Hannes Gentzen - first Luftwaffe ace in WW2.
When at the end of the September Campaign the Luftwaffe counted the successes of the German fighter units it appeared that in the air battles 90 Polish aircraft were shot down. In the second place in respect of the air wins was Jagdgruppe 102, the leader of which, Hauptmann Johannes Gentzen, claimed shooting down of as many as seven opponents. Altogether, his unit claimed the destruction of 78 Polish planes, of which 28 were destroyed in the air, and Gentzen appeared at the top of Luftwaffe shooters in the new conflict.
Hannes Gentzen was born in 1906 and succeeded in obtaining full training in the pre-war Germany, and at the end of the 20’s in the area of the USSR in Lipeck to the south west of Moscow. On Hitler’s seizure of powers, for people such as him the green light turned on and as a proffessional officer he undertook the training and organizing of new units. On the 1st of May 1939, in the rank of Hauptmann, he takes charge of Jagdgruppe 102 equipped with one-seated Messerschmitts Bf109D, which stayed at Bernberg airfield. At the end of August the unit was moved to Gross Stein (Kamień Wielki) near Opole (Opeln), from where it made attack on Poland.
For the first three days of the war the Jagdgruppe 102 pilots had no luck and they failed to meet Polish aircraft despite their performing of many flights to the close support of German bombers and Stukas’s. However, on the 4th of September the account of the unit was opened by Hauptmann Gentzen, who at about 9.30 a.m. shot down a lone Polish bomber PZL P37B Łoś (factory number 72.1
. It was a machine of the 211th Eskadra Bombowa (211th Bomb Squadron) pursuing a reconaissance flight, and its crew was por. obs. Górniak, sierż. strz. Zejdler, plut. pil. Bonkowski, and kpr. strz. Puchała. And the crew fell down in flames around the mansion Gieczno near Rychłocice. Then Górniak and Puchała died.
It was not the end of the lucky day of Gentzen. Just after noon he led to ‘Freie Jagd’ in Lodz region the 1st Staffel of his unit and he succeeded one more time. Here is how he later remembered the flight:
“The Polish fighters were not tracked down without problems. However, bringing them to the ground is extremely important. Every Polish pilot is a master of acrobatics, and the green-brown color of their airplanes is an ideal camouflage. The Poles flying in their machines often were able to so color-wise remind a burning forest that it was very difficult to spot them.
However, in the first air fight my Staffel had a great success. We were flying over Lodz in the ‘stairway’ formation at the height of about 1000 meters, when we saw two Polish fighters climbing up in our direction. A part of the Staffel at once began the diver’s flight. I myself attacked one of the two Poles. My missiles must have hit in the engine because he immediately went down in the slide fight. We went after him, and to our surprise we saw that the field he wanted to land on was a perfectly disguised airfield. What a surprise! We would have certainly not found their hiding place were it not for the escaping pilot who led us to the airfield. During landing the shot down aircraft stood ‘on its head’ and then caught fire. The pilot jumped out of the machine and hid very quickly. Of the nine Polish aircraft that we discovered on the airfield, five stood in a row. We flew right above the ground and we shot them all and burned. Four others were standing with their ‘mouths’ in haystacks. It was not difficult – after a few machine gun series into the stacks they caught fire and four planes burned.
Meanwhile another Pole appeared above us. My friend jumped on him but he slid away and escaped. Anyway, he was attacked by another one and shot down.
The airfield Widzew near Lodz, base III/6 of Fighter Division belonging to the ‘Lodz’ Army Air Force fell victim to Jagdgruppe 102. Five fighters PZL P11 and P7 burned on land and further three were damaged. The unlucky pilot shot by Gentzen was ppor. Zadrozinski of 161th Fighter Squadron, and another Pole shot down was por. Jeziorowski. However, for Gentzen the day was not over. He keeps on saying this way:
“During our return flight we met three Polish bombers, of which two were sent to the ground by us, and the third found refuge high in the sky. Three flyers jumped out in parachutes. Unfortunately, one of them touched the fin and fell down with the plane. Another one was soaring right behind him and landed slightly aside.’’
The flight of the three Los’s belonged to the 212th Bomber Squadron and all of them were shot down by Jagdgruppe 102 pilots. Among them, one of the shot down was taken by Hauptmann Gentzen. During that flight the Jagdgruppe 102 pilots claimed destroying of four Los’s and two P24’s in the air as well as destroying nine further Polish planes on the ground. In this way Gentzen gained during one day three victories in two fighting flights.
For the two following days Jagdgruppe 102 fought Polish airplanes claiming victories almost everyday. The unit moved to Krakow on 9th September, but only two days later it seized the airfield in Dębica. Another Gentzen’s great day came on the 14th September, when a German reconaissance aircraft discovered in Hutniki near Brody (40 miles from the Russian border) the airfield of the VIth (Light) Bomber Squadron of Bomber Brigade. Knowing the moveability of the Polish fighting units the Germans decided to immediately force an attack expecting a strong defense of the Polish fighters. They decided to direct the first Jagdgruppe 102 before Heinkel He111 of KG 4, and the first Jagdgruppe 102 dispatched to flight its 1 Staffel of eight planes Bf1109D. When the Germans were approaching the airfield a group of light bombers PZL P23 Karaś appeared, which group was immediately attacked. Johannes Gentzen remembered the flight this way:
“One time, near Brody, as far as I remember we met Polish two-seated ground attack planes, where the shooter sits at the back. Of fourteen enemy airplanes, against our eight, only one escaped.’’
The pilots of 1st Staffel stopped air fight at the news of the closing bombers, claiming to have shot down five Karaś’s, of which Gentzen shot four in only ten minutes. It should be mentioned that the Polish planes flying on the remaining amount of fuel sat down on the ground where they could as they had not enough fuel to escape or defend from the attacks. As a result four PZL P23’s were shot down – two of them of the 64th Bomber Squadron as well as two of Reserve Reconaissance Squadron SPL Dęblin. On the ground were destroyed seven Karaś’s and two unarmed Los’s, and all the remaining P23 were damaged as well as one high-wing monoplane R.XIII. Gentzen enriched his account to seven shot downs and took lead among the German pilots in the September Campaign. As soon as the next day he received at the hands of Hermann Göring the Eisern Kreuzen First Class.
No later than 18 September Jagdgruppe 102 moved to Breslau (Wrocław), to quickly take the airfield Lachen/Speyerdorf near the western German border. Its Bf109D appeared to be obsolete against the modern allied fighters, which was confirmed on the 6th November, when in fight against Curtiss H75A’s of GC II/5’s, in spite of a great advantage numberwise the Germans lost four aircrafts and four others were seriously damaged. Gentzen alone shot down one of the opponents, and he was threatened by court martial for such high losses of his unit. However, he defended himself, and in February 1940 Jagdgruppe 102 was moved to Bonn, where it was given new two-engine aircraft Messerschmitt Bf110C as well as a new mark I/ZG 2. Gentzen was granted with a promotion to a Major’s rank, which he celebrated as well as he could by shooting one more Curtiss H75A on 7th April, this time together with a GC I/5.
After starting the offensive in the West, Major Hannes Gentzen in less than two weeks made his account of shot downs amount to 18. That successful career began in the Polish sky was suddenly abrupted on the 26th May 1940. During the takeoff from Neuchateau airfield to take over a group of British light bombers Battle his Bf110C crashed as a result of loss of power in one of the engines. Both Gentzen and his shooter, Oberleutenant Domeier, died. Gentzen was at that time the most efficient pilot of Luftwaffe.
Jorma Sarvanto and six kills in five minutes. (Finland)
The 'Winter War' was being fought and it was on 6 January 1940 in. At dawn (about 8:30) the weather in Southern Finland was fairly favourable to enemy bombers. The cloud cover at 300 to 400 m was patchy, providing enough visibility for orientation, but also protecting bombers from surveillance and interceptors, and then haze up to 4000m.
Four Fokker D-XXI fighters with ski undercarrige of the 4th flight of the 24th Squadron were located in the Utti air base. The reason that the Flight was there was that during the first days of the year Finnish intelligence had intercepted radio messages from Soviet weather recce a/c flying over Jyväskylä and Kuopio. This indicated that the enemy had targeted these towns. Col.Lt Lorenz, the commander of the 2nd Wing, instructed Maj Magnusson to place his fighters accordingly.
At 9:30 the air surveillance reported enemy planes. The Fokkers were sent in pairs to intercept, but due to poor visibility the enemies could be encountered by chance only.
At the same time Lieutenant Pehr-Erik "Pelle" (his nickname is shortened from the original, as “Bob” from “Robert”) Sovelius was ferrying FR-92 to Utti from Lappeenranta where the fighter had been undergoing periodic major maintenance in one of the few warm hangars of the FAF. As usual the machine guns of the Fokker were loaded even though it was to be a ferrying mission.
Sovelius was near the base as at 10.10 hrs he heard in his headphones: - 'Enemy planes north of Hamina at 3000m!'.
He saw eight DB-3 bombers flying in an abreast formation right in his direction.
Sovelus’ battle report of the engagement:
Place of the aerial battle: “Northern edge of the Utti airfield.”
Enemy a/c: “ DB”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “Dived burning to the ground between Utti and Kaipiainen, North of the railway line.”
Course of the aerial battle: “On a ferrying flight Lappeenranta-Utti I was informed by radio about the movement of enemy a/c at the Southern fringe of the Haukkasuo swamp, eight a/c, on a course to North from Kotka, flying altitude 3000 m. I intercepted the formation on “collision course”. Having climbed above the enemy I half-rolled my Fokker at the left wing a/c. I shot the gunner at 300m and then approached to a distance of 100m. At that moment the third a/c from the left fired at me, so I gave her a brief burst and the gunner fell silent.
Then I fired brief bursts (at the bomber) and the a/c caught fire. The left engine and wing were burning. The a/c crashed.”
Ammunition consumption: “500 pcs.”
Eventual evidence: “A/c found between Utti and Kaipiainen near the railway line.”
Other obervations: “The enemy a/c supported each other by flanking fire. My fighter took 8 hits.”
Signed by : Lt. P.-E. Sovelius Aircraft: FR-92
The other seven bombers continued northwards, and being almost as fast as the Fokker D.XXI they escaped among the clouds and haze. The enemy must have had intelligence information about the Utti base, the “home” of the Finnish fighter aviation, yet these bombers flew almost over it.
The enemy bombing target was Kuopio, population 22000, situated 400 km from the Southern coast at the railway line, which made the navigation easier.
Air raid alert was sounded in Kuopio at 10.52 hours. The town, totally lacking AA defence, was shrouded in frosty mist. The population hurried to take cover in hastily dug splinter shelters, cellars, holes in the ground or in the surrounding forest. Nine two-enigined Soviet bombers flew over the town, failing to spot it. The enemy flew to the North, then turned and dropped 7 high explosive (HE) bombs and fired with machine guns. No actual damage was caused.
Immediately another enemy escadrille was spotted. It was recorded to comprise 6 twin-engined bombers. (This was the 6. DBAP intercepted by Sovelius.) They also at first flew over the town and turned back at Siilinjärvi about 15 km to N. Now unfortunately wind had rosen and scattered the mist. The enemy approached at an altitude of 1000 m, dropped 54 HE bombs and fired with machine guns. 35 houses were damaged, but only one person was killed – by heart attack. ( Three ore lethal air raids followed later in January and February: 42 people were killed, hundreds wounded, 200 houses damaged or destroyed.) It was a terror raid, pure and simple.
The Fokker pilots at Utti kept their flying gear on and waited for the returning bombers. Lt. Sarvanto ordered his ground crew to keep his "FR-97", "white 2" warm (see profile in page bottom).
Message was received at 11:50 - '7 bombers flying south following the northern railway!'. The pilots of 4./LLv 24 climbed in their fighters, warmed up the engines and turned their radios on. Lieutenant Jorma Sarvanto listened to the radio traffic, soon he and his wingman (constituting one patrol) were ordered to take off. After take-off the wingman found that he had an engine problem (snow had clogged the engine air intake during take off) and he had to return. Lt. Sarvanto continued alone at the optimum rate of climb, direction N to meet the enemy.
The second pair (Lt. Sovelius and Sgt. Ikonen) took off after noticing that Lieutenant Sarvanto had to go alone, but Sarvanto had a good head start. Now the clouds had disappeared from the sky at Utti, and Sarvanto discovered the handsome formation of DB bomber bellies lit by dim sun shining through the haze. He counted seven silver coloured DB-3 bombers. To the left - a wedge of three, to the right - four abreast, all no farther than one plane length from each other. There was no fighter escort.
Sarvanto continued climbing, turning south by a right curve. For a moment he was within the range and sector of the bomber nose gunners, but remained unnoticed due to sun glare. When he was at the same altitude of 3000 m with the bombers, he was about 500m behind them. Sarvanto pursued the enemy at full power. He decided to attack the leftmost wing bomber, although the third from left was closest to him, to avoid getting into cross-fire from the rear gunners. At a distance of 300 m his plane vibrated unpleasantly - he had flown in a bomber gunner MG salvo.
The fighter pilot kept on approaching the bombers. At a distance of 20 (twenty) meters he aimed at the fuselage of his victim, the left wing bomber, and pressed the trigger briefly. The tracers hit the target. Next, he shifted his aim at the rear gunner of the tail bomber, and killed him. Lt. Sarvanto then carefully aimed at the right engine of the first bomber and fired a brief burst. The bomber's engine caught fire. He repeated the same maneuvre at the tail bomber with similar result. Two burning DB-3 bombers were leaving the formation.
Jorma Sarvanto cheered aloud and attacked the right wing of the formation while the bomber rear gunners blazed at his Fokker. He fired at each engine of the nearest bomber, making them smoke and forcing the bomber to leave the formation. Then he engaged the other bombers at a very close range. Each victim caught fire after two to three brief bursts of MG fire. Sarvanto glanced back - the latest smoking bomber was now in flames and diving to the ground.
Now Sarvanto decided to destroy every one of the DB-3 formation. Some burning bombers made a slow half-roll before diving down, another pulled up before diving down. All the time they were flying south, the sun shone red through the haze low in southern horizon unless dimmed by smoke from a burning enemy plane.
Bomber no.6 was much more resistant to his bullets. The Fokker wing guns were out of ammo by now, but finally the DB-3 caught fire, and Finnish pilot could engage the last bomber. He already had eliminated the rear gunner, so he could fly close to the target. He aimed at one engine and pressed the trigger. Not a single shot. Sarvanto pulled the loading lever and retried shooting, but again in vain. He had spent his ammunition. There was nothing to do but leave the bomber alone and return to the base.
Columns of black smoke hung in the air and burning bomber wrecks could be seen on the ground. Sarvanto checked his instruments, there was no damage to vital parts, but his radio was dead and the Fokker's wings resembled Swiss cheese When preparing for landing he found that the hydraulic pump for the landing flaps did not work, but he landed successfully despite that...
Luutnantti Sarvanto felt very satisified as he parked his Fokker, but he did not quite get out of the cockpit before his cheering ground crew grabbed him and threw him in the air. The flight lasted 25 minutes and the actual battle 5 minutes, during which he shot down 6 DB-3 bombers belonging to the 6th DBAP of the Soviet Air Force. Two Soviet airmen bailed out and were taken prisoners, but the sources do not mention their names. The mechanics counted 23 hits from the bomber rear gunners in FR-97, some of them near the cockpit, necessitating several weeks' repairs at the State Aircraft Factory.
The patrol that took off afterwards pursued the surviving bomber.
The second battle report by Lt. Sovelius:
Date and time: 6.1. 1940 12.30 hrs
Place of the aerial battle: “Gulf of Finland South of Kotka between Suursaari and Lavansaari”
Enemy a/c: “DB”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “Left engine burning, dived in the sea. Air surveillance center reported 12.25 hrs at map square 32C6.”
Course of the aerial battle: “This a/c belonged to the formation of seven of which Sarvanto shot down 6. This a/c continued flying. I pursued her with Sgt. Ikonen. Sgt. Ikonen ran out of ammo South of Haapasaari (rem: he kept firing at a long range) and he turned back. I continued still for a while and finally reached the range of 200 m. I fired a long burst whereby the enemy left engine caught fire and the a/c began to descend toward the sea. Dense fog made pursuit difficult.”
Ammunition consumption: “1000 pcs”
Evidence : “Air surveillance center report.”
Other obervations: -
Signed by : Lt. P.-E. Sovelius Aircraft: FR-92
Next night Sarvanto visited the local Air Defence Center in Kouvola. He was presented to an enemy Sr. Lieutenant who had parachuted out of one of the bombers, and he also was shown war booty found in the wrecks: Field manuals, training manuals, pistols. Another POW, a Captain, was in hospital with a broken leg.
The Finnish radio surveillance found that the enemy stations kept calling the destroyed escadrille far beyond the theoretical maximum flying time, late in the night.
This feat by Sarvanto received tremendous publicity in the word press, who considered it a world record at the time. Many major Western newspapers published a photo of Lt. Sarvanto holding a large creased sheet of aluminium with a big "5" on it, a trophy from one of the victims. The hero himself was rather embarrassed by his unexpected fame, he said that any of his fellow pilots could have shot down those six bombers if they had had equal opportunity.
The town council of Kuopio donated silver candlesticks for Sarvanto, Sovelius and Ikonen as a token of gratitude.
The reasons for this unusual success were the following:
Approaching at a close range and shooting accurately
The bombers flew passively and lacked fighter escort.
The half-empty bomber fuel tanks were vulnerable due to accumulated fumes.
It is no wonder that the enemy flew “passively”. Finnish pilots flying captured DB-3s found that she simply could not be coaxed by her pilot to do any reasonable evasive action, such as sideslipping. The DB-3 was very stable, a virtue during a bomb run but vice when under attack by fighters. But directing the bombers to fly next to a known fighter base is more difficult to understand.
It is also rumoured that the armourers had disregarded the regulations and had loaded the Fokker's MG belts with a larger proportion of scarce and expensive incendiary and armour piercing ammunition. Some Soviet sources imply that the bombers were lacking defensive armament but this is not true, both FR-92 and FR-97 were damaged by enemy machine gunners during the action .
This day also proved the VVS that bombers penetrating deep in the enemy airspace without fighter escort are bound to take heavy losses.
Finally, the actual battle report by Lt. Jorma Sarvanto:
Report of Air Battle
(about enemy a/c that have been damaged or shot down)
Date and time: “6.1. 1940 12.03 – 12.07 hrs”
Place of the aerial battle: “Utti-Tavastila (altitude omitted)”
Enemy a/c: “DB a/c (radial engines)”
Fate of the enemy a/c: “6 a/c caught fire in the air, one continued her course but the gunner was silent. A/c found.”
Course of the aerial battle: “I approached alone from ahead and below. I changed my course to parallel so that they flew over me and I got behind and below them. I shot the a/c in flames from right behind about in the numbered sequence (sketch below). In the beginning the gunners flank-fired but I suppressed their fire with brief bursts. My range varied from 20 to 150m.
I fired minimal bursts at the engines and each a/c caught fire at the 2nd or 3rd burst. Ammunition consumption about 2000 pcs.”