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With events in Normandy still the focus of the 8th AF bombers, the Sturmgruppe IV./JG 3 was moved to Schongau (between Landsberg and Innsbruck), near the Austrian border, to counter the US 15th Air bombers coming from Italy over the Alps.. Losses were high! Up to 2nd August, the Gruppe, led by Hauptmann Wilhelm Möritz, had sixteen pilots KIA . The 3rd August 1944 saw a particularly fierce battle over the border area of Germany, Austria and Switserland. Willi Unger was credited with two B-24 Liberators shot down. The following is his own account of that day.
.." …. On the 3rd August 1944 I took off with my Staffel in Schwarm strength as part of the Group's battle formation ( Gefechtsverband der Gruppe ). We had been alerted at 10.35am and at 11.25 we caught sight of the enemy bomber formation in Grid Square ( Planquadrat ) E.O. flying at some 22,000 ft in a south easterly direction towards Italy. We formed up behind several boxes of Liberators to attack. My Schwarm would attack a box ( Pulk ) of nine Liberators flying to the right and slightly above the main enemy formation……" so read the first few sentences of my Combat Report of the 3rd August 1944.
The Sturmgruppe ( Assault Wing ) IV of Jagdgeschwader 3 was based at this time on the airfield of Schongau. My 12 Staffel had been hit hard in the July air battles which was why on the 3rd August 1944 we were only at Schwarm strength, a Schwarm that comprised the following pilots
Feldwebel Unger, Unteroffizier Zimkeit, Scholz and Christ. As I remember
the entire Gefechtsverband or Battlegroup was only 4 Schwärme
strong i.e. some sixteen aircraft ( instead of the 60-80 that the assault
formation would have been expected to attack with …the whole point of
the Sturmgruppen was an attempt to meet mass with mass…….translator's
note…)
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The four-engined Liberators had bombed Friedrichshafen that morning and were now flying over the Tirolean Alps back to Italy. I had positioned my Schwarm directly behind an element of three Liberators trailing the main formation and now opened fire with my cannon on the midde machine. Pieces started to fly off the enemy machine. It swerved out of the formation. In my attack I had overflown the next element of Liberators but was now on the tail of a B-24 flying in a third element. I attacked again. Two of the bomber's crew baled out, and shot right past my plane, as did a hail of fragments. But I'd been hit by the tail-gunners fire, mainly in the engine and oil tank. My windshield was covered in a thick film of oil. I couldn't see a thing. Without a second thought I baled out. I got out of my Focke Wulf 190 easily enough and, spinning and tumbling, plummeted earthward. As American fighters would likely shoot at a parachute I let myself fall several thousand feet. The skies, the clouds and the ground spun round crazily. Just before entering the cloud deck I opened my parachute. It didn't take long to fall through the cloud and then I hit the ground hard……I heard the sound of gun-fire and then it went quiet . I'd survived both the air battle and the bale-out without injury. This was to prove extremely important, had I broken a leg, say, I could never have made it down the valley. For as I was to later learn, I had come down in the Knittelkar on one of the few trails in the Lechtal Alps, a wild and remote mountain region with huge stony peaks of up to 7,000 feet and thick pine woods. ( Refer to map and picture above ) . The valley trail where I'd come down was narrow, there was just about room to walk. Having packed my parachute as best I could and picked some Edelweis ( Edelweis grows above the tree line in the Alps. Picking it and wearing it was the mark of a true soldier. Translator's note ) I started to make my way down the trail almost sliding down it in places . I had to make several detours. After a while I came to a stream which I followed . I came upon a mountain hut ( …there exists in the Alps a network of lodges or 'huts' nowadays providing comfortable overnight accomodation for walkers etc….Translator's note ) and met a gamekeeper by the name of Kuhn from the village of Rieden near Reutte. He had heard the sounds of the air battle but had not seen anything. He was able to take me further down the valley. The small village of Rieden was about 5 miles from where I'd come down and it was a further 5 miles on to Reutte . We walked to Rieden and I was put on cart and rode to Reutte . On the small road that led out of Rieden we came across the smoking wreckage of an aircraft . We stopped and went over to it. The local police had cordoned it off and at first wouldn't let me approach it. They said the pilot was dead. I went up to the wreckage nonetheless . It was a Focke Wulf 190 which had obviously plunged vertically into the ground. I could see there was no pilot still in the aircraft and that it was a Focke Wulf from my Staffel . It was obvious to me that it was in fact my plane. I told the Police this. When we got to Reutte I reported to the police and was put up in the hotel 'zum Hirsch'. I called the base and a Hauptmann from the Stabskompanie came and fetched me in a car later that evening. It must have been just about midnight as we arrived back in Altenstadt near Schongau. A light was still on in the officers mess. Feeling very much the worse for wear, uniform ripped, shoes scuffed, with no cap and parachute slung over my back decorated with Edelweis, I presented myself to Hauptmann Moritz, Gruppenkommandeur of the IV./JG 3 Udet. ….
".. Feldwebel Unger reporting back from Edelweis picking trip.. …Sir ! "
Everyone was happy. I'd been reported as missing . I learnt though that Scholz and Zimkeit did not come back from the days mission . Uffz Christ had landed safely at Kaufbeuren but was shot down and killed less than a fortnight later….."
I acknowledge the help given by Willi Unger and Erich Brown in putting this page up. Thank you !