Jagdgeschwader 6

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=Jagdgeschwader 6


caption=
dates=1944-1945
country=Germany
allegiance=
branch=Air Force
type=Fighter Aircraft
role=Air superiority
size=Air Force Wing
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname="Horst Wessel"
patron=
motto=
colors=
identification_symbol=
march=
mascot=
battles=
notable_commanders=Gerhard Barkhorn (16.01.44 - 10.04.45)
Gerhard Schöpfel (10.4.45 - 8.5.45)
anniversaries=
decorations=
battle_honours=

Jagdgeschwader 6 (JG 6) "Horst Wessel" was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. The first Geschwaderkommodore was Oberstleutnant Johann Kogler who became a POW during the Operation Bodenplatte when he crashed and was taken prisoner by British troops on 1 January 1945.

JG 6 was created on October 13, 1944 from the remnants of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 equipped unit "Zerstörergeschwader 26" (ZG 26, 26th Destroyer Wing) which had suffered severe losses as a bomber-destroyer unit in the Defense of the Reich during early 1944 against the Allied bomber offensive. JG 6 inherited the honorific name "Horst Wessel" from the Zerstörergeschwader it was created from.

Operational Service

In July 1944 the unit hastily converted at their Königsberg/Oder airfield onto the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, with an intended role as air superiority fighters and ground attack. For the latter role the aircraft were fitted with tubular launchers for the "Werfer-Granate 21", 21 cm Nebelwerfer based mortar rockets. The third group was immediately renamed Kommando Nowotny and replaced by another group with 4 Staffeln, flying the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G.

With the minimum of training JG 6 then served on the Western Front up until the end of the war in May 1945.

In the months after the Normandy invasion the numerically superior Allied fighter forces had decimated most Luftwaffe fighter units sent against them over the expanding beachhead. JG 6 proved no exception, its inexperienced pilots suffering heavy casulties.

On August 25, 1944, the 367th Fighter Group, flying P-38 Lightnings, was sent to bomb three airfields at Peronne, Rosieres-en-Santerre and Clastres. The attack force at Clastres encountered over 40 FW 190's of II./JG 6, flying together as a "gruppe" for the first time. During the ensuing dogfight the 33 P-38's of the 367th Fighter Group lost 7 P-38 destroyed (II./JG 6 claimed 11 destroyed) while II/JG 6 lost 16 FW 190s destroyed and 14 pilots killed.(The 367th FG claimed 20 destroyed). Amongst the killed was the CO of 8th Staffel, Leutnant Rudi Dassow, one of the most successful twin-engined "experten" with 22 kills. In January 1945, Gerhard Barkhorn was assigned as "Geschwaderkommodore" However Barkhorn did not remain in this position for long , being forced to take a medical absence because of physical and mental strain.

Late in January 1945 JG 6 was among several units switched to the Eastern Front, flying ground strafing operations against the advancing Soviet forces.

JG 6 was based in Czechoslovakia at the war's end, when those pilots left flew all serviceable Fw190D-9s remianing into US-held airfields in the west.

The third group was resolved on April 4, 1945.

Commanding Officers

Geschwaderkommodore

*Oberstleutnant Johann Kogler, July 1944 - 1 January 1945
*Major Gerhard Barkhorn, 16 January 1945 - 10 April 1945
*Major Gerhard Schöpfel, 10 April 1945 - 17 April 1945
*Major Richard Leppla, 17 April 1945 - 8 May 1945

Gruppenkommandeure

I./JG 6

*Hauptmann Willi Elstermann 1 November 1944 - 2 February 1945
*Major Otto Bertram, February 1945 - May 1945

II./JG 6

*Hauptmann Weyl ?-May 1945

III./JG 6

*Hauptmann Theodor Weissenberger, 14 October 1944 - 24 November 1944
*Major Kühle, November 1944
*Hauptmann Kurt Müller, 21 January 1945 - 4 April 1945

ee also

Organization of the Luftwaffe during World War II

External links

* [http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Jagdgeschwader/JG6-R.htm JG 6 @ Lexikon der Wehrmacht]