Egon Troha, Stkpt. 9. JG 3

[VtwinVince]

Just trying to clear up some confusion regarding the identity of this officer's ME 109, in which he was shot down and captured on October 29, 1940. According to After the Battle, Troha was flying 5+1 during his final combat, yet Foreign Fields of the Luftwaffe says he "inherited" Yellow 13 from his predecessor, Hauptmann Dr. Albrecht Ochs. Also, in Mombeek's book Jagdwaffe Volume 2 Section 3 there is a colour profile of Troha's plane, showing it as 5+1, but recounting Troha's assertions that the markings and kill tallies were those of another pilot. I'm wondering if in fact this aircraft was the one flown by Dr. Ochs, not Yellow 13. Any help of course greatly appreciated.

[Jon]

Hello.
I am fortunate to own the Schwimmveste removed from Oblt Achleitner when he was shot down and captured on 24th August 1940. Through this site last year i got in contact with a man who is still friends with Egon Troha , he was flying with Achleitner when he was shot down and we swapped some information.

Achleitner was not flying his own 109 when he was shot down.

The 109 Troha was flying on Oct 29th was infact Achleitners. This is the information direct from Egon Troha himself.

Achleitner had five kills marked on the rudder of his aircraft


hope this helps.
Jon

[Dave Wadman]

Vince,
I can confirm what Jon has said because when Martin Pegg & I selected the machine flown by Troha on 25/9/40 as a profile for our Jagdwaffe B of B 2/3 we had access to a number of sources regarding both Troha and Yellow 5 from which we drew the information for both the profile & caption.

Two such sources were based on the Crashed Enemy Aircraft Report and his interrogation reports from which the fundamental points were compiled as shown here below (note text in bold type):

"29/10/40 Bf 109E-3, coded Yellow 5 outlined black, cross, vertical bar, flown by Oblt. Egon Troha. West Court Farm at 1715 hrs. Nose was yellow and showed a red seahorse on a blue shield outlined yellow with white waves. 9./JG 3. Started 1700 hrs on a freelance patrol. The Staffel was flying at 26,000 feet and had prepared to attack a squadron of Spitfires below them. During the attack, P/W thought he was protected from his rear by his Rottenhund but a Spitfire got on his tail and his aircraft was shot through the radiator. He landed in this aircraft which was only slightly damaged. P/W stated this was not his aircraft and apart from the seahorse, which was their Staffel crest, all the decorations on the aircraft were purely personal ones of the its usual pilot, whose name he refused to disclose. On both sides of the nose there was a black double-edged battleaxe on a white field. On the starboard side there was the word Erika near the shield. There was six victory stripes on the tail, two of these with RAF roundels. Between two of the stripes was painted a black top hat inside a red gunsight ring. Pilot has breviously served with the Austrian Air Force until the Anschluss, when he transferred to the GAF. Unwounded, EK II."


HTH

Regards
Dave Wadman

[Dave Wadman]

Oops - forgot to include in my previous post that amongst our sources we also had material that identified the machine as having been the usual mount of Achleitner.

Dave

[VtwinVince]

Thanks gentlemen, for this information. Jon, Achleitner was my uncle's wingman during the Battle, and I was in the process of getting information from him when he suddenly died some years ago. I've tried to get into contact with Troha over the past few years, as I had contact with him awhile ago, but with no luck. If you can confirm that he is still alive, please PM me.

[Jon]

Hi Vince

I have left you another message with the details you are after.

Also email me direct on my address on the message and i will send over pictures of the vest.

Talk soon
Regards

Jon