Franz Schwaiger

Franz Schwaiger
Born	1 February 1918 Ulm
Died	24 April 1944 (aged 26) Rain am Lech
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1941–44
Rank	Leutnant
Unit	JG 3
Battles/wars	World War II Eastern Front Defense of the Reich
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Franz Schwaiger (1 February 1918 – 24 April 1944) was a German Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership - for the fighter pilots, it was a quantifiable measure of skill and success.

Military career

Franz completed his pilot training in the summer of 1941, just as the German invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa) opened.^[1] He was posted, as an Unteroffizier, with 6./JG 3, a part of II./JG 3 under the command of Gordon Gollob and fighting with Army Group South. Schwaiger quickly earned his first air victory, on 16.08.1941, but by the end of the year had reached a total of eight victories at which time his unit was rotated back to the Reich for rest and re-equipping.^[2]

A short secondment for his Gruppe to the Mediterranean Theatre, from January to April 1942, yielded no further success for Franz, but upon their return to the Eastern Front in May he started scoring steadily. Again covering Army Group South and the advance across the Ukraine toward Stalingrad, he scored his 20th victory on 31 July. The next week he was transferred to 2./JG 3, in the same sector. He scored his 30th victory on 17 August, and his 40th on 29 September, between which he had been transferred again, this time to 3./JG 3. Promoted to Feldwebel in early October, he scored his 50th victory on the 9th before being awarded the Knight's Cross, for 53 victories, on 29 October.

At the start of 1943 as the disaster at Stalingrad unfolded, and with 56 victories, Franz was sent for officer-training. Commissioned as a Leutnant, he returned to I./JG 3 as their highest-scoring pilot. In the intervening months the Gruppe had been recalled to Germany for Defence of the Reich duties against the increasingly intensive bombing raids of the 8th United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). This was a completely different type of aerial warfare - at high altitude and against the slow but very heavily armed box-formations of American bombers. Based around the industrial Ruhr heartland and Holland for the next year, he slowly added to his score.

He was made Staffelkapitän of 1./JG 3 on 9 March 1944. However only 6 weeks later on April 24, while fighting a formation of American bombers and their fighter escort, Schwaiger shot down his 67th victory - a P-51 Mustang - but his Bf 109G had problems with its fuel supply, forcing him to break off and return to base. On the way back, and flying alone, his plane was intercepted by U.S. fighters near Augsburg. Forced to crash-land, he was killed by American pilots strafing him as he attempted to escape from his aircraft^[3][4] .

At the time of his death, Leutnant Franz Schwaiger had 67 victories comprising 56 on the Russian front (including 13 Il-2 Sturmovik bombers) and 11 on the Western Front (including four four-engined bombers).

Victories

No	Date	Time	Unit & Airfield	Gruppe Kommandeur[5]	Location / Planquad	Claimed Aircraft	Source / Comments
1	16 August 1941	6:55	6/JG 3 - Signajewka, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	DB-3	Prien/Bock
2	19 August 1941	13:55	6/JG 3 - Kirovograd, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	I-153	Prien/Bock
3	21 August 1941	7:55	6/JG 3 - Stschastliwaja, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	DB-3	Prien/Bock
4	21 August 1941	7:58	6/JG 3 - Stschastliwaja, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	DB-3	Prien/Bock
5	26 August 1941	16:15	6/JG 3 - Stschastliwaja, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	E of Dneprpropetrovsk	Pe-2	Prien/Bock
6	3 September 1941	7:55	6/JG 3 - Mironovka, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	Pe-2	Prien/Bock
7	8 September 1941	13:47	6/JG 3 - Mironovka, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	SB-2	Prien/Bock
8	6 October 1941	9:20	6/JG 3 - Sechtschinskaja, Ukraine	Hptm Gordon Gollob	-	Pe-2	Prien/Bock
9	27 May 1942	12:50	6/JG 3 - Tschuguyev, Ukraine	Maj Kurt Brändle	3 km NNW of Izyum: low level	Il-2	C.2034 AnerkNr 71
10	29 May 1942	18:35	6/JG 3 - Tschuguyev, Ukraine	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	V-11	C.2036/II #102276/43
11	29 May 1942	18:40	6/JG 3 - Tschuguyev, Ukraine	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	V-11	C.2036/II #102276/43
12	4 June 1942	17:27	6/JG 3 - Tschuguyev, Ukraine	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	Il-2	C.2036/II #103293/43
13	11 June 1942	12:27	6/JG 3 - Tschuguyev, Ukraine	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	Il-2	C.2036/II #103293/43
14	22 July 1942	5:00	6/JG 3 - Novy Cholan	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	I-16	C.2036/II #104773/43
15	24 July 1942	13:20	6/JG 3 - Novy Cholan	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	Yak-1	C.2025/I
16	26 July 1942	8:15	6/JG 3 - Novy Cholan	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	Il-2	C.2036/II #104926/43
17	26 July 1942	8:20	6/JG 3 - Novy Cholan	Maj Kurt Brändle	-	Il-2	C.2036/II #104926/43
18	27 July 1942	11:40	6/JG 3 - Novy Cholan	Maj Kurt Brändle	39251: 50m	Yak-1	C.2025/I AnerkNr88
19	31 July 1942	13:55	6/JG 3 - Frolov	Maj Kurt Brändle	39192: 600m	Il-2	C.2025/I AnerkNr98
20	31 July 1942	14:00	6/JG 3 - Frolov	Maj Kurt Brändle	39184: 600m	LaGG-3	C.2025/I AnerkNr100
21	4 August 1942	16:30	2/JG 3 - Frolov	Hptm Georg Michalek	38285: 50m	MiG-1	C.2025/I AnerkNr47
22	5 August 1942	17:37	2/JG 3 - Frolov	Hptm Georg Michalek	49739: 400m	LaGG-3	C.2025/I AnerkNr50
23	9 August 1942	11:47	2/JG 3 - Frolov	Hptm Georg Michalek	39417: 4500m	Yak-1	C.2032/II AnerkNr57
24	9 August 1942	12:00	2/JG 3 - Frolov	Hptm Georg Michalek	49183: low-level	Yak-1	C.2032/II
25	12 August 1942	4:22	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Hptm Georg Michalek	39460: 200m	LaGG-3	C.2032/II AnerkNr561
26	13 August 1942	17:54	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Hptm Georg Michalek	39432: 300m	MiG-1	C.2032/II AnerkNr65
27	17 August 1942	16:51	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Hptm Georg Michalek	30894: 700m	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr75
28	17 August 1942	16:52	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Hptm Georg Michalek	40773: 400m	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr77
29	17 August 1942	16:58	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Hptm Georg Michalek	40793: 200m	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr80
30	20 August 1942	10:25	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49613: 500m	Pe-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr83
31	20 August 1942	10:32	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49451: 300m	LaGG-3	C.2032/II AnerkNr85
32	21 August 1942	18:42	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49124	LaGG-3	C.2032/II AnerkNr88
33	28 August 1942	5:18	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	40894: 200m	MiG-1	C.2032/II AnerkNr94
34	29 August 1942	13:50	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49361: 3000m	P-40	C.2032/II AnerkNr95
35	31 August 1942	16:07	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49333	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr97
36	3 September 1942	4:55	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	40813: 3500m	LaGG-3	C.2032/II AnerkNr110
37	4 September 1942	17:01	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49241: 3500m	Yak-1	C.2032/II AnerkNr120
38	6 September 1942	17:05	2/JG 3 - Tusov, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49134: 1500m	LaGG-3	C.2032/II AnerkNr124
39	29 September 1942	10:05	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49251: 200m	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr86
40	29 September 1942	10:08	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49222: 50m	Il-2	C.2032/II AnerkNr87
41	29 September 1942	15:50	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	59162: 500m	MiG-1	C.2032/II AnerkNr89
42	30 September 1942	14:45	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	40753: 1500m	LaGG-3	C.2032/II
43	4 October 1942	16:07	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	49623: 300m	La-5	C.2035/I
44	5 October 1942	7:12	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	40424: 100m	MiG-1	C.2035/I AnerkNr91
45	6 October 1942	14:02	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	40442: 400m	Il-2	C.2035/I AnerkNr92
46	6 October 1942	14:14	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	40432: 1800m	MiG-1	C.2035/I AnerkNr93
47	7 October 1942	8:58	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	8 km E of Kotluban: 800m	Yak-1	C.2035/I AnerkNr94
48	8 October 1942	8:40	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	50672: 5000m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr95
49	9 October 1942	14:38	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	49131: 2500m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr99
50	9 October 1942	14:43	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	49124: 1500m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr100
51	15 October 1942	7:58	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	59314: 50m	R-5	C.2035/I AnerkNr110
52	15 October 1942	8:58	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	-	Yak-1	Prien JG3 lists f.557
53	29 October 1942	14:15	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	59324: 1500m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr122
54	31 October 1942	13:20	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Olt Helmut Mertens (temp)	50171: 800m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr124
55	2 November 1942	6:20	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49431: 50m	LaGG-3	C.2035/I AnerkNr126
56	2 November 1942	6:58	3/JG 3 - Pitomnik, Stalingrad	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	49434: 100m	R-5	C.2035/I AnerkNr167
?	12 August 1943	9:30	1/JG 3 - Mönchen-Gladbach	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	-	B-17	Prien JG3 lists f.561
?	19 August 1943	20:15	1/JG 3 - Mönchen-Gladbach	Maj Klaus Quaet-Faslem	-	B-17	Prien JG3 lists f.561
?	19 April 1944	10:55	1/JG 3 - Burg	Hptm Helmut Mertens	S of Munden: 100m	Mustang	C.2027/I AnerkNr89
67	24 April 1944	-	1/JG 3 - Burg	Hptm Helmut Mertens	near Augsburg	Mustang
†	24 April 1944	-	1/JG 3 - Burg	Hptm Helmut Mertens	Rain am Lech

Awards

• Flugzeugführerabzeichen
• Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class
  • 1st Class
• German Cross in Gold on 29 October 1942 as Unteroffizier in the 3./Jagdgeschwader 3^[6]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 23 October 1942 as Unteroffizier and pilot in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet"^{[7][Note 1]}

Notes

1. According to Scherzer as pilot in the I./Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet".^[8]

References

Citations

1. Luftwaffe 39-45 Historia website.
2. Luftwaffe Air Units: Single–Engined Fighters website.
3. Luftwaffe 39-45 Historia website.
4. Musciano 1989, pp.109.
5. Luftwaffe Air Units: Single–Engined Fighters website.
6. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 434.
7. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 394.
8. Scherzer 2007, p. 694.

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Barbas, Bernd (1985). Planes of the Luftwaffe Fighter Aces Vol I Kookaburra Technical Publishing. ISBN 0-85880-048-9 incl a colour profile of his aircraft [p62]
• Musciano, Walter (1989). Messerschmitt Aces Tab Books ISBN 0-8306-8379-8
• Spick, Mike (2006). Aces of the Reich Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-675-6
• Scutts, Jerry (1994). Bf 109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean. London, UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-448-0.
• Weal, John (2007). More Bf109 Aces of the Russian Front Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84603-177-X.
• Weal, John (1999). Bf109F/G/K Aces of the Western Front Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85532-905-0.
• Weal, John (2006). Bf109 Defence of the Reich Aces Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84176-879-0.

External links

• Ritterkreuztraeger 1939-1945
• Luftwaffe 1939-1945
• "Luftwaffe Air Units: Single–Engined Fighters". Jagdgeschwader 3. Retrieved 7 January 2013