JANUARY
Leutnant Hugo Broch (1922-2026), born on 6 January 1922 in Leichlingen, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and after completing fighter pilot training arrived on the Eastern Front in January 1943 with 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 54, claiming his first confirmed victory on 13 March 1943 and steadily building his score through intense defensive operations over the Baltic region and later the Courland Pocket while flying the Bf 109 and Fw 190 against numerically superior Soviet fighters, bombers, and ground-attack aircraft such as Il-2s. He transferred to 8. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 54 in late 1944, continued scoring multiple victories in single sorties despite being wounded when his Fw 190 A-6 was shot down south of Libau in November 1944, and by early 1945 had reached 79 confirmed aerial victories in over 300 combat missions protecting retreating German ground forces amid the collapsing defenses in the East. For this sustained combat performance and leadership in the final desperate battles of the Courland Pocket he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 12 March 1945 as Feldwebel, one of the last such honors for a Luftwaffe pilot on the Eastern Front. Broch survived the war with a final total of 81 victories in 324 sorties, all achieved with Jagdgeschwader 54, later worked as an employee with Agfa, and become the last living recipient of the Ritterkreuz until his death on 31 May 2026 at the age of 104!
Source :
https://www.tracesofwar.com/awards/83/ritterkreuz-des-eisernen-kreuzes.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment