Allied bomber crews generally were relieved after 25 combat missions during World War II. In stark contrast, one German bomber pilot, Major Hansgeorg Bätcher (pronounced Hans Gay-org Bet-sher), logged 658 combat sorties. Bätcher, who was 31 years old when the war ended, had a singular career that paralleled the rapid development of the aircraft he flew into the record books. He began in the open cockpit of a twin-engine Dornier Do-23--which he considered a "barge"--and ended the war at the controls of the world's first jet bomber, the Arado Ar-234.
Bätcher's career, although outstanding by any standard, was largely a reflection of the wartime requirements imposed on German bomber pilots in comparison with their Allied counterparts. Thanks to largely inept planning and even poorer leadership, German combat crews were denied the luxury of rotation. Adolf Galland, legendary commander of the Luftwaffe fighter arm, once said, "Our pilots and crews fought until they died."
Allied Policy
A much saner policy governed the employment of American and British bomber crews. In the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) 8th Bomber Command, the completion of 25 missions was required before a ticket Stateside was issued. But between the late summer of 1942 and the winter of 1943, the odds that an entire Boeing B-17 Fortress or Consolidated B-24 Liberator crew would survive 25 missions were poor at best. The men of the B-17 Memphis Belle, for example, were regarded as lucky warriors to have returned unscathed from their 25th and last sortie.
The Royal Air Force's (RAF's) night raiders had an even more hazardous flight path, and they were at it longer than their American allies. Before Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris began his 1,000-bomber assaults on German cities, RAF crews were usually rotated to operational training commands after 35 missions. The tour requirement was extended to 45 missions in early 1943, after Avro Lancaster fleets became operational.
A 15 percent loss rate was considered prohibitive by the Americans, but the British averaged 20 percent from late 1942 on, and sometimes--as in March 1944--they had to record the loss of fully one-quarter of their heavy bombers in a single raid. Soviet aircrew losses during what they called "the Great Patriotic War" were so horrendous, especially in tactical aviation, that even now no precise figures are available.
Luftwaffe Exploits
The Luftwaffe's offensive core, its Kampffliegerei (bomber arm), was consumed by ceaseless combat in a three-front war. Thus it was possible for Bätcher to record an almost incredible amount of combat time in his logbook.
Although no other bomber pilot matched his tally, Bätcher was by no means the only German Kampfflieger to record missions in three figures, often under near-impossible conditions. Scores of German bomber pilots flew 300 or more combat missions. Among them were Werner Baumbach, an anti-shipping specialist and the last commanding officer of the "secret" special operations wing, Kampfgeschwader (bomber wing) 200 (KG.200). Dietrich Peltz, originally a Junkers Ju-87 Stuka pilot, became general of bombers at age 29. And Joachim Helbig, a Junkers Ju-88 jockey par excellence in the Mediterranean theater, was mentioned by name in Britain's House of Lords by no less a personage than Winston Churchill. Helbig's command, I Gruppe of Lehrgeschwader (training wing) 1, achieved fame in the Allied camp as "the Helbig Flyers" after sinking three British destroyers in a single outing.
Martin Harlinghausen, a sailor turned airman who commanded Fliegerkorps (flying corps) X, wrested the North African and central Mediterranean skies from Britain in the summer of 1942. Another anti-shipping ace was Major Bernhard Jope, commanding officer of III Gruppe, KG.100, whose Dornier Do-217s were the first to sink a capital warship (the surrendering Italian battleship Roma) with a guided missile. Ernst Kühl (who had a doctorate in law) was probably the oldest combat pilot on either side. At age 57, he commanded KG.55, fighting primarily in Russia and chalking up no fewer that 315 missions.
The Luftwaffe also had the only bomber crew--Axis or Allied--in which every member wore his country's highest decoration. This singular "Knights Cross team" flew more than 500 missions in the twin-engine Ju-88, from the Suez to the Volga.
A Tactical Force
In spite of those exploits, however, the Luftwaffe's bomber arm had, by 1943, ceased to exist as a viable offensive weapon. The Kampfflieger fought on, but primarily as fire brigades for the hard-pressed Wehrmacht. In the west, German bombers could not survive in daylight, even on those rare occasions when a fighter escort was available. And though a second Battle of Britain (under Dietrich Peltz) was launched in 1944, the night skies over England proved to be deadlier for the Germans than they had been in 1940.
There was, however, an occasional surprise to keep the Allies on their toes. In the pre-dawn hours of June 22, 1944, a massed formation of German bombers from four wings struck at the big Soviet air base at Poltava.The formations of Heinkel He-177s and He-111s destroyed 80 U.S. aircraft, including 47 out of Colonel Archie J. Old's force of 163 Fortresses, which had raided Ruhland (south of Berlin) the day before. The Americans had flown on to land at Poltava as part of an operation code-named "Frantic."
The German bomber arm was conceived as a strategic weapon, but built as a tactical force. It was used as flying artillery to clear the way for the army. When the bombers were called on to complete strategic tasks, as in the air assault on Britain, they failed because, quite simply, the Luftwaffe lacked a long-range strategic bomber. Because they had nothing to match a Lancaster or B-17, the Germans could not knock out the very island that would become the "aircraft carrier" from which fleets of heavy bombers would sortie to reduce the German fatherland to rubble. Further, when the Soviets dismantled their aircraft factories in the winter of 1941 to rebuild them beyond the Ural Mountains, the Luftwaffe had no bomber with the range to hit them, either. Not only did the Red Army Air Force recoup its horrible losses of the previous summer, but by 1943 it had regained air superiority over its homeland.
A four-engine "Ural bomber" had been championed by the Luftwaffe's first chief of staff--and by far its ablest leader--Lt. Gen. Walther Wever. When Wever died in an air crash in 1936, however, Germany's strategic bomber program died with him. A policy was implemented to produce the cheaper, smaller, twin-engine medium bomber--a policy that played a key role in Germany's defeat. But, as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring proclaimed in 1938, "The Führer will never ask me what type of bombers we have, but how many!"
The He-111
The Luftwaffe went to war with three standard twin-engine medium bombers. They were the Junkers Ju-86 (totally obsolete by 1940), the Dornier Do-17 (dubbed the "Flying Pencil" by the RAF) and the Heinkel He-111. All three had been combat-tested by the Condor Legion in Spain. The He-111 proved to be the best of the three, though each had revealed some serious shortcomings--primarily poor defensive armament and insufficient range. The He-111 would become Bätcher's main war "chariot." Many aviation historians have labeled the He-111 "the definitive medium bomber of World War II," at least in the early stages of the conflict.
The He-111 was powered by either 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled Daimler Benz DB-600 series engines or the equally reliable 1,200-hp Junkers Jumo 211s. It could lift a 4,410-pound bombload above 20,000 feet and had a maximum speed of 250 mph. When the bomber went into mass production in 1936, it was faster than most European fighters. The first models, therefore, were equipped with only three single 7.92mm MG-15 machine guns for what amounted to token defense. That shortcoming, coupled with insufficient range, would contribute to the heavy losses inflicted against the Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires that the He-111 formations encountered over Britain in 1940.
Nevertheless, the He-111 was popular with its five-man crews. They called this almost graceful bird the Spate (Spade) because of its slightly sweptback, wide elliptical wings. The aircraft handled well, whether at altitude or "on the deck." A fully glazed oval nose, which extended back to just behind the pilot, provided the crew with excellent all-around visibility. And those who flew it discovered soon enough that the airframe could absorb considerable punishment from both anti-aircraft fire and fighters.
Heinkel continually refined and developed the basic design of the Spate--the key to the extraordinary versatility of most German aircraft--and improved on its performance and armament. The He-111 soldiered on to the last day of the war and served in many roles, including those of transport, torpedo bomber, guided-missile platform and flying test-bed.
Bätcher's Early Career
One of the units equipped with the He-111H series was I Gruppe of KG.27, the soon-to-be-famous "Kampfgeschwader Boelcke." Sitting beside the pilot of one plane as it lifted off on September 1, 1939, was 1st Lt. Hansgeorg Bätcher. Although he was already a qualified pilot, Bätcher was to fly his first seven combat missions as an observer.
Hansgeorg Bätcher was born in January 1914, the son of an engineer. He was bitten early by the flying bug and had secured every glider pilot ticket by the time he was 17. He was instructing at the local glider school at 19. Bätcher enlisted in the fledgling Luftwaffe in January 1935 and, to his great disappointment, found himself being trained as an observer at the heavy-bomber school at Tutow.
Bätcher, who was promoted to second lieutenant in March 1936, was persistent, however. Seizing every opportunity, he began to clock hours at the controls of multiengine aircraft during his off-duty time. By October 1938 he was proudly wearing both the observer and pilot wings on his tunic. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on September 27, 1939, and was finally transferred to the pilot's seat in the 3. Staffel of KG.27.
Bätcher in France
Bätcher easily could have posed for a recruiting poster for the Luftwaffe or even the SS. He was ruggedly handsome and very blond--an exact portrait of his Führer's mythical superhero. After 1942, when his exploits over the Soviet Union were trumpeted in armed forces communiqués, his Aryan face (with Knights Cross prominently displayed at the throat, of course) beamed from the covers of Wehrmacht magazines, most notably Signal. But this passionate aviator was also an excellent combat pilot--which he proved on his first mission as an aircraft commander against the French.
Bätcher's He-111H (he was flying as starboard wingman in the squadron's rear kette, or "chain") was jumped by six Morane-Saulnier 406 fighters early on June 5, 1940. In short order, the radiators of both engines were shot to pieces, and the flight engineer and radio operator were badly wounded. The Heinkel's port engine soon burst into flames; the right one trailed a banner of thick smoke.
Bätcher somehow forced his dying airplane on toward the target, a troop concentration near Rouen. Only after he had dropped his bombs did he seek a place to land his flying piece of junk. He dropped the He-111 into a meadow and shortly thereafter was marched off into captivity with his crew. The "Flying Siegfried" returned to his unit on July 3, 1940, following France's capitulation.
