Fritz Lüddecke Explained

Fritz Lüddecke
Birth Date:	23 February 1920
Birth Name:	Fritz Paul Lüddecke
Birth Place:	Brakel, Germany
Death Place:	Wilkowischken, Lithuania
Serviceyears:	1941–1944
Rank:	Oberfeldwebel (staff sergeant)
Unit:	JG 51
Battles:	World War II Eastern Front
Awards:	German Cross Iron Cross Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Fritz Paul Lüddecke (23 February 1920 – 10 August 1944) was a Luftwaffe fighter ace from Brakel, Germany. He was the recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. Fritz Lüddecke was credited with 50 kills all in the Eastern Front (World War II). In 1944 he was killed in action over Wilkowischken, Lithuania.

Career

Lüddecke began his military career on 19 November 1941. He was transferred to 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing) on the Eastern Front on 24 August 1942.

With the Stabsstaffel

In early October 1942, II. Gruppe of JG 51 was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to Jesau, near present-day Bagrationovsk, to Heiligenbeil, present-day Mamonovo, to be reequipped with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A. While undergoing training on this aircraft, the Gruppe received orders on 4 November to transfer to the Mediterranean theatre flying the Bf 109 again. 6. Staffel was exempt from this order, was detached from II. Gruppe, and continued its training on the Fw 190. In late November, 6. Staffel was renamed to Stabsstaffel (headquarters squadron) of JG 51 and placed under the command of Diethelm von Eichel-Streiber on 30 November.

The Stabsstaffel transferred to the Eastern Front again on 5 February 1943 where it was based at an airfield at Smolensk. There, the fought in support of the 9th Army during the Battles of Rzhev. On 9 March, the Stabsstaffel was scrambled multiple times in defense of the airfield. At noon, a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber was shot down southwest of Dugino, located approximately 50abbr=offNaNabbr=off north of Vyazma, which was credited to Lüddecke. The Stabsstaffel was tasked with providing fighter protection of the Smolensk airfield on 15 March. In the morning, the Stabsstaffel was scrambled to intercept a flight of Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft north of Smolensk and claimed four aerial victories including an Il-2 aircraft by Lüddecke.

On the first day of the Battle of Kursk, 5 July 1943, the Stabsstaffel relocated from Smolensk to Oryol where it fought over the northern face of the salient. On 13 July, the Stabsstaffel was deployed over the combat area near Novosil where they engaged in combat with Soviet fighters. During this engagement, the Staffel claimed five aerial victories, including a Lavochkin La-5 fighter by Lüddecke, for the loss of one of their own.

On 10 August 1944, Lüddecke was killed in action in his Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8 (Werknummer 172958—factory number) 16abbr=offNaNabbr=off south-southwest of Wilkowischken, present-day Vilkaviškis. Following hits by anti-aircraft artillery, he attempted an emergency landing when his aircraft exploded in mid-air. He was posthumously awarded the German Cross in Gold (German: Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 1 October 1944, and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 18 November 1944.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Jacobs and Obermaier, Lüddecke was credited with 50 aerial victories all of which claimed on the Eastern Front. He flew more than 600 combat missions, including 150 fighter-bomber missions. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 51 aerial victory claims, all of which claimed on the Eastern Front.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 54284". The Luftwaffe grid map (German: Jägermeldenetz) 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 360sqmi. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3x in size.

Chronicle of aerial victories

Claim	Date	Time	Type	Location	Claim	Date	Time	Type	Location
– 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –
1	24 August 1942	13:40?	MiG-3	PQ 54284 25km (16miles) south of Kozelsk
– Stabsstaffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — 1 January – 31 December 1943
2	9 March 1943	12:00	Pe-2	PQ 35 Ost 36643, 50km (30miles) west-northwest of Mjabau	11	20 August 1943	13:35	Il-2 m.H.	southwest of Spas-Demensk
3	15 March 1943	10:19	Il-2	PQ 35 Ost 26554 20km (10miles) north of Moschna	12	20 August 1943	13:36?	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 35 Ost 35837, Spas-Demensk
4	13 July 1943	15:20	La-5	PQ 35 Ost 63263, 11km (07miles) southwest of Novosil 25km (16miles) east-southeast of Zalegoshch	13	29 August 1943	13:09	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 35 Ost 42139, 45km (28miles) northeast of Glukhov 25km (16miles) south of Sevsk
5	16 July 1943	09:45	La-5	PQ 35 Ost 54319 20km (10miles) east of Zhizdra	14	7 September 1943	08:36	Yak-9	northeast of Dukhovshchina
6	12 August 1943	08:43?	LaGG-3	PQ 35 Ost 35453, 30km (20miles) northwest of Yelnya 30km (20miles) northwest of Spas-Demensk	15	12 November 1943	09:11	La-5	PQ 35 Ost 06817, 21km (13miles) east of Vitebsk
7	16 August 1943	13:50?	LaGG-3	PQ 35 Ost 35696 15km (09miles) southwest of Utrikowo	16	5 December 1943	11:00	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 25 Ost 93247 15km (09miles) northeast of Parichi
8	18 August 1943	18:43	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 35 Ost 35664, Spas-Demensk 10km (10miles) west of Spas-Demensk	17	12 December 1943	12:08	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 93286 20km (10miles) east of Parichi
9	20 August 1943	13:28	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 35 Ost 358, southwest of Spas-Demensk	18	23 December 1943	13:08	Il-2 m.H.	PQ 25 Ost 93411 15km (09miles) southeast of Parichi
10	20 August 1943	13:32?	Il-2 m.H.	southwest of Spas-Demensk 20km (10miles) southwest of Utrikowo
– Stabsstaffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — 1 January – 10 August 1944
19	10 January 1944	13:23	Pe-2	PQ 25 Ost 93648 40km (30miles) north-northeast of Mazyr	34	2 July 1944	08:41	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 85774 vicinity of Lowica
20	5 February 1944	07:20	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 93152 15km (09miles) northwest of Parichi	35	11 July 1944	11:45	P-39	PQ 25 Ost 54713 15km (09miles) northeast of Karachev
21	22 February 1944	13:00	Yak-7	PQ 25 Ost 94895 10km (10miles) west-southwest of Rahachow	36	18 July 1944	16:21	P-39	PQ 25 Ost 42581 15km (09miles) northwest of Liuboml
22	22 February 1944	13:01	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 94894 10km (10miles) west-southwest of Rahachow	37	19 July 1944	17:29	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 32762 vicinity of Chełm
23	18 June 1944	14:28?	La-5	PQ 35 Ost 04866	38	20 July 1944	07:30	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 32866 25km (16miles) east of Chełm
24	22 June 1944	18:20?	LaGG-3	PQ 25 Ost 96536 20km (10miles) north-northeast of Ulla	39	20 July 1944	11:35	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 32399 30km (20miles) east-southeast of Chełm
	23 June 1944	09:40	LaGG-3	PQ 25 Ost 968, north-northeast of Orsha	40	20 July 1944	11:36	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 31233 25km (16miles) north of Hostynne
25	23 June 1944	13:19	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 96689 vicinity of Ulla	41	2 August 1944	11:11	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 35374, 12km (07miles) south of Vilkaviškis 20km (10miles) west of Marijampolė
26	23 June 1944	14:15?	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 96726 vicinity of Ulla	42	2 August 1944	11:29	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 25469, 8km (05miles) south-southwest of Vilkaviškis 25km (16miles) west-northwest of Marijampolė
27	23 June 1944	14:29?	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 96562 10km (10miles) north of Ulla	43	4 August 1944	08:04	Il-2	PQ 25 Ost 35371, 7km (04miles) south of Vilkaviškis 20km (10miles) west of Marijampolė
?	24 June 1944	12:15	La-5	30km (20miles) north-northeast of Orsha	44	4 August 1944	08:30	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 25498, 18km (11miles) south-southwest of Vilkaviškis 25km (16miles) east of Trakehnen
28	24 June 1944	16:26	Yak-9	PQ 35 Ost 05329 25km (16miles) northwest of Orsha	45	5 August 1944	12:16?	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 35344 20km (10miles) west-northwest of Marijampolė
29	25 June 1944	12:05	Il-2	PQ 35 Ost 05351 20km (10miles) northwest of Orsha	46	7 August 1944	07:42	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 25431, 15km (09miles) northeast of Eydtkau 25km (16miles) east-southeast of Blumenfeld
30	26 June 1944	14:53?	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 95647 10km (10miles) southwest of Talachyn	47	7 August 1944	07:46	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 25433, 18km (11miles) northeast of Eydtkau 25km (16miles) east-southeast of Blumenfeld
31	26 June 1944	14:59	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 95535 20km (10miles) west-northwest of Talachyn	48	8 August 1944	17:42	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 35312 20km (10miles) northwest of Marijampolė
32	28 June 1944	16:47	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 95586 30km (20miles) southwest of Talachyn	49	9 August 1944	16:10	Yak-9	PQ 25 Ost 35348 20km (10miles) west-northwest of Marijampolė
33	29 June 1944	17:13	P-39	PQ 25 Ost 94157 15km (09miles) northeast of Byerazino	50	9 August 1944	19:19	La-5	PQ 25 Ost 35329 20km (10miles) north-northwest of Marijampolė

Awards

Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 13 December 1943 as Feldwebel and pilot
German Cross in Gold on 1 October 1944 as Feldwebel in the Stabsstaffel/Jagdgeschwader 51
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 November 1944 as Oberfeldwebel and pilot in the Stabsstaffel/Jagdgeschwader 51 "Mölders"

References

Bibliography

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