Hans-Joachim Marseille He was an iconic figure in aviation. hunt German during the Second World War. He was widely recognized by other aces of the day and highly honored for his feats in the air. His skill at the controls of his fighter allowed him to dominate aerial combat reaching an incredible number of 17 kills in a single day.
Childhood
of French descent, Hans-Joachim Marseille was born on November 13, 1919 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. During his childhood Marseille He was a rebellious child who liked to joke around and cause trouble. Despite being born in post-war Germany, he lived comfortably because his father, a veteran officer of World War I, had a stable police job in Berlin. After the divorce of his parents, his mother married another officer with the surname Reuters. As an adult he recovered the surname of his biological father. After graduating from high school at seventeen, Hans-Joachim expressed his desire to become an aviator.
After World War I and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the German army had been dismantled to its minimum expression. Only a maximum of 100,000 men were allowed to defend the national territory with a total prohibition to possess military aviation or heavy weapons. The goal of the treaty was to make Germany no longer a threat to its neighbors, especially the French. The German aircraft industry suffered severely in the 1920s and the only developments were in civil aviation. The Treaty of Versailles, however, did not prohibit Germany from having a civil transport air fleet, so certain technical developments were seen in that sector. Some of the innovations in aircraft design were the retractable landing gear, the cantilever low wing, semi-monocoque fuselage cells, and the enclosed cockpit. The construction of these passenger, merchandise, tourism and sports planes were carried out by companies such as Heinkel, Arado, Dornier, Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt. These companies would end up producing the deadly machinery that would take war to the skies of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Despite the restrictions of the Versailles treaty, the superior leaders of the Wehrmacht they created organizations to train future fighter pilots for the air force. Often these organizations were disguised as civilian flight schools or were downright clandestine. On March 1, 1933, the Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced the existence of the newly created Luftwaffe. By then the Jagdwaffe as a Fighter Force it needed intense modernization as it was equipped by antiquated Heinkel I have-51 and Ar plow-68, which were essentially slightly improved World War I aircraft. The civil ministry that oversaw the Luftwaffe It was him Reichsluftfahrministerium o Ministry of Aeronautics. Hermann Goering, at the head of this ministry, opened public tenders for companies to compete to supply a fighter aircraft that met the required requirements. Was the Diplomingenieur and founder of his own company, Willy Messerschmittwho won the contest against all odds with the magnificent design of the bf-109. still a teenager Marseille enrolled in flight school Deutsche Lufthansa and enlisted at Luftwaffe at the end of 1939. Having passed the school of fighter pilots, he arrived in time to participate in the Battle of Britain.
The beginning. England and Africa
The vulnerability of southern Britain to air attack had been demonstrated in World War I with Zeppelin and Gotha attacks on London and other targets in the region. After the fall of France in June 1940 and with the Germans posting their airfields in the Pas de Calais, the Fighter Command The RAF had begun to reinforce south-east Britain. After being sent to Germany to rest and repair their planes, the Geschwader fighters (squadrons) began to prepare for a massive attack on the UK. The plan to invade Britain was codenamed Seelowe and one of the essential premises for its success was the achievement of air superiority. In the skies the fate of Great Britain would be decided.
Facing the numerous formations of German fighters were 29 Squadrons of hurricanes and 19 Squadrons of the new spitfires. With its headquarters in Bentley Priory the Fighter Command controlled the groups o Air Defense Regions. Each Group was divided into Sectors that had the letters A, B, C, D, … controlled from their command posts respectively. When the radar stations detected enemy aircraft, a complex network of telephone lines connected the command posts with the Fighter Command reporting the threat. After an evaluation and when it was considered that the trace was hostile, it was passed to the Operations Room. British squadrons were then directed to intercept the attacking force knowing in advance their position, altitude, speed and estimated strength.
For their part, the Germans intended to cut the RAF’s jugular by destroying its airfields, aircraft factories and radar stations. The wings of level bombers and dive bombers Stukas they were striving to achieve this goal escorted by fighters. Aside from these escort duties, the fighters were allowed freie jagd or free-hunting for RAF fighters These fighter-versus-fighter engagements saw some of the most memorable duels of World War II. During the Battle of Britain Hans-Joachim Marseille he became an ace with seven takedowns and being knocked down four times. He was assigned to IV/JG 52 (Fighter Wing 4th Group ‘jagdesgeschader‘ 52) until he was transferred for insubordination. Marseille he was a young man fond of nightlife; “Good looking, with girlfriends everywhere, irresponsible and with an irresistible charm” as related by his head of unit Johannes Steinhof. Marseille he was often too tired to fly the next day to the exasperation of his commanders.
He and his fame Playboy were transferred to I/JG-27 to North Africa supporting Field Marshal’s Afrika Korps erwin rommel “desert fox” It was in this campaign that Marseille He would establish himself as one of the best fighter pilots in history. His character gradually changed until he became a much more serious, professional pilot who his colleagues could trust. He drew up an intensive training program and practiced over and over again very complicated maneuvers to perfect the handling of the mythical bf-109.
The pilot
Marseille he was an individualist, a free spirit and those traits were reflected in his flying style. He preferred to act like a “lone wolf”, just him and the point of him. The invaluable experience accumulated during the Spanish Civil War caused the Germans to develop tactics superior to those of the Allies. Werner Molders he was the main ideologue of the new tactics for modern fighters. A Rotte is the most basic unit consisting of a pair of fighters with a leader (Rottenfuhrer) and his escort, or period in Spanish. In a Rotte the leader focuses his attention on finding targets and is the first to execute the attack. His point flies freely at a suitable distance, slightly below, covering the leader’s blind spot. The time the point can spend detecting threats in the air is maximized and increases the security of the unit. When the leader attacks the point, he follows the maneuver and accompanies it, protecting the boss’s back.
During World War I and early in World War II the Allies flew in a three-plane formation in v either Vic, kette in German. The big problem with this system was that pilots had to pay an enormous amount of attention to just maintaining formation. Every time one Vic performed a turn, the pilots had to adjust their speeds to maintain cohesion. In combat the difficulties made this task extremely difficult. That rigidity and little maneuverability made the Vic was much lower when facing more flexible formations. You can expand a Rotte to a larger unit called Schwarm. A schwarm is made up of two Rotte and allows to further increase the advantages of the new system. The first Rotte executes the attacks while the second remains at a higher height dominating the combat area. Any threat that appears unexpectedly will be promptly detected and removed. The allies recognizing the superiority of this formation would end up copying it with the name of finger four which is still valid today.
Marseille he had his own sometimes unorthodox but effective style of attack. When he detected an enemy formation he would perform the approach maneuver next to his point to get into an advantageous position. The Germans always chose to attack with the Sun behind them, masking the attack until the last moment. When he decided to launch his attack, he launched himself into a vertiginous dive against the enemy, firing the weapons of the bf-109. The shots were surgically accurate, from the engine to the cockpit and then to the rest of the fuselage. No one really knew how he was able to aim in such a pinpoint manner. In the maneuver he used to end up passing between the enemy planes, breaking through their formations in what was “a real recklessness for any other pilot”.
When attacked, British pilots often chose to fly in a defensive circle so that each pilot’s back was covered by the one behind. Any enemy that was placed in the “six” of a circle element would invariably be knocked down. Nevertheless Marseille defying logic, he launched his attacks despite this circular defensive formation. To do this, he placed himself behind some element of the circle and opening his flaps and reducing power as much as he could, managed to reduce the turning radius, escaping from being shot down and executing the enemy with a deflection shot. This way of proceeding required great skill, since reducing speed so much could cause the wings to not generate enough lift and the plane to stall and plummet to the ground.
The wonderful view of Marseille it allowed him to spot the enemy before they spotted him, and his extraordinary accuracy allowed him to score big hits using very little ammunition. On September 24, 1941 he achieved five aerial victories, one bomber and four HawkerHurricane British. On June 6, 1942, she managed to shoot down six P-40 Hawk, five of them in the first five minutes of combat.
the war correspondent Fritz Dettmann pick up in your book Die Wehrmacht the most important day of the race Hans-Joachim Marseille. The events occurred on September 1, 1942 when over the skies of El Alamein he shot down three Curtiss P-36 and a spit fireon the second mission of the day he shot down another eight P-36 and in the third, in an escort mission of…