HISTORY

if getting airborne, navigating and attacking a huge bomber

stream were accomplished successfully, trying to then locate

an airfield to put down on in the dark would become something

of an exploit for all but the most proficient of pilots.

While the backbone of the Wilde Sau units were seasoned

blind flyers, losses led increasingly to numbers of younger pilots

being ‘blooded’, such as Feldwebel Walter Schermutzki who

flew his first combat sortie with JG 302;

“.. my first posting as a wilde Sau pilot was to JG 301

in November 1943 before I moved to 4./ JG 302 based in

Ludwigslust. By that stage of my career as a fledgling night

fighter I had flown some twenty night training missions in

the Bf 109- it was barely enough to be able to control the

aircraft. At 02:00 on the morning of 24 December I was put

on readiness. At 03:10 I went out to my aircraft, “White 3”,

and climbed up into the cockpit by torch light – I could see the

frost glittering on the wings. My comrades were dispatched

one by one into the night at five-minute intervals and then it

was my turn. As soon as I was airborne I received instructions

to head for Leipzig where the ‘firework display’ of RAF markers

had started. However this proved to be a diversion. Thirty

minutes later instructions came over the frequency to head

for Berlin. By that stage I could hear from the communications

that Ju 88 and Bf 110 night fighter Gruppen were also en route

for the capital. Fifteen minutes later I was over the city – it

appeared to be a vast mosaic of fires. Against the orange glow,

the searchlights sweeping the sky, the explosions of the flak

and streams of tracers lent the scene a fantastical appearance.

I orbited for some time, encountered a twin-engine machine

that I identified as a Bf 110, but gradually the anti-aircraft

fire died down and the searchlights went out one by one. The

English raid had finished. We’d arrived on the scene too late.

I landed at Brandis at 05:20. My next wilde Sau sortie was flown

on 6 January 1944. The sky was clear of clouds and the full moon

provided exceptional visibility when I took off at 03:15. That

night I was flying “White 11”, fitted with two 20 mm cannon

mounted in underwing gondolas. I was instructed to orbit

beacon “Siegfried” north of Berlin. Now and again I waggled

my wings to try and prevent ice forming and at around 04:00

I was ordered to head at full speed to Stettin. I arrived there

some twelve minutes later – the sky was full of contrails. Then

I saw them – Lancasters! They were flying in groups of twenty

aircraft. I misjudged my first pass since I was going too fast

and went right through a group – these were huge machines so

close up. Streams of tracers snaked out around me, my 109 was

rocked by several jolts. Weaving violently I pulled back around

and came back under the bombers opening up with my MGs and

cannon. I saw four or five small explosions in the fuselage of

my victim, who pulled up into a climbing turn but then I lost

him in cloud. I was sure that he was crippled but I noted my oil

temperature rising and had to break off. Coming in to land at

Werneuchen, my port gear leg refused to come down and I had

to go around. Over the frequency I asked for the airfield lighting

to be illuminated. Suddenly, searchlights and runway markers

were lit up and signal flares fired off. I came in on one wheel,

stick held hard over, keeping the port wing off the ground for as

long as possible, before violently ground looping. I managed to

extricate myself from the cockpit. My first thought was to have

a pee. It was then as I stood there that I heard the approaching

roar of engines, the airfield lights snapped out and suddenly

an aircraft flashed low and fast across the field, machine guns

blazing away – a Mosquito!”

Schermutzki’s first encounter with the ‘scourge of the

Luftwaffe’ – the Mosquito- was a portent of things to come.

Capable of out-running the latest Luftwaffe fighters and hauling

a bomb load of 1,800 kg, even a lone Mosquito could send

entire city populations to the air raid shelters and proved a

real thorn in the night defences of the Reich as they carried

out night-time bombing raids and reconnaissance sorties on an

almost daily basis during the last two years of the war. From the

summer of 1943 special day fighter units had been formed to

INFO Eduard - November 2019

combat the Mosquito menace - Hermann Graf’s JGr. 50 enjoyed

a spectacular lack of success against the fast British twins.

The wilde Sau units, JG 300, 301, and JG 302 had likewise

claimed barely a handful of Mosquitoes shot down since their

formation – Schermutzki recalled only one success during this

period, Ofw. Karl Deissinger claiming a Mosquito shot down near

Wittstock during March 1944. Uffz. Hans Brandlein shot down

on 6 January 1944 over Stettin had almost certainly fallen to

a Mosquito, his machine exploding in the air, debris being found

over a 500-metre radius, while Gruppenkommandeur II./JG 302

Hptm. Colling was lucky to escape unscathed from a dogfight

with a Mosquito on 24 February 1944 in the region of Sylt. Even

the more successful pilots of II./JG 302 would have their hands

full when up against the Moskito; Ofw. Kurt Welter had claimed

two Lancasters during the night of 2-3 December 1943 which

took his score to eleven, all returned during wilde Sau sorties,

but up against one of the fast British twins on the night of 21-22

January 1944 over Magdeburg, the RAF bomber had managed to

give him the slip. Schermutzki recalled;

“.. I flew two Mosquito-hunting sorties on 20 and 23 April

over Berlin and Magdeburg, returning empty-handed on both

occasions. On 9 May 1944 I was in pursuit of a Mosquito west

of Berlin. At an altitude approaching 10,000 metres my poor

old Gustav was struggling to keep up – I could barely reach

520 km/h. The radio interference that night was particularly

effective; all I heard was ‘wilde Sau 15, he’s directly ahead of

you!’ It was then that I caught sight of a contrail up ahead and

at higher altitude. I turned for home in disgust and landed back

at Ludwigslust at 01:10..”

However during early 1944 the weight of the Allied air

offensive was such that the wilde Sau Gruppen increasingly

found themselves turned over to day sorties. III./ JG 300 at

Jüterbog-Waldlager was one such wilde Sau unit converted to

the day fighter role. However most of the pilots had little or no

notion of day fighter combat.

Schermutzki recalled;

“..We flew a few formation exercises during June which

served little purpose. I flew my first day sortie at the controls

of “Yellow 6” on 20 June 1944 as number ‘3’ in Oblt Gottuck’s

Schwarm. We were escort for heavily armed Me 410s. We were

closing on a Pulk of Liberators over Lake Muritz when a shouted

warning came over the radio, “Mustangs!” At that moment it

was every man for himself! Fortunately I managed to land

unscathed back at Jüterbog. The following morning we were

airborne again as escort for the Me 410s, making visual contact

with the Americans at 6,000 metres altitude over Neuruppin.

Climbing hard I came back around to attack a box of Liberators

over the Oder, Gottuck following my every move. He obviously

reckoned I was more experienced than he was! At 700 km/h

I opened up with everything and watched my fire slam home.

Parachutes started to appear as the giant machine that had

been in my sights slowly rolled over on its back and plunged

earthwards. It came down at Zossen. Back at Jüterbog Gottuck

congratulated me on my ‘victory’ and assured me that he

would try everything to get me back into a wilde Sau unit.

I didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not.

As it happened the next sorties I flew with III./ JG 300 were

all at night, chasing Mosquitos. I was airborne on 8, 18, 22 and

24 July over Berlin without sighting a single Mosquito. Each

sortie played out in similar fashion; airborne under clear skies

to loiter at 9,500 metres over Berlin. The Mosquitos would

drop their bombs at 8,000 metres. Unfortunately I was always

given a reciprocal heading which meant that I only ever saw

the Mosquitos’ contrails. Later that summer our Kommandeur

Hptm. Iro Ilk summoned me to his office and told me I was

heading to a new unit being established for single-engine night

fighters..”

Given the option of converting to the day fighter role or

remaining night fighters, the more proficient of the wilde Sau

pilots were detached to form a new specialist single-engine

night fighter unit, 1./NJGr.10- under Hptm. Friedrich-Karl

eduard

9