Hermann Graf

Colonel Hermann Graf (24 October 1912 – 4 November 1988) was a German Luftwaffe Second World War fighter ace. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. He served on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. He became the first pilot in aviation history to claim 200 aerial victories&mdash;that is, 200 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. He claimed 212 aerial victories in over 830 combat missions, 202 of which were on the Eastern Front.

Graf, a pre-war football player and glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1935 and initially selected for transport aviation was posted to Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing) in May 1939. At the outbreak of war he was stationed on the German–Franco border flying uneventful patrols. Serving as a flight instructor he was stationed in Romania as part of a German military mission training Romanian pilots. Graf flew a few ground support missions in the closing days of the German invasion of Crete.

In the late spring, 1941 Graf claimed his first aerial victory on 4 August 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) after 45 victories on 24 January 1942. By 16 September 1942 his number of victories had increased to 172 for which he was honored with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten). At the time of its presentation to Graf it was Germany's highest military decoration. On 26 September 1942 he became the first fighter pilot in aviation history to claim 200 enemy aircraft shot down.

A national hero, Graf was taken off combat operations and posted to a fighter pilot training school in France before being tasked with leadership of a high flying de Havilland Mosquito intercept unit called Jagdgeschwader 50. In November 1943 Graf returned to combat operations. He was appointed Geschwaderkommodore (Wing Commander) of Jagdgeschwader 11 (JG 11—11th Fighter Wing) and claimed his last aerial victory on 29 March 1944. He was severely injured during this encounter and after a period of convalescence became Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing). He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to units of the United States Army on 8 May 1945, and were turned over to the Red Army. Graf was held in Soviet captivity until 1949. After the war he worked as an electronic sales manager and died of Parkinson's disease in his home town of Engen on 4 November 1988.

Childhood
Hermann Anton Graf was born on 24 October 1912 in Engen in the Grand Duchy of Baden not far from the Swiss border, the son of Wilhelm Graf (1878–1937), a small farmer, and his wife Maria, née Sailer (1877–1953). He was the third of three children, with two older brothers, Wilhelm Wilhelm (1904–1981) and Josef Wilhelm (1909–1981). His father had fought in World War I as an artillery soldier and was awarded the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz). He did not return home until Hermann was six years old. The young Hermann's main reference point was therefore his mother, and the bond he formed with her lasted the remainder of her life. Inflation in the Weimar Republic in 1923 wiped out all the family savings. From a very early age, Hermann learned to work very hard to make a living.

As a young boy, Graf was fascinated by football. He started with the football club DJK Engen (Deutsche Jugendkraft&mdash;Litteral for "German Youthful Strength", a Catholic sports organisation dating back to 1920) and later became a goalkeeper in FC Höhen. In his teens, he had been selected to join a group of talented young football players who were trained by Sepp Herberger, a former forward (1921–1925) of the German national football team and later head coach of the German team winning the 1954 FIFA World Cup. A broken thumb ended all of Graf's early hopes for a career on the national football team.

Graf graduated from the Volksschule (primary school) in 1926 at the age of thirteen. Since the savings for Graf's higher education had been lost in the 1923 inflation, he had no option but to apply for a vocational education. For the next three years, Graf worked as a locksmith apprentice at a local factory. A locksmith had a low income and when he received an offer to work as a clerk apprentice, he gladly accepted a change in careers. In this position, Graf helped Jewish families escape to Switzerland at a time when the "J" stamp in German Jews' passport had been demanded by Germany's neighbouring countries. He took a great personal risk and came close to getting caught. Graf was assisted by Gruppenführer (Group Leader) Albert Keller of the Nazi Glider Club NSFK in Engen, who cleared all the tracks that Graf had left.

Amateur pilot and joining the Luftwaffe
Graf saw his first aircraft when he was twelve years old causing an emotional conflict between his passion for football and aviation. He had started working at the Engen town Hall in 1930, saving all his money to buy a glider. Before his twentieth birthday he contributed a homemade glider to the newly founded Engen Glider Club. Every Sunday he would go out to the nearby Ballenberg mountain until an almost fatal crash destroyed his glider in the fall of 1932. In 1935 when Adolf Hitler nullified the Treaty of Versailles, Hermann Graf applied for flight training in the newly created Luftwaffe.

Graf was accepted for the Luftwaffe's A pilot training school in Karlsruhe on 2 June 1936. Following basic training, flight training progressed through the levels A1, A2 and B1, B2, referred to as A/B flight training. Graf's A training included theoretical and practical training in aerobatics, navigation, long-distance flights and dead-stick landings, graduating from A2 on 25 September 1936. Graf joined the B1 school in Ulm-Dornstadt on 4 October 1937. The B courses included high-altitude flights, instrument flights, night landings and training to handle the aircraft in difficult situations. He completed his B1 training on 23 December 1937 and progressed to B2 training in Karlsruhe on 19 January 1938, completing on 31 May 1938.

After the B2 course the pilots were either selected for fighter pilot training and transferred to a Jagdfliegerschule (fighter pilot school) or chosen for bomber or transport pilot training at a C flight school. Graf, at the age of twenty-six, was initially thought to be too old for fighter pilot training and selected for the transport pilot C school. Largely due to the fact that the fighter force was in dire need for new officers Unteroffizier (non-commissioned officer) Graf, without training on modern fighter aircraft, was transferred to the 2. Staffel (2nd squadron) of the I./Jagdgeschwader 51 (I./JG 51—1st group of the 51st fighter wing) at Bad Aibling on 31 May 1939 after he had completed his officers candidate training at Neubiberg. I./JG 51 was equipped with the most modern German fighter aircraft at the time, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E1. Graf, who had never flown a modern fighter aircraft before, ended his first flight on the Bf 109 with a crash. In July 1939, I./JG 51 was briefly reequipped with the Czechoslovakian built Avia B-534 biplane, giving Graf an opportunity to show his flying skills as well as to reestablish his self-confidence.

World War II
At the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939 I./JG 51 was stationed at the French border at Speyer and Graf was promoted to Feldwebel (sergeant). I./JG 51 exchanged the Avia B-534 biplanes again for the Bf 109 and was tasked with protection of Germany's Western border during the Phoney War—the phase in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940. Graf flew twenty-one combat sorties without firing his guns and was still considered an unreliable pilot. On 20 January 1940, his Gruppenkommandeur (Group Commander) Hans-Heinrich Brustellin had Graf transferred to the Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Merseburg (a supplementary training unit stationed at Merseburg) where he provided newly trained fighter pilots from the fighter pilot schools with combat experience as an instructor. His assignment led to the promotion to Leutnant (second lieutenant) on 1 May 1940. At Merseburg Graf met and befriended two fighter pilot trainees Alfred Grislawski and Heinrich Füllgrabe. Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Merseburg at the time was under the command of Major Gotthard Handrick, the 1936 Olympic gold medalist and former commander of Jagdgruppe 88 of the "Condor Legion" during the Spanish Civil War. On 6 October 1940, Major Handrick was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III./Jagdgeschwader 52 (III./JG 52—3rd group of the 52nd fighter wing). Handrick had some influence on the personnel rotation within the Luftwaffe and had Graf, Füllgrabe and Grislawski transferred to 9./JG 52 (9th squadron of the 52nd fighter wing) on 6 October 1940 as well.

Service in Romania and invasion of Greece
Romania, isolated and threatened following the non-aggression pact signed by Germany and the Soviet Union, was seeking to uphold its neutrality. The Soviet occupation of Romania's regions, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, consented to by the king Carol II of Romania, caused Carol's popularity to fall. This gave Ion Antonescu an opportunity to rise to power and he soon established a dictatorship in Romania.

Under Antonescu, Romania's armed forces were reorganized, supported by a military mission from Germany called Luftwaffenmission Rumänien (Luftwaffe Mission Romania) under the command of Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) Wilhelm Speidel. Stationed in Bucharest, III./JG 52 was temporarily renamed I./Jagdgeschwader 28 (I./JG 28—1st group of the 28th fighter wing) until 27 December 1940. Its primary task was to train the Romanian Air Force personnel. Here the trio of Füllgrabe, Graf and Grislawski is joined by Ernst Süß, and later by Leopold Steinbatz and Edmund Roßmann.

The German airmen of 9./JG 52 spent a number a very relaxing days in Bucharest. Graf even managed to play football when a team of the Deutsche Luftwaffe played against Cyclope Bucharest at the Bucharest Sport's Arena before thirty thousand spectators. The relaxed life continued until late 1940 when the Romanian internal political situation deteriorated. Ion Antonescu, mainly a nationalist and the Iron Guard, led by Horia Sima, formed a tense alliance climaxing in the brief but bloody civil war from 21–24 January 1941. The three-day civil war was eventually won by Antonescu with support from the German army.

In May 1941 III./JG 52 was transferred to Greece to support Operation Merkur, the invasion of Crete. The unit flew mostly ground attack missions during this time.

War against the Soviet Union
In early June the unit transferred back to Romania, and from 22 June the unit supported Operation Barbarossa. On 1 August JG 52 transferred to forward airfields in Ukraine, and on 4 August Graf claimed his first aerial victory against an Polikarpov I-16 while escorting a Junkers Ju 87 strike. Graf recorded the victory at 06:20. His second victory fell the next day. Graf became an official ace upon achieving his fifth victory on 6 September 1941. The victory was achieved at night, 18:23 local time, in the vicinity of Krementschug.

By early 1942 he had 45 victories, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 24 January. On 23 March Graf was appointed Staffelkapitän of 9./JG 52. Shortly thereafter he shot down 48 enemy aircraft over a period of three weeks. On 14 May he shot down 8 enemy aircraft, and on 17 May he was awarded the Eichenlaub to his Ritterkreuz for reaching 104 victories. Only two days later he was awarded the Schwerter, after adding a further two victories to his tally.

From August onwards JG 52 supported Heeresgruppe Süd's advances towards Stalingrad and Graf continued shooting down enemies at a high rate. In September alone he shot down 64 enemy aircraft, including 10 on 23 September. Graf had achieved his 172 aerial victory on 9 September 1942 for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 16 September. On 2 October he also became the first pilot in aviation history to down 200 enemy aircraft for which he received a promotion to Major. Some time after this Graf was ordered not to fly operationally any more, as the High Command was concerned about the potential morale loss if he was to be shot down. Indeed, Graf received heavy damage to his aircraft on several occasions, including a cannon hit to the cockpit, and half the rudder shot away.

Fighter pilot instructor—Jagdgruppe Ost
On 28 January 1943 Graf, now a Major (major), was sent to southern France to command Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost (Supplemntary Fighter Group East), a fighter pilot school. Here newly trained fighter pilots destined for the Eastern Front received their final training from experienced Eastern Front pilots. The main base was at St. Jean d'Angély 70 mi north of Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast. However, he spent most of his time at the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport where he nursed his passion for football. Peter Düttmann, whom Graf would later send to JG 52, was one of the pilots at the time at Jagdgruppe Ost. Graf selected a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 aircraft for his personal use.

On 11 March Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was summoned to the Wolf's Lair by Hitler. Following the Allied aerial bombings of Nuremberg and Paderborn, Hitler blamed Göring for the Luftwaffe's inability to protect the German cities against the intensified Allied bomber offensive. Especially the fast and high-flying de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers had all returned home without having been intercepted. Two days after the attack on Paderborn, Göring met with Germany's leading aircraft manufacturers Willy Messerschmitt, Ernst Heinkel and Claude Dornier on 18 March 1943. Göring accused them for their inability to produce a German aircraft capable of competing with the Mosquito. He then withdrew to Berchtesgarden where he came up with the idea to create a Mosquito intercept task force led by Graf and Herbert Ihlefeld. Graf was ordered to Berchtesgarden where he received his instructions from Göring directly. Graf was directly subordinated to Göring and when asked what he required, responded that he wanted to appoint his own team. Göring approved and subsequently Graf was able to call upon his old friends Grislawski, Süß and Füllgrabe, as well as a number of good football players, who had served as administrators, drivers and mechanics in southern France.

Following the meeting with Göring at Bertechsgaden, Graf travelled to Berlin to organize the necessary personnel authorizations at the Luftwaffenpersonalamt (Luftwaffe personnel office). In Berlin, he took the opportunity to watch a football match at the Olympic Stadium. Here Graf was introduced to the young film actress Jola Jobst. Graf flew back to Toulouse from Berlin only to learn that his Mosquito assignment had been delayed. Hitler, who had assisted Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, made repeated efforts to convince Franco into joining the war on Germany's side. Since 1941 Spanish fighter squadrons had operated together with the Luftwaffe in the East. Graf's person was being used by the German propaganda to have him interacting with the Spaniards. In this role, under Graf's supervision, the 4ta Escudrilla Azul (4th Blue Squadron), one of five Spanish voluntary fighter squadrons, received three weeks of specialized fighter pilot training for the Eastern Front from 18 May to 6 June 1943.

Defence of the Reich
Graf arrived at the Wiesbaden airfield on 11 June 1943 where he began the creation of the high-altitude fighter unit. Organizationally it was based on Jagdgruppe Süd. The unit was destined to be equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-5, a high-altitude variant of the Bf 109 equipped with a pressurized cockpit. Arrival of the aircraft was delayed and Graf focus was on football. Graf invited Sepp Herberger to Wiesbaden who trained Graf's team for one day. During this visit Herberger encouraged Graf to further explore his influence to save Germany's best football players from frontline duty. Acknowledging the idea, Graf managed to bring to his unit players like Hermann Eppenhoff, Hermann Koch, Alfons Moog, Franz Hanreiter and Walter Bammes. Graf also requested Fritz Walter to be transferred to his unit. Walter later lead the West German World Cup winning team in 1954. Walter's transfer was more difficult to achieve. Graf had to submit his request directly to Generaloberst (Colonel General) Friedrich Fromm, the commander of the Ersatzheer (Reserve Army). Along with playing football, recruiting his pilots and staff, Graf also again had met Jola Jobst. The beginning relationship led to marriage in less than a year.

His unit received the first 12 Bf 109 G-5 in July 1943. With one of these aircraft he managed to reach an altitude of 14300 m. Military success came quickly when he achieved the units' first aerial victory over an intruding Mosquito as well. However aircraft shortage still prevented him to fully declare operational status. In parallel to these events the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in England were mounting up their daylight offensive over Europe. Equipped with heavy four-engined Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers they had first appeared over northern Germany on 27 January 1943 in an attack against the port of Wilhelmshaven. The number of heavy bombers of the USAAF Eighth Air Force surpassed the 800 mark and tight flying combat box formations were striking deep into German airspace by July 1943. Graf ordered all his available Bf 109s to help intercept the American bombers targeted for Kassel on 28 and 30 July 1943. He was credited with the destruction of his first B-17 Flying Fortress during one of these attacks.

The unit now consiting of 19 aircraft was declared combat ready on 31 July 1943. Around the same time Graf's football team, the Rote Jäger (Red Hunters), was also ready and played their first game on 4 August 1943 with Graf as goalkeeper. This football team followed Graf's assignments for the remaining war. On 15 August 1943 Graf's unit was renamed to Jagdgeschwader 50 (JG 50—50th Fighter Wing). It was expected that JG 50 would be equipped with the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter. The Me 163 was being tested by Major Wolfgang Späte's test unit Erprobungskommando 16 at Peenemünde and Rechlin in the summer of 1943. Following a visit of this test unit, here Graf also learned about the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, he returned to JG 50 full of optimism.

During this assignment Graf shot down three more enemy aircraft, including two B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. In October the unit was disbanded by Göring and absorbed into I./JG 301, and Graf was promoted to Oberst and appointed Geschwaderkommodore of JG 11 on 11 November. JG 11 was tasked with Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich), and despite officially being banned from flying operational missions Graf managed to down 6 more aircraft over the next four months.

On 29 March 1944 Graf shot down one P-51 Mustang and in the confusion of the dog fight collided with another. He managed to bail out, but was injured and had to spend some time in a hospital. While on convalescence leave Graf married the German actress Jola Jobst on 24 June 1944. The couple was formally divorced after Graf returned as a prisoner of war. Jola Jobst would go on to marry Wolfgang Kieling in 1950 and committed suicide in October 1952.

After recovering he was appointed Kommodore of his old unit JG 52 on 1 October, which was still operating on the Eastern Front. With German forces in retreat by this time Graf did not have opportunity for air combat. He managed to bring his tally to 212 before he surrendered to the Americans on 8 May 1945. Graf had disobeyed an order from General Hans Seidemann. Seidemann had ordered him and Erich Hartmann to fly to the British sector, to avoid capture by the Russians, with the rest of the wing surrendering to the Soviets. Instead Graf chose to surrender his unit to the 90th US Infantry Division.

Prisoner of war
Along with most of the JG 52 personnel, Graf was handed over to the Russians shortly after his surrender. Having become famous via the Nazi propaganda machine and as the Commander of JG 52, Graf was singled out for attention by the Soviets. He was imprisoned until 29 December 1949. This relatively early release was by many perceived to be caused by his willingness to co-operate with his Soviet captors, something fellow pilots criticized him for, especially following a 1950s book by fellow fighter ace & Soviet POW Hans "Assi" Hahn entitled I Tell the Truth. This led to Graf being largely ostracized from post-war Luftwaffe comrade associations.

Later life
After Hermann Graf had returned from Soviet captivity in December 1949 his marriage with Jola Jobst collapsed and they were divorced. Initially Graf had a hard time obtaining work but his relationship in the football community helped him. Sepp Herberger introduced Graf to Roland Endler, an electronics manufacturer ("Elektro-Schweiss-Industrie GmbH") from Neuss who also was president of the FC Bayern Munich football club between 1958 and 1962. Endler employed Graf as a salesman in his company, and Graf would eventually advance to branch leader in Baden-Württemberg and Chief of Sales.

Graf eventually re-married twice. His third marriage from May 1959 with Helga Graf, née Schröck, resulted in the birth of his son, Hermann-Ulrich born in 1959, and his daughter Birgit born in 1961. In 1965 Graf was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which had a slow deteriorating effect on his health. Parkinson's disease affected many of those who had flown high-altitude missions during the war. Hermann died in his hometown Engen on 4 November 1988.

Awards

 * Wound Badge in Silver
 * Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (9 December 1941)
 * Combined Pilots-Observation Badge in Gold with Diamonds
 * Romanian Pilots Badge
 * Romanian Knight of Order of the Crown (23 May 1941)
 * Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (9 August 1941)
 * 1st Class (31 August 1941)
 * Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe for Fighter Pilots in Gold
 * in Bronze (15 May 1941)
 * in Silver (25 August 1941)
 * in Gold (10 November 1941)
 * German Cross in Gold in April 1942
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
 * Knight's Cross on 24 January 1942 as Leutnant of the Reserves and pilot in the 9./JG 52
 * 93rd Oak Leaves on 17 May 1942 as Leutnant of the Reserves and Staffelführer of the 9./JG 52
 * 11th Swords on 19 May 1942 as Leutnant of the Reserves and Staffelkapitän of the 9./JG 52
 * 5th Diamonds on 16 September 1942 as Oberleutnant of the Reserves and Staffelkapitän of the 9./JG 52
 * Mentioned five times in the Wehrmachtbericht