[Kapper]

Bogdan

In late May 1944 each of the Fighter Units on the Eastern Front were ordered to send 1 Staffel from each Gruppe to the west where they were attached to be Units already in the west. I, II,& III./JG 52 sent 2, 4 & 7 Staffel which were attached to III./JG11, II & III./JG3 respectively. When the Jagdgruppen were expanded from 3 Staffeln to 4 Staffeln Gruppen in mid-August 1944 these staffeln became the 4th staffeln to each Gruppen (note that the Channel Jagdgeschwader had already expanded to 4 staffel gruppen in October 43). To confuse the situation, in early June III./JG 11 transferred from the West to the East, thus 2./JG52 went back east and didn’t go the west until later in the year when III./JG11 returned to the West.

As to 4 & 7./JG52 who were attached to II & III./JG3, they went to fight over Normandy and suffered badly. Though technically still part of JG52 until mid August 1944 when they became 8 & 12./JG3 respectively, the losses seem to appear with the attached unit (JG 3).

Therefore

Fw Richard Osing 7./JG52 was KIA 28 July 1944

Uffz Walter Ehrhardt 4./JG52 was WIA 18 July 1944

Ofw Helmut Lidsche (mis-identified in the T Woods files) is actually Gefr Helmut Liebsch 2./JG52 (as identified in the book Geschichte eine Jagdgeschwader I./JG52) who was later WIA 21 September and 24 December 1944 with 12./JG11.

I’m not sure about Gefr Helmut Pruskowski but I believe he ended up in JG11 so must have transferred from 1./JG52 to 2./JG52 shortly before departure to JG11.

As to Uffz Vladimir Sandtner, this is a different story. Sandtner was one of the reinforcement pilots for 15 (Croat)./JG52 trained by the Germans (JG 104), however when he and some of his colleagues were transferred to JG52 in March 1944 they arrived on the Eastern Front after 15(Croat)./JG52 was already withdrawn back to Croatia. Instead of being sent immediately to 15./JG52 they were attached to other JG52 Staffeln (mostly in III./JG52) until they were released in July 1944 to return to Croatia. Sandtner deserted to Italy on 16 April 1945, thus survived the war.

Regards,

Craig…