Erich Hohagen

Erich Hohagen (9 January 1915 – 8 March 1990) was a German Luftwaffe flying ace during World War II and a General in the post war Bundeswehr. A holder of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross), Hohagen led several Luftwaffe units during the war and became a well-respected fighter commander.

During his career in military aviation Hohagen accumulated several thousand hours of flying time on over 60 different aircraft types and survived over 500 combat missions during World War II.

Career
Erich Hohagen was one of the very few of the Luftwaffe's veterans to have flown in combat almost continuously throughout the war.

Hohagen flew on the Channel Front with 4./JG 51 in 1940 and then in the campaign against the Soviet Union during 1941-42 with 4./JG 51 and Stab II./JG 51. He then served on the Western Front in 1943-44 with 7./JG 2 and Stab I./JG 2, and the Reichsverteidigung or "Defence of the Reich" in 1944-45 with Stab I./JG 2 and JV 44.

As a Leutnant based on the Channel Coast with 4./JG 51 he scored his first aerial victory - an RAF Supermarine Spitfire over Southern England on 5 July 1940. Eleven more RAF fighters fell to his guns before late May 1941, when his unit was transferred to the East for Operation Barbarossa.

Hohagen's most successful sortie on the Eastern Front was on 22 June 1941 when he shot down three Soviet SB-2 bombers in the space of five minutes.Hohagen received the Ritterkreuz on 5 October 1941, after 30 victories. Hohagen was posted to 7./JG 2 in January 1943, serving in the West.

On 1 June 1943 Oblt. Wilhelm Steinmann of 3./JG 27 claimed an RAF Supermarine Spitfire shot down, however he had made an identification error and in fact shot down the Bf 109 G-6 flown by Hauptmann Hohagen. Hohagen was forced to bail and was wounded.

On 16 September 1943 Hohagen, now Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 2, was piloting an Fw 190A-6 fighter (W.Nr. 550532) leading the Stab I./JG 2 in a sharp engagement with USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers. Hohagen was again wounded and crash landed his damaged aircraft near Rennes, France. During the subsequent belly landing, Hohagen suffered a severe cranial injury when his head hit the gunsight mount. Recovering from his wounds and still suffering from headaches he was deemed fit for operations.

Hohagen led the I./JG 2 from 19 August 1943 until 24 September 1944. In January 1944 elements of JG 2 were sent to bolster the Mediterranean theatre to counter the Allied invasion at Anzio. Hohagen's I./JG 2, flying Fw 190A-6's, was stationed at Castiglione del Lago and later at Canino. Hohagen's unit was withdrawn to France in April 1944 after heavy losses.

On D-Day Hohagen was in combat over the front and at 17.25 hours claimed an RAF fighter shot down around Beaumont-le-Roger; probably a Mustang I (Serial No. AG465) of No. 430 Squadron RCAF flown by F/O J. S. Cox, who was killed.

Major Hohagen flew the new Me 262 jet aircraft for one week at Lechfeld with III./EJG 2, before being posted to the command of III./JG 7, based at Bradenburg-Briest airfield. In the latter months of 1944 Hohagen helped to convert pilots to the new jets. Soon, Hohagen was declared unfit for further combat operations and sent immediately to a Fighter Pilots' Hospital near Berlin for a more thorough recuperation from his many and still troublesome wounds.

In early 1945 Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Oberst Johannes Steinhoff recruited Hohagen from hospital to join the new Jagdverband 44 (JV 44) forming at Bradenburg-Briest. Galland had received permission to create and staff the unorthodox fighter group from Luftwaffe Chief, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

Hohagen became the Technical Officer for JV 44 and assisted with the conversion of newly arriving pilots to the Me 262. The unit transferred to München-Riem on 31 March 1945. He served as JV 44's Technical Officer until the crash of Oberst Johannes Steinhoff on 18 April 1945, and Hohagen replaced the injured Steinhoff as the unit's Einsatzchef (Operations Chief).

Hohagen remained operational with JV 44 until the end of the war. He was one of the surviving JV 44 pilots who transferred with the unit's jet aircraft to Salzburg, Austria in May 1945.

He is credited with 56 aerial victories, including 13 four-engined bombers in the West and 17 Soviet aircraft in the East.

Awards

 * German Cross in Gold (25 December 1943)
 * Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 5 October 1941 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 4./JG 51