HISTORY

Bf 109 G-6/AS “Red 2” (WNr. unknown) was flown by FriedrichKarl Müller, CO of 1./NJGr 10 during July and August 1944.

The rare photos reproduced here (via Jean-Yves Lorant) were

taken on the occasion of the visit of Müller’s wife and son to

Werneuchen during the summer of 1944. The very large bunch

of flowers was most likely presented to mark the ace’s award

of the Ritterkreuz during July 1944 for 23 victories which was

followed shortly thereafter by his promotion to command I./

NJG 11. Müller’s 24th victory on 23 August 1944 was his first (and

only?) Mosquito. He made at least six flights with this Bf 109

G-6/AS “Red 2” from 26 July 1944, including two combat sorties

from Werneuchen during the night of 27-28 July 1944. These

Moskito hunting missions were timed at 00h03-00h44 and then

from 01h10-01h53 followed by landings back at Werneuchen in

both cases. Both sorties were evidently unsuccessful. According

to his ‘erster Wart’, Gefreiter Hans Knott, it was this same

‘Red 2’ which was then repainted ‘Green 3’ early in September

1944 when Müller took over I./NJG 11 and elected to re-use his

preferred number.

I./NJG 11 was established in early September 1944 by

expanding Müller’s 1./NJGr. 10 to Gruppe strength. The unit

shifted back to Bonn-Hangelar before moving to Biblis near

Mannheim. During this month the pilots were scrambled on no

fewer than eight anti-Mosquito missions without even catching

sight of the elusive RAF foe. Also in September 1944 Feldwebel

Walter Schermutzki was assigned to I./NJG 11 and recalled;

“ ..in September 1944 NJGr.10 was re-designated I./NJG 11

and ‘officially’ became a Moskito-Jagd Gruppe . I was posted in

and arrived at Biblis on 27 September. Here we flew the latest

Bf 109 G-14/AS and G-10 models powered by up-rated engines

for high altitude combat. Lone Mosquitoes soon appeared over

the airfield to harry us with bombing or strafing runs and our

Kommandeur, Hauptmann Müller had to insist on take-offs in

total darkness – a procedure that still makes my hair stand on

end when I think about it! A searchlight some three kms from

the airfield in line with the runway axis was switched on for one

minute, pointing vertically up into the night sky. When the beam

was lined up in our windscreen, we could open up the throttle,

trying all the while to keep the beam in the windscreen. Most

INFO Eduard - November 2019

take offs were completed on one wheel - on the first bounce

we held the stick back two centimetres and climbed out at 10

metres/second. The searchlight was extinguished the moment

we overflew it. One night in October 1944 I got my own back

on the Mosquitoes. At an altitude of 9,000 metres I managed

to cut across the turn of a lone intruder, activated the power

boost and came in behind a twin-engine machine weaving

to avoid the searchlights. I opened fire with my cannon and

twin cowl MGs and saw two explosions on his port wing. He

instantly pulled into a hard turn to starboard but I followed

him, still firing. He was suddenly caught in a searchlight – his

contrails were blindingly white in my windscreen. My cannon

fire slammed into his fuselage and large pieces of his aeroplane

were torn off and swept back in the slipstream. Suddenly we

were in darkness again. The Mosquito plunged into a dive;

I dropped like a stone after him. As he pulled out at 5,000

metres my controls had virtually locked up -only turning the

stabiliser trim wheel gradually brought the aircraft out of the

dive. I had lost him…..”

An extremely rare photo shows the pilots of I./NJG 11 in

September 1944 at Bonn-Hangelar.

Gruppenkommandeur

‘Nasen’ Müller can be seen delivering a pep talk to his

assembled pilots with his back to the camera. Third from

the left is Feldwebel Fritz Gniffke, two unidentified and F-K.

Müller. To the right of Müller facing the camera, (small stature

and hair combed back) is Fw. Willi Rullkötter, Lt. Lothar Sachs

with his back to the camera, two unidentified and finally Fw.

Walter Schermutzki and Lt. Hermann Stitz (lower part of his

face obscured). All these pilots flew anti-Mosquito sorties with

varying degrees of success on high performance Bf 109s almost

up until the end of the war, although very little information

has been published on the activities of the unit. By mid-March

1945 for example both Gniffke and Schermutzki had flown some

twenty wilde Sau sorties against Mosquitoes with little or no

success. Anti-Mosquito sorties were in any event turned over

the handful of Me 262 jets of II./NJG 11. On 23 March I./ NJG

11 moved to Stuttgart Echterdingen. It was the beginning of the

end as Schermutzki remembered;

“ ..only the most experienced pilots were authorised to

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