Hajo Hermann

Who was this pilot? He had 9 air combat kills and yet he recieved the knight's cross of the iron cross. Can anyone explain why he became so famous?

regards

 

CDS :

But of course.....Hajo was a RK mit Swords winner. First a successful bomber pilot, and instigator of the single engine night fighter unit JG 300 in July of 1943 when Hamburg was getting destroyed in a fire bombing. Wilde Sau units...... The 30th Jagddivision was created with him being the leader of 3 single engine nf units. JG's 300, 301 and 302, with JG 300 being the most successful. He was also involved with some very daring attempts via bombing and fighter activity during 1944-45. A great guy ! I'll post a bio on him soon. His 9 victories represented his single engine fighter activty while flying with JG 300. He flew both the 109 and the Fw 190.
Back soon.....and he is still living.....

E

 

Thanks Erich, I look forward to read more! So I presume this means that he flew Focke Wulf night fighters?

regards

 

Yes, he flew both, but without radar fitted. He scored 6 RAF bombers during July of 43.

Looking for his file which is buried with other JG 300 materials......

E

 

I think 'll leave this one to Erich...

Except to say that Hajo Hermann's memoirs, ' Eagles Wings' was published in 1991 and isn't too hard to find.

 

Thanx Erich,

Just doing my own amateur study in the net...



"Hajo Hermann was born in Kiel, Germany on August 1st, 1918. Kiel was a seaport, and he grew up with an early interest in sailing. Unable to secure a naval commission, he began his military career at an infantry officer academy, but was commissioned in the newly formed Luftwaffe in 1935. His first operational assignment was to Junkers 52 bombers in KG (Bomber Wing) 4 in March 1936. Herrmann entered combat a few months later as a pilot with the German forces serving in the Spanish Civil War."

"Returning to Germany in April 1937, he rejoined KG 4 and wrote several highly praised tactics reports based on his experiences in Spain. The beginning of World War II brought Herrmann into combat again, first flying Heinkel 111 bombers in Poland and Norway, then reequipped with the Ju 88 for the Battle of France. Following the defeat of France in 1940, he became Commander of the 7th Staffel of KG 4 and led numerous bombing attacks on England during the Battle of Britain. During this period, Herrmann’s portion of KG 4 was transferred to KG 30 and continued night attacks on England after the Battle of Britain.

In February 1941, his group deployed to Sicily and flew missions against Malta and Greece. In a daring raid on the Greek port of Piraeus, Herrmann placed a single bomb into a loaded munitions ship, causing an explosion which sank 11 ships and made the port unusable for months. During the summer of 1941, KG 30 returned to France, and Herrmann became Commander of III/KG 30 (Group III of KG 30). By early 1942, his group had arrived at Bardufoss, Norway, where he led raids against Allied convoys supplying Russia, including the famous attack which decimated convoy PQ 17."

"Already used in having double duties, Major Herrmann in summer of 1943 was lecturing in Berlin about tactics at Luftwaffe Command in Wildpark Werder. In the night he was flying Fw 190s from Staaken airfield with volunteers from many flying schools. This was the beginning of the "Wilde Sau" tactics for which the 30. Fliegerkorps was established. Wild Boar and Tame Boar were tactics used in conjunction with the established NJG Gruppes flying Ju-88's, Me-110's and He-219's against the RAF at night. Hajo used single seat fighters, often leading the fight in a Fw-190. Though not as successful as the other night fighters, his tactic's did help in defending the German civilian populations from destruction. In 1944, he was assigned as Inspector General of Night Fighters. Finally, near the end of, the war he commanded a daring mid-air ramming unit, and received the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. On 11 May 1945, Russian forces captured Herrmann and interned him as a prisoner of war until October 1955."

For some reason, Herrmann and Adolf Galland deeply heated each other.(???) Galland once said of Herrmann that he was the ".. second greatest criminal of war ", Hermann Göring being the first in his personal ranking. Hajo was one of the last German soldiers to be released from the Soviet POW camps. After the war, he put himself through law school and beginning in 1965 began practicing law in Dusseldorf. As of 2001, he is still very active with his practice. He is married to Ingeborg, who is a Professor of Singing. They have two sons.

http://www.luftwaffe-experten.com/pilots_special/h_hermann.html

September 1944, Berlin, Germany: Ultimate defeat was staring the Nazi’s in the face and Luftwaffe leaders were scrambling for new ideas to turn the tide. Thirty-year old Oberst (Group Captain) Hans-Joachim “Hajo” Hermann said to Reichs-marschall Hermann Goering, “With our new Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighters coming on-line, the day of the propeller-driven fighter is over. I propose that we gather our Messerschmitt Me 109 fighters and in one massive attack, ram the American bombers in midair. If we crash into them amid-ship, the Me 109’s steel propeller will act as a saw. The sturdy wing with a steel beam running through it will snap the bomber’s fuselage in two, and the long nose will help protect the pilot in order for him to bail out. I believe that the assault will so terrorize the American bomber crews, that they will refuse to fly any more missions. At the very least, it will force them to stop the bombings until more aircraft can be brought over from America to replace their losses. More importantly, the respite will buy us time to improve our fuel supplies and build more Me 262 jet fighters with which to regain air superiority.” He continued, “I estimate that possibly half of our pilots will die in the crashes, but it’s better to lose them in this manner than to have them gradually annihilated with nothing to show for it as is happening today.” Goering favored the idea, but given Adolf Hitler’s dream of world domination, he had reser-vations about requesting the Fuhrer’s approval of a strategy that would clearly acknowledge the desperate nature of their situation. Doubtful that a sufficient number of pilots would volunteer for the Kamikaze-like mission, Hitler sat on it. In the meantime, the American fighters and gunners were downing the less experienced Luftwaffe pilots at an ever-increasing rate.

March 8, 1945, Ober-kommando der Luftwaffe: Hitler finally gave the go-ahead, and Goering sent a highly classified message to all fighter and air combat training units. In part, it stated, “I summon you to perform a mission from which your chances of return will be minimal.” With no more than this nebulous disclosure, over 2,000 students and recent graduates of flying schools stepped forward. With that, “Hajo” Hermann formed Rammkommando (Ram Command) Elbe and under great secrecy, the best candidates were interviewed at Stendal, an airfield west of Berlin. The good pilots were ruled out; they were needed alive. Those not deemed brave enough to perform the maneuver were also turned away. A few men backed out; they thought that they were volunteering to attend a training course, not commit suicide.

..During the final stages of preparation, the Germans found that rather than a shortage of volunteers, the overriding problem was a lack of aircraft and fuel. Combat losses together with operational and mechanical problems had whittled down the number of available propeller-driven fighters to no more than 200. Desperately and possibly against their better judgment, they forged ahead anyway...

April 6, 1945, Eighth Air Force Headquarters: The next day’s operational plans directed a “maximum effort” against sixteen targets in northern Germany. (The brass called them “ME’s.” Down in the trenches, tongue-in-cheek, we called them “EG’s” for Everybody Goes, including the colonels.) Over 1,300 bombers and 850 fighters were alerted to fly the mission. Of the 40 bomber groups on Bomber Alley, only two would stand-down and of the 14 fighter groups, one would stay home. The Luftwaffe had not seriously challenged the bombers since Dresden a month earlier. Therefore, the mission planners had no reason to believe that the Germans would come up in significant numbers on the 7th.

Twenty-three bombers went down that day. It is known that at least eleven were rammed.

http://afmuseum.com/friends/journal/frj_251.html

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Well, I never knew they did ramming into US bombers?? Or did they??

 

Paljon kiitoksia (Thanks) Kai! This was what I was looking for, perhaps someone can ill in a bit more about the air-ramming unit and his knight's cross of the iron cross.

regards

 

Thanks Erich--I didnt know he was still alive--I would LOVE to have him sign the foto of him in my copy of "The Blond Knight of Germany" it shows him at a formal function--I think an RKT Treffen? wearing his Rk and Oaks, and he has a white beard--and has a sort of "glare" with his eyes--he reminds me of a proud eagle.

 

Hajo is now the same age as my good friend Helmuth...90 yrs. Sharp as a tack and still the pilots stature and personality. Hajo actually convinced fellow kameraden in the bomber force to come over to his small kmdo to fly wilde sau missions and this is how the wilde sau was formed, in retaliation to the fire storm raids over Hamburg. Wilde sau was used without radar because everything was simply jammed, but as the bomber pilots were moved back to their former units new single engine fighter pilots were needed. 9/10th's of the losses suffered by JG 300 during evening raids in 1943 and 44 were due to unfamiliararity with flying their 109's and Fw 190's at night, and losses mounted due to frequent crashes on landing. Still looking for more on the bio for this kind man. AS to Bienstock raid it will be covered by another German pilot who flew on the Rammkommando Elbe raid, and was involved in both raids. Since he is trying to get his computer confirgured with the mass of information he has it will probably be sometime before he gets it up and running. His wife just died 6 months ago, and he has felt this keenly......

E

 

Hi Erich! The energy some of these men still have is amazing. Thanks for the post and goodnight since I'm going to bed now.

regards

 

Charlie....

Don't know if I can add mnore to Kai's reply since it is quite full of excellent materil, but here goes.

Oberst Hajo Hermann, RK as an Oberleutnant on Ocotber 13, 1940. The EL (nr. 269) on August 2, 1943, right after forming the JG 300 Wilde Sau unit, as a Major. Swords (Nr. 43) on January 23, 1944 as an Oberst. The Deutsche Kreuz im Gelbe on June 5, 1942, and the EP on September 28, 1940.
Without trying to quote from his own private work, he was in the Hamburg land-police in the Army and moved over into the Luftwaffe as a Leutnant on August 1, 1935. Trained as a pilot for the rest of the year he was transferred into 9./KG 4 and in August of 1936 he was sent to Spain as a bomber pilot. In April of 1937 he was awarded the Spainish cross in Gold with Swords. While engaged in the Polish campaign he flew in KG 4 and also in the Norway theater and also in France where he was shot down over Dunkirk on May 31, 1940. Following this he flew over England on repeated sorties and then moved to III./KG 30 flying over the Mediterraen sea. He was involved in the heavy engagements over Malta and Tobruk and on April 6/7 1941 he destroyed the munitions ship Clan Fraser and also another 11 ships for an amount of 41942 BRT. In August of 41 he was kommanduer of III./KG 30 and particpated in many raids on the Norwegian and English coasts. In July of 42 he was moved to the Führungstab der Luftwaffe and became General der Kampflieger for technical and tactics. By May of 1943 there was a need for alternatives to the evening RAF bombings and Hajo was instructed to work on single engine night fighter tactics. On the eve of July 3/4 1943 he scored his first victory over an RAF bomber and in July he scored another 6 victories over RAF heavies thus securing him the EL to his RK, and the development of JG 300. This also led to his commandment of the 30th Jagddivision which incorporated the three single engine nf geschwaders over the Reich. After this appointment he became inspector of the nachtjagd and in March of 44 he became Kommandeur of the 1st Jagddivision. October 44 brought him into the Führer reserve, and the end of November 44 he was on staf with the II. Flieger Korps. january 45 brought him into commanding the 9th fliegerdivision and during this time he came up with the RAmming commando concept, with the reality of Rammkommando Elbe, though this name is not entirely correct according to the veterans who served on this mission. He also was in the drawing room for the idea of Unternehmen Bienenstock to destroy/bomb by suicide the Russian bridges over the Oder, and the useage of the Mistel combinatioins on a wide scale. It has also been said that he came up with the idea to man the v-1 bomb as a last resort suicide wepaon.
One source states that at the end of the war he surrendered to the US army but was turned over the the Soviets. After a long internment he was finally released in 1955.

370 missions, 320 as a bomber pilot.
9 night fighter kills in single engine fighters.

E

 

Thanks again Erich! It's very kind of you to post this information.

regards/ Daniel

 

Thanx Erich!

I was interested as this was the first time on this ramming the allied planes that I heard of it as a planned strategy, what do you think of it/heard of it? Did it happen this way? Or was it just a personal decision by a few pilots to do it this way?

 

The ramming idea goes back to 1943 with the formation of the heavy Fw 190 staffel.....Sturmstaffel 1, Author Barry Smith is working on a book on this unit. The ideas was to close in as close as possible in an armored Fw 190 and fire the 2cm wepaons in the inner wings and engines, thus securing a shoot down, if all else failed, ramm the bomber to bring it down. In fact there was declaration in the unit for all members to sign a document promising to do so or else..... ! Well truth is the unit had may 3 rammings total before it formed another staffel 11.Sturm/JG 3 in the spring of 1944 and constituted the base for all Sturmstafflen of JG 3, 4, and 300. Since Hajo was a great part of JG 300 in easy to see why he brought up the idea again even though it was a waste of human lives and succeded to do nothing to stop the devastation over the Reich. in April of 45 the Sonderkommando made up of newly schooled volunteer's, vets from Bf 109 gruppen in JG 300, 53 and a couple of other units and including a few ME 262's for cover, which is odd; the attack was planned and executed, the 109's not carrying any ammo, well at least most of them, and has been mentioned the diving attack was to shear off the tail, tail gunners position, and in so doing the Bf 109 pilot was to have time to bail out safely. With the overpowering presence of Allied air superiority only a couple dozen 109's were able to get through the escort screen and attack the B-17's and most of these were shot down.

E

 

Hmmm, I wonder if Paul might have Hajos addy?

Oh Erich btw--I still havent heard back from Franscois on the nachtjagd spange--so I think I will try to send Detlev an email and see what he knows. Ill try writing himn tomorrow

 

Thanx Erich!

Quite desperate measures and thinking of the huge escort by then not a clever plan...

"Desperate to inflict massive losses on the American Bomber stream and force a month long bombing pause, the Germans concocted a plan for a massive ramming attack. Late in 1944, Oberst Hans-Joachim Herrman proposed using 800 or so high altitude Bf-109G’s stripped of armor and armament to reduce weight for such an attack. Lightened in this manner, he calculated the planes could reach 36,000 ft well above the American escort fighter’s ceiling. German pilot losses were predicted to be around 300, more or less what was lost in a normal month’s fighting. Aircraft losses would be much higher of course, but by this point numbers of aircraft were not the Luftwaffe’s problem. Trained pilots and especially fuel were. Fully trained fighter pilots were too valuable to be wasted in these attacks, so volunteers were called for from the training units. The first ramming unit, "Sonderkommando Elbe" formed in April 1945 and flew a single mission with 120 aircraft. Its inadequately trained pilots were unable to inflict much damage. Fifteen bombers were rammed but only 8 were destroyed."

http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~josephkennedy/German_Pilot_Perspective.htm

Some other interesting info...

Kurt Welter Oberleutnant

On the night of 22/23 September, Welter shot down two Allied four-engine bombers on what was his first Wilde Sau mission. He shot down a further two on his third mission on the night of 3/4 October. By the beginning of April, he had recorded 17 victories in only 15 missions! Welter was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 10 May. Leutnant Welter was transferred to 5./JG 300 on 7 July 1944. In July, he was to claim two USAAF B-17 four-engined bombers and three P-51 fighters shot down by day. From 25 July 1944, Welter served with 1./NJG 10 performing Wilde Sau missions. He claimed four RAF Lancaster four-engine bombers shot down on the night of 29/30 August to record his 24th through 27th victories. Welter transferred to 10./JG 300 on 4 September 1944. 10./JG 300 was established to counter incursions by RAF Mosquito twin-engined bombers. In September, Welter was to claim seven Mosquitos shot down, including one by ramming! It is thought that during his service with 1./NJG 10 and 10./JG 300, Welter recorded 12 victories in only 18 missions.

Kurt Welter was credited with 63 victories in 93 missions. He recorded 56 victories at night, including 33 Mosquitos.(??)

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/welter.html



http://www.worldwar2pilots.com/ww2GrayEagleHangar.htm

 

Kai, yes the suicide op was just that. A ridiculous waste of time, energy and needed manpower.

I would be very careful with the Kurt Welter link. I have helped Petr with his site for the past 3 years and have warned him at least twice about bogus info on Kurt W. Many of his claims are taken from other pilots that he served with in late 44 and through 45 from his jet kmdo. We are trying our best to put together a somewhat of a bio on the mysterious man, and I mean mysterious. From end of Febryar 45 onward he toodk full control of the administrative duties of his jet unit and hardly flew. In fact rote 10 the two seater is claimed to have been his.....ah don't think so ! He only flew the single seat Me 262A-1a in action......well all will have to wait next year to see what the volumes will hold !

by the way his first 14 victories were with 5./JG 302 flying the Fw 190A-5 and 6, one Fw 190 had the Neptun J-2 radar aerials. In 10./JG 300 it was climed that he flew the Fw 190A-8, which he did not. The unit flew the hot rod Bf 109G-6/AS to counter the Mossie bomber threat from August 44 till the end of November 44 when 10./JG 300 formed the base of II./NJG 11 at Jüterbog.

E

E

 

Carl,

I have got Hajo's address will mail it to you over the weekend.

Great Bio information Gents!!

Paul

 

Thank YOU VERY very VERY much mate. This will be a nice Christmas present. I havent been this excited for a particular RKTs address since I first got Erich Topps address back in 1999.

Thank you very much my friend.

 

Just give him a little time Carl, maybe after the 1st of the year might be better ? I am waiting to send a flock of letters to Deutschland, and just don't want anything lost in the travels.....

E