Bf 109E-3, White 7, Lt Reinhard Seiler, 1/JG 54 Bf 109E-3, Red 6, 2/JG 54 1/JG 54 Commanding Officers 2/JG 54 Commanding Officers Oblt Reinhard Seiler 13/9/39 to 5/8/40 WIA Oblt Rudolf Unger 26/6/40 to 29/8/41 Oblt Friedrich-Karl Rumpf (acting) 5/8/40 to 8/40 2/JG54 1/JG54 Oblt Gerhard Ködderitzch 8/40 to 15/5/41 KIFA 1 Staffel JAGDGESCHWADER 54 2 Staffel JAGDGESCHWADER 54 Left: An Oberfeldwebel with a group of mechanics gathered around White 10 of 1/JG 54 with the unit’s chimney sweep emblem beneath the cockpit. Right: Uffz Fritz Hotzelmann in front of his 109. He was shot down on 5th September 1940 over Maidstone by a Spitfire flown by F/O Haines of 19 Squadron. Hotzelmann Armourers at work on the MG 17 machine guns of a 2/JG 54 Emil. baled out safely and White 6 W.Nr. 1096 Keeping an eye on them is the Staffel’s red devil, which was the unit’s fell into the back garden of a house. emblem until spring 1941. 32 33 Bf 109E-3, Oblt Hans Schmoller-Haldy, 3/JG 54 Bf 109E-3, Lt Bernhard Malischewski, Stab II/JG 54 3/JG 54 Commanding Officers Gruppenkommandeure Oblt Hans Schmoller-Haldy 1/9/39 to 23/2/42 WIA Hptm Richard Kraut 4/7/40 to 11/7/40 3/JG54 Stab II/JG54 Hptm Otto-Hans Winterer 11/7/40 to 25/8/40 3 Staffel JAGDGESCHWADER 54 Stab II JAGDGESCHWADER 54 Hptm Dietrich Hrabak 25/8/40 to 27/10/42 II/JG54 Bases: 4/7/40 – 8/8/40 Waalhaven: detachment at Leeuwarden (30/7/40 – 8/8/40) Right: A nice close up of 3/JG 54’s 4./JG 54 at Haamstede emblem – a cartoon hunter collecting (15/7/40 – 30/7/40) Spitfires – was inspired by the 6./JG 54 at Vlissingen children’s book ‘Struwwelpeter’ or (8/40 – 11/40) Shaggy Peter, a book of cautionary 8/8/40 – 22/9/40 Hermelingen tales by Heinrich Hoffmann. 22/9/40 – 29/11/40 Campagne-les-Guines Inset: Oblt Hans Schmoller-Haldy’s Bf 109 which is the subject of the profile. Right: Two armourers tending to the machine guns of Bf 109E-3, W.Nr.1253 belonging to Stab II/JG 54. The Do 17Z in the background has its undersides over-painted in black for night operations. 34 35 Stab II JAGDGESCHWADER 54 Bf 109E-3, White 1, Hptm Dietrich Hrabak, 4/JG 54 4/JG 54 Commanding Officers 4/JG54 Oblt Hans Philipp 1/6/40 to 17/2/42 4 Staffel JAGDGESCHWADER 54 Oblt Hans Philipp, Staffelkapitän of 4/JG 54 and his colleagues standing at the tail of his Emil proudly displaying 18 black victory bars, the last three were achieved on 13/10/40. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 22/10/40. Philipp became one of the leading aces. According to some sources, on 17 March 1943 he raised his total to 203 victories, overtaking Hermann Graf as the highest scoring Luftwaffe fighter pilot. However, more recent research (Matthews and Foreman) would indicate that he reached ‘only’ 190 by this time. Oblt Werner Pichon Kalau vom Hofe of Stab II/JG 51 Lt Bernhard Malischewski of Stab II/JG 54 force-landed this Bf 109E-3, W.Nr.4869 on 12/10/40 can be seen on the left. He retired from operational near Tenterden, Kent, due to engine failure. Note that the spinner was half RLM 70 black-green flying in 1942 with 20 victories and survived the war, and half white, with the tip in the Stab colour of green. Four white victory bars were painted on dying in 1999. both sides of the rudder. Inset top right: Malischewski’s 109 on display in Lincoln, the black rectangle is probably an 36 unfinished ‘Lion of Aspern’, the emblem of II/JG 54. 37.