Wilhelm Moritz (Luftwaffe Officer)

Wilhelm Moritz (29 June 1913 – 2010) was a Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. During his career Wilhelm Moritz was credited with 44 victories in 500+ missions.

Career

Moritz was born on 29 June 1913 in Altona, a borough of Hamburg in the German Empire.

In mid-1940, Moritz was posted to the II. '' Gruppe'' (2nd group) of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing) which at the time was based in Norway and commanded by ''Hauptmann'' Karl Hentschel. There, he was assigned to the 4. '' Staffel'' (4th squadron) headed by ''Hauptmann'' Helmut Henz which was based at Trondheim-Værnes. Moritz claimed his first aerial victory on 6 July 1940 when he shot down a Royal Air Force (RAF) Bristol Blenheim bomber west of Stavanger He shot down another RAF Blenheim bomber on 19 August followed by a Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber on 26 October. In November 1940, Moritz succeeded ''Hauptmann'' Theodor Cammann as ''Staffelkapitän'' (squadron leader) of 6. ''Staffel'' of JG 77. On 10 November, II. ''Gruppe'' was withdrawn from Norway and began relocation to France. In France, the ''Gruppe'' was based at Brest-Süd Airfield, also known as Brest Guipavas Airfield, where they patrolled the French Atlantic coast. In January 1941, Moritz was posted to the ''Jagdfliegerschule'' 4, the fighter pilot school at Fürth Airfield.

In March 1942, IV. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 1 (JG 1–1st Fighter Wing) was re-designated and became the III. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 5 (JG 5—5th Fighter Wing). In consequence, ''Hauptmann'' Fritz Losigkeit was charged with the creation of a new IV. ''Gruppe'' which was initially based at Werneuchen near Berlin. ''Oberleutnant'' Friedrich Eberle headed 10. ''Staffel'' which had already served as 3. ''Staffel'' of '' Jagdgruppe Losigkeit''. The ''Einsatzstaffel'' of ''Jagdfliegerschule'' 4 under Moritz formed 11. ''Staffel'' on 3 April. ''Oberleutnant'' Franz Eisenach initially led 12. ''Staffel'' created from some pilots of the former IV. ''Gruppe''. Command of 12. ''Staffel'' then passed on to ''Oberleutnant'' Heinz Stöcker. On 10 September, Moritz was transferred to the ''Gruppenstab'' (headquarters unit) of IV. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 51 "Mölders" (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing). He was replaced by ''Oberleutnant'' Rainer Framm as commander of 11. ''Staffel'' of JG 1.

Eastern Front

At the time of his posting to JG 51, IV. ''Gruppe'' was based at Novodugino, north of Vyazma on the Eastern Front, and fighting in the Battle of Rzhev. The commander of the ''Gruppe'' was ''Hauptmann'' Johann Knauth. In October 1942, Moritz was given command of 12. ''Staffel'' of JG 51. He succeeded ''Oberleutnant'' Egon Falkensamer who was transferred. In October 1943, Moritz was transferred to ''Jagdgeschwader'' 3 "Udet" (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing) where he was given command of 6. ''Staffel''. In consequence, command of 12. ''Staffel'' of JG 51 was passed to ''Leutnant'' Rudolf Wagner.

Defense of the Reich

On 15 April 1944, ''Generalmajor'' Adolf Galland, at the time the ''General der Jagdflieger'' (General of Fighters), visited IV. ''Gruppe'' of JG 3 at the airfield in Salzwedel. At the time, Moritz served with ''Gruppenstab'' of IV. ''Gruppe''. Galland announced that the IV. ''Gruppe'' would be converted to a ''Sturmgruppe'' (assault group), the first of such units, as a means to combat the bomber formations of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Similar to the experimental ''Sturmstaffel'' 1 (1st Assault Squadron) of JG 3, the ''Gruppe'' was equipped with the heavily armored variant of the Focke Wulf Fw 190 A series. Every pilot of the ''Gruppe'' was asked to sign a contract, declaring that they would commit themselves to pressing attacks on the bombers to point-blank range, and that aerial ramming should be considered. Three days later, Moritz was officially appointed '' Gruppenkommandeur'' (group commander) of the IV. ''Sturmgruppe'' of JG 3. He replaced ''Hauptmann'' Heinz Lang, who had temporarily led the ''Gruppe'' after its former commander, ''Major'' Friedrich-Karl Müller was appointed '' Geschwaderkommodore'' (wing commander) on 11 April.

Moritz claimed his first aerial victory in Defense of the Reich on 22 April when 803 bombers of the USAAF Eighth Air Force targeted various German transportation targets in western Germany, in particular the railroad classification yard in Hamm. IV. ''Gruppe'' was scrambled at 18:20 in Salzwedel and engaged Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers from the 2nd Air Division at 19:40 in a 20 minute aerial during which Moritz shot down one of the B-24 bombers. On 29 April, 679 USAAF bombers, escorted by 814 fighters, headed von Berlin to bomb the capital. IV. ''Gruppe'' flew two missions to defend against this attack. On the second mission, the ''Gruppe'' intercepted the bombers on their return from the target area at 13:20 in the vicinity of Gardelegen. In this encounter, Moritz claimed an ''Herausschuss'' (separation shot)—a severely damaged heavy bomber forced to separate from his combat box which was counted as an aerial victory—over a B-24 bomber.

On 7 July 1944, a force of 1,129 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Eighth Air Force set out from England to bomb aircraft factories in the Leipzig area and the synthetic oil plants at Boehlen, Leuna-Merseburg and Lützkendorf. This formation was intercepted by a German ''Gefechtsverband'' (combat formation) consisting of IV. ''Sturmgruppe'' of JG 3, led by ''Hauptmann'' Moritz, escorted by two ''Gruppen'' of Bf 109s from ''Jagdgeschwader'' 300 (JG 300—300th Fighter Wing) led by ''Major'' Walther Dahl. Dahl and Moritz drove the attack to point-blank range behind the Liberators of the 492d Bombardment Group before opening fire. 492d Bombardment Group was temporarily without fighter cover. Within about a minute the entire squadron of twelve B-24s had been annihilated. The Germans claimed 28 USAAF 2nd Air Division B-24s that day and were credited with at least 21. The majority to the ''Sturmgruppe'' attack. This event, also known as the ''Luftschlacht bei Oschersleben'' (aerial battle at Oschersleben), earned both Dahl and Moritz a reference in the ''Wehrmachtbericht'', an information bulletin issued by the headquarters of the Wehrmacht, on 8 July. Moritz was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross () on 18 July for 39 aerial victories, including six ''Herausschüsse''.

On 19 November, IV. ''Gruppe'' was ordered to an airfield at Stömede, located approximately south of Lippstadt. The plan was to consolidate all three ''Gruppen'' of JG 3 in northwestern Germany which were subordinated to the 3. ''Jagd Division'' (3rd Fighter Division) commanded by ''Generalmajor'' Walter Grabmann. On the afternoon of 26 November, JG 3 was ordered to take off to attack Allied fighter bombers. Weather conditions were adverse at Störmede, visibility less than , and cloud cover was down at . While I. ''Gruppe'' lost its commander in a takeoff accident, Moritz aircraft got stuck in the mud during taxiing. The mission ended in a fiasco for JG 3 and Moritz was threatened with court-martial. To avoid legal prosecution, ''Major'' Heinz Bär, the ''Geschwaderkommodore'' of JG 3, had Moritz transferred to IV. ''Gruppe'' of ''Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader'' 1 (EJG 1), a Luftwaffe replacement training unit. Moritz left JG 3 on 5 December and was replaced by ''Hauptmann'' Hubert-York Weydenhammer.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

Mathews and Foreman, authors of ''Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims'', researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 41 aerial victory claims, plus three further unconfirmed claims. This figure includes 28 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and 13 over the Western Allies, including nine four-engined bombers.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = ''Planquadrat''), for example "PQ 07671". The ''Luftwaffe'' grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Awards

* Flugzeugführerabzeichen
* Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe
* Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
* Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 11 October 1943 as ''Hauptmann'' and ''Staffelkapitän''
* German Cross in Gold in 1945 as ''Major'' in the IV./''Jagdgeschwader'' 3
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 July 1944 as ''Major'' and ''Gruppenkommandeur'' of IV./''Jagdgeschwader'' 3 "Udet"

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moritz, Wilhelm
1913 births
2010 deaths
People from Altona, Hamburg
Luftwaffe pilots
German World War II flying aces
Recipients of the Gold German Cross
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein
Military personnel from Hamburg