. 8412, Oblt. Kurt Ubben, CO of III./JG 77, the Soviet Union,
October/November 1941
Bf 109F-4, Lt. Hans-Joachim Heyer, 8./JG 54, Siwerskaya, the Soviet Union, April 1942
Kurt “Kuddel” Ubben was born on November 18,
1911, in Dorstadt. In 1935, he was accepted into the
Luftwaffe. After completing his flight training,
he was assigned to 6./JG 186 (T), which was to
serve aboard the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin.
In July 1939, Kurt Ubben was transferred to
5./JG 186 (T), with which he participated in the
invasion of Poland. He scored his first aerial
victory on May 10, 1940, over the Netherlands
during the Battle of France, and on July 22 of
that year, he became commander of the newly
formed 8./JG 77. On April 19, 1941, during the
invasion of Greece, he shot down a Hawker
Hurricane from No. 33 Squadron, but his
Bf 109E-7 was severely damaged in the dogfight,
and Ubben was forced to make an emergency
landing. During Operation Barbarossa,
III./JG 77 operated on the southern sector of
the front, and Kurt Ubben scored numerous
aerial victories there until October 16, 1942.
III./JG 77 was then deployed to the African
theater in Tobruk on October 26, 1942. In Africa
as well, Ubben recorded several aerial victories
until October 1943. After the retreat from Africa,
III./JG 77 was stationed in Romania to defend
Ploiești. On March 10, 1944, Ubben left III./JG 77
and assumed command of the entire JG 2, but
on April 27, 1944, he was shot down in a dogfight
with American Thunderbolts from the 356
th
FG.
Although he managed to bail out of his Fw 190A-
8/R2, W.Nr. 680113, his parachute failed to open,
and he was killed.
The recipient of the Knight’s Cross, Hans-
Joachim Heyer, was born on April 20, 1922, in
Rehungen. He served his entire aviation career
as a member of 8. /JG 54 and scored his first kill
on the first day of the invasion to Soviet Union
on June 22, 1941. His victim was a Polikarpov I-15.
Heyer’s “Black 9”, which he flew from the spring
of 1942, was camouflaged with RLM 74/75/76
colors and the fuselage sides were completed
with RLM 70 and RLM 71 patches. The upper
surfaces of the wing, the rear fuselage behind
the cockpit and the horizontal tail surfaces were
all overpainted in white with washable color.
The III. /JG 54 emblem was painted below the
windshield on both sides of the fuselage. More
to it, on the left side under the cockpit there
was painted the JG 54 emblem – a green heart.
On the rudder, there were kill marks painted
on both sides. Hans-Joachim Heyer was shot
down and killed near Leningrad on November
9, 1942. He was posthumously awarded the
Knight’s Cross on November 25, 1942. His score
stopped at 53 aerial victories, all achieved on
the Eastern Front.
KITS 08/2026
INFO Eduard58
August 2026