RED BANDS AND SWASTIKAS

One Luftwaffe fighter unit in 1940 wore red bands around the noses of their aircraft, while some of its fighters carried no swastikas on their tail units. Chris Goss delves into a fascinating enigma.

In early 1940 a new commander took over the leadership of one of the Luftwaffe’s most famous fighter units, JG53, and became the focus of anger from senior Nazi’s when his wife’s Jewish ancestry was revealed. It was something which had repercussions for the unit and its pilots, seeing 'punishment' markings applied to its aircraft to obliterate its 'Ace of Spades' emblem. But the men stood by their CO, however, with one part of the unit obliterating the swastikas on its aircraft in solidarity.

The Luftwaffe often allowed distinctive unit badges to be carried on their fighter aircraft - the red ‘R’ for Richthofen on aircraft of Jagdgeschwader 2 ( JG2), the letter ‘S’ for JG 26 Schlageter or the buzzard’s head for JG51 all being good examples. However, for a four-month period during 1940, one unit – JG53 had its own distinctive Ace of Spades badge deliberately obscured by a red band around the nose of all its aircraft. The story behind this strange marking obliterating the unit emblem is truly extraordinary.

The story of the Pik As (Ace of Spades) Geschwader began on 15 March 1937 with the formation of the Stab, I and II/JG334 at Mannheim-sandhofen after which all elements of JG334 moved to Frankfurt -Rebstock, and then on to Wiesbaden-erbenheim. The first Kommodore was the 44 victory First World War ‘ace’, Oberst Bruno Loerzer, the Geschwader then being equipped with Arado 68 biplane fighters.

The first delivery of the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 came in early 1938, and then in April of that year Loerzer handed over command to Oberstleutnant Werner Junck, another First World War fighter pilot - albeit not as successful as Loerzer. At the same time, several Geschwader pilots were flying with the Legion Condor in Spain and most of them made a name for themselves there, especially Oberleutnant Werner Mölders who, prior to service in Spain, had commanded 2/JG334. He went on to claim 14 confirmed and three unconfirmed victories in Spain.

In November 1938, JG334 was re-designated JG133 and then, in May 1939, it became JG53. When war was declared, JG53 comprised only I and II Gruppe and

was ready for action at Wiesbaden-erbenheim. Despite operating in the Saarbrücken/trier area (bounded by neutral Luxembourg and by Germany and France) it took a few days before anything happened. And when it did, the first casualty was almost Werner Mölders.

Some reports say that his Messerschmitt Bf 109 was damaged in combat with Curtiss H-75s of Groupe de Chasse II/4 (GC II/4) on the morning of 8 September 1939, this resulting in his forced landing behind German lines near Birkenfeld. However, despite his logbook confirming that he took off from Wiesbaden at 09.30 hrs on a flight over the front, it does not mention meeting any enemy aircraft before his forced landing. Apparently, the aircraft overturned, and he suffered minor injuries which would keep him off flying until 15 September 1939.

While recuperating, his 1 Staffel would score the Geschwader’s first kill of the war when a former Legion Condor pilot, Oberfeldwebel Heinz Grimmling, shot down a Bloch 131 of Groupes Aériennes de Reconnaissance 14 at 11.36 hrs on 9 September, killing three of its French crew and wounding the fourth. Three hours later, Leutnant Wilhelm Hoffmann of 3/JG53 shot down a Bloch 200 (believed to have been from Groupe de Bombardment I/31) which crashed near Zweibrücken with five crew, including GB I/31’s Commandant, Lt Col Enselem, being captured.

ACE OF SPADES

It was around this time that the distinctive Pik As (Ace of Spades) badge appeared on the cowlings of JG53’S fighters, an emblem which is believed to have been suggested by Generalmajor Hans Klein (another First World War ‘ace’) who succeeded Werner Junck on 1 October 1939. The following month, III/JG 53 was formed under the command of Hauptmann Werner Mölders, with Klein eventually posted away on 21 December 1939 to be replaced on 1 January 1940 by 38-year-old Major Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel. His appointment would have repercussions that almost certainly led to the

red band markings being applied to the unit’s fighters later that year.

Von Cramon-taubadel was born in Roschkowtiz on 4 November 1901 and joined the Army in April 1919, but in 1924 underwent pilot training. He then trained in secret at Lipetszk, Russia, before becoming an instructor there and later an instructor at the Italian fighter school in Grottaglie. In October 1933, von Cramon-taubadel transferred to the Luftwaffe where he was promoted to Hauptmann the following year. Soon after, he was given command of 3/JG132 who were then flying the Heinkel 51 at Döberitz.

At the outbreak of war, von Cramon-taubadel was commanding 2/JG70, but on 13 September 1939 was given command of I/JG54 before going on to command JG53 in the January of the following year. On 21 December 1939, he was credited with two Morane MS 406s near Colmar, although in the same combat his Messerschmitt Bf 109 was damaged. It appears he shot down two aircraft from GC II/7: Sous/lt Gabriel Gauthier crash-landing near Artzenheim badly wounded while Sgt René Panhard, unwounded in the action, crash-landed east of Colmar. Von Cramon-taubadel himself had probably been attacked by Sous/lt Robert de Fraville and Sgt Jacques Lamblin, also of GC II/7.

Still active in the months up to May 1940, and then during the Battle of France, JG53 achieved success in air combat with the first Luftwaffe fighter pilot awarded the Knight’s Cross being Werner Mölders. However, no such award would come Cramon-taubadel’s way and he was

very soon to fall from favour.

His marriage in November 1933 to Viola von Kauffmann-asser, and his own perceived lack of combat success, apparently explains why, in July 1940, the Pik As badge disappeared to be replaced instead by a red band.

LACK OF VICTORIES

Viola von Kaufmann-asser was born in Berlin in August 1912, the daughter of Dr Heinrich Ritter and Erika (nee Breitenbach) von Kaufmann-asser. She had three other siblings, but exactly how she met and later married Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel is unknown. She was, though, aged 21 at the time, her husband being 11 years older.

At the time of the marriage, Viola’s father was a senior diplomat and serving as German ambassador to Argentina, taking up his post in Beuenos Aires in January 1933. However, when the Nazi Party came to power it soon came to their attention that Heinrich was of Jewish descent. In the same month as Viola’s marriage to von Cramon-taubadel (November 1933), Heinrich was recalled from Argentina and effectively sacked. Von Cramon-taubadel’s marriage into a Jewish family was thus held against him, albeit that this appears not to have greatly affected his career for another seven years.

However, it has been suggested that Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was not best pleased that the Kommodore of one of his premier Jagdgeschwader was married to a part-jewish woman.

Reportedly, the pilots of JG53 were informed that their Pik As badge had to be removed so as not to give the RAF information on such a formidable opponent. However, none of the pilots believed this story and were convinced instead the reason to have been that their Kommodore had married a so-called ‘non-aryan’ woman. Thus, the unit was deprived of any pride or honour in its allocated emblem.

Despite high-level official displeasure with his marital situation, von Cramon-taubadel flatly refused to divorce Viola, and Göring was further infuriated when JG53’S pilots stood behind their Kommodore. The red band, then, was almost certainly a mark of shame imposed on the unit because of von Cramon-taubadel’s marriage. But whether the red band had any other specific meaning is a matter of conjecture.

In respect of its particular significance as anything other than simply a red band (apart from its purpose to blank out the Pik As emblem), it is tempting to consider the colours applied to the uniforms worn by inmates of the Third Reich’s concentration camps and prisons. In this context, the yellow Star of David, chillingly worn by

Jewish prisoners is universally familiar. Perhaps less well known are the pink triangles which classified a prisoner as homosexual, the purple marking signifying Jehovah’s Witnesses and green for common convicts – these being just a few among myriad colour codes for different prisoner classes.

Significant, perhaps, is that a red triangle denoted a political enemy with a single red stripe or band indicating a repeat offender in that category. Could JG53’S red band, then, be linked to this classification and imposed as a tenuous ‘message’ from high command? Whilst there is no evidence to support this, and the suggestion must only be speculative, it is nevertheless an interesting coincidence. Indeed, it would not be unreasonable to ask the question: why a wide red band right around the cowling to blank out the badge when simply overspraying it would have sufficed? Another reason for the application of the red band has been suggested, though.

The lack of victories in the Battle of France achieved by von Cramon-taubadel is said to have further annoyed Göring. However, if this was the case then the Kommodore of JG2, JG3, JG26, JG27, JG52 and JG54 also all failed to shoot down a single aircraft in May and June 1940. It is thus difficult to consider this as a credible explanation. In fact, only Oberst Theo Osterkamp of JG51 was credited with one confirmed and three unconfirmed victories. However, the younger pilots within the Jagdgeschwader were meeting with success and it was likely that age played an important part in the quite limited success of the older Kommodore.

In JG53, the top scorers in I Gruppe were Oblt Hanskarl Mayer (9), Oberleutnant Wolfgang Lippert (8) and Hauptmann Rolf Pingel (6 with another two in III/JG53). In the II Gruppe, it was Oberleutnant Heinz Bretnütz (9), while in III/JG53 it was Hauptmann Werner Mölders (25), Leutnant Friedrich-karl Müller (8), Feldwebel Hermann Neuhoff (8), Leutnant Hans Kunert (7) and Feldwebel Hans Galubinski (9). Nearly all these pilots were promoted in the next few months and nearly all of them awarded the Knight’s Cross.

BOLD AND SUBVERSIVE PROTEST

Irrespective of the reason for the red bands, photographs taken at Rennes in July 1940 still show the Pik As badge on the nose with the first British confirmation of the red band coming on 16 August 1940 when Feldwebel Christian Hansen of 2/JG53 crash-landed his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 at Godshill on the Isle of Wight

■ Top: The Messerschmitt Bf 109 E aircraft of STAB.III/JG53 taxi out for another sortie during November 1940. The aircraft in the foreground is that flown by the Gruppe Adjutant, Leutnant Erich Schmidt, while the further aircraft is the machine flown by the CO of III/JG53, Hauptmann Wolf-dietrich Wilcke. Notable is the absence of any swastikas, along with the bold Ace of Spades emblem on the cowling of Wilcke’s aircraft.

■ Werner Mölders had commanded III/JG53 but was captured on 5 June 1940. After release, he was posted to command JG51 in July 1940, although this postcard from November 1940 displays the JG53 badge, the Ace of Spades. However, he had long since left that unit.

■ Generalmajor Hans Klein was a 22-victory ‘ace’ of the First World War (as photographed here) but went on to command JG53 on its formation and was the originator of the Ace of Spades emblem for the unit.

(Chris Goss) ■ Men of the Arbeitsdienst are shown around one of the Heinkel 51 biplanes at Döberitz - presumably aircraft of Jagdgruppe/fliegergruppe Döberitz. At around this time, Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel was serving at Döberitz.

(Chris Goss) ■ Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel.

(Colour by RJM) ■ The Stolpersteine projects across Germany and other lands formerly occupied by the Nazis has placed inscribed plaques into streets and pavements outside the homes or workplaces of victims of the Nazi regime or of those who had been persecuted. This plaque in Berlin commemorates Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel’s father-in-law. ■ Right: Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was greatly displeased to learn of Hans-jürgen von Cramon-taubadel’s marriage to a partjewish woman.

(Colour by RJM) ■ Hauptmann Rolf Pingel, one of the successful ‘young bloods’ of JG53 in early 1940, achieved ten victories while serving in the unit. He is photographed here when serving with I/JG26.

(Chris Goss) ■ A Wehrmacht soldier watches ground personnel of JG53 working on one of the unit’s aircraft in mid August 1940. Clearly visible is the broad red band painted around the engine cowling.

(Colour by RJM) ■ Below: Oberleutnant Walter Rupp of 3/JG53 crash-landed his aircraft at RAF Manston on 17 October 1940, the aircraft marked with JG53’S distinctive red ring.

(Andy Saunders) ■ Left: On 16 August 1940 Feldwebel Christian Hansen of 2/JG53 crashlanded his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4 at Godshill on the Isle of Wight. His aircraft was the first noted by the RAF as carrying the red band marking.

(Andy Saunders) ■ Above: To mark the crash of Hansen’s aircraft, a locally produced ‘In Memoriam’ card was printed and copies sold for 3d each to raise money for the Spitfire Fund.