Hannes Trautloft


Johannes "Hannes" Trautloft was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and general in the postwar German Air Force. As a fighter ace, he is credited with 58 enemy aircraft shot down, including 5 in Spain, 8 on the Western Front and 45 on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Born in Großobringen, Trautloft volunteered for military service in the Reichsheer of the Weimar Republic in 1931. In parallel, he was accepted for flight training with the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule, a covert military-training organization, and at the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school. Following flight training, he served with Jagdgeschwader 134 "Horst Wessel" and was one of the first German volunteers to fight in the Spanish Civil War. From August to December 1936, he claimed five aerial victories. For his service in Spain he was awarded the Spanish Cross in Gold with Swords.
Following his service in Spain, Trautloft held various command positions, and at the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, he was the Staffelkapitän of 2. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 77. He claimed his first aerial victory during the Invasion of Poland and was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 20 which later became III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 51. In August 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Trautloft was given command of Jagdgeschwader 54. He led JG 54 in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. There, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 July 1941. Trautloft continued to lead JG 54 on the Eastern Front until July 1943 when he was called to the staff of the General der Jagdflieger, assisting in the readiness, training and tactics of the Luftwaffe fighter force.
After the war, Trautloft joined the new German Air Force of West Germany in 1957. Serving as deputy Inspector of the Air Force and commander of Luftwaffengruppe Süd, Trautloft retired in 1970 holding the rank of Generalleutnant. He died on 11 January 1995 in Bad Wiessee.

Early life and career

Trautloft was born on 3 March 1912 in Großobringen near Weimar in Thüringen. On 7 April 1931, he began his pilot training at the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule at Schleißheim. The course he and 29 other trainees attended was called Kameradschaft 31, abbreviated "K 31". Among the members of "K 31" were future Luftwaffe staff officers Bernd von Brauchitsch, Wolfgang Falck, Günther Lützow, Günther Radusch and Ralph von Rettberg. Trautloft graduated from the Deutsche Verkehrfliegerschule 19 February 1932. From "K 31" Trautloft and 9 others were recommended for Sonderausbildung at the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school. These 10 men were the privileged few and were allowed to attend fighter pilot training. Following four months of training in the Soviet Union, he returned to Germany and joined the military service of the Reichswehr and attended the Kriegsschule in Dresden. on 1 May 1934, In October 1934, Trautloft was posted to the Jagdfliegerschule at Schleißheim.
On 1 May 1936, Trautloft was posted to Jagdgeschwader 134 "Horst Wessel", named after the Nazi martyr Horst Wessel. At the time of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Trautloft was serving in the 9. Staffel of JG 134. This squadron was subordinated to III. Gruppe of JG 134 and was commanded by Major Oskar Dinort. The Gruppe had been moved to an airfield at Cologne-Butzweilerhof on 9 March 1936 following the Remilitarization of the Rhineland. There on 28 July, Dinort called Trautloft and informed him of the unfolding events in Spain and Trautloft proactively volunteered for service in Spain.

Spanish Civil War

Sworn to secrecy, Trautloft was instructed to immediately travel to Dortmund where he received further instructions from Kurt-Bertram von Döring, and then to the assembly location at Döberitz. There, 25 officers and 66 non-commissioned officers, soldiers and civilian technicians gathered, including six pilots of which Trautloft was one. This detachment was then placed under the overall command of Oberst Alexander von Scheele. The volunteers were then discharged from the Wehrmacht and dressed in civilian clothes. As tourist of the Reisegesellschaft Union, the volunteers travel aboard the SS Usaramo, a passenger ship of the Woermann-Linie from Hamburg to Cádiz on 31 July. The Usaramo also transported the equipment and weapons, including six disassembled and boxed Heinkel He 51 biplane fighter aircraft.
The ship arrived in Cádiz on 7 August 1936 and the men then travelled by train to Seville. At Tablada airfield, the pilots assisted in reassembling the He-51 fighters, the first of which becoming operational on 10 August. On 25 August, during the Nationalist advance on Madrid, Trautloft and two other German pilots flew their first combat mission in Spain. In the vicinity of Madrid, the Germans spotted a flight of three Republican Bréguet 19 light bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Trautloft attacked one of the Republican aircraft, shooting it down near the village of Colmenar Viejo. This claim may have been the first aerial victory by a German pilot in Spain. Five days later, shortly after claiming a Potez 540 aircraft, Trautloft was himself shot down by a Dewoitine D.372, forcing him to bail out over Nationalists held territory.
Following German recognition of Francisco Franco's government on 30 September, German efforts in Spain were reorganized and expanded, and the contingent of German forces was named Condor Legion by Hermann Göring. By October, the Condor Legion was augmented, receiving more equipment and men. This made it possible to split the fighter force in two, with Trautloft leading the detachment sent to Léon airfield. As the war escalated, the Soviet Union sent better planes to aid the Republicans. Among these were the Polikarpov I-15 and Polikarpov I-16 fighter aircraft, outclassing the German He-51s. By mid-November, the fighter force had increased and the Jagdgruppe 88 was created. In December, Versuchsjagdgruppe 88, an experimental fighter group for testing new aircraft under operational conditions was created at Tablada. Trautloft was chosen as one of the pilots to test the then new Messerschmitt Bf 109. Trautloft had this aircraft personalized with the "Green Heart" of Thuringia. He wrote several recommendations on how to improve the design and combat operations of the Bf 109. On 2 March 1937, Trautloft who had claimed five aerial victories, left Spain and returned to Germany.
In 1937, Trautloft participated in the 4th international flight meeting held at the Dübendorf military airfield, Switzerland from 23 July to 1 August. Trautloft, Hauptmann Werner Restemeier and Oberleutnant Fritz Schleif, flying a flight of three BF 109 B-1s and B-2 took first place in the category Alpine flight.
On 1 July 1938, Trautloft was appointed Staffelkapitän of 12. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 132. This Staffel was reassigned to 2. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 331 on 3 November. With this unit, Trautloft participated in the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. On 1 May, the squadron was again renamed, becoming 2. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 77. In 1939, Trautloft published his Spanish War diaries named Als Jagdflieger in Spanien with a foreword by Ernst Udet.

World War II

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. In preparation for the invasion in end-August 1939, I. Gruppe of JG 77, to which the 2. Staffel was subordinated, had been moved from Breslau-Schöngarten to an airfield at Juliusburg, present-day Dobroszyce. The Gruppe operated over the left flank of Army Group South, supporting the 8th Army advance into Poland. Its main task was flying combat air patrols but had relatively little enemy contact, claiming three aerial victories, including one by Trautloft. On 5 September, Trautloft was credited with the destruction of a PZL.23 Karaś bomber near Warta, northwest of Sieradz.
On 20 September, Trautloft was promoted to Hauptmann and appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 20 on 23 September. At the time of his posting to JG 20, the Gruppe had already been withdrawn from Poland and was based at :de:Flugplatz Brandenburg-Briest|Brandenburg-Briest. Subordinated to the Stab of Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen", I./JG 20 flew fighter protection over central Germany. On 6 November, the Gruppe was moved to Döberitz where it remained until 21 February 1940. That day, I./JG 20 was ordered to Bönninghardt and placed under the control of the Stab of Jagdgeschwader 51. There, the Gruppe patrolled Germany's western border during the "Phoney War" period of World War II.

Battle of France

Trautloft led I. Gruppe of JG 20 during the Battle of France which began on 10 May 1940. At the beginning of the campaign, I. Gruppe was still based at Bönninghardt and subordinated to JG 51. The Gruppes area of operation was the Netherlands and northeastern Belgium, flying fighter escort missions for the bombers. On 16 May, the Gruppe was ordered to move to Eindhoven airfield where it remained until 20 May when it relocated to an airfield at Hoogerheide. From Hoogerheide, I. Gruppe initially flew missions to Bruges and on 24 May, the area of operations shifted towards Dunkirk and Calais. On the morning of 29 May, I./JG 20 moved further west to an airfield at Sint-Denijs-Westrem. That evening, Trautloft claimed a Royal Air Force Supermarine Spitfire shot down southeast of Dunkirk. Two days later, Trautloft claimed another Spitfire during the Battle of Dunkirk. In preparation for Operation Paula on 3 June, I./JG 20 was ordered to Vitry-En-Artois and flew escort missions in the afternoon. It was then ordered back to Sint-Denijs-Westrem before moving to Saint-Omer to support Fall Rot, the second phase of the conquest of France.
Supporting Army Group B, the Gruppe advanced to Estrées-lès-Crécy on 8 June and claimed its last aerial victory of the Battle of France on 13 June. The next day, I./JG 20 moved to an airfield southeast of Rouen and to Vouziers on 20 June. On 22 June, I./JG 20 returned to Saint-Omer where it patrolled the French coast on the English Channel. In total, I. Gruppe of JG 20 under Trautloft's command claimed 35 aerial victories during the Battle of France, losing five pilots killed in action, two were taken prisoner of war and three were wounded. In addition, ten Bf 109s were lost in combat. Following the armistice of 22 June 1940, the Battle of France ended on 25 June. By this date, the official allotted strength of I./JG 20 had been reduced to 60%.

Battle of Britain and Balkans campaign

On 4 July, I./JG 20 was officially integrated into JG 51 becoming its III. Gruppe. The end of the Battle of France marked the beginning of the Battle of Britain. The Gruppe received new aircraft during the second half of July, bringing its strength nearly to its allotment. On 19 July, III. Gruppe claimed the destruction of elven Boulton Paul Defiant interceptor aircraft in aerial combat south of Folkstone, including one claim by Trautloft. According to British records, No. 141 Squadron lost six aircraft in this encounter. Trautloft claimed his last aerial victory with JG 51 on 8 August. That day, the Gruppe claimed five victories over RAF fighters, including a Spitfire near Dungeness by Trautloft.
In late August it was becoming apparent to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht that the Battle of Britain was not going as planned. A frustrated Göring relieved several Geschwaderkommodore of their commands, and appointed younger, more aggressive men in their place. On 21 August the Luftwaffe communicated and continued with the changes which had started in June when Falck had been tasked with the creation of Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. Lützow took command of Jagdgeschwader 3, Adolf Galland was given command of Jagdgeschwader 26 "Schlageter", Werner Mölders was given command of JG 51, and Trautloft took over Jagdgeschwader 54 from Martin Mettig.
Command was transferred on 25 August and Trautloft was promoted to Major. At the time, JG 54 was based at Campagne-lès-Guines and also fighting against the RAF, either escorting bombers to England or flying combat air patrols. Trautloft claimed his first aerial victory with JG 54 that very same day. At 20:20, he claimed a Spitfire over the English Channel. Trautloft claimed two further aerial victories against the RAF, bringing his total to eight victories claimed during World War II. This includes a Hawker Hurricane shot down over Maidstone on 7 September, and a Spritfire claimed on 27 October over Ashford. On 15 September, the Luftwaffe embarked on an all-out attack against London which later dubbed the Battle of Britain Day. The next day, Trautloft met with his three group commanders at Campagne-lès-Guines, these were Hauptmann Hubertus von Bonin of I. Gruppe, Hauptmann Dietrich Hrabak of II. Gruppe, and the acting Gruppenkommandeur of III. Gruppe, Oberleutnant Günther Scholz. The topics of discussion where the poor radio discipline and the concern regarding overclaiming of aerial victories. On 2 November, Trautloft's Bf 109s E-3 was damaged by a squib load but he managed to land the aircraft safely. On 20 November, the Geschwaderstab began transferring to Germany for a period of rest and maintenance, arriving at Dortmund Airfield on 3 December. The unit stayed in Dortmund until 15 January 1941, when it was ordered to Le Mans Airfield in France. On 29 March, JG 53 was withdrawn from France and ordered to Graz-Thalerhof in preparation for the Balkans campaign.
The Geschwaderstab remained in Graz-Thalerhof until 14 April and relocated to Deta. The next day, the Geschwaderstab moved again, this time to Pančevo Airfield where it remained until 19 April. Following the capitulation of Yugoslavia JG 54 was ordered to Belgrade. Trautloft's Bf 109s E-3 was again damaged on 22 April in a forced landing at Fünfkirchen, present-day Pécs, following engine failure. On 25 April, JG 54 was ordered to return to Germany, arriving at Airfield Stolp-Reitz in Pomerania, present-day Słupsk, on 3 May. The Geschwaderstab'' did not claim any aerial victories during the Balkans campaign.

Operation Barbarossa

At Stolp-Reitz, JG 54 upgraded their aircraft to the Bf 109 F-2. For the next four weeks, the pilots familiarized themselves with the new aircraft before on 15 June, the Geschwaderstab was ordered to Trakehnen in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the upcoming invasion, JG 54 would be deployed in the area of Army Group North, was subordinated to I. Fliegerkorps and supported the 16th and 18th Army as well as the Panzer Group 4 in their strategic objective to reach Leningrad.
On 22 June, the day of the invasion, JG 54 was tasked with escorting German bombers from Kampfgeschwader 1, 76 and 77 on their mission to bomb Soviet airfields near the Lithuanian border. On one of these missions, Trautloft claimed an Ilyushin DB-3 bomber shot down northwest of Marijampolė. The next day, he claimed a Tupolev SB bomber in the vicinity of Kussen in the Krasnoznamensky District. On 24 June, elements of JG 54 moved to Kaunas with the objective to achieve air supremacy over the combat area of Army Group North. Flying from Kaunas, Trautloft claimed two DB-3's, one on 24 June and another the next day. On 28 June, the Geschwaderstab was moved to Daugavpils, protecting the bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Daugava. On 30 June, the bridgehead came under heavy attack by Soviet bombers attacking German forces near the captured bridges over the Daugava. In defense of the bridgehead, Trautloft claimed two further DB-3's. That day, 1 Minno-torpednyy Aviatsionnyy had dispatched 32 DB-3s which lost 15 aircraft in this engagement plus 10 further aircraft sustained combat damage.
On 27 July, Trautloft was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for 20 aerial victories claimed in World War II. The Geschwaderstab moved to Siversky on 7 September followed by I. and III. Gruppe a few days later. The airfield was located southwest of Leningrad and was equipped with hangars and buildings and JG 54 would be based there during the Siege of Leningrad. On 22 September, Trautloft visited the German front lines of the infantry and came under attack by strafing aircraft.

Eastern Front

On 5 December 1941, the Stavka launched a series of counter offensives named the winter campaign of 1941–42. Based at Siversky, JG 54 was the only fighter wing in the combat area of Army Group North, responsible for patrolling an area from Leningrad in the north to the Valdai Hills in the south, spanning a front line of approximately. On 7 January 1942, the Stavka launched the Lyuban Offensive Operation which was fought on the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, near Lyuban. The attack began north of Novgorod and aimed at encircling elements of the German 18th Army with the objective to break the German siege of Leningrad. This attack forced Trautloft to largely commit JG 54 to the defense of this attack. Subsequently, most of the missions flown in January and February where over the Volkhov River, connecting Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga, although some missions where still flown over Leningrad. By early March, JG 54 had replaced its Bf 109 F-2 aircraft with the newer Bf 109 F-4 variant. On 6 March, Trautloft claimed a Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance bomber aircraft near Chudovo. He was credited with an aerial victory over a I-16 on 9 March and a Yakovlev Yak-1 five days later. On 15 March, German forces launched a counterattack leading the encirclement of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army on 19 March. During this counter offensive, Trautloft claimed two further victories.
On 9 May, Trautloft claimed a Yak-1 fighter and a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber in the combat area south-southwest of Valday and east of Demyansk, following the relief of the Kholm Pocket. The Geschwaderstab returned to Siversky on 15 May.

Luftwaffe commander

On 6 July 1943 Trautloft was appointed as Jagdflieger Inspizient Ost, serving with the General der Jagdflieger office. This position put him in overall charge as Inspector of all the Fighter aircraft units fighting on the Eastern Front. On 20 November, Trautloft succeeded Günther Lützow as Inspekteur der Tagjäger, giving him overall responsibilities for all day-fighters.
In late 1944, a rumor crossed Trautloft's desk that a large number of Allied airmen were being held at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Trautloft decided to visit the camp and see for himself under the pretence of inspecting aerial bomb damage near the camp. Trautloft was about to leave the camp when captured US airman Bernard Scharf called out to him in fluent German from behind a fence. The SS guards tried to intervene but Trautloft pointed out that he out-ranked them and made them stand back. Scharf explained that he was one of more than 160 allied airmen imprisoned at the camp and begged Trautloft to rescue him and the other airmen. Trautloft's adjutant also spoke to the groups commanding officer, Phil Lamason. Disturbed by the event, Trautloft returned to Berlin and began the process to have the airmen transferred out of Buchenwald. Seven days before their scheduled execution, the airmen were taken by train by the Luftwaffe to Stalag Luft III.
In early 1945, Trautloft joined other high-ranking pilots in the "Fighter Pilots' Revolt incident" which escalated in a meeting with Göring on 22 January 1945. This was an attempt to reinstate Galland who had been dismissed for outspokenness regarding the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, and had been replaced by Oberst Gordon Gollob as General der Jagdflieger. The meeting was held at the Haus der Flieger in Berlin and was attended by a number of high-ranking fighter pilot leaders which included Trautloft, Lützow, Hermann Graf, Gerhard Michalski, Helmut Bennemann, Kurt Bühligen, Erich Leie and Herbert Ihlefeld, and their antagonist Göring supported by his staff Brauchitsch and Karl Koller. The fighter pilots, with Lützow taking the lead as spokesman, criticized Göring and made him personally responsible for the decisions taken which effectively had led to the lost air war over Europe.
Following this incident, Trautloft was relieved of his position and sent to command the 4. Flieger-Schule Division in Strassburg. He spent the remainder of the war there. Trautloft ended the war as an Oberst.

Later life

After the war, Trautloft joined the new German Air Force of West Germany on 1 October 1957, now with the rank of Brigadegeneral. In 1961, he served as deputy Inspector of the Air Force. On 1 January 1962, Trautloft succeeded Generalmajor Hermann Plocher as commander of Luftwaffengruppe Süd in Karlsruhe. Trautloft was retired on 26 June 1970 with a Großer Zapfenstreich, holding the rank of Generalleutnant. He was an active member of many veteran organizations including the Gemeinschaft der Jagdflieger until his death on 11 January 1995 at Bad Wiessee.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 58 aerial victory claims, plus three further unconfirmed claims. This number includes 5 claims during the Spanish Civil War, 8 on the Western Front and 45 on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 36 Ost 10523". The Luftwaffe grid map covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Awards