I/JG54 location February 1944

I'm trying to establish when was the I/JG54 transfered from Belorussia to Rakvere (Wesenberg) in Estonia.

Michael Holm's site ( http://ww2.dk/air/jagd/jg54.htm ) says that it happened in January but it seems to be a mistake. Here are my reasons:
1) During the first half of February there is very little German fighter presence in North-Eastern Estonia (the Narva front)
2) Tony Wood's claim list indicates that until 12 February I/JG54 is claiming victories in Planquadrats which surely are not near Estonia but rather in Belorussia.

The first victory claims in Planquadrats in Estonia are from 18 February.

However 16 February there are three claims in rather strange Planquadrats:
Ofw. Fritz Tegtmeier 1./JG 54 Yak-9 75 842 at 3.500 m. 11.10
Fw. Helmut Missner 3./JG 54 LaGG-3 53 411 at 3.000 m. 14.20
Uffz. Otto Venjakob 3./JG 54 LaGG-3 40 832 at 3.000 m. 14.21

They are strange because they all seem to be somewhere in the rear area of Belorussia and Ukraine and secondly all three coordinates are located far away from each other.

Can somebody add more details about the claims on 16 February? Are the coordinates in Tony Wood's list correct or not? It would help to determine if I./JG54 was actually in Wesenberg/Rakvere by 16 February or not.

One more thing:
Luftflotte 1 Luftlagemeldung einschl. Flak Div.Meldung 16.2. und 16./17.2.44 claims that during 16 February German fighters shot down 8 enemy planes.

However if look Tony Wood's list then only 5 claims by II./J.G.5 can be identified in Luftflotte 1 area. However if we add I./J.G.54 three claims with strange coordinates, then we will get 8 claims.

[Kari Lumppio]

Tere!

Luftlagemeldung from Luftflotte 1 for February 16th, 1944 has:

"Tageseinsatz der Jäger: 41
nördl. Ilmensee: 41"

All fighter sorties North of Lake Ilmajärvi (Ilmensee).

"Jäger: 8 Feindlflugzeuge nördl. Ilmensee abgeschossen"

Might have been IV/JG54 from Pihkva (Pskov)? Though I believe that I/JG 54 did indeed have some fighters at Rakvere (Wesenberg) during January.

Flying weather was bad for much of the early 1944. The apparent inactivity may also be because JG 54 fighters acted as cover for Stukas and Jabos and not free hunting? From the Luftmeldung numbers the daily fighter operations are mostly (or all) North of Ilmensee for early Feburary (quick look).

BTW Rodeike's Fw 190 -book ( http://luftwaffereviews.blogspot.fi/2008/08/focke-wulf-jagdflugzeug-fw-190-fw-190.html ) does have one photo of JG 54 Fw 190s at Rakvere and by the look it is quite cold day. In any case it is early winter 1944.


Edit Seems you have the meldungen already. And II/JG 5 was at Pskov then, too.

Cheers,
Kari

Terve,

Thanks for the photo hint.

There seems to be no problems with 1 February. All of the 18th Army's front was still North of Ilmen. According to Tony Wood all claims on this day are by II./J.G.5 and the coordinates show the area East of Luga and East of Idriza.

[andrus]

Hello,

almost year is passed, is now something more known about locations for these claims?

However 16 February there are three claims in rather strange Planquadrats:
Ofw. Fritz Tegtmeier 1./JG 54 Yak-9 75 842 at 3.500 m. 11.10
Fw. Helmut Missner 3./JG 54 LaGG-3 53 411 at 3.000 m. 14.20
Uffz. Otto Venjakob 3./JG 54 LaGG-3 40 832 at 3.000 m. 14.21

Does somebody have "Luftwaffe Aces – Biographies and Victory Claims" by Johannes Matthews and John Foreman? What these authors say about locations for these three claims?