Jagdgeschwader 51 ‘Mölders’

EASTERN FRONT 1941–43 (extract)

Launched in the early hours of 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa was Hitler’s greatest and most ambitious Blitzkrieg gamble of all. Its objective was nothing less than the destruction of the Soviet Union, and the timetable was perilously tight, with but five months to go before the expected onset of the Russian winter.

On their cluster of four fields to the east of Warsaw (which they shared with elements of JG 53), Oberstleutnant Werner Mölders’ Gruppen were almost in the centre of the 4480 km-long front that stretched all the way from the Barents Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Their principal task in this new theatre of operations would be to clear the skies above and ahead of the armoured divisions of Panzergruppe 2, which itself formed the right-hand flank of Army Group Centre’s twin pincer advance aimed north-eastwards towards Moscow (whose fall, it was confidently predicted, would immediately bring about the collapse of the Soviet state).

But first, in true Blitzkrieg fashion, Barbarossa would begin with a series of pre-emptive air strikes intended to eliminate the enemy’s air forces on the ground. The results on the opening day exceeded all expectations. By the time darkness fell on 22 June, it was estimated that although more than 300 Soviet aircraft had been shot down, some 1500(!) had been destroyed on the ground. Even Göring refused at first to believe these staggering claims. But, if anything, they were proved to be conservative after German troops had overrun the enemy’s frontline areas – including all 31 of the airfields targeted – and a detailed survey of the damage inflicted could be carried out.

It is not known how many Soviet aircraft the Geschwader accounted for on the ground, but 2./JG 51, whose new Friedrichs – like their earlier Emils – had been fitted with ventral bomb racks, were alone credited with 43 destroyed in four separate Jabo sorties during the course of the day.

In the air, Mölders’ four Gruppen (with IV./JG 51 temporarily attached to Stab JG 53) claimed no fewer than 93 enemy machines shot down! The Kommodore himself was responsible for four of the Stabsschwarm’s five victories. These took his total to 72, and won him the immediate Swords. The first award of this newly instituted decoration had gone to Adolf Galland, for 69 kills in the west, just 24 hours earlier.)

Many other pilots achieved multiple successes during these early hours of Barbarossa. Among them was 1./JG 51’s Leutnant Heinz Bär, whose trio of kills before mid-morning raised his score to 20. But Bär would have to wait ten days for his Knight’s Cross, by which time he had added a further nine to his tally.

The second day of the campaign in the east saw the Geschwader carry out another round of low-level strikes, but in stark contrast to the day before, it resulted in only two aerial victories. One of these provided a first for future Knight’s Cross recipient Feldwebel Anton ‘Toni’ Lindner of 2./JG 51.

Another ‘Toni’ opened his shore-sheet 24 hours later. Fully recovered from the injuries he had sustained in the crash-landing at Mardyck three months earlier, the Soviet SB-2 bomber claimed by 6. Staffel’s Gefreiter Anton ‘Toni’ Hafner was the first rung on the ladder to his becoming JG 51’s top scorer.

In addition to Hafner’s opener, the Geschwader had been credited with a further 81 victories on that 24 June, for despite the Luftwaffe’s best efforts, the Red Air Force was far from being knocked out. Having recovered from the immediate shock of the first days’ savage onslaught, Soviet commanders called up bombers from as-yet untouched rear-area bases and hurled them in waves against the advancing German ground forces. With no frontal fighters to protect them, the Soviet bombers suffered horrendous losses. On 25 June JG 51 alone shot down 83 Tupolev SB-2s. And still the desperate Russians kept up the pressure. It peaked on the last day of the month, when Mölders and his Gruppen claimed an unprecedented 137 enemy aircraft destroyed!

This huge total included several personal and unit landmark scores. The third of the five Ilyushin DB-3 bombers downed by the Kommodore took Werner Mölders’ score to 80 – level with Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the legendary ‘Red Baron’, and top-scoring German fighter pilot of World War 1. Hauptmann Hermann-Friedrich Joppien was also credited with five victories, the fourth of which gave the Kommandeur of I. Gruppe his half-century.

And 30 June 1941 was the date on which it was announced that JG 51 had become the first Jagdgeschwader to reach 1000 victories!