Ludwig Nitsch 38 "kills"...?

[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Interesting story. I am quite sure that he would not escape my research, but has. All claims would have to have been made December 1944 to May 1945 to escape me(or have been with other units), and that would mean he would have been the second highest scoring pilot behind Gunther Josten during this period! Yet we are told he was on the Eastern front(presumably with JG 54) for three years. He does appear in the losses for 1./JG 54 for 8th May 1945 as an unteroffizier as Ludwig Nitsch, so it can't be a case of a name change. Also he'd have to be a extremely poor pilot to have spent thirty months on the Eastern front with no claims at all!!!, moreover he doesn't appear in the losses of JG 54 before the last day of the war, again very,very unusual.

Guess we need to keep digging.

Johannes

[sveahk]

Here we have another puzzle piece in the Luftwaffe life of Ludwig Nitsch - obviously he flew with these units(thanks Mikael O.):

1.FFS A 10
2.from 24 april 1944 with I./JG 108 (2. Staffel)
3.and from 6 january 1945 with I./JG 54 (3. Staffel)

Furthermore...in the book "Schutzlos in Schweden" from 1995, written by Enar Runsteen(=Helmut Schulze), Ludwig Nitsch tells his life story - but only from 8.5.1945 and onwards. He uses the alias Ludwig Niemen in the book, recalls his flight from Kurland, crashlanding in Sweden, meeting his future wife, his internment in Backamo and his adventurous escapes, until he could settle down in Sweden. Eighteen quite exciting pages!

And there he mentions in the beginning of his story the shooting down of a Russian "Type P 2", but nothing more - actually otherwise almost nil about his time in the Luftwaffe.

Also, in an interview, his son doesn't recall ever hearing anything about "38" of anything.

So, in the end, what do we have - a mix-up of persons...?

Regards

Hans K

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hans

I have my own theory about how these 38 'claims' came about. Nothing exiting just a human reflection on why people tell white lies, not knowing or realizing they will pop up in historical circumstances later.

In 1945 he was quite young (18 years sounds a little too young but may perhaps indicate when he joined the Luftwaffe?). A little odd he stayed for 8 months with an advanced fighter pilot school like JG 108 and never filtered through any of the Ergänzungsunits available or sent quicker to a frontline unit, who were constantly screaming for more pilots, which may indicate he was not the "born" fighter type. Anyway the reputed three claims for B-17s must have been made while with this unit since there is no way they can have been scored with JG 54. Somehow they feel very unlikely to have happened.

He must anyway have been a very inexperienced pilot when arriving to JG 54. It feels extremely unlikely that this youngster would all of a sudden start to outshine the 'veterans'. He may have made a few claims, but going from nothing to suddenly make an average claim of some 3-4 per week is at least to me simply not believable.

I suggest you contact Andrew Arthy (send him a PM) and ask if he has got anything on Nitsch. He is deep into research with regard to the Kurland/Courland pocket.

Cheers
Stig

[Andrei Demjanko]

Very interesting thread! I can add that JG 54 claimed quite a number of victories on several days in 1945. These are not mentioned in any known [to me] claim lists. For example:
17 February 1945 - 15 victory claims
21 February 1945 - 25 victory claims
There were also days when no operations were flown at all.
So it is quite possible that Nitsch could claim a number of victories.

[sveahk]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

In 1945 he was quite young (18 years sounds a little too young but may perhaps indicate when he joined the Luftwaffe?).
Cheers
Stig

According to the Swedish "Centralregistret", naming all the German POWs in Sweden, Ludwig Nitsch was born in Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim 20 June 1920.

Regards Hans K

[sveahk]

Obviously there's a swedish book about the FW 190 Nitsch flew to Sweden - and now restored has returned to Sweden. If I have understood it right, two of the pilots who flew this specific plane during the war, Franz Eisenach and "our" Ludwig Nitsch, are portrayed in the book.

It's called "En svensk Focke-Wulf 190 : En dramatisk svensk-tysk flyghistoria" (A swedish Focke-Wulf 190: A dramatic swedish-german flight history) and is written by Christer Bergström.

I haven't read the book but would be most interested to hear if somebody has - and especially if Nitschs "38 kills" are mentioned in the book...!?

https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/en-s...-flyghistoria/

[Stig Jarlevik]

Published three months ago....

No I have not bought it either.

Cheers
Stig

[Christer Engdahl]

Originally Posted by sveahk

Obviously there's a swedish book about the FW 190 Nitsch flew to Sweden - and now restored has returned to Sweden.

As I understand it, the original "Nitsch Fw-190" was returned to Russia a while after the wars end. The one which recently "returned" to Sweden is a new build by FlugWerk which has been painted to represent the "Nitsch Fw-190".

[Mikael Olrog]

Just ordered the book to see how it handles the issue of the 38 victories.

The aircraft is said to contain parts of Nitsches Fw 190 that was left behind in Sweden. But I guess the story will be told in the book! :-)

[Nick Hector]

Originally Posted by Johannes

Hi Guys

Interesting story. I am quite sure that he would not escape my research, but has. All claims would have to have been made December 1944 to May 1945 to escape me(or have been with other units), and that would mean he would have been the second highest scoring pilot behind Gunther Josten during this period! Yet we are told he was on the Eastern front(presumably with JG 54) for three years. He does appear in the losses for 1./JG 54 for 8th May 1945 as an unteroffizier as Ludwig Nitsch, so it can't be a case of a name change. Also he'd have to be a extremely poor pilot to have spent thirty months on the Eastern front with no claims at all!!!, moreover he doesn't appear in the losses of JG 54 before the last day of the war, again very,very unusual.

Guess we need to keep digging.

Johannes

Johannes, if it helps: one of Christer Bergstroem's books mentions him and that he achieved a couple of victories as late as early May 1945