Back to Start         Sturmstaffel 1           Maj Erwin Bacsila

An impression of Lt Siegfried Müller's Focke Wulf 190 A-7 with which he scored his 1st victory with the Sturmstaffel on the 8th April 1944. He had joined the unit from II./JG 51,  volunteering for the Sturmstaffel on the basis of his two victories over Yugoslavia at the end of 1943. He was credited with one B-17  shot down on the Berlin raid of 29 April 1944 as the Sturmstaffel shot down eight bombers and separated out a further four, the best effort so far in the unit's short history. Closing slowly from the rear through the raging defensive fire and practically blinded by the condensation trails, Müller's Fw 190 A-7 'white 19'  took hits. He force landed safely at Jerxheim.    He was to go on to become one of the top Sturmgruppen aces , leading both 13 and 16 Staffeln of IV./JG 3 and shooting down some twelve heavy bombers. He flew  'white 10' and 'red 15' with these Staffeln.  He had multiple kills on a number of occasions and was awarded the Deutsche Kreuz towards the end of the war. His 17th victory was a Yak 3 shot down on the 16th March 1945 when IV./JG 3 was based at Prenzlau. Like Willi Unger, he transferred to JG 7  but never flew the Me 262 in action.  A difficult man to approach today,  he attended Barry Smith's Sturmstaffel reunion.