unidentified pilot of 7./JG 11 "Raisinger"?
 

Hi Guys

I have an unidentified pilot with 7./JG 11 I hope somebody can help me with. He made two claims with this unit as an unteroffizier:-

16th August 1944 1428 hrs Jak-9 at 100 metres altitude.
17th August 1944 0555 hrs Il-2 at 50-70 metres altitude.

Unfortunately this is exactly at the time when 4./JG11 was re-designated 7./JG 11, and 7./JG 11 was re-designated 10./JG 11. The handwriting on the micro films is usually not clear for reading accurately and his surname could be "Kaisinger" "Kailinger" "Railinger" or the one that makes sense is "Raisinger" he made no further claims with this unit, and probably no previous claims with other units, I am 99% sure it's not Uffz Pfaffinger of 7./JG11/10./JG 11 and I can find no near-match name in JG 11's losses.

Can anybody please other a name.

Kind Regards

Johannes

Re: unidentified pilot of 7./JG 11 "Raisinger"?
 

Johannes

I'm not sure from your post whether you are confused as to which unit this 'Raisinger' belongs to - 4/7 JG 11 or 7/10 JG 11? If there is no confusion then please ignore this - if there is, then I believe it should be 7/10 JG11 as detailed below.

In June 44 III/JG11 (7,8 and 9 Staffels) was transferred to the Eastern Front while the rest of JG11 remained in the West. At some point just prior or during the transfer 2/JG 52 joined III gruppe as a fourth staffel to become 10/JG11. In late August - early September 44 III/JG 11 returned to the west. It appears that the redesignation (7 -> 10, 8 ->11, 9 remained same, 10 -> 12) didn't occur until the unit left the east sometime after the official redesignation occurred on paper, thus the confusion. Since III Gruppe were the only JG11 units in the east at the time and the claims are Russian aircraft this suggests that the pilot belonged to III Gruppe. Furthermore, the other claimants of Russian aircraft for 7/JG 11 for 16th and 17th August - Lt Walter Jahnke and Uffz Alfred semisch both belonged to 7/10 JG 11 which seems to support that 'Raisinger' belonged to 7/10 JG 11. Thus my belief 7/10 JG 11 because 4/7 JG 11 (II Gruppe) remained in the west.

Question - you state that you are 99% sure that it is not Pfaffinger, is this based on the name as interpreted in the files? if so, do you have a scan of the entry that can be viewed? I think it still could be Pfaffinger, because he is the only known pilot that I have listed in 7/10 JG 11 whose name could be close to Raisinger. Furthermore in Prein's JG11 works the author states that Pfaffinger made 3 claims in the east during this period (Jun-Aug 1944) - dates unknown - this could be 2 of them.

If you already knew all this, my apologies, if not - hope it helps


Regards,

Craig...

Re: unidentified pilot of 7./JG 11 "Raisinger"?
 

Hallo again Graig

I did see Prien's entry about Pfaffinger in his JG1/JG11 book, but the Staffel number was wrong to start, also though his understanding of this unit in the East at this time is good, his actual knowledge of who claimed what when is actually one of his poorer pieces of knowledge. I suspect that a re-work of his JG1/JG11 books by himself would be a far more accurate view. These units for some reason also didn't start making daily micro film entries until about a year after most units(summer 1943), thus somewhere yet undiscovered, or lost forever are the micro films dealing with the earlier (pre-daily) claims by Staffel.

But I will look at it once again, I cannot show you the entry, but I'll try to do a hand written copy and e.mail it to you.

Kind Regards

Johannes