Back to Start     Die Zeit des Grossen Mordens, Sturmjäger JG 300   Walther Dahl III./JG 3

           Self-styled leader of the assault fighters or Sturmflieger, and Kommodore of JG 300 from early summer 1944, Walther Dahl is a somewhat controversial figure in the history of these units. Previously Gruppenkommandeur III./ JG 3 and a Ritterkreuzträger since March 1944, Dahl had been named Kommodore of JG z.b.V at the end of May 1944. This special purpose Geschwader, zur besonderen Verwendung, a sort of Reichsverteidigung Operational Training Unit comprising simply of a Geschwaderstab, was tasked with bringing fighter Gruppen in the 7th Jagd division area of southern Germany up to speed with air defence tactics. ( eg conversion of I./JG 5 to the Höhengruppe role on the Bf 109 G-6/AS ). Then in June and following the initial successes achieved by the Sturmstaffel and its subsequent integration into IV./JG 3, Major Walther Dahl was appointed Kommodore of JG 300. After the outstanding success of the Sturm tactic over Oschersleben he would be charged specifically with the task of converting this unit's II Gruppe to the Sturm mission as he relates in his book Rammjäger.

           The image depicts Dahls's Fw 190 A-8 as pictured in Peter Rodeike's Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug 190 published by Struve Druck. Apparently photographed later that year there is not much evidence here of the classic Sturmbock Rustsatz. This is a unique machine, an unwieldy 'dungheap', heavily armed  both with four MG 151 20mm cannon and the upper cowl machine guns and sporting the rare B-17 in crosshairs insignia apparently only carried by Stabs machines of JG 300. ( See Ernst Schröder's account in Price and Rodeike ) Both Les Butler's emblems site and Claes Sundin's rendition show this as a red B-17 on a bright blue background although here I have concurred with Tom Tullis's interpretation, the B-17 silhouette seemingly much darker than the red trim-tab visible in the photos.

          An advocate of 'ramming' as described in his exaggerated post-war account 'Rammjäger' , Ramm Dahl is held in something less than affection by former members of the Sturmgruppen interviewed recently ( as related in a recent interview given by Hans Weik to Bernd Willmer ). Although pilots volunteering to join a Sturmgruppe may have signed the Sturmgruppe affidavit, indicating an absolute moral commitment to bring down enemy bombers, by ramming if necessary, over the initial four months or so of the Sturmstaffel's and then IV./JG 3's existence there had been few rammings. Hptm Wilhelm Moritz considered the pilots signed declarations or Verpflichtungserklärungen senseless and superfluous and would quietly drop the practice soon after Sturmstaffel 1 had been integrated into IV./JG3.

References and further reading

Rodeike, P. Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug 190 , Struve Druck,Eutin 1998. ISBN 3-923 457-44-8

( German text but includes literally hundreds of previously unpublished photos of Kurt Tank's Würger . I would like to thank Reter Rodeike for continuing support and permission to reproduce images from his collection on these pages )

Prien,J IV./Jagdgeschwader 3 Chronik einer Jagdgruppe. ISBN 3-923457-36-7, Struve Druck, 1996 ( German text)