Siegfried Freytag's 1./JG-77- Shot down over Malta

[kaki3152]

In Christpher Shore's "Spitfire Over Malta", Siegfried Freytag is said to have crashed into the Med on July 27,1942, He was rescued by German ASR (Do-24),while the British rescue vessel H-128 was approaching him.

He is quoted as saying:"I was pulled out of the water close to Valleta harbour just as the British rescue launches were coming up"

He was Kapitan of 1,/JG-77 Staffel at this time.

In the new Jadgfliegerverbande edition "/II-Einsatz in Mittelmeerraum
November 1941 bis Dezember 1942". No mention is made of any 1./JG-77 casualty on July 27 (There is a 3./JG-77 casualty, Notlandung at Comiso)
but in the text there is a passage remarking that a pilot of 1. Staffel had good luck on July 25th and was rescued by Seenotdienst after a parachute landing .

Was this Oblt. Freytag? This is not included in the I/JG-77 Verluste list that follows the text (p. 302) in Prien's book. There is a mention of
Ofw Kurt Goerbring (2./JG-77) making a "Notwasserung vor Sizilien"
on July 25th in the Verluste column. Is this the casualty refered to in the text and the 1. Staffel reference merely a misprint?

[Jochen Prien]

This is a simple typo from my part - the pilot whose a/c crashed into the sea on July 25th, 1942 was Obfw. Kurt Görbing of 2./JG 77 as is evidenced by the diary of Uffz. Horst Schlick. So please correct the text on page 273 to a pilot of 2nd Staffel, who ... Please note also that the pilot did not come down by parachute but had to ditch his a/c and - according to Schlick's diary - was able to swim to the shore as was already shown in JG 77 Vol. 3, page 1249.

These - typing - errors are seemingly inevitable even though three and some times four different people are proof reading on our side. I apologize for this but cannot promise that it won't happen again. I'm always grateful for any correction or hint at discrepancies that have been overseen on our side.

Regards

Jochen Prien

[kaki3152]

Dr. Prien,



Thank you for your clarification.

Do you have any idea if Siegfried Freytag was shot down in his flightsagainst Malta? Just looking at the Verluste listing does not isolate any incident that would correspond to his being shot down.
Is the quote in Shores's "Spitfire over Malta" in error?

Thanks for any information, I've always been interested in Siegfried Freytag's life, including his post war career in the French Foreign Legion.

[Jochen Prien]

Unfortunately most of Siegfried Freytag's exploits during the summer and fall of 1942 are pretty much shrouded in mystery; what we know has been laid out in the unit history of JG 77, Vol.3 and - in short form - in the current JFV series.

I have no idea where Christopher shores got the information of Siegfried Freytag's ditching in the Mediterrannean in July 1942; this of course doesn't mean that it couldn't have happened but I have no source at all supporting this story.

Regards

Jochen Prien

[Stig Jarlevik]

Dear Jochen

From the Intro and Acknowledgement section of the book Malta the Spitfire years, it is obvious that most of the German data has come from the researches of Winfried Bock and also Hans Ring who "provided the vast majority of the Luftwaffe material in the book".

Obviously the three authors, Shores, Cull and Malizia has relied on their information and don't quote any first hand German sources.

What is interesting is that we do have a quote from Freytag's lipps so to speak, and I suppose there is a great possibillity that one of the German gentlemen had actually interviewed Freytag, unless of course the latter has written some kind of statement himself postwar, which I don't know....

Cheers
Stig

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, guys.

Do not want to 'add to the confusion', but I do believe we have to go through what we have for these dates:

I./J.G.77 as Gruppe lost a total of

25.7. 2 aircraft

http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_loss_pub...?lossid=107779

http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_loss_pub...?lossid=107780

and

27.7. 1 aircraft

http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_loss_pub...?lossid=107781

The pilot of the last aircraft is not identified, and could have been Freytag, flying a 3. Staffel aircraft, or it could have been someone else (and unless we find something further we will probably never know for sure....).

It is of course also possible that the loss referred to as being Freytag happened another date (month...) entirely, but the loss record fit quite nicely with the story attributed to Freytag. It does seem however that the above mentioned references should be annoted by the owners until revised. Thanks for the heads up on the typo mr. Prien, and we of course understand that it is virtually impossible not to make a few in all those pages!

Regards,
Andreas

[bert68]

Hi everybody.
New on this forum, I shouldn't take the trail of such an "old" thread, but this story seems really interesting! I understand we're not close to know what really happened, since specialized people like you are do not have sufficient data to know the truth...
What is interesting is the fact that George Beurling did shot a lot of italian and german aircraft that particular day of July the 27th, and if the story of Freytag could have been true, he too could have been a victim of Beurling destructions...

I guess the "testimony" of Freytag is what we can read in Steinhoff's book, and I'm not sure we can rely on such a second hand account. Freytag is also supposed to have been shot ad MIA the 10th of July 1943 in the book, even though that is not what happened. And one in the book, Freytag said he had been shot down in Tunisia, which does not seem to be true either...I guess Steinhoff didn't want to write a realistic account.

Then, this story about Freytag is true or not, like the one when he is supposed to have been shot by flak in April 24 1941 over Athens, then escape the british while in an hospital...

Unfortunately, Freytag died in 2003, and I guess he told nobody about his history...

[bert68]

And I'd add that Steinhoff explained something about the way german pilots could make it back to Sicily in 42 when they had aircraft troubles. It seems that they would bring their aircraft bak close to the shore, then crash landed it on the sea in front of the beach in order to make the aircraft skid right through the beach...pretty risky business...This could have been the way the A/C of 25 of july would have make it to Comiso...

[RT]

One solution remains is that the loss was not noted, for one reason or another, on 27.July JG77+JG53 cover an action of the II.KG77 against Takali start at 07h++ the brits claimed 4 Bf109 we hv 2 from the JG53+the one of the 3.JG77 +...Freytag

Remi

[bert68]

You could be right. It seems that such a story was "confirmed" by Mr Freytag himself, as the story of his escape from Athens hospital or his first victory in Norway.