Chris Goss - Brothers in Arms: The Story of a British and a German Fighter Unit, August to December 1940

BROTHERS IN ARMS

THE STORY OF A BRITISH AND A GERMAN FIGHTER UNIT, AUGUST TO DECEMBER 1940

CHRIS GOSS

BROTHERS IN ARMS

The Story of a British and a German Fighter Unit, August to December 1940

First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Crecy Publishing.

This new edition published in Great Britain in 2020 by

Air World

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Chris Goss, 2020

ISBN 978 1 52678 289 2

eISBN 978 1 52678 290 8

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52678 291 5

The right of Chris Goss to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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I have been lucky to have the support of many in writing this book, so many in fact, that if anyone is forgotten, I apologise profusely.

The RAF

Sir Alec Atkinson DFC; Wing Commander R.P. Beamont CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, DL; Group Captain John D. Bisdee OBE, DFC, MA; Jim Earnshaw; Wing Commander J.R.H. Gayner DFC; Flight Lieutenant S.H. Darkie Hanson; Squadron Leader J.H. Lacey DFM & Bar; Senator H de M Molson OBE; Squadron Leader A.K. Keith Ogilvie DFC; Wing Commander P.B. Pitcher DFC, and Squadron Leader Jan Zurakowski DFC.

The Luftwaffe

Siegfried Becker; Josef Brker; Franz Fiby; Willi Ghesla; Max Guschewski; Heinrich Hhnisch; Werner Karl; Julius Meimberg; Wolf Mnchmeyer; Hans Ohly; Walter Rupp; Ernst-Albrecht Schulz; Herbert Tzschoppe; Heinz-Eugen Wittmeyer; Heinz Zag, and Alfred Zeis.

I would also like to thank the following: Winfried Bock; Peter Cornwell, for giving me the idea for this book; Graham Day, for his considerable help over the years; Frau Hanne-Birgit Gtz (daughter of Hans-Karl Mayer); Mark Postlethwaite; Bernd Rauchbach, for his help and for arranging so much for me in Germany; Dilip Sarkar; Clive Williams, for giving me the chance to put my research into print; and Mrs Sonia Ziegler. Last but by no means least, I must acknowledge the support of my long-suffering wife Sally I hope it has all been worth it!

Many books have been written about the air war of the Second World War. Of these, much has been written about the summer of 1940 and what later became known as the Battle of Britain. To date, no one has looked at elements of each of the opposing air forces and compared the two what did each pilot think when pitted against another in a fight which, for many, was of life and death? What did each pilot think, be he German or British, when he had to climb again into the cramped, hot, fume-filled cockpit of his Messerschmitt Bf 109 or Spitfire and take off into the air on what could have been his last flight?

Some years ago, I received a letter from a former Luftwaffe fighter pilot. In his letter, he told me of how many flights he flew during the summer of 1940; how many aircraft he shot down and what happened to him afterwards. The letter enclosed a few snaps for which he had no further use. One of the photos showed a group of nine smiling men, their arms linked. If one looked closely, very small Luftwaffe eagles could be seen on some of their tunics. These were the pilots of 1 Staffel/Jagdgeschwader 53 (literally First Squadron of the 53rd Fighter Group 1/JG 53 for short), the Pik As or Ace of Spades geschwader .

I then took out a similar image of another group of pilots similar poses, similar smiles but no eagles on their tunics only a Spitfire in the background indicated that these pilots were British and were in fact from 609 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force whose motto, being from the West Riding of Yorkshire, was the apt hunting call of Tally Ho!. Despite the undeniable fact that the former group of pilots was helping to further the aims of a dictator and his sick, misguided ideals, and the latter group were the defenders of their nation, its people and freedom, there was little that one could see from these photos to differentiate the two groups of fighter pilots.

Eager to know more, I asked the former Luftwaffe pilot who was who in the photograph? He identified all and, from that, I was able to ascertain their fates. Of the nine in the image, five were to be prisoners of war and one was to be killed in action within two months of that picture being taken. Of the remainder, one was to be reported missing early the following summer, two were to survive the war, one having been badly wounded more than once and the other having been shot down in action a number of times.

Looking at the group of RAF pilots made me wonder what happened to them, did they ever meet the above Germans in combat and what would they think of each other today both countries now being closer together than ever before and fellow members of NATO? The results of my researches into these two units are in the chapters of this book. This will hopefully show that despite Hitler and his aims and whatever else happened during the war, there was a sort of fighter pilots affinity between these enemies to such an extent that today, they might possibly be regarded by some as brothers in arms.

This, therefore, is the story of 1/JG 53 and 609 Squadron the combats fought, the sacrifices made and the thoughts of those men who survived.

It is hard to believe that it is coming on twenty-six years since I wrote my first book Brothers in Arms . My youngest of three daughters, Alexandra, had just been born when the book came out and I remember Clive Williams, then of Crecy Books, coming to RAF Brize Norton to get me to sign copies before we as a family flew out on posting to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

Roll forward over a quarter of a century and Air World have at long last managed to reprint this book in time for the Battle of Britain 80th. Little new information has come in over the last twenty-five years, but better photos have emerged allowing some to be exchanged and some chapters enhanced photographically. Furthermore, on rereading the book, sadly to say, all of the participants, both British and German, are no longer with us and as I write, only two known RAF Battle of Britain aircrew are still with us. The book was critically acclaimed back in 1994 and I hope that with a new breed of historians and enthusiasts now around that they too will enjoy what many read twenty-six years ago.