Page 14
Info Eduard - November 2010
Page 14
HISTORY
‘Heino’ got his first aerial victory on April 21, 1943, with
the downing of a Sturmovik not far from Novorossiysk.
Over the subsequent weeks, he gained experience
fighting against Soviet pilots that flew Western types,
such as the Airacobra, Curtiss P-40, Bostons and also
Spitfire Mk.Vs. The latter came as a surprise for German
pilots. Those that remembered the Battle of Britain even
went through something of a shock. Spitfires over the
Kuban were taken into combat by the 57 th GIAP at the
end of April, 1943, and in the following weeks, there were
German claims of over forty Spitfires shot down. In actual
fact, though, this unit lost about a dozen of the machines.
Although Heino Sachsenberg did not down a Spitfire,
a Spitfire pilot did claim him! This event occurred on May
5 th, 1943, and Heino managed to put down some six
clicks northeast of his own field at Anapa. His Bf 109 G-4
(W.Nr. 14 956) was 45% damaged. Assuming that Heino
identified his victorious foe correctly, the likely pilot who
downed him was Yevgeniy Ordinartsev of the 57 th GIAP,
who flamed one Bf 109 during combat with a formation of
Stukas (and was himself shot down by a German fighter
only several days earlier).
When at the end of July, 1943, II./JG 52 was relocated
from the Kuban area, Heino Sachsenberg had 22 kills to
his credit, and the unit slowly realized that this was not
only a superb pilot in their ranks, but also a remarkable
young man. He also was credited at the beginning of
June with destroying one of two fast surface vessels, with
the other being sunk by his wingman. This event was
witnessed by the publicist, Dr. Hans Gstettner. Over the
course of August, II./JG 52 operated in the area north of
Kharkov and Poltava. As will be seen later, Heino left his
unit for a time, but first a few details about him need to
be disclosed.
View of the seaside air field at Anapa from the spring of 1943 showing the conditions at this base to good advantage. Visible are Messerschmitt
Bf 109 G of the Slovak 13./JG 52, which was subordinate to II./JG 52. Heino Sachsenberg served with 6 th Staffel within the framework of this
Gruppe. As the 6 th, also the 13 th Staffel used yellow fuselage markings and a horizontal stripe behind the cross. As a result, they were very
similar. Aircraft of these two units were quickly recognized by the size of the numbers (6./JG 52 used smaller ones), and by the three national color
stripes on the spinners of the Slovak Gustavs. (Bundesarchiv via Wikimedia Commons)
Sachsenberg constantly rhymed words, used
hyperboles, and even spoke in verse or used play on
words during radio communications. He even expressed
himself in a way that could be described as approaching
hyperactive, or could be explained with serious
nervousness - he was seen several times mounting
and dismounting an aircraft with a running engine.
The supposed reason for this was his mechanic,
Obergefreiter Rommel, who hadn’t signaled that the
aircraft was ready (which is absurd since a pilot during the
run up of an aircraft would not act that way). Right from
the get-go, Sachsenberg would have his oxygen mask on
and usually flew at full throttle. He often got into trouble,
as he generally failed to watch his six. He probably relied
on his own tactic of being the highest of all, and if that
wasn’t possible, to be the fastest of all!
On more than one occasion, Helmut Lipfert was
witness to a Soviet fighter that was bearing down on
Sachsenberg from behind. He would be unaware of
this fact, and when hits were ringing through his aircraft,
he would reportedly attribute them to an ‘odd clanging
emanating from his engine’. After landing, he had his
work cut out for him to egress his aircraft in time to not be
an unwilling participant in the ensuing explosion.
Heino Sachsenberg apparently never had duty far
out of his mind, and as we shall see, he really feared
nothing. One of his more innovative ideas came in the
delivery of a barrel of beer to the unit under the fuselage
of a -109. According to the memoirs of Lipfert, the barrel,
to improve its aerodynamics qualities, was outfitted
with a propeller airscrew, and a section of a drop tank.
Naturally, this rather innovative ordnance came to be
known as ‘Bierbombe’, shortened to ‘Bibo 43’. The flight