eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hej all

The latest Air War Publications eArticle has been released - Evgeny Velichko’s biography of Jagdgeschwader 54’s leading ace, Otto Kittel. Evgeny has done some extensive research into Kittel’s life, and has produced a most interesting story.

The article begins with Kittel’s humble beginnings, and the very slow start he had to his career as a fighter pilot. It was only after he began flying the Focke-Wulf 190 in 1943 that his score began to mount rapidly. By early 1944 he had become a unit leader in the famous Grünherz Geschwader, and by the time of his death in mid-February 1945, was one of the highest scoring aces in the entire Luftwaffe. For several combats, Evgeny has matched up Otto Kittel’s victory claims with actual Soviet losses.

This 25-page eArticle is accompanied by 26 photographs, an overview map, two mission maps and three colour profiles.

Much more will be found about Otto Kittel in Andrew Arthy’s Air War Courland book, which is well on its way to being finished, and will be published by Air War Publications in the future. We hope that Evgeny’s eArticle gives a little taste of what is to come.

You can purchase and download the eArticle here: LINK

All the best
The Air War Publications Team

Air War Publications

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Interesting read, thank you. The ECPA photos of 'Yellow 1' are new to me.
One note about the Bf 109 F-2 'Black 10' - something that prevented us from profiling this aircraft in Luftwaffe Gallery Special JG 54 is that on better quality copies of the photo an emblem under the cockpit can be spotted: a kind of shield with something (a bird?) in the center. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any close up photo that would allow to determine what exactly is this.

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Great read indeed. A very small remark, the date of the loss of his Fw 190 A-4 is incorrect in Appendix I (the correct date is in the text).

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hej Maciej
Thanks for your positive words about the article. I am glad you like it!
Regarding shield/emblem 'Black 10' I had a discussion with Anders Hjortsberg and since we could not determine anything on the photo, Andrew and I decided not to make a speculative shield/emblem.

Hej Alfred
Thanks for your kind words and for spotting the date typo. It is now corrected.
I will email the customers who bought the article before the update with a new download link.

All the best
Morten

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Very interesting read, with two new photos of Kittel 109 "yellow 1". It appears however not the same plane of that on photo session of 15 August '44, where the "yellow 1" appeared with a dark color spinner. What do you think?

Regards
Flavio

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon Gentlemen,

I have purchased the article and am looking forward to working it through.
Peeping into the victory list it occurred to me that this claim is missing:
5,3.44 La-5 15km südwestlich Narwa
Has this one been found to be not valid ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the message, and we hope you enjoy the article. What is your source for the 5 March 1944 victory claim?

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good morning Andrew,

the source is an Otto Kittel victory list that I was endowed with by Johannes Mathews.

I wish you a good success with your publications, sincerely,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for confirming your source. It looks like our victory claims source missed the five claims recorded by Luftflotte 1 on 5 March 1944, which included Otto Kittel's. Thanks for pointing out the omission.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good evening Andrew,

that makes 265 kills. I suggest assuming that Otto Kittel's official score of 267 includes his two unconfirmed claims on 30.6.1941 (maybe confirmed later?) but not the claim on the day he died (because he didn't live to do the paperwork).

All the best to you and your projects,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hello Knusel, I have looked at many German pilots that were killed in action and received credits to there scores afterwards. Comrades, I figured filed claims for them. I can give you the example of Hans Beisswenger on his last dogfight in which he was killed, there were no Soviet losses in that fight. I am a real admirer of Beisswenger and his scoring, which is very close and accurate for the most part. Some lesser scoring German pilots achieving 1 to 3 kills that I found in some cases no matching losses, appear to be made for the dead pilot, probably to provide the family with a Iron Cross either 2nd or 1st Class to the family.

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon Nokose,

you mean Kittel's claim on his last day is his official 267th kill ?
If that's true we need a suitable candidate claim for his 266th confirmed kill.

Have a nice day,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hello Knusel,

Since the Luftwaffe stopped confirming victory claims in late 1944 from all the information that I have read in previous books, there was no “official” confirmation. So any confirmation was probably at the Jagdgeschwader level and in the pilot flugbuch. There seems to have been a lot of claims in flight books that were denied for lack of a witness. I have read about Soviet aircraft shot down by Bf 109 but no matching German claim. So the possibility of a claim being written into Kittel’s flugbuch is possible. After death claims though could be only symbolic or maybe possibly real.

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hello Nokose,

yes, what we need is his Flugbuch.

When he died, was there a newspaper headline like "...Otto Kittel, victor in 265/266/267 air combats died yesterday…" ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

This would be a good place where you could look: http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/an...m=1945&zoom=33

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good morning,

I found no Otto Kittel death announcement in the February issues.
Meanwhile, I started working through the article which is very enjoyable to read. I found a minor typo on page2: The Eichenlaub and the Golden Oak Leaves are two different levels of the Ritterkreuz and the correct translation should simply "Oak Leaves".

Cheers,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

..great resource , thanks for that. It's possible to do a daily search which will bring up every scanned Zeitung, Zeitschrift, Heft, Illustrierte for a particular date which in many cases can be 40-50 different titles...

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

What I’ve found is that multiple papers will publish basically the same (centrally approved) article but sometimes some of them have a fuller version than others.

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

The victor over Kittel was Vadim Petrovich Komendat. Was is it only aerial victory ?

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

He claimed three enemy aircraft in the air and five on the ground (source: http://airaces.narod.ru/all15/komendan.htm). Type his name in Google, Вадим Петрович Комендат, and you'll come up with plenty of information about him.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good evening Andrew Arthy,

thanks for your helpful post.
Have you noticed that in the Otto Kittel kill list in Mr Velichko's article 2xIl-2's are indicated for 22Jun1943 whereas in Johannes Mathews' list we find 1xIl-2 and 1xLaGG-3 ?

Have a nice weekend,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your latest. Our source for 22 June 1943 states two Il-2s for Kittel on that morning, so we went with that.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon Andrew,

have you noticed that some sources indicate 14Feb1945 as Otto Kittel's death date ? I tink this is based on a typo in OSPREY's "Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Aces of the Russian Front".

Cheers,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

I have noticed that sources including Haupt, Hannig and Bergström talk about heavy aerial combat over Courland on 14 February 1945, and Kurowski and Weal state that Otto Kittel was shot down that day. In reality, there were no offensive sorties by Luftflotte 1 on 14 February 1945.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon Andrew,

some consider Otto Kittel the top Il-2 killer
https://www.luftwaffe.cz/stormovik.html
but I believe he is second to Joachim Brendel.
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...brendel&page=3

Have a nice weekend,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

goes back a bit further than that - a piece on Artur Gärtner's 65th birthday in Jägerblatt 4/87 gives 14 Feb as Kittel's death date, original source is most probably Kurowski

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon FalkeEins,

and do you think this date might be correct ?

Have a nice Friday,

Michael

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

As I noted above, I./Jagdgeschwader 54 did not fly any sorties on 14 February 1945, so of course that is not the correct date for the death of Otto Kittel. Kurowski is a very unreliable source.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hi Michael,

not if Andrew says otherwise!

Kurowski's 'Balkenkreuz und roter Stern' appeared in 1984 which most authors appear to use. His more 'scientific' "Luftwaffe über Rußland" (Moewe Verlag, 1987) doesn't get a mention anywhere - but quotes no date for Kittel's disappearance. Nor do Rodeike or Mombeeck. Weal gives the same date -14 February 45 - in three separate locations that I've found! Other sources quoting 14 February include Eriksson ('Alarmstart East'), Bob/Trautloft/Held in Schiffer's "JG 54 - photographic history of the Grünherzjäger" and Lorant/Frappe "Le Focke Wulf 190" (Docavia, 1981) as well as various issues of Jägerblatt. I've got three sources giving the date of Kittel's last combat as 16 February; Scutts in his "JG 54 Grünherz", Trautloft/Bob "Kriegs-Tagebuch von Hannes Trautloft- Grünherzjäger im Luftkampf 1940-45" and Bergstrom/Pegg (Jagdwaffe Vol 5 Section 2 - 'War in the East 44-45').

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Hello,

One more!

Smith & Creek in their Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Vol.3, 1944-1945:

Date: 16-Feb-45
Type: A-8
Unit: 2./JG54
W.Nr: 960282
Markings: Black 1+
Pilot & Place: Oblt Otto Kittel, KIA, 6km south-west of Dzukste.

See:
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Volume Three 1944-1945.
Smith,J Richard & Eddie J Creek.
Hersham:Classic,2013.
pp.896 & 989

Col.

Re: eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'
 

Good afternoon Gentlemen,

yes, I agree that we can exclude the 14th as death date.

It's also definite that Otto Kittel is the top-scoring Fw 190 pilot. But can we define his official Fw 190 score ?:
It's 246 if a kill on an unknown date and a kill on his last day on earth are part of his official score of 267
or
it's 244 if his two unconfirmed kills on 30Jun1941 were confirmed later.

Have a nice Sunday,

Michael