Information about Hugo Kessler, JV44

[Elmar64]

Dear forum members,
I am trying to gather information about my father Hugo Kessler, who somehow flew with Adolf Galland in the last days of WWII.
He is been mentioned in one of the books about the ME 262 and JV44 (The Me 262 Stormbird: From the Pilots Who Flew, Fought, and Survived It
Heaton, Colin D.) telling that he flew together with Lutzow in a Fieseler Storch towards Gem Eisenhower in order to negotiate the special surrender of JV44. But they got shot down and the message never got through.
We had a lot of ME262 stuff at home when I was a kid and I kind of remembered that Adolf Galland at least once has visited our house but I was pretty young and war - stories were not particularly popular in the 50s and 60s in Germany.
Any help where to find information is really appreciated

[VtwinVince]

Very interesting, do you still have any of these relics?

[Nick Beale]

There are two books by Robert Forsyth on JV 44 and both mention your father:

JV 44: The Galland Circus (Classic Publications, 1996)

Jagdverband 44: Squadron of Experten (Osprey, 2008)

The first of these is by far the larger book but it is long out of print and copies command a very high price.

[Jan Bobek]

Hi, JV 44´s Wilhelm Herget was shot down and captured in Storch en route to Americans, not Lützow.
Otherwise real story. JV 44 was supposed to surrender to US forces completely including ground personnel and maintenance equipment.

[Johannes]

Hi

Yes, Lützow was already dead, Galland wounded. Oskar-Heinz Bär negotiated the surrender of JV44 intact to the Americans. A cease-fire was in place so Herget to land safely so as to complete the negotiations. However the ever trigger-happy Yanks shot him down anyway. Bär then immediately ordered all remaining Me262's destroyed thoroughly, which was a great lose to the Western Allies.

I'll see if I can find anything on Kessler.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[Elmar64]

Unfortunately not. My dad passed away 1966 and a lot of this stuff was been sold in a kind of estate sale. Especially Americans were really eager to get their hands on WWII memorabilia.

Thank you for your efforts so far.

[Karl]

Hi Elmar,

in the "Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries" by Henry L. deZeng IV and Douglas G. Stankey, both active in this forum, you find the following entry :

"KESSLER, Hugo. 01.06.42 promo to Hptm. 10.11.43 appt Ia op 1/7. Jagddivision. 01.45 Hptm., Leiter Gruppe 1/General der Jagdflieger. 01.05.45 Hptm. and Adj. in JV 44."

see also

http://www.ww2.dk/Lw%20Offz%20-%20G-...Apr%202016.pdf

In the JV44 pilot list of 27th April 1945 Hptm. Kessler is not mentioned.
As adjutant/ "right hand" of Galland he was in charge of many organizational tasks of JV44.
Do you know whether your father had a Pilot licence?

Best regards, Karl

[Elmar64]

Hi Karl,
Yes he had a pilot licence but having said that I do not intend to claim that he actually flew the Me262. As a matter of fact I simply do not know.
Interestingly enough he got shot down/wounded in the last days of WWII, was then captured by the US forces and send immediatly to Florida, USA, got there a bunch of surgeries (mostly to save his right eye) recovered until late summer of '45 and then was POW until early 1947, first in the USA then in Germany.
What puzzled me is that this very special treatment is somewhat unusual for a captured Luftwaffe Capt.
However his love and thankfulness toward the USA lead later to our immigration (my family and I life in Connecticut) he himself couldn't make it due to his untimely death (just a heart attack - yes, you could die from a heart attack in the 60s)

[Karl]

Hi Elmar,

sad to hear that your father already died in the 1960s. When the Fieseler Storch was shot down on 2nd May 1945, evidently there was a fire, because Major Herget reported, that he owed his life his leather coat. Otherwise he would have burnt. Did your father also suffer from that fire?

Best regards, Karl

[Elmar64]

I do not know if he suffered from THAT fire but it is likely. He suffered severe damages to the head and the upper torso hence his gratefulness that the Americans did go the extra mile and not just patched him together but flew him to a hospital in FL. (Do you have any idea why they did that?)
I remember that his left ear was halfway gone (burned) and that was the only visible evidence of his injuries. Considering the average casualties from being shot down he was lucky.