Fighter Aces 1940

[Chris Goss]

A Luftwaffe communique dated 28 Aug 40 listed a number of top scoring aces. Some are obvious but those who are not are:

Lt Manhard 9 kills
Fw Behr 7 kills
Oblt Stange 6 kills
Oblt Schultze 6 kills
Oblt Blanck 6 kills

Any ideas? Is Manhard from ZG 76? Is Stange Anton Stangl of JG 54 and Schutze and Blanck 'Schubla' Schultze-Blanck of JG 53 (although he only had 4)?

[NagaSadow]

Hello!

I would assume that Oblt Stange is Wilhelm Stange of JG 3.
It's a longshot but could Schultze perhaps be Hans-Georg Schulte of JG 53?

[Frans A]

Chris,
I have the following data:
Lt. Walter Manhart, 6./ZG 76 POW 40-09-03 Maldon (UK)
Fw. Ernst Behr, 1./JG 77 KIA 43-05-08 Near Malta
Oblt. Wilhelm Stange, 8./JG 3 KIA 41-06-22 Drogobucz (R)
Frans A

[Chris Goss]

Frans/anyone else

How many kills did Manhart have?
I can see no Behr with JG 51 or JG 77 in 1940 and in any case, if he was a Fw in 1940, it is unlikely that he was still an Fw 2 years later?
Willy Stange did not score his 7th kill until 7 Sep 40??

[Don Pearson]

Stange is listed here with 6 on 29.8.40

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.u...p?PilotID=3950

Don

[Chris Goss]

Agreed but that was the day after the communique (unless they were jumping the gun!)

[NagaSadow]

Another longshot but phonetically Behr in German is nearly identical to Bär/Baer, so Behr could be Heinz Bär who coincidentally was a Feldwebel and claimed his 7th victory on the 29th August aswell.

[Nick Hector]

For more on Peter Manhard, see the Steinhilper books. He settled in the US and married a Naval Officer.

Schultze 6 kills
Blanck 6 kills

= Guenther Schulze-Blanck of JG 53?