Gerhard Thyben

[Nokose]

In Tony Woods list for the 28 October 1944 he has Gerhard Thyben listed in II. Gruppe of JG 54. In all the biographies on the web it has 7./JG 54 which has got to be wrong as that Staffel is part of the III. Gruppe. Does anyone have the correct Staffel that he was actually in for that day?

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi Michael,

The 7. Staffel was part of the II. Gruppe, and had previously been the 4. Staffel.

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

[Nokose]

Thanks Andrew. I guess the III. Gruppe was being absorbed into JG 26 somewhere during this time.

[PMoz99]

Hello Nokose.
On 10/8/44 the Gruppen of JG54 were reorganised into 4 Staffeln per Gruppe. So 7. was in II. Gruppe from 10/8 onwards.
Another interesting titbit was that from 2/43 to 6/44 (that is, before the reorganisation of 10/8/44), 4. Staffel was attached to III. Gruppe.
The re-structure of III. Gruppe to JG26 did not occur until 25/2/45.
Cheers
Peter

[Johannes]

Hallo Guys

By coincidence yesterday I was investigating this. Basically Tony Woods is quoting exactly what is on the Mikrofilms, however in July 1944 JG 54 starts have the Staffel numbers generalised to Gruppe number, and starts losing the anerk number. Thyben last claims were with 7./JG 54. Trouble is that all four Staffels and the Stab of each Gruppe all appear indistinguishable as just the Gruppe number i.e St.II./JG 54, 5./JG 54, 6./JG 54, 7./JG 54 and 8./JG 54 all appear as II./JG 54.

Kind Regards

Johannes