Sources

The published information about this unit has a lot of gaps in it and this article fills only a few. The best source that I know of is an article by Peter Petrick in Jet & Prop magazine, issue 4/99. Petrick was able to use the Flugbuch of a former pilot, Ofw. Keilig as well as a number of photographs from the same source.

More photographs can be found in Bo Widfeldt’s Luftwaffe in Sweden 1939–45 (Monogram Aviation Publications, Boylston MA, 1983, ISBN 9780914144281) with a brief narrative of the arrival of a single Ju 88 G in Sweden at the war’s end.

On the web, the Special interest Group Luftwaffe in Norway has a page with a brief chronology of known events in the history of the unit. This includes a list of known victories, losses and pilots as well as some strength figures. There is a lot of information there — some Petrick had, some he didn’t — but no sources are given and so I have been reluctant to incorporate all of it into this article (although it would fill some of the holes in the chronology). Anyway check out their site, it has some very interesting things on it.

My own main sources are the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg; Luftwaffe aircraft loss reports from the Imperial War Museum, London; and deciphered German signals, translated daily situation reports and British Operations Watch reports at the National Archives, Kew, London.

Since this article first appeared I have received invaluable help from Marcel Hogenhuis and Rod McKenzie. Rod had further information from Keilig’s Flugbuch and pointed me to some ULTRA messages I’d missed and which I was able to check out soon after at the National Archives (and I found a couple more myself). Marcel was able to tell me that the Staffel’s lone He 219 had originally served with I./NJG 1. Michaël (SES) Svejgaard pointed me to his own website's page on flights between Britain and Sweden (linked later on this page). Russell supplied the information about the Stirling shot down on 28 December 1944.

1944

These other sources agree that the unit had its origins in a night fighting detachment formed from crews of 13.(Z)/JG 5. After conversion training at the end of 1943, Nachtjagdstaffel Finnland was constituted in January 1944. On 4 March 1944, Hptm. Werner Hüschens was posted from II./NJG 2 to Luftflotte 5 along with night fighter controller Oberst Bongartz and three signals officers.

The Luftflotte was still talking on the 15th of the “setting up” of the Staffel and two days after that one crew from 13.(Z)/JG 5, Fw. Fiedler and Uffz. Johnson, was ordered to report to Fliegerführer Arktis in Kirkenes for night fighting. Both the Fliegerführer and Kommandierender General der Deutschen Luftwaffe in Finnland were ordered to report to Luftflotte 5 the names and ranks of all the 13.(Z)/JG 5 crews detached to their areas. British Intelligence learned that Nachtjagdstaffel Finnland was at Nautsi on 8 April, when a personal message was sent there for Hüschens from his old Gruppe at Quackenbrück.

It seems that for its first several months, the Staffel was solely equipped with the Bf 110 but Petrick says that training on the Ju 88 began during June 1944. On 8 July Fliegerführer 4 directed that crews of Nachtjagdtaffel Finnland with 1.(F)/22 who were retrained on the Ju 88 should be detached to 1.(F)/120 at Stavanger. They were to be given an hour of two of flying time so that their hosts could pass on experience gained with the BMW 801. For some reason the arrival of the night fighter crews and the start and end of their training were to be reported by SAGr. 131. On the 18th, the Luftwaffe Führungsstab recorded that Nachtjagdstaffel Finnland had been allocated “B4” as its unit identification code (Petrick says that this replaced the “1B” of 13.(Z)/JG 5).

On the 31 July, a Ju 88 and an He 219 of the Nachtjagdstaffel arrived in Nautsi. On 9 August OKL was advised of recent changes of base in Norway and Finland, including the Staffel’s move from Lista (known to the Germans as Lister) to Nautsi.

On 12 October the Allies learned, apparently from the Y-Service, that three Ju 88s were to leave Bodø at 14.00 hrs. for Trondheim-Hommelvik. In fact Bodø reported the departure of at least seven machines, including three Ju 88s from 15.00 hrs. onward. It was noted that these aircraft carried the marking B4 but the RAF’s Operational Watch were unable as yet to identify their unit. They did however speculate that the movements might be connected to “considerable activity by Ju 88’s in N. Norway” the day before. On the 13th, the same seven aircraft returned to Bodø, monitoring disclosing that they were three Ju 88s and four Bf 110s. The RAF thought that they might be “a heavy fighter Staffel specialising in convoy escort” since such protection had recently been requested in Northern Norway.

On 15 October, the Naval Communications Officer in Bergen reported that an He 219, B4+AA, had taken off at 14.00 hrs. in company with Bf 110s B4+IA and B4+LA, en route over the Skagerrak to Lista. Operational Watch suggested their mission may have been convoy escort. German night fighters guarded the entrance to the Baltic from both shores and a Ju 88 was up from Aalborg-Ost , Denmark between 00.23 and 02.22 hours on the 28th.

After Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union on 19 September, Luftwaffe units had to quit the country, the Nachtjagdstaffel among them. It was to be another two months before it changed its name however. Based in Norway its potential targets included civil air traffic between Britain and Sweden,, supply drops to the Norwegian Resistance; minelayers over the Skagerrak and Kattegat; Bomber Command raids routed over the area; and RAF anti-shipping missions.

On 10 November, Oberst Bongart of Luftgau VI sent a message to Hüschens in Lista asking for luggage to be sent by courier to the Flak barracks at Lappstadt. When deciphered, this apparently trivial communication confirmed to the Allies the Staffel’s present location. On the 18th, the unit was addressed at Lista and Staffelkapitän Hptm. Hüschens reported to Jafü Norwegen that his unit had ten aircraft, as follows:

Next day at 23.00 hrs. the coastal defence authorities at Kristiansand-South (also the location of a “fighter area battle HQ”) sent out notice of an inter-service conference on the 21 November about establishing night fighter operations over the coast from Oslo to Bergen. The 21st also brought two Ju 88 sorties: the Kriegsmarine in Frederikshavn reported one had taken off “for Grove for night fighting” at 21.18 hours and another from Kristiansand-South a minute later for the same purpose.

Meanwhile, at 18.00 hours on the 26th, Bf 110s B4+CA and B4+JA were scrambled from Lista, ostensibly for night fighting over Finland.

The Navy was directed to report to Jafü Norwegen each day by 16.00 hours the areas in which there were no convoys and at what times this would apply. As a basic principle, night fighting would not be undertaken at less than 200 metres’ altitude in the vicinity of convoys. Even over 200 metres, the fighters would be operating at their at own risk. No aircraft were recorded as lost to enemy action in 1944 but the normal hazards of aviation (perhaps intensified by operating over water and mountains, if not naval Flak). A Bf 110 G-4/R3 was lost in September; two more G-4/R3s and a G-4 in November; and a further G-4 in December.

At the end of November, unit’s name was changed from Finnland to Norwegen to reflect its new situation. During December new pilots were transferred in, including: on the 4th Hptm. Joachim Vogt and Obltn. Walter Schulze, both from III./NJG 2; on the 26th Ltn. Werner Rose from I./NJG 6. New aircraft also arrived during the month: a repaired Bf 110 G-4, a new Bf 110 G-4/R6 and three new Ju 88 G-6s. Voigt was quickly successful, bringing down Stirling "S for Sugar" of No. 620 Squadron on the night of the 28/29th. On the last night of the year. Ofw. Kurt Keilig took off on Ju 88 G-1 B4+DA, claiming a Lancaster at 01.47 hours on 1 January 1945.

continued on next page …

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This obviously isn't anything approaching a complete history of the unit but it does, I hope, add some new things to what has been published so far.

© Nick Beale 2010–11