Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Dear All,
Do you happen to know whether Friedrich Rupp, Walter Nowotny and Horst Hannig knew one another?
In fact, they may have, as pilots of JG 54...

Thank you in advance.

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Dear T. Maria,

I contacted in early 2000' period, Major Erich Rudorffer, asking him about Major Walter Nowotny. I do have several books about JG 54 showing them depicted on the same frame, however, guess what was Rudorffer's answer? That he did not know or knew NOWOTNY!

I understood that there was jealousy and internal clashes between some LW airmen, including JG 54. Read somewhere, for example, that Gordon Gollob was disliked by some LW airmen, etc....SO, a Luftwaffe Geschwader can be understood as a part of the society. It is natural that some airmen were more liked than some others, as Leaders, as Men, as Human Beings, etc. and some disliked.

My guess is that probably they have met (Rupp, Nowotny and Hannig), if you do have pictures showing them together.

About your interest on discovering if those LW aces (or other aces) were married or had girl-friends, I understood (the other thread was closed) that this can lead to another Historical aspects (on biographies or Oral History). MAYBE, those women (widows) can lead an Historian (or sprog historian like myself) to a bunch of letters from the Front, to some personnel information regarding "his" man, etc...and to some original pictures never found or seen...

For instance, I had to interview the daughters of a Brazilian pilot in RAF to obtain a general Picture of his hobbies, his post-war activities, his way of being a Father, etc...

Was in contact with the daughter of a former RCAF airman, whose mother was engaged to a Canadian Fighter pilot who died in 1944 (Arnhem área). She later met this other RAF airman and got married, but never forgot his first love....so you can see that "undirect paths" can lead a Historian to incredible material, and Historical findings.

Do hope that maybe, as a woman and "Historian" too (on your past time), you can perhaps find a different approach on your books or articles.

All the best,

Adriano B.

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Dear Adriano,
Thank you very much for your answer. If Erich Rudorffer and Walter Nowotny never met, this photo must be a photomontage. ;)
Of course, they may not have been friends, but they may have actually met.
Unfortunately, I have no photos showing Friedrich Rupp, Walter Nowotny and Horst Hannig together, so I don't really know whether they met or not. All I know is that Friedrich Rupp and Hans-Ekkehard Bob were friends and that they had actually gone to school together.

By the way, where are you from?

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Dear Teresa,


Actually the picture you enclosed is one amongst several others showing Erich Rudorffer on the left side and Nowotny on the right side, on a Group photo of airmen from JG 54 with their Kommodore. This is why I asked Herr Rudorffer about Nowotny, on my first letter to him...Rudorffer answered (in German) that he never met or knew Nowotny! (in spite of the picture saying the contrary...).

Me too, I do have the book JG 54: A Photographic History of the Grunherzjager (by Ekkehard Bob; Hannes Trautloft; Werner Held) but it is not nearby my hand now. Sorry.

So, we do have photographic evidence that Rudorffer and Nowotny, at least met once, on the day that picture (or other pictures) were taken. Of course, they may just have shaked hands, not talked too much...

Hannig flew with 6 and commanded 5./JG 54 (II Gruppe), whilst Nowotny flew mostly with the Ergänzungsgruppe, 3 and 1./JG 54 before commanding the I Gruppe.

Do not remember, by heart and memory now, if at one time all JG 54 operated from a single base. If so, it is possible that they have met visually.

I guess, it was not easy at that time to make friends (real friends), etc...If you fly more with one or another "pal", you can establish friendship. I flew with several Captains and students and, of course, with some the friendship was easy and more solid than with others.

Answering your question, I am from Brazil (married and father of a wonderful kid of 12 months and one week) and writing about the Brazilians in RAF Service (WW1 - one Project - and WW2 - a major work with already more than 1,600 written pages, covering 100+ biographies). Another Brazilian is writing about the Brazilians in Luftwaffe Service, 1939-45...it is known that some Brazilian born flew with the LW in WW2, like Egon Albrecht, Thiele, etc.

I was once, starting a good research about Nowotny, but gave up, even after contacting his brother and some former airmen of Kommando Nowotny.

Adriano B.

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Hi Guys and Teresa

The wives area is certainly another front for information. I have a book on Wolf-Udo Ettel, this is primarily filed with letters to his Mother I think. We are always told 124 victories for him, 121 in Russia and four in the west, but he writes after leaving Russia that he had 118 in Russia, and actually the mikrofilms have 118 for him in Russia!

With Nowotny and Rudorffer, both were making fraudulent claims, Nowotny almost obscenely. Many unpopular top scorers were such regarded, though there are some honest guys like Geißhardt also unpopular, don't know why, perhaps arrogance, I know Rudolf Klemm was not liked, not sure how his claiming was, but he always just looked after himself.

Kind Regards

Johannes

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

Dear Johannes,
As I've already told you before, I've found the following:
https://books.google.pl/books?id=449...0Weiss&f=false

Here, the authors say that all of Walter Nowotny's claims were verified, so I'm not really sure who I should believe.
Anyway, Walter was so handsome... maybe thay's why I have mainly positive feelings about him.:)

Re: Friedrich Rupp, Horst Hannig and Walter Nowotny
 

This time Waler Nowotny has been promoted to Pharaoh... ;-)