KG 51 Me 262 Kills

[Roger Gaemperle]

Sylvester,

There has been a short discussion about him already:
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...ighlight=Lange

I own his Soldbuch, Wehrpass, flight log and Leistungsbuch and studied all documents carefully. Neither Leistungsbuch nor flight log mentions any shot down enemy aircraft, only that he was attacked by - I think I remember correctly - Spitfires and P-47s.

But his Wehrpass mentions the claims but without giving any specific date. It is stamped and signed by KG51 Adjutant. According to the Soldbuch and Wehrpass he was awarded also the DKiG and Knight Cross, again signed by the group adjutant using the same KG51 stamp. Lange does not appear in any list of DKiG and KC recipients. My conclusion is that just after the war, the adjutant of KG51 "improved" his Soldbuch and Wehrpass with entries that were not actually true. This happened in many cases.

As I also have the 1957 awards of Lange, I know that he got the Knight Cross in 1957 based on the Soldbuch and Wehrpass entries. So, they must have been done definately before 1957.

But he did fly about 15 missions with the Me 262 which is also confirmed by the original combat diary of KG51.

Regards
Roger Gaemperle