Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, From the Red Baron to the F-16 (37 page)

Throughout all of this the Luftwaffe would strike with Stukas and strafing, hitting armored columns and fixed positions. On May 26 the middle of the line was struck hard with artillery and air attacks. This was supposed to decoy the British, and small Afrikakorps units were attached with Italian divisions to complete the illusion. The initial attack was devastating, and the German armored thrust penetrated over 20 miles north behind the British lines. Rommel led the Afrika Division all the way to El Adem, some 30 miles in the rear, by sweeping far to the south and using the Allied minefields to protect his flanks.

From the onset the British generals failed to react well. A defensive mind-set coupled with indecision and commanders who led from the rear compounded the problems. But Rommel had his, too. His supply and logistics situation, always severe, quickly became critical. Until Tobruk could be taken, everything needed to fight had to be brought overland from Benghazi and Tripoli.

Bir Hakeim, stubbornly and bravely defended by the 1st Free French Brigade, did not collapse. This left a fortified enemy position on his flank that could not be ignored. American-built Grant tanks had also arrived, and their 75 mm gun could penetrate German armor at greater range than his panzers’ 57 mm weapon. The P-40E, called the Kittyhawk, had also made its appearance. Better armored, it had a slightly improved Allison engine to take the extra weight, but the real improvement was the six .50-caliber wing-mounted machine guns.

The Hurricane went through several upgrades and changes as well, completing its transformation to a primarily fighter bomber role. The Mk IIb variant carried two immense 40 mm cannons in gondola pods and was devastating to German armor. Supermarine had also fielded tropical versions of the Spitfire Mk V that included desert survival kits and better cooling systems.

None of this really slowed down the Luftwaffe, and despite the lack of spare parts and fuel shortages they still controlled the skies during the Gazala battles. During the late morning of June 3, Marseille, now commanding 3 Staffel, took off with eight Messerschmitts to cover the Stukas attacking Bir Hakeim. The defending Free French brigade was defended by nine Tomahawks from No. 5 Squadron, including three aces. As the Stukas pulled off target the South Africans pounced, never seeing the 109’s above them. Marseille dove straight into the middle, breaking up their attack and scattering them. One P-40 began a climbing defensive turn, and Marseille shot it down with a quick burst. Zooming up above the fur ball by a few thousand feet, he booted the plane over on its side and stared down at the fight.

The South Africans were forming into a right-turning defensive wheel, and no doubt Jochen shook his head slightly in disbelief. Immediately rolling over, he dove down and actually
entered
the Lufbery, shooting down a second Tomahawk. Because a 109 could turn tighter than a P-40, he simply cut across the circle a bit, pulled lead, and fired again. Doing this twice, he claimed two more South Africans. In less than eleven minutes he shot down six P-40’s using only twelve rounds of 20 mm cannon shells and less than a third of his machine gun ammunition.

It was a new Luftwaffe record, and everyone was astounded. His friend Ludwig Franzisket said, “You really had to see Jochen in combat to really appreciate his gift. I have no idea how he managed the impossible angles, stalls and inverted over the top victories, but he always did this.” The day’s fighting brought his total kills to seventy-five and added Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross.
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Two days later the British Eighth Army finally counterattacked but was stopped by strong German defensive positions. Rommel sucked them into a trap by seemingly collapsing his center, then sending two pincers east and north. Armored units suffered losses of nearly 80 percent, with multiple infantry units overrun and captured. This made Bir Hakeim indefensible, and the French were ordered to evacuate.
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In the north British units fell back as far as Tobruk, which surrendered on the twenty-first.

June 1942 was a momentous month. The Wehrmacht was advancing in southern Russia, taking hundreds of thousands of prisoners and closing in on Stalingrad. In the Pacific the Battle of Midway had begun, and it initially appeared to be a stunning Japanese victory over the American navy. For Hans Marseille it meant leaving Libya with 101 kills and orders back to Germany to receive the Swords to his Knight’s Cross from Adolf Hitler himself—one of only twelve German officers to receive it.

Ten days later, during lunch at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia, Goering asked the young hero, “So, you now have what, over a hundred conquests?”

He meant enemy aircraft, but Jochen, sincere or not, replied, “Herr Reichsmarschall, do you mean aircraft or women?”

Goering laughed so hard he nearly choked.

Marseille was then sent around Germany on a quick public relations tour to schools, hospitals, and various veterans’ groups. He was also a gifted pianist, and at one of many parties he was asked to perform an impromptu recital for Hitler, Goering, Himmler, and the rest of the Nazi leadership. Marseille obligingly played Chopin and Beethoven for over an hour. Then, with a mischievous smile, he broke into a Scott Joplin jazz number—music specifically banned by Hitler himself! Finally overcoming his shock, the Führer stood and left.

Classic Hans Marseille.

On his way back to Libya he had a stopover in Rome to receive an Italian decoration from Mussolini himself—who apparently told Marseille he should get a haircut. After Jochen’s fiancée left for home, he treated himself to a brief fling with a married Italian girl who apparently was one of Mussolini’s nieces. The German High Command got a phone call from some very worried and angry Italian officers, but as Marseille was headed back into action, there wasn’t much to be done. In any event, he made it to North Africa in late August, resumed command of his squadron, and found that during his eight-week absence Rommel had advanced 300 miles east into Egypt. The Allies had fought a series of delaying actions, wisely abandoning their indefensible positions at Mersa-Matruh. Claude Auchinleck, the British commander, had chosen to fall back on an obscure railway junction barely 60 miles away from the port of Alexandria.

El Alamein was a natural chokepoint between the coast and the Qattara Depression 40 miles to the south. There was no way into Egypt from the west but through here. The Allies constructed three heavily fortified “boxes” connected by minefields and protected by heavily emplaced troops. Two armored divisions were kept in the rear with air cover from the newly reorganized Western Desert Air Force (WDAF). Besides bomber and reconnaissance wings, there were two fighter groups with twenty-five squadrons between them: Hurricanes, Spitfires, and now three U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) P-40F squadrons.

The Afrikakorps arrived on June 30 and attacked in the early morning of July 1, 1942. Using a classic mobile warfare plan, a hole was punched in the Allied line that was to allow pincers to sweep through the British rear. The 90th Light Afrika Division was supposed to swing north and cut the road/railway between El Alamein and Alexandria while the armored thrust cut off the British XIII Corps in the center. Artillery fire and heavy RAF interdiction attacks kept the 90th from reaching the coast. Some 800 to 900 sorties per day were flown and by some estimates cost the Germans 50 percent of their tanks. The battle broke apart into a series of running fights along the ridgelines, leaving both sides exhausted. Rommel, with his dwindling strength and receiving less than 15 percent of his required supplies, dug in and would stay there until the end of August. But Rommel knew he had to move quickly, as America’s entry into the war and the increasing flow of Allied reinforcements meant he was on borrowed time.

Auchinleck had been replaced by Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery in mid-August, and this time the British were ready. Small, feisty, vain, and unpleasant, “Monty” had fought in the Great War and been shot through the lung by a sniper. He was also a fighting man and just what the confused and demoralized Eighth Army needed at the time. A memo sent out to his men read: “Everyone must be imbued with the desire to kill Germans, even the padres—one for weekdays and two on Sundays.”

Under a full moon on August 30 the Germans moved across the minefields into a weakly defended section between Munassib and Himeimat. Rommel’s plan was to then head north, behind the Allied positions, and again try to cut the road to Alexandria. But the “Desert Fox” had himself been outfoxed, as this was precisely what Montgomery wanted him to do. The moon made RAF night attacks possible, and they hit the Germans coming through the gap. Rommel lost two of his commanders, one dead and one wounded, but still pushed forward, then wheeled north as planned.

As they approached the Alam Halfa Ridge, Monty sprang his trap. With his tanks generally dug in and supported by artillery with air support, the Afrikakorps was stopped. On August 31, Marseille got airborne for the first time since June and promptly shot down two Hurricanes that were inbound to attack the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions. Halted for a lack of fuel, most German armor didn’t move much during the day. Neither did the British, as they were saving tanks for their forthcoming counteroffensive. During a late-afternoon mission, Jochen tangled with a Spitfire V just east of Alam Halfa and sent him down.

The next morning he was wheels up at 0756 with a total of thirty-five Bf 109’s from both JG 27 and JG 53. Escorting Stukas again, they flew east past Ruweisat Ridge toward Alam Halfa. Thirty minutes after takeoff, Marseille found sixteen Hurricanes in a westerly climb, undoubtedly headed for the Afrikakorps panzers. Overflying them by a few thousand feet, he rolled inverted and pulled down hard, ending up heading west himself, below the British fighters and coming up fast.

Closing in from the six o’clock low blind spot, he opened fire from short range. As his target burned and fell away he fired another short burst, and a second Hurricane exploded. The others all broke away defensively, leaving the Germans to hunt at will. Marseille flashed through the sky, banking up hard in order to see behind and above. These were Mk IIc models of the Hurricane, and he must’ve grinned. The “Hurribomber,” as it was called, had four 20 mm cannons plus bombs and was lethal for ground attack. But against a 109 it had no chance.

“Seille . . . break left . . . Indianer six o’clock low!”

Marseille heard the call, booted the rudder, yanked the power back, and dropped his flaps. As he pulled the stick back in his lap, the 109 went into a shuddering turn and nearly skidded to a stop. Unable to slow down or kill the 109 as it virtually stopped in space, a Spitfire streaked past, cranking up on one wing to keep the crazy German in sight. Reacting instantly, Jochen flipped up the flap lever, went to full power, and pulled his nose up. The mental 3-D geometry of lead angles, distance, and speed simply appeared in his mind, so he aimed and fired.

The Spitfire flew right through it. Kill number three for the morning . . . in nine minutes. Five minutes later he caught a straggler and sent another Spitfire into the desert.
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When he landed back at Quotaifiya, his armorers found Marseille had used eighteen cannon shells and fewer than 250 machine gun rounds. About an hour later he was back in the air, eastbound toward the battlefield. It was plain to see, rising plumes of black smoke that thinned into gray fingers at altitude. There were yellow orange flashes followed by white puffs as tanks fired, and his eyes caught movement all over the desert floor as hundreds of vehicles scuttled about raising dust plumes.

This time it was eight P-40s that peeled away from the bombers they were protecting to attack the German fighters. Unable to climb to meet the 109s, the Allied fighters went into the standard but risky Wheel formation they loved so much. Not wanting a nose-to-nose pass against six .50-caliber guns, Jochen waited for the circle to form, then dove into the middle of it. He shot down three P-40’s in as many minutes, which forced the Wheel apart. Twisting and diving with his head on a swivel, Marseille accounted for five more P-40’s in the next seven minutes. By the time the 109s turned for home, Jochen had sent eight fighters down in ten minutes. This brought his total for the day to twelve with no losses—and the day wasn’t over.
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His
Geschwaderkommodore
, Eduard Neumann, was among the first to congratulate him—and also ordered him to sit out the next mission. Soaked with sweat, he drank at least a gallon of water, ate lunch, and fell asleep as only a man who is utterly physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted can do. Nevertheless, he woke up and recovered for the wing’s fourth mission of the day. Leading his eleven fighters over El Imayid, he waded straight into fifteen Hurricanes. Not worried about engaging them head-on, he flamed one before the pass, then did what would later be called a “no-respect lead turn”—basically starting a turn
before
you pass a threat because you know there’s nothing he can do about it. This put Marseille directly off the wing of another Hurricane, and he immediately pulled lead, firing from at least a 90-degree deflection angle and sending it spinning down. He got another one after the pass by using his old power and flaps trick to turn inside and shoot. Nosing over with full throttle, Marseille then chased down two more and shot them both down from close range. It was 5:53 p.m., and he’d been fighting for just six minutes.

Hans-Joachim Marseille had just shot down seventeen aircraft in one day of combat.
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And they were all fighters, not bombers, nor were they poorly trained Russians. They were British and South African, with at least three Americans. Truly drained, he was still summoned to the phone to take a congratulatory call from Field Marshal Kesselring and was told that he’d been nominated to receive the Diamonds for his Knight’s Cross.