Ping Gordon: Jagdgruppe 50 question

[Guy Alcala]

I was reading Martin Middlebrooke's book on the
Regensburg-Schweinfurt raid, and in it there's a photo of a
group of Luftwaffe pilots sitting around a table playing
cards. The caption says they're members of JagdGruppe 50,
and the photo was taken at Wiesbaden. The guy almost
directly facing the camera is an Oberfeldwebel with a tin
tie. Any idea who he might be, assuming the photo was taken
about the time of the raid (August 17th, 1943)? ISTR that
NCO fighter pilots with Ritterkreuz were pretty rare in the
western JGs (off hand, Addi Glunz is the only one who comes
to mind), so I'm guessing he probably won it in the east.

TIA,

Guy

[Gordon]

>
>I was reading Martin Middlebrooke's book on the
>Regensburg-Schweinfurt raid, and in it there's a photo of a
>group of Luftwaffe pilots sitting around a table playing
>cards.

Skat, undoubtably. Always wished there was a place to learn that game.

> The caption says they're members of JagdGruppe 50,
>and the photo was taken at Wiesbaden.

That should give us a pretty tight date to work from --

>The guy almost
>directly facing the camera is an Oberfeldwebel with a tin
>tie.

Gong-wearing sergeants weren't all that rare by end 43. I have a complete
record of all RKT, OL, S, B, etc. in the order they were given out but its of
little practical use in cases like this. Could it be Hafner..? Any chance of
sending the scan over - not that I know them all by sight, but I think I may be
able to figure it out (or know others that can).

>Any idea who he might be, assuming the photo was taken
>about the time of the raid (August 17th, 1943)? ISTR that
>NCO fighter pilots with Ritterkreuz were pretty rare in the
>western JGs (off hand, Addi Glunz is the only one who comes
>to mind), so I'm guessing he probably won it in the east.

Glunz was a popular figure at the time and was well photographed - wouldnt
surprise me a bit if it turned out to be this tenacious little fighter.

v/r
Gordon
<====(A+C====>
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."

[Guy Alcala]

Gordon wrote:

> >
> >I was reading Martin Middlebrooke's book on the
> >Regensburg-Schweinfurt raid, and in it there's a photo of a
> >group of Luftwaffe pilots sitting around a table playing
> >cards.
>
> Skat, undoubtably. Always wished there was a place to learn that game.
>
> > The caption says they're members of JagdGruppe 50,
> >and the photo was taken at Wiesbaden.
>
> That should give us a pretty tight date to work from --
>
> >The guy almost
> >directly facing the camera is an Oberfeldwebel with a tin
> >tie.
>
> Gong-wearing sergeants weren't all that rare by end 43. I have a complete
> record of all RKT, OL, S, B, etc. in the order they were given out but its of
> little practical use in cases like this. Could it be Hafner..? Any chance of
> sending the scan over - not that I know them all by sight, but I think I may be
> able to figure it out (or know others that can).

No scanner, unfortunately.

> >Any idea who he might be, assuming the photo was taken
> >about the time of the raid (August 17th, 1943)? ISTR that
> >NCO fighter pilots with Ritterkreuz were pretty rare in the
> >western JGs (off hand, Addi Glunz is the only one who comes
> >to mind), so I'm guessing he probably won it in the east.
>
> Glunz was a popular figure at the time and was well photographed - wouldnt
> surprise me a bit if it turned out to be this tenacious little fighter.

Would Glunz have been in J.Gr. 50? I thought he spent most of the war in JG 26,
and was in it at the time. Middlebrook talked to Glunz, but he's listed as III/JG
26 (he was an Ofw at the time, FWIW). The only member of J.Gr. 50 he lists as a
source is Lt. (his then rank) Alfred Grislawski. There is what appears to be an
officer in the photo, although the contrast is so bad it's impossible to say for
sure (I think the shoulder strap is all cord, but it could be just around the edges
with a dark center like an NCO, the lighting's so bad. He's wearing a leather
jacket so no collar rank patch is visible). Middlebrook doesn't give any photo
credits, so I don't know if this photo belongs to Grislawski or is from an official
source. It looks a bit posed so could be the latter, but it's not definite.

Guy