LW Ace PoW from BoB ‘Exchanged’ in 1943 –becomes a Bomber Killer!!!

[Tom Semenza]

According to Prien et al. in their history of I./JG 27 Blume was with I./JG 300 in August 1943 before being posted to I./JG 27 at the beginning of 1944. He was appointed Staffelkapitän of 3./JG 27 on 22 Feb. 44. On 3 Apr. 44 he was made acting Kommandeur of I./JG 27. Sometime toward the end of April Blume was transferred to the Verbandsführerschule (VFS)which operated with I./JG 27. On 29 May 44 he was appointed Kommandeur of I./JG 27 but on 12 June 44 was again transferred to the VFS (or Stab/JG 26, contradictory info here.) This is the last mention I can find of him.

Although in their history of JG 27 Ring & Girbig list Blume with 14 victories, including 5 with JG 27 and a total of 8 4-mots, Prien lists only 4 claims for 4-mots in April 44, two of which were "engültige Vernichtungen" (final destruction.) So that would give him a total 8 or 10 depending on whether or not you count the e.V. claims; unless someone has better info.

Tom