Jagdgeschwader 3 "Oesau" was one of the most distinguished fighter wings of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, established on 1 May 1939 and later named in honor of Generalmajor Walter Oesau after his death in 1944. The unit participated in nearly every major aerial campaign of the war, including the Polenfeldzug, Westfeldzug, Luftschlacht um England, the Mediterranean theater, Reichsverteidigung, and operations on the Ostfront. Equipped mainly with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and later the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, JG 3 produced numerous highly decorated aces and Ritterkreuzträger, among them Walther Dahl, Heinrich Ehrler, and Günther Lützow. The Geschwader earned a formidable reputation for its aggressive combat tactics and high victory claims against Allied bombers and fighters, while suffering heavy losses during the later stages of the war as the Luftwaffe struggled against overwhelming Allied air superiority. Its members received many of Germany’s highest military decorations, including the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten, and the unit remained active until Germany’s surrender in May 1945.
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SCHWERTERTRÄGER
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SCHWERTERTRÄGER
Oberst Walter Oesau (1913-1944), known as "Gulle", was born on 28 June 1913 in Farnewinkel and entered military service in 1933 with an artillery regiment of the Heer before transferring to the Luftwaffe for pilot training, later volunteering for the Legion Condor in Spain where he claimed nine aerial victories with Jagdgruppe 88 and earned the Spanienkreuz in Gold mit Schwertern und Brillanten; returning to Germany he served as Staffelkapitän of the 7. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain, achieving his first wartime victory on 13 May 1940 and reaching 20 victories by mid-August, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20 August 1940 as Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän of 7./Jagdgeschwader 51. Appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 51 and later of III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3, he scored his 40th victory on 5 February 1941 and received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz the following day as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of III./Jagdgeschwader 3, then on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa rapidly increased his tally to 80 victories by 15 July 1941, earning the Schwerter to the Ritterkreuz that same day as the third recipient while still commanding III./Jagdgeschwader 3 and being promoted to Major; subsequently appointed Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 2 and later of Jagdgeschwader 1, he continued to claim victories including against four-engined bombers in the Defense of the Reich until he was killed in action on 11 May 1944 near St. Vith when his aircraft was shot down by American fighters, having achieved a total of approximately 125 to 127 aerial victories in over 300 combat missions, after which Jagdgeschwader 1 was honorarily renamed Jagdgeschwader 1 “Oesau.”
Günther
Lützow (1912-1945) was a German Luftwaffe fighter pilot and ace born in
Kiel who flew more than 300 combat sorties and was credited with 110
aerial victories, five scored in the Spanish Civil War as Staffelkapitän
of 2. Staffel in Jagdgruppe 88 of the Condor Legion where he claimed
his first victory on 6 April 1937 flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 B
against Republican aircraft. During the opening campaigns of World War
II he served as Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 in
the Battle of France claiming nine victories and then as
Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 3 during the Battle of Britain
where he added further successes, resulting in his award of the
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 18 September 1940 as Major after a
total of fifteen aerial victories on the Western Front. On the Eastern
Front from the launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 he led
Jagdgeschwader 3 to rapid results including nine victories in the first
week alone and reached his forty-second overall claim by 20 July 1941,
for which he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit
Eichenlaub on that same date as the twenty-seventh recipient while still
serving as Major and Kommodore of Jagdgeschwader 3. His continued high
rate of scoring, including a temporary command of Jagdgeschwader 51 in
autumn 1941 during which he contributed numerous claims, brought his
total to ninety-two victories by early October and earned him the
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern on 11 October 1941
as the fourth recipient of the Swords; he became only the second German
fighter pilot after Werner Mölders to reach one hundred victories just
days later on 24 October 1941. In the later war years Lützow held senior
staff and divisional commands before joining Jagdverband 44 in April
1945 where he flew the Messerschmitt Me 262 and claimed two final
victories, only to be reported missing in action on 24 April 1945 while
leading an interception of American bombers near Donauwörth, his jet
believed shot down by P-47 fighters with his body never recovered.
Oberst Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was born on 11 March 1913 in Schrimm in the Province of Posen and initially enlisted in the cavalry in 1934 before transferring to the newly formed Luftwaffe as an officer candidate the following year, completing his pilot training and serving as an instructor at the Jagdfliegerschule Werneuchen prior to a brief tour with the Legion Condor in Spain. Returning to Germany he joined Jagdgeschwader 53, rising by the outbreak of war to Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän of the 7. Staffel of III. Gruppe, scoring his first victory over a French Potez 637 on 7 November 1939 and adding further successes during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, where he was forced to bale out over the Channel on 13 August 1940 after engine failure yet was rescued. In the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa he claimed his twenty-fifth aerial victory and was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 6 August 1941 as Hauptmann. After a period of service in North Africa, Malta and Sicily from December 1941 to May 1942, during which he added four more victories, he returned to the Eastern Front and transferred to the Geschwaderstab of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet,” becoming Kommodore of the Geschwader on 12 September 1942. Having achieved his one-hundredth victory on 6 September he received the Eichenlaub on 9 September 1942 as Hauptmann, and on 17 December 1942, during the fighting over Stalingrad, he became the fourth fighter pilot to reach one hundred and fifty victories. For a total of one hundred and fifty-five confirmed aerial victories he was awarded the Schwerter on 23 December 1942 as Major and Kommodore of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet.” Although officially grounded from further operational flying after the award of the Schwerter, he continued to fly combat missions in the Defence of the Reich and on 23 March 1944, after claiming his one-hundred-and-sixty-second and final victory, a Boeing B-17 and a North American P-51 Mustang, he was himself shot down near Schöppenstedt by American Mustang fighters and killed in the ensuing crash, having flown seven hundred and thirty-two combat sorties and attained one hundred and sixty-two confirmed victories, twenty-five of them in the West including four four-engined bombers.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Oberst Gordon Gollob (1912-1987) was an Austrian-born fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe who rose to the rank of Oberst and achieved a total of 150 aerial victories in over 340 combat missions, the vast majority on the Eastern Front during World War II. After service in the Austrian Armed Forces he transferred to the Luftwaffe in 1938, initially flying with Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76) as Oberleutnant in the 3. Staffel where he claimed his first victory on 5 September 1939 during the invasion of Poland, before transferring in September 1940 to Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3) and commanding the 4. Staffel; as Hauptmann he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of II. Gruppe JG 3 "Udet" on 27 June 1941 during Operation Barbarossa and, following 42 aerial victories that included numerous successes against Soviet aircraft, was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 18 September 1941. He continued his rapid scoring with 37 victories in October alone, including nine on a single day on 18 October, and received the Eichenlaub on 26 October 1941 after reaching a total of 85 aerial victories. Appointed Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 77 "Herz As" on 16 May 1942 (promoted to Major on 1 July 1942), he claimed his 100th victory on 20 May and, after reaching 107 victories, was awarded the Schwerter on 23 June 1942 while serving as Führer and Kommodore of JG 77; on 29 August 1942 he became the first Luftwaffe fighter pilot to claim his 150th aerial victory over the Eastern Front, for which he was awarded the Brillanten on 30 August 1942 as the third recipient overall of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten, after which he was barred from further combat flying and assigned to higher staff roles including Jagdfliegerführer positions and ultimately General der Jagdflieger in early 1945.
Oberst Viktor (1915-1969) Bauer was born on 15 September 1915 in Löcknitz and joined the military service on 1 April 1935, initially with Infanterie-Regiment 1 before transferring to the Luftwaffe for pilot training and serving with units including Jagdgeschwader 2 and Jagdgeschwader 77, where he claimed his first aerial victories during the Battle of France; after participating in the Battle of Britain he transferred in late 1940 to Jagdgeschwader 3 and was appointed Staffelkapitän of the 9. Staffel of III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 shortly before Operation Barbarossa, achieving rapid success on the Eastern Front with 15 victories in June 1941 alone and reaching a total of 34 aerial victories by late July, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 July 1941 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 9. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet.” Severely wounded in combat on 23 July 1941, he returned to front-line duty in early 1942 and continued to score heavily, becoming an ace-in-a-day multiple times, until on 26 July 1942 he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (the 107th award) after claiming his 102nd aerial victory while still serving as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the same Staffel; later promoted through Hauptmann and Major, he commanded training units including the Ergänzungsgruppe Ost and ultimately served as Kommodore of Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 1 with the rank of Oberst by war’s end, having amassed 106 confirmed aerial victories in approximately 400 combat missions (all but four on the Eastern Front) before being taken prisoner in 1945 and released later that year, after which he lived until his death on 13 December 1969 in Bad Homburg.
Major Kurt Brändle (1912-1943) was born on 19 January 1912 in Ludwigsburg in the Kingdom of Württemberg as the son of a master precision mechanic and after training as a surgical instrument maker and working in his father’s firm he developed a passion for flying, becoming a civilian power and glider pilot and flight instructor who logged thousands of hours before volunteering for the Luftwaffe on 10 December 1935; he was promoted Leutnant der Reserve on 1 December 1936, trained as a fighter pilot with Jagdgeschwader 134 “Horst Wessel”, transferred to active service and was promoted Oberleutnant on 1 June 1939 before joining 4./Jagdgeschwader 53. He claimed his first aerial victory on 10 May 1940 during the Battle of France, was wounded in a take-off collision later that month, returned to claim further successes over the Channel and England, and was appointed Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 53 on 15 September 1940; after service on the Eastern Front from the opening of Operation Barbarossa, where he raised his total to 28 by October 1941, and a period over Malta, he was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 25 February 1942 and promoted Hauptmann on 1 March 1942. On 1 May 1942 he became Gruppenkommandeur of II./Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet” and, fighting in the southern sector of the Eastern Front, was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 1 July 1942 after 49 aerial victories; in the intense combat of July and August 1942 he claimed a further 50 victories, including his 100th to 102nd on 23 August, becoming the 17th Luftwaffe pilot to reach the century mark, for which he received the Eichenlaub (114th award) on 27 August 1942 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 3 “Udet”. Promoted Major on 1 March 1943, he continued to score heavily, claiming his 150th victory on the opening day of the Battle of Kursk on 5 July 1943, before II./JG 3 was transferred to the Defence of the Reich in August 1943 and based at Schiphol; on 3 November 1943, after shooting down two P-47 Thunderbolts, he was killed in action west of Amsterdam when his Bf 109 G-6 was shot down by Royal Canadian Air Force fighters, his body later washing ashore near Zandvoort and being reinterred at the German war cemetery Ysselsteyn after a career that encompassed approximately 700 combat missions and 180 confirmed aerial victories.
Oberst Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was born on 11 March 1913 in Schrimm in the Province of Posen and initially enlisted in the cavalry in 1934 before transferring to the newly formed Luftwaffe as an officer candidate the following year, completing his pilot training and serving as an instructor at the Jagdfliegerschule Werneuchen prior to a brief tour with the Legion Condor in Spain. Returning to Germany he joined Jagdgeschwader 53, rising by the outbreak of war to Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän of the 7. Staffel of III. Gruppe, scoring his first victory over a French Potez 637 on 7 November 1939 and adding further successes during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, where he was forced to bale out over the Channel on 13 August 1940 after engine failure yet was rescued. In the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa he claimed his twenty-fifth aerial victory and was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 6 August 1941 as Hauptmann. After a period of service in North Africa, Malta and Sicily from December 1941 to May 1942, during which he added four more victories, he returned to the Eastern Front and transferred to the Geschwaderstab of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet,” becoming Kommodore of the Geschwader on 12 September 1942. Having achieved his one-hundredth victory on 6 September he received the Eichenlaub on 9 September 1942 as Hauptmann, and on 17 December 1942, during the fighting over Stalingrad, he became the fourth fighter pilot to reach one hundred and fifty victories. For a total of one hundred and fifty-five confirmed aerial victories he was awarded the Schwerter on 23 December 1942 as Major and Kommodore of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet.” Although officially grounded from further operational flying after the award of the Schwerter, he continued to fly combat missions in the Defence of the Reich and on 23 March 1944, after claiming his one-hundred-and-sixty-second and final victory, a Boeing B-17 and a North American P-51 Mustang, he was himself shot down near Schöppenstedt by American Mustang fighters and killed in the ensuing crash, having flown seven hundred and thirty-two combat sorties and attained one hundred and sixty-two confirmed victories, twenty-five of them in the West including four four-engined bombers.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Oberst Gordon Gollob (1912-1987) was an Austrian-born fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe who rose to the rank of Oberst and achieved a total of 150 aerial victories in over 340 combat missions, the vast majority on the Eastern Front during World War II. After service in the Austrian Armed Forces he transferred to the Luftwaffe in 1938, initially flying with Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76) as Oberleutnant in the 3. Staffel where he claimed his first victory on 5 September 1939 during the invasion of Poland, before transferring in September 1940 to Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3) and commanding the 4. Staffel; as Hauptmann he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of II. Gruppe JG 3 "Udet" on 27 June 1941 during Operation Barbarossa and, following 42 aerial victories that included numerous successes against Soviet aircraft, was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 18 September 1941. He continued his rapid scoring with 37 victories in October alone, including nine on a single day on 18 October, and received the Eichenlaub on 26 October 1941 after reaching a total of 85 aerial victories. Appointed Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 77 "Herz As" on 16 May 1942 (promoted to Major on 1 July 1942), he claimed his 100th victory on 20 May and, after reaching 107 victories, was awarded the Schwerter on 23 June 1942 while serving as Führer and Kommodore of JG 77; on 29 August 1942 he became the first Luftwaffe fighter pilot to claim his 150th aerial victory over the Eastern Front, for which he was awarded the Brillanten on 30 August 1942 as the third recipient overall of the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten, after which he was barred from further combat flying and assigned to higher staff roles including Jagdfliegerführer positions and ultimately General der Jagdflieger in early 1945.
Oberst Viktor (1915-1969) Bauer was born on 15 September 1915 in Löcknitz and joined the military service on 1 April 1935, initially with Infanterie-Regiment 1 before transferring to the Luftwaffe for pilot training and serving with units including Jagdgeschwader 2 and Jagdgeschwader 77, where he claimed his first aerial victories during the Battle of France; after participating in the Battle of Britain he transferred in late 1940 to Jagdgeschwader 3 and was appointed Staffelkapitän of the 9. Staffel of III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 shortly before Operation Barbarossa, achieving rapid success on the Eastern Front with 15 victories in June 1941 alone and reaching a total of 34 aerial victories by late July, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 30 July 1941 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 9. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet.” Severely wounded in combat on 23 July 1941, he returned to front-line duty in early 1942 and continued to score heavily, becoming an ace-in-a-day multiple times, until on 26 July 1942 he received the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (the 107th award) after claiming his 102nd aerial victory while still serving as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the same Staffel; later promoted through Hauptmann and Major, he commanded training units including the Ergänzungsgruppe Ost and ultimately served as Kommodore of Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 1 with the rank of Oberst by war’s end, having amassed 106 confirmed aerial victories in approximately 400 combat missions (all but four on the Eastern Front) before being taken prisoner in 1945 and released later that year, after which he lived until his death on 13 December 1969 in Bad Homburg.
Major Kurt Brändle (1912-1943) was born on 19 January 1912 in Ludwigsburg in the Kingdom of Württemberg as the son of a master precision mechanic and after training as a surgical instrument maker and working in his father’s firm he developed a passion for flying, becoming a civilian power and glider pilot and flight instructor who logged thousands of hours before volunteering for the Luftwaffe on 10 December 1935; he was promoted Leutnant der Reserve on 1 December 1936, trained as a fighter pilot with Jagdgeschwader 134 “Horst Wessel”, transferred to active service and was promoted Oberleutnant on 1 June 1939 before joining 4./Jagdgeschwader 53. He claimed his first aerial victory on 10 May 1940 during the Battle of France, was wounded in a take-off collision later that month, returned to claim further successes over the Channel and England, and was appointed Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 53 on 15 September 1940; after service on the Eastern Front from the opening of Operation Barbarossa, where he raised his total to 28 by October 1941, and a period over Malta, he was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 25 February 1942 and promoted Hauptmann on 1 March 1942. On 1 May 1942 he became Gruppenkommandeur of II./Jagdgeschwader 3 “Udet” and, fighting in the southern sector of the Eastern Front, was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 1 July 1942 after 49 aerial victories; in the intense combat of July and August 1942 he claimed a further 50 victories, including his 100th to 102nd on 23 August, becoming the 17th Luftwaffe pilot to reach the century mark, for which he received the Eichenlaub (114th award) on 27 August 1942 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 3 “Udet”. Promoted Major on 1 March 1943, he continued to score heavily, claiming his 150th victory on the opening day of the Battle of Kursk on 5 July 1943, before II./JG 3 was transferred to the Defence of the Reich in August 1943 and based at Schiphol; on 3 November 1943, after shooting down two P-47 Thunderbolts, he was killed in action west of Amsterdam when his Bf 109 G-6 was shot down by Royal Canadian Air Force fighters, his body later washing ashore near Zandvoort and being reinterred at the German war cemetery Ysselsteyn after a career that encompassed approximately 700 combat missions and 180 confirmed aerial victories.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdgeschwader_3
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