Paul-Heinrich Dähne

Paul-Heinrich Dähne (7 July 1921 – 24 April 1945) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II, a fighter ace credited with 100 aerial victories—that is, 100 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—claimed in about 600 combat missions.

Born in Frankfurt an der Oder, Dähne was trained as a fighter pilot and was posted to ''Jagdgeschwader'' 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing) in late 1940. Fighting on the English Channel, he claimed his first aerial victory on 26 August 1941 over a Royal Air Force (RAF) Bristol Blenheim bomber. His unit was then posted to the Eastern Front where his number of aerial victories increased to 90. Dähne was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 April 1944. He was then transferred to the Western Front where he fought in Defense of the Reich. There he was appointed ''Gruppenkommandeur'' (group commander) of III. '' Gruppe'' (3rd group) of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 11 (JG 11—11th Fighter Wing) and later of II. ''Gruppe'' of JG 11. Dähne was killed in a flight accident while training on the Heinkel He 162 jet fighter near Warnemünde, Germany on 24 April 1945.

Career

Dähne was 7 July 1921 in Frankfurt an der Oder, at the time in the Province of Brandenburg in the German Empire. Following flight training as a fighter pilot, he was posted to the 2. '' Staffel'' (2nd squadron) of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing), a squadron of I. '' Gruppe'' (1st group) of JG 52, in late 1940. At the time, 2. ''Staffel'' was commanded by ''Oberleutnant'' Karl-Heinz Leesmann and I. ''Gruppe'' was led by ''Hauptmann'' Wolfgang Ewald. Dähne was nicknamed "Sarotti", referring to the German chocolate brand Sarotti, by his comrades for his dark taint and his love of chocolate. He had joined the ''Gruppe'' following its withdrawal from the English Channel while it was based at Krefeld Airfield for a period of rest and replenishment. On 26 December, I. ''Gruppe'' relocated to an airfield at Katwijk where it was tasked with patrolling the Dutch coast area and German Bight. On 21 February 1941, the three ''Staffeln'' were deployed at various airfields on the Dutch, German and Danish North Sea coast.

On 24 May, Ewald was transferred and in consequence Leesmann was given command I. ''Gruppe'' while ''Oberleutnant'' Robert Göbel then headed 2. ''Staffel''. On 7 July, 2. ''Staffel'' moved to Langeoog, staying on the island until 31 August. While based at Langeoog, Dähne claimed his first aerial victory on 26 August when he shot down a Royal Air Force (RAF) Bristol Blenheim bomber north of Juist. On 23 September, I. ''Gruppe'' was withdrawn from the Western Front and was sent to the Eastern Front where it would be based at an airfield at Ponyatovka, located approximately southwest of Roslavl.

The war against the Soviet Union

On 22 June, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Pror to its deployment on the Eastern Front, I. ''Gruppe'' was fully equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2. The ''Gruppe'' reached Orsha on 27 September before heading to Ponyatovka on 2 October. There, the ''Gruppe'' was initially subordinated to the ''Stab'' (headquarters unit) of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 27 (JG 27—27th Fighter Wing) and supported German forces fighting in the Battle of Vyazma as part of Operation Typhoon, the code name of the German offensive on Moscow. Here, Dähne claimed his first aerial victory on the Eastern Front on 18 October when he shot down an Ilyushin DB-3 bomber. On 20 October, the ''Gruppe'' moved to an airfield named Kalinin-Southwest, present-day Tver, and located on the Volga, and to Staritsa on 31 October and then to Ruza located approximately west of Moscow, on 3 November. Here, Dähne claimed a Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance bomber on 18 November. The failed assault on Moscow forced I. ''Gruppe'' to retreat to an airfield at Dugino, present-day Novodugino, on 15 December where they stayed until 31 January 1942. Here on 20 January, he claimed two I-61 fighters, an early German designation for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3.

On 1 February 1942, I. ''Gruppe'' was withdrawn from combat operations and was moved to Smolensk and then further west to Orsha. From 8 to 12 February the ''Gruppe'' took a train to Jesau near Königsberg, present-day Kaliningrad in Russia, for a period of recuperation and replenishment where they received new Bf 109 F-4 aircraft. The ''Gruppe'' was ordered to Olmütz, present-day Olomouc in the Czech Republic on 11 April. On 17 May, I. ''Gruppe'' relocated to Artyomovsk, present-day Bakhmut. From Artyomovsk, JG 52 supported the German forces fighting in the Second Battle of Kharkov. On 24 May, the ''Gruppe'' was ordered to relocate to Barvinkove located approximately west of Sloviansk. On 1 June, the ''Gruppe'' then moved to an airfield at Grakowo, located approximately halfway between Kharkov and Kupiansk.

In June 1942, command positions in I. ''Gruppe'' changed. On 13 June, Leesmann was transferred passing command of the ''Gruppe'' to ''Hauptmann'' Helmut Bennemann. When Göbel, the commander of 2. ''Staffel'', was killed in action on 25 June, command was briefly given to ''Leutnant'' Karl Rung until ''Hauptmann'' Johannes Wiese took command two days later.

When on 10 May 1943, Bennemann was severely wounded by the explosion of an incendiary bomb at Charkow-Woitschenko Airfield, Wiese was tasked with leading I. ''Gruppe''. At first, Wiese commanded both 2. ''Staffel'' and I. ''Gruppe'' until on 1 July, Dähne was given temporary leadership of the ''Staffel''.

In preparation for Operation Citadel, I. ''Gruppe'' was moved to Bessonovka, a makeshift airfield located approximately west of Belgorod on 4 July. Three days later, an aerial victory claimed by Dähne was counted as the 800th aerial victory by I. ''Gruppe'' and the 6,000th of JG 52 overall. By 5 October, the injuries sustained by Bennemann on 10 May proved so severe that Wiese was officially given command of the ''Gruppe''. Dähne was officially appointed ''Staffelkapitän'' (squadron leader) of 2. ''Staffel'' of JG 52 on 13 November 1943. On 6 April 1944, Dähne was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ().

Defense of the Reich

In early June 1944, 2. ''Staffel'' was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and transferred west to fight in Defense of the Reich. The ''Staffel'' was subordinated to III. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 11 (JG 11—11th Fighter Wing) led by ''Hauptmann'' Horst-Günther von Fassong. There, the ''Staffel'' was then redesignated and became the 12. ''Staffel'' of JG 11. When on 22 June Soviet forces launched Operation Bagration, III. ''Gruppe'' was ordered to relocate to the Eastern Front where it was to be deployed in the combat area of Minsk and fought in the Minsk Offensive. The ''Gruppe'' flew its last combat missions on the Eastern Front on 1 September. During its ten-week tenure in the east, III. ''Gruppe'' pilots claimed approximately 125 aerial victories, including six by Dähne, for the loss of twelve pilots killed or missing and a further eleven injured or wounded in combat. The ''Gruppe'' then moved to an airfield at Riesa-Leutewitz for a brief period of rest and replenishment.

On 17 September 1944 Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden, the operation to cross the Rhine at Arnhem. The following day, III. ''Gruppe'' was ordered to Achmer Airfiled to support the German defense. On 25 September, during Operation Berlin, the evacuation of the remnants of the British 1st Airborne Division, Dähne claimed a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter shot down. Two days later, III. ''Gruppe'' flew a combat air patrol to the area of Arnhem-Nijmegen area where Dähne claimed an aerial victory over a Supermarine Spitfire fighter.

In preparation for Operation Bodenplatte, III. ''Gruppe'' was moved to an airfield at Großostheim, near Aschaffenburg on 17 December 1944. Fassong had learned of the planned operation on 5 December at a meeting held at the headquarters of the II. ''Jagdkorps'' (2nd Fighter Corps) commanded by ''Generalmajor'' Dietrich Peltz, on 5 December. Fassong informed his ''Staffelkapitäne'' of the upcoming operation on 15 December without going into the specifics of the target and date. On 24 December, during the Battle of the Bulge, Dähne shot down a Lockheed P-38 Lightning of the Ninth Air Force near Trier.

Operation Bodenplatte was launched on 1 January. At 06:30, Fassong briefed his pilots of the operation and that their target would be the Asch Airfield (Designated: Y-29) located north-west of Maastricht. At 08:18, Fassong led a flight of 31 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8 fighter aircraft to Frankfurt where they were joined by other Luftwaffe fighters. On this mission, Fassong was killed in action and Dähne was shot down in his Fw 190 and bailed out over German held territory. In consequence, Dähne succeeded Fassong as ''Gruppenkommandeur'' (group commander) of III. ''Gruppe'' while ''Leutnant'' Günter Metzner was given command of 12. ''Staffel''.

In March 1945, Dähne succeeded ''Oberleutnant'' Fritz Wegener as commander of II. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 1 "Oesau" (JG 1—1st Fighter Wing). Wegener had temporarily led the ''Gruppe'' after its former commander, ''Hauptmann'' Hermann Staiger, was transferred in January. The ''Gruppe'' was based at Garz Airfield located near Garz. On 26 March, Dähne received orders to relocate II. ''Gruppe'' to Wien-Schwechat Airfield for conversion training to the Heinkel He 162 jet fighter. The order was later changed and II. ''Gruppe'' was ordered to Rostock-Marienehe for conversion training. Dähne was killed in a training flight accident of the He 162 near Warnemünde, Germany on 24 April 1945 shortly after 16:00. Flying at an altitude of Dähne had attempted a turn when his aircraft began skidding. The aircraft lost height rapidly and crashed into the Warnow. It was assumed that Dähne had deployed the ejection seat while the aircraft canopy failed to release, smashing his skull.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Dähne was credited with 100 aerial victories. Spick lists him with approximately 100 aerial victories claimed in about 600 combat missions, with 80 claims on the Eastern Front and 20 on the Western Front. Mathews and Foreman, authors of ''Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims'', researched the German Federal Archives and indicate that Dähne had more than 99 aerial victory claims. This figure includes at least 97 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and two over the Western Allies. According to the authors, the actual number of aerial victories may be as high as 128 claims.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = ''Planquadrat''), for example "PQ 4758". 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 in size.

Awards

* Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
* Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 13 September 1943 as ''Oberleutnant'' and pilot
* German Cross in Gold on 17 October 1943 as ''Oberleutnant'' in the 2./''Jagdgeschwader'' 52
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 April 1944 as ''Oberleutnant'' and ''Staffelkapitän'' of the 12./''Jagdgeschwader'' 11 (previously 2./''Jagdgeschwader'' 52)

Notes

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Citations

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahne, Paul-Heinrich
1921 births
1945 deaths
People from Frankfurt (Oder)
German World War II flying aces
Recipients of the Gold German Cross
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II
Military personnel from the Province of Brandenburg
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1945
Military personnel from Brandenburg
Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Germany