Bomber Gruppenkommandeur Wehrpass

[hucks216]

Here is an interesting (to me at least) Wehrpass to an eventual Hauptmann who served in KG-254 & KG-54 and rose to the position of Staffelkapitän and then Gruppenkommandeur before going missing in Russia in 1941.

The campaign listings give a breakdown of his missions by number and it shows that he flew 4 missions during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and was awarded the EK II, and was also wounded in November 1939 for which he got the Black Wound Badge. At this time KG-54 were flying He-III bombers. He flew this type of bomber in the invasion of France in 1940 during which he flew 12 missions as Staffelkapitän of 3./KG-54 and on one of them his aircraft was attacked by RAF Hurricane fighters near Arras in the afternoon of 19th May. The aircraft was damaged and two men were wounded with Flieger Ogait dying in hospital the next day. For his service in France he received the EK I.

 

During the Battle of Britain and The Blitz that followed he continued to fly as Staffelkapitän but in August & September 1940 during the height of the Battle of Britain he was temporarily appointed as Gruppenkommandeur of II/KG-54 and during this phase of the war he flew 25 missions over the UK.

In December 1940 he went back to the position of Staffelkapitän, this time of 10./KG-54, before being officially appointed as a Gruppenkommandeur of IV/KG-54. Although this was the training unit of KG-54 that helped aircrews to bed in and learn the tactics of the bomber wing (a sort of Operational Training Unit) he did still see action in the invasion of Russia in 1941 by flying on a number of occasions with I & II/KG-54, which by now were flying Ju-88's.

On 10th October 1941 the Gruppenkommandeur of I/KG-54, Hauptmann Freimann, was taken prisoner after his aircraft was brought down and Widmann found himself assigned as his replacement. However his time as Gruppenkommandeur only lasted 2 weeks as on the 25th October 1941, while attacking railway lines near Bylegorod, his aircraft disappeared without trace. The reason for the loss of Ju-88 B3+CB (WkNr 8665) was reported as unknown and the crew of Widmann, Lt Müngersdorff, Fw Bäcker & OFw Michaelis have been Missing in Action ever since.

The last signature on page 29 is that of future KG-54 Geschwaderkommodore and RKT, Otto Höhne.

 

 

[spanferkel]

Nice Wehrpas and interesting history on the flyer.

These pilots who served prewar are always interesting from the standpoint that these flyers/crews constituted the backbone of the LW and their subsequent attrition gradually ground down the depth with respect to experience the LW had going into the war.

[Jock Auld]

Hucks,

Would be nice if his plane turned up one day. You never know as they still search in Russia.