BOXART STORY

#7032

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Marek Ryś

Against the West Riding Spitfires

Among the promising young NCOs who

served in Jagdgeschwader 2 “Richthofen” in

1940 was Feldwebel Erich Rudorffer. At the

end of 1939 he was assigned to 2./JG 2 and

during the campaign in France he achieved

nine victories. He added more in the Battle

of Britain and the highlight of this period was

three kills scored in one combat sortie on

September 7, 1940.

The number of his victories stopped at

eighteen, just two bars away from the dream number of twenty that for Bf 109 pilots

in 1940 meant the award of the Knight's

Cross. This award awaited Rudorffer on May

1, 1941, after he had shot down a Blenheim 30

km north of the island of Jersey on 21 April.

Let’s go back to the Battle of Britain and the

boxart of Rudorffer’s “Black Nine” by Marek

Ryś. It depicts Rudorffer’s plane during a

dogfight that took place on September 30,

1940, off the English coast. This was the

Luftwaffe’s last major air raid against Great Britain. It deployed 163 day bombers and

1015 sorties by single and two-seat fighters.

This number of fighter sorties was the sixth

highest on the German side during the Battle

of Britain.

The last day of September brought Rudorffer

three flights, the highest number he flew in

a single day during the Battle of Britain.

In the morning, he took off with part of

I/JG 2 for a free hunt over the coast of southern England. The same task was also given

to the 109s from parts of JG 53 and the 110s

from ZG 26. Against this free hunting group,

26

INFO Eduard

which was heading for the area between

St. Alban's Head and the Isle of Portland,

RAF despatched seven Hurricanes from

No. 56 Sqn and thirteen Spitfires from

No. 609 (West Riding) Sqn.

The Hurricanes clashed with the 110s and

both sides lost one machine. Then JG 2 got

in troubles, its pilots encountering No. 609

Sqn, whose A Flight was led by L/Lt F. J.

Howell and B Flight was under command of

P/O M. J. Appleby. The Germans claimed four

victories. Kommandeur of I./JG 2 Hptm. Wick

claimed one Hurricane and one Spitfire near

Portland, his wingman Oblt. Rudolf Pflanz

claimed one Spitfire and Uffz. Kurt Bühlingen of 6./JG 2 claimed another one north

of Portland. However, the British did not lose

any machines. The pilots of JG 2, who were

by this point (approximately 12.30 German

time) beginning to run out of fuel and could

not engage in a long air battle.

Howell's formation was at 23,000ft to Appleby's right at the start of the engagement, but

in a fierce encounter they recorded no victories or losses. The first success was recorded by P/O D. M. Crook of B Flight. Several

109's passed directly in front of him, there

was a brief manoeuvre fight, and then the

Germans went into a dive. Crook was flying

behind one at 600 mph when the German levelled off, Crook scored hits and the smoke

emitting Bf 109 crashed into the sea.

Appleby attacked three Bf 109s that passed

in a descent in the opposite direction on his

left. He chased one, which went into a dive,

and Appleby hit it in the cockpit with a two-second burst. At that moment P/O Crook

was flying behind Appleby and observed

his victory. Crook then saw another Bf 109

to his right, hit it too, the German jettisoned

the canopy but did not bail out and began

to dive into the sea. But to Crook’s surprise, his opponent levelled the flight. Crook

hit him again, the glycol came out of the

machine and the German crashed into the

sea. Another airman from No. 609 Sqn claimed one Bf 109 damaged and one of the two

Polish members of that unit, F/O Tadeusz

Nowierski, reported a probable kill.

On the German side, Rudorffer’s colleague

Fw. Wilhelm Hermes, an ace with ten kills,

was missing. In the same battle (?), Gefr.

Fritz Schuhmacher of 5./JG 2, went also

missing. The following flight of I./JG 2 immediately headed for the area in a fruitless

effort to find Hermes. In the afternoon Rudorffer took off once more. JG 2 again came

into combat with No. 609 Sqn, which again

emerged victorious. Nowierski apparently

shot down Uffz. Alois Dollinger of 5./JG 2 and

several other pilots scored too.

Rudorffer was lucky to survive both encounters with the elite pilots of the West Riding

Spitfires. By the end of the war, he had claimed a total of 224 aerial victories and was

awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaf

Cluster and Swords. However, there were

already serious doubts about his victories,

which he achieved in command positions

with several units during the war.

December 2022