KG 51 Me 262 Kills

[Sylvester Stadler]

There is an article in FlyPast, August 2003, entitled "From Heinkel to 'Storm Bird'" regarding the career of bomber pilot Hubert Lange, I./KG 51. According to the author, Hartmut Feldmann, Lange scored the following kills:

When Lange was employed by Messerschmitt, he intercepted a P-38 at end of 1944 which broke apart in mid-air.

On Jan. 29, 1945 he attacked and shot down P-47 over Alsace.

On Feb. 2, 1945 he shot down an already-damaged B-24 south of Rheine.

On Feb. 21 he shot down P-47 near Emmerich.

On March 13 he attacked four P-47s over railroad tracks between Dorsten and Rheine, downing one and hitting another.

The article states he downed five Allied aircraft.

I cannot find his name in the history of KG 51 by Wolfgang Dierich, nor in any published literature on the Me 262 to corroborate these claims.

[WEISNER]

Nothing found here either as far as confirmed victories, see link. http://users.accesscomm.ca/magnusfamily/ww2ger.htm Let us know if anything is found by you Sylvester?
I also looked at Kacha's page http://www.luftwaffe.cz/ and zip there. perhaps since at the time, Lange was a Messerschmitt factory test pilot... none of his claims were submitted? seems he would like to be awarded the Iron Cross for these though?
Perhaps a member that knows of his service with 1./KG 51 may know a little more about this Pilot, Or a member with a list of the Iron cross winners???? Or? Does it smell of another Dulias?
Perhaps these were never submitted for claims?
Kevin

[Roger Gaemperle]

Sylvester,

There has been a short discussion about him already:
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...ighlight=Lange

I own his Soldbuch, Wehrpass, flight log and Leistungsbuch and studied all documents carefully. Neither Leistungsbuch nor flight log mentions any shot down enemy aircraft, only that he was attacked by - I think I remember correctly - Spitfires and P-47s.

But his Wehrpass mentions the claims but without giving any specific date. It is stamped and signed by KG51 Adjutant. According to the Soldbuch and Wehrpass he was awarded also the DKiG and Knight Cross, again signed by the group adjutant using the same KG51 stamp. Lange does not appear in any list of DKiG and KC recipients. My conclusion is that just after the war, the adjutant of KG51 "improved" his Soldbuch and Wehrpass with entries that were not actually true. This happened in many cases.

As I also have the 1957 awards of Lange, I know that he got the Knight Cross in 1957 based on the Soldbuch and Wehrpass entries. So, they must have been done definately before 1957.

But he did fly about 15 missions with the Me 262 which is also confirmed by the original combat diary of KG51.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle