eArticle available: 'The Life of Otto Kittel'

[Morten Jessen]

Hej all

The latest Air War Publications eArticle has been released - Evgeny Velichko’s biography of Jagdgeschwader 54’s leading ace, Otto Kittel. Evgeny has done some extensive research into Kittel’s life, and has produced a most interesting story.

The article begins with Kittel’s humble beginnings, and the very slow start he had to his career as a fighter pilot. It was only after he began flying the Focke-Wulf 190 in 1943 that his score began to mount rapidly. By early 1944 he had become a unit leader in the famous Grünherz Geschwader, and by the time of his death in mid-February 1945, was one of the highest scoring aces in the entire Luftwaffe. For several combats, Evgeny has matched up Otto Kittel’s victory claims with actual Soviet losses.

This 25-page eArticle is accompanied by 26 photographs, an overview map, two mission maps and three colour profiles.

Much more will be found about Otto Kittel in Andrew Arthy’s Air War Courland book, which is well on its way to being finished, and will be published by Air War Publications in the future. We hope that Evgeny’s eArticle gives a little taste of what is to come.

You can purchase and download the eArticle here: LINK

All the best
The Air War Publications Team

Air War Publications

[Maciej Góralczyk]

Interesting read, thank you. The ECPA photos of 'Yellow 1' are new to me.
One note about the Bf 109 F-2 'Black 10' - something that prevented us from profiling this aircraft in Luftwaffe Gallery Special JG 54 is that on better quality copies of the photo an emblem under the cockpit can be spotted: a kind of shield with something (a bird?) in the center. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any close up photo that would allow to determine what exactly is this.

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Great read indeed. A very small remark, the date of the loss of his Fw 190 A-4 is incorrect in Appendix I (the correct date is in the text).

[Morten Jessen]

Hej Maciej
Thanks for your positive words about the article. I am glad you like it!
Regarding shield/emblem 'Black 10' I had a discussion with Anders Hjortsberg and since we could not determine anything on the photo, Andrew and I decided not to make a speculative shield/emblem.

Hej Alfred
Thanks for your kind words and for spotting the date typo. It is now corrected.
I will email the customers who bought the article before the update with a new download link.

All the best
Morten

[Flavio]

Very interesting read, with two new photos of Kittel 109 "yellow 1". It appears however not the same plane of that on photo session of 15 August '44, where the "yellow 1" appeared with a dark color spinner. What do you think?

Regards
Flavio

[knusel]

Good afternoon Gentlemen,

I have purchased the article and am looking forward to working it through.
Peeping into the victory list it occurred to me that this claim is missing:
5,3.44 La-5 15km südwestlich Narwa
Has this one been found to be not valid ?

Cheers,

Michael

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the message, and we hope you enjoy the article. What is your source for the 5 March 1944 victory claim?

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

[knusel]

Good morning Andrew,

the source is an Otto Kittel victory list that I was endowed with by Johannes Mathews.

I wish you a good success with your publications, sincerely,

Michael

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for confirming your source. It looks like our victory claims source missed the five claims recorded by Luftflotte 1 on 5 March 1944, which included Otto Kittel's. Thanks for pointing out the omission.

Cheers,
Andrew A.
Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

[knusel]

Good evening Andrew,

that makes 265 kills. I suggest assuming that Otto Kittel's official score of 267 includes his two unconfirmed claims on 30.6.1941 (maybe confirmed later?) but not the claim on the day he died (because he didn't live to do the paperwork).

All the best to you and your projects,

Michael