More info on Danish pilot Hptm. Poul Sommer?

[WidorS]

Danish pilot Hptm. Poul Sommer

What we know:
He is one of the six Danish pilots who July 41 takes the train to Berlin to meet and intervene personally with Goering to join the Luftwaffe Fighter Arms. They succeed! Sommer, Ove Terp and four others are sent to flight school to convert to the BF-109.

This takes about a year and mid 42 they are ready and are transferred to different units. Terp and the 4 others are sent to Russia, Sommer is sent to JG 27 autumn 42. Sommer is born in 1910, that could explain why he is flying in the Stab Schwarm. He doesn’t seem to get along very well with the other pilots who are about 10 years younger than him. Spring 43 he and the JG27 is located in Sicily and so far credited with 3 confirmed kills.

Now it is getting blurry.

Some sources say, he is transferred to Greece to find and guard new airfields. It seems, he is taken out of active flying duty. Furthermore he seems to be involved in partisan retaliation.

Now this document from the Bundes Archive, tells us that he is appointed as Staffelkapitain of the newly formed IV Gruppe./JG27

http://www.jagdgeschwader4.de/media/...70622_0003.pdf

Some sources claim, he is transferred to the “east front”. I simply don’t believe that. This might be a misunderstanding, since Greece and the Balkans are kind of “in the east”. The sources furthermore claim he achieves 4 more kills “in the east”.

Fact is that at the end of 43 he is back in Denmark.

There he builds up the so called “Sommercorps” in Denmark which main duty is to protect German airfields. Unfortunately some of the men for his Corps are recruited from some of very bad apples belonging to the “Schalburg Korps”. A group of these people are known to have caused havoc in the streets of Copenhagen during the peoples uprising/strike June 44.

Is Poul Sommer blamed for that? It could explain why he is sentenced to death after the war, but later changed to 12 years behind bars.

Ove Terp, on the other hand, is a complete opposite story. He is sent to JG 54, the four other Danish pilots are all KIA/KIFA almost immediately after their arrival in Russia. Terp is wounded in action, but stays in the JG54 for almost the rest of the war. Thanks to his education as an engineer, he is the TO. This is claimed in Urbankes book about the IV./JG54. Late 44 he is transferred to Rechlin as a test pilot. And apparently he was a very liked and a popular man in the JG 54.

Anybody has some more info about Hptm. Sommer? Why did a relatively successful pilot leave the JG27? Was he “frozen out”? Was he a "bad apple" himself indeed?

[Jaap Woortman]

Check Hans Werner Neulen "In the skies of Europe".
In case you don't can get it, see appendix.

Jaap

[ju55dk]

He tansferred from ErgJgr Süd as Oberleutnant to II/JG 27, 2009-42. Flying with the Gruppenstab he claimed, and was confirmed with 3 victories. Appointed Hauptmann 0101-43. As IV/JG 27 were formed 1943, he transfered to it as StKptn. Early sommer 1943 he went back to Denmark planning to lead the Schalburgkorps, wich did not went well. He then set up Vaktkorps der Luftwaffe in DK, in public called Sommerkorps. He did not serve on the eastern front, nor did he spent time guard airfields og doing anti partisan retaliation. But he was a known jew hater in Denmark. End 1944 he transferred to the SS. He managed to stay hidden over one year after the capitulation. Arrested in 1946 he avoided a death sentence, but did get a prison sentence.

Junker