Ritterkreuzträger of Zerstörergeschwader 26 (ZG 26) "Horst Wessel"

Zerstörergeschwader 26 (ZG 26) “Horst Wessel,” a Luftwaffe heavy-fighter wing named after the SA Sturmführer Horst Wessel, was formed on 1 May 1939 in Dortmund, Werl and Lippstadt by redesignating the Stab and Gruppen of Zerstörergeschwader 142 (itself derived from Jagdgeschwader 134 “Horst Wessel”), initially flying Messerschmitt Bf 109D interceptors before converting to the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 that became its principal aircraft (later supplemented by the Me 410); carrying the Geschwaderkennung 3U and organized into a Geschwaderstab plus I., II. and III. Gruppen, the unit first saw action during the Phoney War defending the North Sea coast, then provided bomber escort and air-superiority cover throughout the 1940 Western campaign and the Battle of Britain, where it suffered severe losses to RAF single-seat fighters, before transferring to the Balkans in 1941 for the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece and the airborne assault on Crete, while its III. Gruppe operated in the Mediterranean and North Africa supporting the Afrika Korps and anti-shipping missions until the Tunisian collapse in 1943; simultaneously the Stab, I. and II. Gruppen spearheaded airfield attacks and close-support operations on the Eastern Front from the opening of Operation Barbarossa through the battles for Leningrad and Moscow, after which parts of the Geschwader were temporarily redesignated or absorbed into night-fighter and other units in late 1941–early 1942; reformed in October 1943 for the Defense of the Reich and re-equipped largely with Me 410s armed with heavy cannon and rockets, ZG 26 engaged the US Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in costly daylight interceptions during “Big Week” and subsequent raids over Germany until July–September 1944, when its remaining elements were redesignated as Jagdgeschwader 6 “Horst Wessel,” bringing the operational existence of the original Zerstörergeschwader to an end.

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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Major Wilhelm Spies (1913-1942), born in Rimpar, was a German Luftwaffe officer and Zerstörer pilot who began his military service in the Heer before transferring to the Luftwaffe in 1935, participating in the Spanish Civil War with the Legion Condor and later flying with Zerstörergeschwader 26 “Horst Wessel” through the campaigns in Poland, France, Britain, the Balkans, and the Eastern Front; as Oberleutnant and then Hauptmann he served as Staffelkapitän of the 1./Zerstörergeschwader 26, achieving ten aerial victories and destroying twenty aircraft on the ground by the early summer of 1941, for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 14 June 1941 while still Staffelkapitän in the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26, after which he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26 and continued intensive ground-attack and fighter operations on the Eastern Front, accumulating a total of twenty aerial victories (ten in the West and ten in the East) together with more than three hundred Feindflüge before being shot down and killed by anti-aircraft fire during a low-level attack southwest of Suchinitschi on 27 January 1942; in recognition of those cumulative achievements he was posthumously promoted to Major and awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz (the 85th recipient) on 5 April 1942 while listed as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Zerstörergeschwader 26.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerst%C3%B6rergeschwader_26