ace of war part 5
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Walter "Nowi" Nowotny
Walter “Nowi” Nowotny was born on 7 December 1920 at Ceske Velenice/Gmünd on the Czechoslovakian/Austrian border. He joined the Luftwaffe on 1 October 1939. His flying training was completed at Jagfliegerschule 5 at Schwechat, near Vienna. Nowotny was posted to JG 54 on 23 February 1941. Leutnant Nowotny was assigned to 9./JG 54. His first four weeks with the unit were served with the Stabsschwarm of Ergänzungsgruppe/JG 54. He claimed his first victories over Ösel Island on 19 July, when he shot down two Russian I-153 biplane fighters. However, he was, in turn, shot down in Bf 109 E-7 (W.Nr. 1137) “White 2” by an I-153, flown by the future Russian ace Alexandr Avdeev (13 victories, killed in action 12 August 1942) of 153 IAP, VVS, over Riga Bay in this engagement. After three days and nights at sea in a rubber dinghy, Nowotny finally reached the shore. He recorded his 10th victory on 13 September. On 11 March 1942, Nowotny transferred to 3./JG 54. He shot down five Russian fighters on 20 July. On 2 August 1942, Nowotny claimed seven enemy aircraft shot down to record his 48th through 54th victories. On 11 August, he shot down two Russian MiG-3 fighters. His Bf 109 G-2 (W.Nr. 10 360) was hit in the engagement and caught fire. Nowotny was able to bring the burning aircraft back to his base for a crash-landing, although he did suffer some injuries. Leutnant Nowotny was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 4 September for 56 victories. Nowotny, was appointed Staffelkapitän of 1./JG 54 on 25 October 1942. He recorded his 75th victory on 20 March 1943. On 26 March 1943, Nowotny met the first Russian flown Spitfire fighters, operated by the 26 GvIAP of the Leningrad Air Defence, and shot down one of them for his 79th victory. In June, he shot down 41 enemy aircraft, including five on 1 June (84-8
, six on 8 June (93-9
, his 100th victory on 15 June, six on 21 June (109-114) and 10 on 24 June (115-124). On 10 August 1943, Nowotny was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 54. He recorded 49 Soviet planes shot down in August 1943, including nine on 13 August (129–137), six on 18 August (146-151) and seven on the 21 August (155-161). His prolific scoring continued in September when he shot down 45 enemy aircraft during the month. On 1 September 1943, he shot down ten enemy aircraft (174-183); five in the space of 12 minutes during a morning sortie and another five in nine minutes at noon. He shot down six enemy aircraft the next day (184-189). On 4 September, Oberleutnant Nowotny was awarded the Eichenlaub (Nr 293) for 189 victories. He shot down five enemy aircraft on 8 September, including his 200th victory. On 14 and 15 September, he claimed six enemy aircraft on each day to raise his victory total to 215. Hauptmann Nowotny was awarded the Schwertern (Nr 37) on 22 September for 218 victories. During his last ten days on the Eastern Front, ending on 14 October 1943, Nowotny shot down 32 Russian aircraft, including eight on 9 October (224-231) and six on 13 (239-244) and 14 October (245-250). Nowotny was the first pilot in history to pass 250 victories and was now the top-scoring fighter ace of the Luftwaffe. On 19 October, he became the eighth recipient of the Brillanten. The Nazi propaganda machine turned Nowotny into a “superstar” of the Luftwaffe. He had received the highest military awards available: Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten and was withdrawn from combat activity by the High Command. During the following months, his main role was to perform propaganda and moral-boosting duties before, on 1 April 1944, Hauptmann Nowotny was appointed Kommodore of JG 101, an operational fighter-training unit, based at Pau in France.
In September 1944, Major Nowotny was put in charge of Kommando Nowotny, equipped with the Me 262 jet fighter. The unit consolidated a number of test units and was tasked with acquiring tactical knowledge and experience of Me 262 operations. The unit was based on two airfields northwest of Osnabrück: Achmer and Hesepe. Nowotny was besieged with difficulties in operationally testing the jet fighter. In addition to staving off the increasing Allied fighter presence the jets attracted, he was also beset with the technical difficulties a new and immature technology presented. By 7 November 1944, Nowotny had claimed three victories in the new jet fighter. Nowotny took off on 8 November 1944, flying against USAAF bombers with a fighter escort. The exact circumstances of Nowotny’s death remain uncertain. Ground personnel reported hearing combat above the clouds. Nowotny reported he had downed a B-24 four-engine bomber and probably destroyed a P-51 fighter. He then reported an engine failure before making a garbled transmission referring to “burning” over the radio. His Me 262 A-1a (W.Nr. 110 400) “White 8” was seen to dive vertically out of the clouds and crash at Epe, 2.5 kilometres east of Hesepe. It is generally accepted that he was shot down by 1st Lt Edward “Buddy” Haydon of the 357th Fighter Group, USAAF and Capt Ernest “Feeb” Fiebelkorn (9 victories) of the 20th Fighter Group, USAAF whom shared a Me 262 victory at 12:45 over Achmer that day.
Walter Nowotny flew over 442 missions in achieving 258 victories. He recorded 255 of his victories over the Eastern front. Of his three victories recorded over the Western front, 2 were four-engine bombers and all 3 victories were gained while flying the Me 262 jet fighter. He claimed 24 victories over Il-2.
Victories : 258
Awards : Ehrenpokal (14 July 1942)
Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (21 August 1942)
Ritterkreuz (4 September 1942)
Eichenlaub (4 September 1943)
Schwertern (22 September 1943)
Brillanten (19 October 1943)
Units : JG 54, JG 101, Kdo Nowotny
source :
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/nowotny.html