A ?? RE: Hans Naumann's vic list;

[NickM]

Guys:

Hans Naumann left II/JG26 when shot down in Normandy & injured while bailing out; IF my reading of my copy of the JG26 War Diary is correct he left with 28 victories to his credit...he was credited with 34 vics by war's end. Does anybody have info on the last 6 six vics he got?

thx

NM

[Tom Semenza]

Naumann was appointed Kommandeur of II./JG 6 on 1.09.44. Tony Wood has four claims for him with this unit:

07.09.44 Auster III
12.09.44 P-38
12.09.44 P-38
04.10.44 P-38

According to Obermeier in Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe Naumann was awarded the RK on 9.11.44 after his 32nd victory. I am assuming that the above claims are nos. 29-32. This leaves the last two unaccounted for. He was transferred to JG 7 on 30.03.45. So he may have claimed his last two with JG 6 in 1945 or with JG 7.

Regards,
Tom

[NickM]

Thanks THAT was quick! It seems Naumann flew pretty much the entire war in the West except for when he was injured;


NM

[Laurent Rizzotti]

JG 6 was transferred to the East front in January 1945, but in the most exhaustive victory list I know (that of Jim Perry) there is no JG 6 claim between 24 December 1944 (on the Western front) and ... 16 April 1945 (on the Eastern front).

I would be surprised that a full Geschwader scored no victory at all in three months. So it is also possible that Naumann scored his last victories against the Soviet Air Force after all.

Being transferred to JG 7 on 30 March 1945 means that he will have a month to travel to JG 7, train on the Me 262 and score his victories. Other pilots who received orders to transfer to JG 7 in April actually never reached it or flew with it, as shown by JG 26 Caldwell's books.

My own conclusion will be that is far more plausible that Naumann's two last victories were scored on the Eastern Front with JG 6 than with JG 7, the former unit having far less coverage by historians than the latter.