One Loss at Eastern Front Werknummer 10438

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, guys.

Something definitely happened in this unit around this time.

I am not an expert on JG 54 or their operational history, but it is clear to me that something happened around September 1942 that affected their reporting to the GenQu. Note the long timespan from date fo the accident until date of the report, for Wübke about a half year!!

I have made available data from additional entries of the Summarische Verlustemeldungen from the unit, pls see the following screenshots:

Summarische Verluste Personal

Summarische Verluste Flugzeuge


Thus in my opinion, we should be vary careful and not take the reports for this period as 'the truth', and mark the corresponding entries in our databases and documents as 'questionable'.

As both Ostermann and Wübke was unit leaders, the fact that both were out of commission after these dates, this might explain the 'errors' in the reporting if they in fact themselves used to file the reports to the Gruppenkommandeur. It also looks like Arnold Lignitz left the unit late September (I haven't checked how he did this.... transferred or WIA/KIA), but the arrival of a new Gruppenkommandeur and loss of several unit leaders could explain the 'mess' they made of their reporting at the time.

The losses we are talking about are listed here:

09.08.1942 WNr 10434
09.09.1942 WNr 10438
15.01.1943 WNr 10423
15.01.1943 WNr 10438



If anyone of You have NVM's from the unit during this period, it would be interesting to know who signed them!


Regards,
Andreas