Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Found this excerpt in a book about a Medic In WWII during the invasion of Sicily. I believe this happened on July 12,1943. Any ideas as to the identity of the pilot?


"We dig in behind a four foot dirt parapet bordering the field. D-Day plus one [July 11,1943], and we had captured the Comiso airport.
Until late the next afternoon, German fighter planes coming down from Italy thought they'd be in for a nice, friendly reception. That first afternoon I watched as our fighter planes swooped down on three Germans and shot them down as neatly as in a movie.
One of the planes crash landed less than fifty yards in front of me. As its wheels touched the ground, it hit a hunk of wreckage from a bombing the day before. The pilot flew out of his cockpit and his parachute opened in a long trail behind him. He came to a sudden stop when his head hit the prop of another wrecked plane. I went to look after him. His brains were exposed . I figured him for dead but Lt. Ralph Barker said, "Check him, Doc, I think he's still alive." I checked his pulse and was surprised to find it was as strong as mine.
I didn't know what to do and was saved when our aid station jeep pulled up with Sternlieb, one of our two doctors. He said there was nothing we could do for the fellow; "Just make him comfortable." The guy was unconscious. How do I make him comfortable?
I cut away the pilot's flying togs to check for wounds and saw two very sturdy legs wearing gabardine shorts. He was a nice looking fellow. The ID papers in his wallet showed he was twenty three. There were photos-a family, maybe mother and father, two young girls, a few German coins, and several paper marks, postage stamps with Hitler's picture, two paper wrapped condoms and a map with a penciled map from northern Italy. The outside of his wallet was marked with the names of various large cities he'd been in. Comiso was still to be added. His pulse weakened and soon died away. So did he. This was the first man I'd watched die and I felt sorry for him."

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Hi

I think, Comiso was abandoned on 14. July 43 !

best wishes
JoMe

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Nearest I could find was three 109s of III/JG27 from Catania missing on the 16th Uffz Hacke missing to killed, Ofw Bauer missing-RTU, Uffz Scherber missing unknown cause and locations. The JG 27 Girbig book shows Uffz Gerhard Hacke 8/JG27 and Uffz Horst Scherber 7/JG27. If this date ties in then it would appear Uffz Hacke would be the strongest possibility.

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

I'm still thinking Comiso A/F was captured during the first two days after the Invasion.
Troy Middleton's biography has the following" "Americans were using the Comiso airfield the second day after the invasion." [eg, July 12,1943]
Biscari airfield was captured on July 14th.

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Hi,

Regarding the capture of Comiso airfield, from the Action Report Western Naval Task Force, 11 July 1943: "1555: Comiso airport in CENT area is reported captured by our forces." According to Bishop, Glasgow and Fisher, The Fighting Forty-Fifth, at 16:22 on 11 July 1943 a German aircraft took off from Comiso airfield as the 45th Infantry Division advanced to take it. So no doubt it was taken by the Americans on the afternoon of 11 July 1943.

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

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

IV/JG-3 lost four pilots during actions on July 12:
Lt. Fritz Voss- 11./JG-3- Bf109G-6-18285-Luftkampf
Uffz Adolf Jakubik-11./JG-3 Bf109G-6-18440- Luftkampf
Uffz Kurt Schmidt-11//JG-3-Bf109G-6-19894-Luftkampf

All of the three above were killed in Luftkampf/Augusta/Syracusa

Besides these three there was another pilot from 12/JG-3:
Lt. Rudolf Tenner-12./JG-3-Bf-109G-6-15537

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Perhaps a silly question: who of the German pilots was 23 years old on 12 July 1943 ? Somebody must have Namentliche Verlustmeldungen for these losses. That might help to solve the mystery. Who has the JG 3 volumes on his desk?

Best regards, Marcel

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Tried the Grave search site for the three JG 3 pilots only found Lt. Fritz Voss born 16-12-1922

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Well I took Priens books and found pretty much the same reasons as already stated in this thread. I could only find Lt. Voss on the VDK website, but he was born in 1922. The other 3 pilots are still mia. Nothing to find on VDK. Checked krackers website were they also mentioned as mia.
Kind regards,
Dirk

Re: Unknown Luftwaffe pilot-Comiso A/F J
 

Bump-Any thoughts. I'm going through MAW4 to see if i find any new vandidates