[Gordon]

I am now working at our local air museum. Other than finding a live grenade a couple weeks ago, things are usually fairly quiet and I enjoy the work.

We had a stunning donation made last week - a WWII "Victory Stick", a walking stick that has a long list of inscriptions. The cane has several different aircraft types and illustrates a moderately successful career with scoring 23 victories, beginning a week into Barbarossa and ending with a pair of Mustangs on 12 March 1945. The stick has a turned knob and is capped with a 20mm cannon shell on the ground end. Each of the kills is painted on with a star, cockade, etc., the date, and aircraft type with each of the kills separated by a ring cut from a 20mm shell which may come from each particular fight.

According to the donor, he met a Dutch collaborator postwar that was eager to escape her home country to put her persecution behind her. Of her few possessions, the only thing of value was her former boyfriend's victory stick. The Luftwaffe pilot died over France in the last month of the war, but the donor had no other information about him. I believe his Abschuss claims should be enough to identify the pilot. Any help appreciated.


Here are the victories as listed on the stick:

Type Country Date
I-16 Russia 28.6.1941
SB-2 Russia 15.9.1941
PE-2 Russia 23.9.1941
?-160 Russia 4.10.1941
Beaufort UK 17.5.1942
Beaufort UK 17.5.1942
PE-2 Russia 30.3.1943
Liberator USA 18.11.1943
Airacobra Russia 27.9.1944
Boston Russia 27.9.1944
Boston Russia 9.10.1944
Boston Russia 9.10.1944
IL-2 Russia 9.10.1944
Airacobra Russia 12.10.1944
Airacobra Russia 16.10.1944
Jak-9 Russia 16.10.1944
Airacobra Russia 22.10.1944
Airacobra Russia 22.10.1944
Mosquito RAF 26.12.1944
Mosquito RAF 26.12.1944
Liberator USA 19.??.1945
Mustang USA 12.3.1945
Mustang USA 12.3.1945


If anyone has an idea how to proceed, I would very much like to
discover the identity of the German pilot who owned / earned this
"Victory Stick". From the provenance and the materials used, I
believe it is genuine. Our museum intends to place it on display
immediately.

JG 5 slaughtered a formation of Beauforts on the day mentioned - Leutnant Hans-Hermann Mueller shot down two that day. Trying to equate the rest of the list to that particular pilot has proven difficult, but the Liberator in November 1943 equates to one he destroyed while flying a dangerous daylight mission with NJG 3. No other pilot matches these two combat successes, and he remains my only candidate so far. From what I have been able to find, Mueller at times went by Hermann, other times by Hans, or Hans-Hermann.


v/r Gordon
PS, Erich, are you out there? Write me please - on a new computer and I don't have access to your email address.