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HANS WEIK
JG 3 "Udet"
Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes
6 July 1922 – 5 June 2001
One of the most successful pilots of IV./JG3, an eager
and fearless pilot. He was Staffelkapitaen of 10./JG3 from mid-February
until shot down and severely wounded on July 18 1944. Following completion
of his fighter pilots training Weik joined I /JG 3 in February 1943 and quickly
recorded his first ten victories. Transferred thereafter to JGr.Ost
as Jagdlehrer until Autumn 1943 . Went to III./JG3 and joined
the IV Gruppe on 10 February 1944 some months prior to the Gruppe
adopting Sturm tactics. In just several short weeks he shot down a further
23 enemy aircraft recording his 14 -through- 36 kills including 21
Viermotorige achieved in only 85 combat flights. This incredible success
rate gave fresh impetus to the fraught question of home air defence or
Reichsverteidigung. Most of Hans Weik's Feindflüge
were flown on the Bf109 G-6 weisse 7.
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Weik was shot down several times himself during spring 1944 . The aircraft listed as lost on the 8th May 1944 was a G-6/U4 variant equipped with cannon in underwing gondolas. Weik's logbook shows that he had only a handful of missions in the Focke Wulf Sturmbock.
On 18 July 1944 Weik took off in Fw190A-8/R2 weisse 7 + ~ with the Sturmgruppe to combat a force of 15 th USAAF Flying Forts and Liberators raiding targets in southern Germany from Italy. The Sturmbock's lair at Memmingen was one of these targets, attacked by some 200 B-17s escorted by P-51s and P-38s. IV./JG 3 was the only Luftwaffe unit that rose to meet this force. The B-17s were so heavily protected it proved at first impossible for the Sturmgruppe to form its classic Angriffskeil and Weik broke away on his own to attack a relatively unprotected squadron of B-17s . ." Ich selbst nahm mir, da meine Staffel abgeplatzt war, alleine einen im hochrechten Schwarm fliegenden Verband vor.. ".. He shot down a B-17 at 10:50 hrs for his 36th victory but he was hit and wounded by return fire from the bombers as he was going through the formation . Weik was wounded in the shoulder and arm, sustaining such injuries that he is handicapped today.
Hans Weik pictured with Hagenath and Hans Schäfer after being wounded in combat and relinquishing the leadership of 10./JG3
The picture
is one of a sequence taken on the 22 August 1944 when Hans Weik visited his
Staffel comrades to celebrate the award of the Knight's Cross which was announced
on 27 July 1944. It was not until early 1945 that he again took to the
skies...now flying a Me 262.
Interviewed recently Hans Weik explained what motivated him during the
spring and early summer of 1944 as he faced daily the massed ranks of Flying
Fortresses.." Simple answer: I was 19 years old, we flew fast fighters
and we saw how 1000 bombers ruined a whole city within a few minutes...a
lot of us had sisters or other relatives living in the cities. So, it was
very easy to attack a Viermot .. " ( My thanks to Bernd
Willmer, Stuttgart, for permission to use extracts from his interviews with
Hans Weik )
View Hans Weik's Sturmbock
Fw 190A-8/R2
This picture shows members of 10./JG 3 gathered round their Staffel leader Oberleutnant Hans Weik during July 1944 and is reproduced with the permission of author Russell Ives from his 'The 89 Days' . For more details go to books and links
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