JG76 end of war

[Stephane Muret]

I'm looking for informations about JG 76 at the end of war. Is there any book about this unit ? Any veteran association ?
I'm interested about any info about the following pilots fate :

Fw. Buchberger, Ofw. Bärcer, Hptm. Marz.

Thank you for any help.

Stéphane Muret

[FalkeEins]

Gruppen of JG 76 were re-designated during Sept & Oct 44. See here http://www.ww2.dk/air/jagd/jg76.htm

the best published coverage is that accorded I./JG 76 which became IV./JG 300.

[cproyston]

As M.Holms excellent site shows, Stab./JG76 were effectively in control of I./JG53, II./JG52, II./JG51 and (Hungarian) ung. JGr.101, 'til war's end.

Elements of this "composite" unit surrendered at, among other locations, Ainring and, more famously, Neubiberg.

Chris

[Eagle0025]

I too am seeking detailed information about JG76, in particular III./JG76, because of a large dogfight they were in with P-38s of the 474th FG on 25 Aug 44. III./JG 76 was a very short-lived outfit. The group was created in May 1944 by retraining ex-RVT Bf110 pilots to become Bf109 pilots to supplement rapidly depleting fighter forces in Northern France. The group did not have much success, suffered terrible losses (at least 21 losses in the aforementioned 25 Aug 44 fight) and were eventually absorbed into JG53 as IV./JG53 on 25 Oct 44. There is an excellent article about the group in a magazine called Jet & Prop, May 1991 issue. There is also some information on them in the excellent book on the history of JG53 by Jochen Prien. Unfortunately, these are the only two pieces of documentation that I have been able to locate.

I checked on Buchberger, Barcer, and Marz. I did find a reference to a Obfw. Buchberger in Prien's book. It shows he was a member of II./JG53 and later IV.JG53. He could have been one of the few surviving pilots that transferred from JG76. It shows Buchberger was lost in a morning dogfight with P-51s shortly after taking off from Stuttgart-Echterdingen on 23 March 45. Buchberger was a Schwarmfuhrer at that time. I could find nothing on Barcer or Marz. Hope this helps.

Cheers, Gary Koch (474th FG Association Historian)

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, Gary

Interesting reading.

Is it possible for you to list these losses by III./J.G.76 on this day?

I have the following for enemy inflicted losses in the unit on this day:

4 aircraft missing, 13 total losses (damage above 50%) and 1 damaged (damage below 50%).

4 pilots missing (no officers), 6 pilots killed (2 officers), 2 pilots wounded (1 officer).

This would indicate a real loss for the unit of 18 aircraft, of these 10 pilots would be missing or killed, 2 wounded and 6 would have survived the battle although their aircraft would have been damaged.

I have not counted one aircraft that is listed as damaged withouth enemy action, the category is usually used for aircraft damaged or lost in take-off and landing accidents and so on.

This would also mean that researching the WASt should give us details for 12 of these losses, as personnel injury was inflicted.

I had kind of hoped that you and/or the society already did this and could share the information with me.

Regards,
Andreas Brekken

[Stephane Muret]

Thank you , this gives me first help !
Gary, i suppose the dog fight you're talking about was against 367 th FG ? I'm going to look in my files because i've searched few years before about this fact.
German pilots i've mentionned were involved in a dog fight over my area and according to Tony Wood's claim list, they asked for one P47 (wich is right, i found the US fighter crash site and pilot).

Again thank you all of you.
Stéphane