8./JG 2 Staffelkapitän

[Larry deZeng]

If STOLLE and WILLINGER were Oberleutnante in the March-April 1940 training phase, then I think one or the other could have been the first Staffelkapitaen or perhaps acting Staka until a Hauptmann could be brought in to take over.

[Kapper]

Sidney,

By process of elimination using the list provided by Larry, we have

From Chris Goss - Palting - a double for Falting – thus removed

Also from yourself and Chris Goss - Stafflekapitan after Gerlitz became Staffelkapitan on 04.05.40 were Gerlitz, Von Winterfeld, Metz, Falting and Stolle so can also be removed.

This leaves – Arnim, Bethke, Willinger, and Wollslager

Bethke was Staka 4./ErgJGr Merseburg 10.02.40 – 24.04.40 – thus can be removed

Willingers claims in 1940 was as a Ofw and 1941 as Sfw – KIA as Oblt 05.02.43 – thus can be removed.

Wollschlager – born 12.11.18 was only 21 at the time which is very young when most Staka were much older at that stage of the conflict (Gerlitz 28 yo, Winterfeld 42 yo) thus very unlikely

This leave only von Arnim.

Harald von Arnim was born 30.09.05 which would have made him 35 yo at the time which is more typical of Staka before the invasion of France. However, his claim on 28.09.40 list him as a Ltn at a time when most pilots that age were at least Hptm? This brings the question as to whether he was demoted at some point. Could he have been the first Staka and was demoted ? The officer Database also has a conflict with him being in JFS5 at the time yet he made a claim in September that they have as questionable. Does anyone have further information about his career prior to his first claim 28.09.40? If he was with JFS 5 then no one matches and it must be someone else?

Another way of confirming who was the first Staka can be through the Erkennungsmarkes (EKMs). The EKM’s are the personal dog tag number issued to all servicemen. Initially, in the early days of the war, a unit based numbering system was used, for example a pilot in 8 staffel JG 2 would have had an EKM of “8./JG 2 Nr. xx “ where xx was the consecutive number issued within the Staffel.

However, sometime around March/April 1940 the Luftwaffe reissued the EKM’s changing from the unit based numbering system to a coded system which was to be issued when aircrew were posted to an operational unit - this was later changed with the introduction of Erganzungsgruppe (operational training units) where aircrew were issued their EKM before they went to an operational unit. Anyway, it appears that those who were already in operational units were reissued at that time (April 1940) and in most cases it appears that the numbers were issued based on seniority within the unit, so the Staffelkapitan was issued Number 1, then officers then NCO’s etc. 8./JG 2 was issued the code “53518” and since the reissuing occurred soon after the formation of 8./JG2 (March 1940) - whoever was issued “53518/1” would likely have been the first Staffelkapitan. (I said likely because in most cases for existing units in April 1940 where I’ve seen the EKM number “1” they were identified as the Staffelkapitan of that unit at that time but in a few cases it was obvious this is not the case - though these may be an error? - It is a different story for those units formed after April 1940?)

Unfortunately, I do not have any EKMs for 8./JG2 to be able to help you further. Does anyone know who had the EKM “53518/1” ? was this von Arnim or was it someone else altogether ?

I know I’ve created more questions than I’ve solved but it is a direction of enquiry which I think is worth following!

Regards,

Craig…

[Larry deZeng]

Excellent analysis, Craig.

I recall reading in several German publications years ago that the EKM rosters for the entire war survived intact and are currently in the possession of WASt in Berlin. They were part of the WASt files that were evacuated from Berlin in late 1944/early 1945 to a rural location in Upper Silesia or Bohemia-Moravia. Since you have identified the 5-digit Mobilisations-Nummer (53518) for the Staffel, perhaps WASt could be persuaded to take a look?

Further, WASt and its records was physically located in the French Zone of occupied Berlin after the war. The French military authorities copied a lot of these records, especially rosters of personnel unit-by-unit, Verbaende Stellungsbesetzungen, etc. The French material is in a military museum in or near Paris today and is available for public research.

For what it's worth and best regards,

L.

[Matti Salonen]

53518/1 was Gerlitz.

Matti

[sidney]

Post No.12: Craig, thank you for bringing this post back to life by your excellent analysis.

The expertise shared here on the TOCH cannot be praised high enough.

Sinisa

[Kapper]

Thanks Matti

Gerlitz EKM being 53518/1 raises some interesting issues and has gotten me intrigued.

either
1. The change over of EKM’s occurred after Gerlitz became Staka 8./JG2 on 03.05.40, or
2.Gerlitz became Staka 8./JG2 before 03.05.40
In my opinion, I don’t believe the first is correct because of several other EKM’s that I’ve looked at – for example, the EKM for Heinrich Graf von Stillfried und Rattonitz was “60022/1” where 60022 was the code for the Stabstaffel of KG54 in which Stillfried was Staka until he was transferred to Zerstorerschule Schleisheim to be retrained as a zerstorer pilot on 07.04.40 – so the coded system was definitely in place before this date.

Therefore this raises many questions about Gerlitz.
-when was Gerlitz actually appointed Staka of 8./JG2 ?
-was he was Staka 7./JG 2 at all ?
-If Gerlitz wasn’t the first Staka 7./JG 2 then who was ?

The next Staka for 7./JG 2 after Gerlitz was Hptm Armin Ettling who came from 1./ZG 2 but his transfer date is unclear. The Officer summaries has 2 entries - one where he was acting Kdr III./JG2 from 03.05.40 to 10.06.40 which again raises another questions as Dr. Erich Mix was Kdr and made claims during this period. Mix was WIA 21.05.40 so it’s possible that Ettling was acting Kdr while Mix was recovering therefore the first date was either wrong ! or another option is that Mix was acting Kommodore JG2 at that time and Ettling as acting Kdr III./JG2? More on this later! The second entry was his appointment as Staka 7./JG2 in May 1940 of which he was Staka until at least 06.09.40 when he made his last claim with the unit.

One way to find out is to look at the EKM’s again. The code for 7./JG 2 was 53517, and the code for 1./ZG2 was 55564. Matti do you know who had the EKM’s “53517/1” and “55564/1”? Was one of these Ettling ? Mix as Kdr should have had “53516/1” and Carl Roders was Staka of 9./JG2 should have had “53519/1” – can you confirm this? If it wasn’t these pilots then who held these numbers ?

Larry in your research for the Officer Summaries what was the documented evidence that Gerlitz moved from 7./JG 2 to 8./JG 2 on 03.05.40 – I ask this as I suspect that it came from a listing of staffel personnel dated 03.05.40 which listed him as Staka of 8./JG2 (and Ettling as acting Kdr) and that his move from 7./JG 2 could have been earlier (much earlier than most think?). If it was a listing and Ettling was A/Kdr we may be able to find out what happened with Mix?

Personally, I’m beginning to suspect that Gerlitz was never in 7./JG2 or if he was - it was for a very short time. I believe the association of Gerlitz with 7./JG 2 came from the fact that he was Staka of 3./JG 51 which was used as the Cadre to establish III./JG 2. I suspect initially that 3./JG 51 was renamed 7./JG 2 on 14.03.40 and on 16.03.40 was split up to form 8 and 9 ./JG2 with Gerlitz going to form 8./JG 2. I also suspect that Ettling became Staka 7./JG2 at this time because his previous unit was redesignated from 1./JGr102 to 1./ZG2 on 30.01.40 which was when they began re-equipping from the early version single engine Bf109 to the new twin engine Bf110, this resulted many pilots who were not rated to fly the Bf110 being transferred out to other Bf109 units in February/March 1940 - I suspect that Ettling may have been one of those transferred at that time. On splitting up of 3./JG 51 with the initial formation of III./JG2, Gerlitz probably got the second Staffel probably due to seniority rather than stay with 7./JG2 - Ettling being more senior (was later A/Kdr before Gerlitz!) got the first Staffel (7./JG 2) and Roders as an Oblt was obviously the junior Staka got the third staffel (9./JG2) - Seniority is important in military circles and probably an easy way to number the new staffeln.

Anyway, in Summary, I suspect that these were the initial commanders of III./JG 2 and their EKM’s

GpKdr III./JG 2 - Hptm/Maj Dr Erich Mix – EKM 53516/1
Staka 7./JG 2 - Hptm Armin Ettling – EKM 53517/1
Staka 8./JG 2 - Hptm Erich Gerlitz – EKM 53518/1
Staka 9./JG 2 - Oblt Carl Roders – EKM 53519/1

Matti can you confirm the EKMs?
Larry can you advise source of information in Officer summary related to the date 03.05.40 as mentioned earlier?

I may be wrong about my suspicions but would only know from further input from both (which I do appreciate) and look forward to helping solve this mystery.

Regards,

Craig…

[Matti Salonen]

55564/1 was Guenther Vowinkel. All the EKMs in your Summary are correct.

Matti

[Larry deZeng]

Craig wrote in part:

Larry can you advise source of information in Officer summary related to the date 03.05.40 as mentioned earlier?

Regretably, Craig, there was no way Doug and I could keep comprehensive footnotes for each entry in the Lw. Officer Career Summaries, not with 44,000+ officers with an average of 6 entries per name. Instead, we developed a reasonable complete bibliography of our sources and you can find this in the Introduction to our Lw.OCS on the ww2.dk website. In the main, I did all of the primary archival documentation and Doug did the published material and websites.

This all gets far more complicated than what has been discussed here so far, especially for the Jagdverbaende. The date of appointment very frequently differs in Luftwaffenpersonalamt, Fliegerkorps, Fliegerdivision and Geschwader documents. The changing of temporary or "acting" appointments occurred with such frequency in the Jagd units that there is no longer a complete record of it in documents used by researchers. The only sure source for this information are the personnel card indexes (Karteikarten) at BA-MA Freiburg. Unfortunately, BA-MA will not make this available in bulk. The cards were once microfilmed on poor quality wartime microfilm and these nearly 500 16 mm rolls have chemically deteriorated and are no longer legible.

Best,

Larry

[Frank Olynyk]

With regard to EKMs, I have a question. It appears that if an individual changes units, his EKM will change. And thus the EKM cannot be used to track an individual through his Luftwaffe career. Is there a number, or ID, which does track an individual through his Luftwaffe career?

Enjoy!

Frank.

[Larry deZeng]

Frank -

As noted above, WASt Berlin has the EKM sheets. But they do not seem to use this when answering inquiries from relatives. WASt asks for the individual's full name and date of birth as the mandatory minimum and never asks for any known EKM numbers. This suggests that EKMs are not used as a tracking tool. Further, EKMs are not entered on any of the hundreds of thousands of Kartei cards held at BA-MA. I have seen and worked with about 2,500 of these as has Doug Stankey. No EKMs. This suggests that they were not a wartime tracking tool either. Apparently they were only used on unit personnel rosters, NVMs and probably several other personnel reports as well as an individual's "dogtags".

L.