[Larry Hickey]

Matti,

Thanks. I agree that Uffz. Kurt Bubenhofer is probably the right man.

On another issue, normally during 1940 a front line fighter Staffel had four officers: two Oblt. and 2 Lt., although this varied all over the place depending on losses and transfers. This diary roster lists only two planes assigned to officers in 4 Staffel circa April or early May, 1940: Oblt. Josef Fözö, the StaKap, and Lt. Johann Böhm, the diary source. It is evident that Lt. Erich Hohagen was temporarily not present in the unit when this roster was drawn up, but was a third officer normally with the Staffel. So at the beginning of the WC, this gives us Fözö, Böhm and Hohagen. Do you or anyone else know who the 4th officer assigned to 4./JG51 would have been during the spring and into the summer of 1940, and continuing through the Battle of Britain? Almost certainly there would have been another one. Also, when Böhm was shot down and made a POW in England on 08.07.40, someone had to have replaced him. Who would that have been? Fw Heinrich Tornow apparently got promoted to Lt. sometime after mid-August and before mid-October, before his death on 29.10.40 (he is on the roster as a Fw), but this seems too late to be the 4th officer in the unit during the WC and early BoB, or be the replacement for Böhm, although the latter is certainly possible. No officer other than those mentioned above either scored victories or was lost from May through the end of 1940, so the mystery remains.

Who can help?

Regards,