Hans-Joachim Marseille

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Hans-Joachim Marseille : biography

13 December 1919 – 30 September 1942

Friedrich Körner (36 kills) also recognised this as unique:

Shooting in a curve (deflection shooting) is the most difficult thing a pilot can do. The enemy flies in a defensive circle, that means they are already lying in a curve and the attacking fighter has to fly into this defensive circle. By pulling his aircraft right around, his curve radius must be smaller, but if he does that, his target disappears in most cases below his wings. So he cannot see it anymore and has to proceed simply by instinct.

His success as a fighter pilot also led to promotions and more responsibility as an officer. 1 May 1942 saw him prematurely promoted to Oberleutnant followed by his appointment to Staffelkapitän of 3./JG 27 on 8 June 1942, thus succeeding Oberleutnant Gerhard Homuth who took command of I./JG 27.Sims 1982, p. 171.

In a conversation with his friend Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt, Marseille commented on his style, and his idea of air-to-air combat: I often experience combat as it should be. I see myself in the middle of a British [sic] swarm, firing from every position and never getting caught. Our aircraft are basic elements, Stahlschmidt, which have got to be mastered. You’ve got to be able to shoot from any position. From left or right turns, out of a roll, on your back, whenever. Only this way can you develop your own particular tactics. Attack tactics, that the enemy simply cannot anticipate during the course of the battle – a series of unpredictable movements and actions, never the same, always stemming from the situation at hand. Only then can you plunge into the middle of an enemy swarm and blow it up from the inside.Dettmann and Kurowski 1964, p. 64.

His attack method to break up formations, which he perfected, resulted in a high lethality ratio, and in rapid, multiple victories per attack. On 3 June 1942, Marseille attacked alone a formation of 16 Curtiss P-40 fighters and shot down six aircraft of No. 5 Squadron SAAF, five of them in six minutes, including three aces: Robin Pare (six victories), Douglas Golding (6.5 victories) and Andre Botha (five victories). His wingman Rainer Pöttgen, nicknamed Fliegendes Zählwerk the ("Flying Counting Machine"),Sims 1982, p. 156. said of this fight:

All the enemy were shot down by Marseille in a turning dogfight. As soon as he shot, he needed only to glance at the enemy plane. His pattern [of gunfire] began at the front, the engine's nose, and consistently ended in the cockpit. How he was able to do this not even he could explain. With every dogfight he would throttle back as far as possible; this enabled him to fly tighter turns. His expenditure of ammunition in this air battle was 360 rounds (60 per kill).Kurowski 1994, p. 156. 

After claiming his 100th kill on 17 June 1942, Marseille returned to Germany for two months leave. On 6 August, he began his journey back to North Africa accompanied by his fiancée Hanne-Lies Küpper. On 13 August, he met Benito Mussolini in Rome and was presented with the highest Italian military award for bravery, the Medaglia d’Oro al Valor Militare.Kurowski 1994, p. 183.

Leaving his fiancée in Rome, Marseille returned to combat duties on 23 August. 1 September 1942 was Marseille’s most successful day, destroying 17 enemy aircraft, and September would see him score 54 kills, his most productive month.Weal 2003, p. 86. The 17 enemy aircraft shot down included eight in 10 minutes, as a result of this feat he was presented with a type 82 Volkswagen Kübelwagen by an Italian Regia Aeronautica squadron, on which his Italian comrades had painted "Otto" (Italian language: Otto = eight).Wübbe 2001, p. 319. This was the most aircraft from Western Allied air forces shot down by a single pilot in one day.O’Leary 2000, p. 46. Only one pilot, Emil "Bully" Lang on 4 November 1943, would better this score, against the Soviet Air Force on the Eastern Front.Feist 1993, p. 61.

Marseille continued scoring multiple kills throughout September, including seven on 15 September. Between 16–25 September, Marseille failed to increase his score due to a fractured arm, sustained in a force landing soon after the 15 September mission. As a result, he had been forbidden to fly by Eduard Neumann. But the same day, Marseille borrowed the Macchi C.202 ’96–10′ of the Italian ace Tenente Emanuele Annoni, from 96a Squadriglia, 9° Gruppo, 4° Stormo, based at Fuka, for a test flight. But the one-off flight ended in a wheels-up landing, when the German ace accidentally switched the engine off, as the throttle control in Italian aircraft was opposite to that of the German aircraft. The incident highlighted some deficiencies in Marseille’s flying.Massimello Apostolo 2000, p. 35. Werner Schröer said: Landings and take-offs, however, fell well below the usual Squadron standards. Once he borrowed a new Macchi 202 from a neighbouring Italian squadron and crashed it on landing. It left a poor impression of his general ability as a pilot.Tate 2008, p. 32. Marseille had nearly surpassed his friend Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt’s score of 59 kills in just five weeks. However, the massive material superiority of the Allies meant the strain placed on the outnumbered German pilots was now severe. At this time, the strength of German fighter units was 112 (65 serviceable) aircraft against the British muster of some 800 machines.Weal 2003, p. 82. Marseille was becoming physically exhausted by the frenetic pace of combat. After his last combat on 26 September, Marseille was reportedly on the verge of collapse after a 15-minute battle with a formation of Spitfires, during which he scored his seventh victory of that day.Weal 1994, pp. 32, 33.