Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 - 1944-45

1944-45

The experten of NJG 1 continued to be successful through the first half of 1944. Schnaufer was appointed Gruppenkommandeur IV./NJG 1 in March 1944 and claimed 5 aircraft on the night of 24/25 May. He was awarded the Eichenlaub on 24 June for 84 victories and the Schwerter on 30 July, with his total at 89. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer claimed 79 of his eventual 121 kills in this year, and Hpt. Martin Drewes over 40.

Early 1944 also saw NJG 1's aircraft start to be equipped with the newer and more effective Lichtenstein SN-2 radar, further improving the units effectiveness. Hpt. Drewes claimed 5 kills on two May nights; 3/4 May and 21/22 May 1944.

However, this period also saw the advent of anti-night fighter operations by the Bomber Command's No. 100 Group RAF, and the commencement of radar-equipped de Havilland Mosquito fighter operations over Europe, leading to gradually increased losses among the overworked experienced Nachtgeschwader crews through 1944. By this time any flights, day or night, were hazardous, and NJG 1's Obfw. Heinz Vinke (54 kills) was shot down and killed by RAF Typhoons during a daylight air test on 26 February 1944.

Once the European invasion in June 1944 had stabilised and the Allied armies commenced an advance into France, the Nachtjagdgeschwadern found their early warning radar network and monitoring infrastructure increasingly compromised, as territory was lost to the Allies.

Thus as 1944 ground on, NJG 1 found its job increasingly difficult. Novice and less successful crews were diverted -and often lost- to costly night ground-attack operations, leaving those few experienced crews remaining operational to shoot down more of the rapidly increasing numbers of RAF Bomber Command aircraft which now - due to a wide range of radio counter-measures and their own night fighter efforts- roamed almost at will in the German night sky. Fuel and equipment shortages also curtailed the response to the continuing night attacks. In September 1944 Schnaufer achieved his 100th victory on 9 October 1944 and was awarded the Brillanten personally by Hitler.

Oberleutnant Werner Baake was awarded a Ritterkreuz on 27 July for 33 victories. Baake was then appointed Gruppenkommandeur I./NJG 1 on 2 October 1944, succeeding Major Paul Förster (8 victories) who was killed on 1 October. Baake ended the war with 41 victories.

As 1944 wore on more irreplaceable aces were killed in action by the increasingly effective RAF night fighters; Obfw. Willi Morlock (16 kills) was shot down and killed by RAF Intruders on 5 November 1944, while Hpt. Hans-Heinz Augenstein (46 Kills) was killed by a Fighter Interception Unit Mosquito fighter on 6 December 1944. On the night of 24/25 December 1944, Hpt. Heinz Strüning (56 victories) of 9./NJG 1 was shot down in his Bf 110 G-4 by a No. 157 Squadron intruder.