The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Last October I started a thread concerning the purported NSFK (Nationalsozialistisches Flieger Korps) ace Stürmführer Willi Strübing. I first found mention of him in Caldwell & Muller's Luftwaffe Over Germany.

Don Caldwell made reference to a book by Kenneth K. Blyth called Who Shot Down EQ-Queenie (Fenestra Books, 2004.) In this latter, the author, who was a pilot in No. 408 Sqn. RCAF, related his search for the Me 262 pilot who shot down his Halifax just south of Hamburg during a daylight mission on 31 March 1945. I have excerpted the 4 pages from the book which concern Willi Strübing.

In Sept. 2000, Blyth went back to where his plane went down, the town of Bergedorf, and through notices posted in the local paper, Bergedorfer-Zeitung, found a most remarkable answer to his quest. A man named Detlof Mohr came to the newspaper offices with documentaion showing that his uncle, Willi Strübing, was most likely the pilot who shot down Blyth's Halifax.

In 1945, Strübing was a 53-year old instructor with the rank of Sturmführer (equivalent to a Leutnant) in the NSFK unit Sturm 5 based at Bergedorf. He had previously tried to join the Luftwaffe but was rejected as too old. He had been a pilot during the First World War although apparently only in a training capacity. Remarkably he had an armed Me 262 at his disposal for one-man missions against Allied air incursions in the area of Bergedorf. Blyth's Halifax was Strübing's 25th Abschuß!

The document shown on page 2 below is a letter to Strübing dated 11.04.45 from the Standartenführer of NSFK Standarte 15 in Hamburg. In essence it states that in recognition of his 24th and 25th victories on 31.03.45 as well as his constant mission readiness and devotion to the welfare of the Reich, he had been nominated to receive the Ritterkreuz. Apparently he did not actually receive the RK due to the end of the war coming less than a month later.

The main reason for this posting is the hope that some researcher(s) in Germany would be interested in pursuing this very interesting case and digging up more information on Strübing's unusual career. Perhaps there were also other NSFK pilots who went on combat missions.

I realize that this is outside of their area of study since the NSFK was not part of the Luftwaffe, but Jochen Prien's group would seem like logical candidates to pursue the matter. For one thing Bergedorf is right next to Hamburg, for another it would make for an extremely fascinating footnote to their later issues of Die Jagdfliegerverbände concerning the RLV at the end of the war. By the way, Gerhard Bracke, who wrote the biography of Hans Waldmann, was one of the people who worked with Blyth on his quest back in 2000.

Regards,
Tom Semenza

PS: It was taking an inordinate amount of time to upload the 4 pages I mentioned so only the first three are attached. I'll try to upload the last one on another posting.

Photo of Strüning
 

Adjunct to my previous posting.

Tom

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Very interesting story of individual course in this war of machines, always refreshing , but you are speaking of the 25. victory, norm it is usual before the 25. to achieve at least 24 before, hv you an idea of how nd in which unit he scored so high, nd if I hv well understood, in a rather short time lap ??

Remi

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

That is a remarkable document concerning his proposal for award of the Knight's Cross. I would like to see a list of his claims and whether or not they were all confirmed.

Re: Photo of Strüning
 

Hi Tom

I find this fascinating!

It's all new to me. I wish to know more.

Cheers
Brian

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

The answer to your questions is "What you see, is what you get." I know no more than is shown on those pages. Which is why I am hoping to interest someone in the Hamburg area to investigate further. Perhaps Strübing's nephew is in possession of his Flugbuch and/or other documention related to his career.

By the way, I wrote to Mr. Blyth in June via his publisher but have not received a response. Anyway I kind of doubt that he has any further information available than that already printed in his book.

Tom

Re: Photo of Strüning
 

Brian,

Very fascinating indeed. Welcome to the club of those who would like to know more about this!

Cheers,
Tom

Re: Photo of Strüning
 

Hi Tom

I thank you for drawing this to my (at least) attention - I really mean that I had no comprehension whatsoever of this force.

I hope that others, in the know, will contribute.

Cheers (and thanks)

Brian

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Ditto Brian's post. Fascinating.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Another NSFK ace, although i'm not very convinced by this one:

http://www.pilotenbunker.de/Jagdflie...adam_georg.htm

Best regards

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Nach den Krieg zur LH,

What is this LH léo ???


Remi

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Hello,
LH is the abbreviation for Lufthansa, the german airline.
regards
yumimoto

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Guys

To try and keep some kind of perspective of this topic, may I remind everyone that NSFK was formed on April 17th,1937 with the name change (or incorporation) of the civil DLV. At least up to the outbreak of war the NSFK was the organization in Germany handling the civilian flying interest, such as all kind of "sports" flying, gliding training and so on. It simply was a new way for the German totalitarian regime at the time to gain control of every aspect of the German Nation. It was a perfect way of indoctrinating youth both into Nazi ideas and at the same time take care of their flying interests.

I believe their main activity during the war was to take care of most (if not all) gliding activities in Germany, thus making an earlier use of young men who wanted to become pilots, but who were not quite at the correct age yet to start military training.

Needless to say the organisation needed teachers, and to me it is not surprising many (most?) were over aged for general service within the regular Luftwaffe.

Every organization always creates it's "oddities", which seems to be the case with our first man. The second case seems to me to be an individual who trained in the NSFK and later went over to the regular Luftwaffe. Nothing odd or strange with that. I doubt the wartime NSFK was crawling with "aces" capable of borrowing battle planes at will. The really interesting part with Strübing is how and where he got the aeroplanes to score his victories with.

Cheers
Stig

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Stig has hit the nail on the head with his comments. As far as I was aware the NSFK was formed to create air-mindedness among German youth with an eye to expanding the Luftwaffe to a wartime footing. Many Luftwaffe pilots gained their first flight experience with the glider training schools of the NSFK.

Aside from gliders, the NSFK also had small aircraft for powered flight training. Therefore a NSFK instructor with access to a combat aircraft, no less an Me 262, is truely astounding, almost incredible! Therefore my hope that someone will take an interest in delving further into Strübing's career. The best chance of that would be to rediscover Strübing's nephew, Detlof Mohr, who is by now in his 80s.

Tom

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Gentlemen,

I thought probably some NSFK instructors had ended up being ground attack pilots flying trainers armed with anti-tank rockets.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

So this unknown gentleman is actually the highest scoring jet ace in all of history?

Bronc

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Hi Guys

I can think of one further none Luftwaffe pilot who claimed to be an ace(eight "kills" by memory, he was even given a honorary rank, but only one was ever confirmed on the micro films, but it's proves there should be evidence upto end 1944. Also a JG 52 offizier without a flying licence claimed four, so strange things are there to be found, but twenty-five claims would leave evidence somewhere, but very intrigueing!

Kind Regards

Johannes

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

So this unknown gentleman is actually the highest scoring jet ace in all of history?

I cannot tell if the document is true or fake but we are only asked to believe that claims 24 and 25 were made flying an Me262. The earlier ones could have been other on types.

First question to ask is, were there Me262s at or near to Bergedorf airfield that he supposedly flew from. If there were not then the story stops there. If the nearest 262s were miles away then he would not have time to travel and take off to meet a raid

Martin

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

If you (or someone else) can expand on this, I found that interesting.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

This story seems to be a very rough missinterpretation of the document. I assume Strübing was commanding the Hitler youth troops, which supported the Flak unit around Hamburg and one of these batteries from Bergedorf shot down the Lancaster.

The facts:
At Buchen - which should read Büchen (located east of Hamburg) - the only military installations during the war were two Luftwaffe depots for ammunition and petrol. There was no kind of a “Me 262 training unit” or landing ground.

The distance from Büchen to Kaltenkirchen, where I./JG 7 was based, or to Parchim, where III./JG 7 was based, was in both cases 90km. In consequence, when Strübing heard the alert and jumped into his car, he had to drive under the conditions in spring 1945 around three hours before he reached the aircraft. The enemy would have already left the area, when he could take off.

The text of the presented document combined with the fact that Strübing was able to fly an aircraft and may be after the war he told something about the Me 262 created this funny story.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

I agree with Merlin and other sceptics, a man with glider and single-engine a/c experience at NSFK became a Me 262 instructor for the LW? If there were ammo and petrol depots nearby that would solve fuel and ammo problems but from where he got the Me 262 and who serviced and maintained it? To which training unit and organisation he belonged?

PS and how well a grass-covered airfield suited to Me 262 operations, after all the plane had 2 fairly powerful but delicate "vacuum cleaners" under its wings.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

No smoke without fire is the saying - maybe not appliable here.
But misunderstanding can change things quite much (usually further away from truth).

My two Pfennig; Maybe the 24th (total) victory (credit) by NSFK, not his personal score - early 1945 trained pilots were in short supply, and he may have just happened flying two seater on test or ferry flight ??? - but is Allied report (of the type doing the shootdown) 100% correct.

I mean, just last week I found in specific RAF ORB, two crews on two different aircraft (but with same co-pilot and navigator) flying the same mission (flight) in two different aircraft, over same span of several days, but with exactly same t/o and arrival times.
One can however read these have "entered date" (in ORB) five days apart (so two flights!)

He already had single engine (Bf 109 et al) category, could he not already have twin rating too (from days before the war)? Were there Twin-Turbine taxi, or engine start, or armament-trainers (?) - I have seen such on Me 262: fitted with FO(D) screens, or was this (reported) dispersed location to hide a few trainers from marauding fighters.

Some grass fields were exceptionally long, but grass surface usually add 25% to the take off distance. Hard runways attracted bombers and other attack planes.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Absolutely impossible that this guy had a 'personal' 262 at his disposal this late in the conflict, when not even a member of the Luftwaffe.

Re: The Curious Case of the NSFK Ace
 

Yep, and civilians flew both Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft.
Nothing personal here. -Ed