| Wilhelm Moritz | |
| Birth Date: | 29 June 1913 |
| Birth Place: | Altona |
| Death Place: | Ontario, Canada |
| Branch: | Army (1933–35) Luftwaffe (1935–45) |
| Serviceyears: | 1933–1945 |
| Rank: | Major (major) |
| Unit: | ZG 1, JG 77, JG 1, JG 51, JG 3, JG 4 |
| Commands: | 11./JG 1, 12./JG 51, IV./JG 3 II./JG 4 |
| Awards: | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
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.
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 Gruppe was withdrawn from Norway and began relocation to France.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.
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.
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 6 July, VI. Gruppe relocated to Illesheim Airfield located 18km (11miles) northeast of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The following day, 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 (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 18 July for 39 aerial victories, including six Herausschüsse.
On 19 November, IV. Gruppe was ordered to an airfield at Stömede, located approximately 11abbr=offNaNabbr=off 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 1000abbr=offNaNabbr=off, and cloud cover was down at 75abbr=offNaNabbr=off. 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.
Moritz died on 28 June 2007 at the age of in Ontario, Canada.
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 (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 | |
| – 4. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 77 – Norway — 6 April – 10 November 1940 | ||||||||||
| 1 | 6 July 1940 | 07:01 | Blenheim | west of Stavanger | 3 | 26 October 1940 | 16:52 | Beaufort | southwest of Bergen | |
| 2 | 19 August 1940 | 14:47 | Blenheim | |||||||
| – 12. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — September 1942 | ||||||||||
| ? | 26 September 1942 | unknown | ? | 27 September 1942 | unknown | |||||
| – Stab IV. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — October – 8 December 1942 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 30 October 1942 | 09:35 | Il-2 | south-southeast of Surazh | 6 | 8 December 1942 | 12:45 | Il-2 | 18km (11miles) north of Velikiye Luki | |
| 5 | 3 December 1942 | 13:50 | Il-2 | 25km (16miles) southeast of Velikiye Luki | 7 | 8 December 1942 | 12:50 | Il-2 | 15km (09miles) north of Velikiye Luki | |
| – 12. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — December 1942 – 3 February 1943 | ||||||||||
| 8 | 16 December 1942 | 10:03 | Il-2 | PQ 07671 | 10 | 17 December 1942 | 11:47 | Il-2 | PQ 07594 vicinity of Glazunovka | |
| 9 | 17 December 1942 | 07:48 | Il-2 | 17km (11miles) southwest of Velikiye Luki | 11 | 7 January 1943 | 11:15 | Il-2 | PQ 07751 | |
| – 12. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 – Eastern Front — 4 February – 31 December 1943 | ||||||||||
| 12 | 10 April 1943 | 12:55 | R-Z? | PQ 35 Ost 46773 15km (09miles) east of Vyazma | 22♠ | 13 July 1943 | 14:15 | Il-2 | PQ 35 Ost 63252 15km (09miles) southeast of Zalegoshch | |
| 13 | 8 May 1943 | 18:10 | P-39 | PQ 35 Ost 63582 20km (10miles) southwest of Maloarkhangelsk | 23 | 15 July 1943 | 16:40 | Il-2 | PQ 35 Ost 64824 15km (09miles) southeast of Mtsensk | |
| 14 | 10 May 1943 | 06:35 | La-5 | PQ 35 Ost 72131 vicinity of Cheremisnowo | 24 | 5 August 1943 | 17:30 | La-5 | southeast of Karachev | |
| 15 | 5 July 1943 | 07:25 | LaGG-3 | PQ 35 Ost 53883 20km (10miles) southwest of Fatezh | 25 | 12 August 1943 | 17:40 | LaGG-3 | north of Orvodowka | |
| 16 | 10 July 1943 | 10:35 | MiG-3 | PQ 35 Ost 63554 15km (09miles) west of Maloarkhangelsk | 26 | 16 August 1943 | 06:15 | LaGG-3 | east-southeast of Bohodukhiv | |
| 17 | 10 July 1943 | 10:40 | MiG-3 | PQ 35 Ost 63514 10km (10miles) east of Trosna | 27 | 20 August 1943 | 06:30 | Il-2 m.H. | northwest of Ulitschewka | |
| 18♠ | 13 July 1943 | 11:15 | Yak-1 | PQ 35 Ost 64883 15km (09miles) northeast of Zalegoshch | 28 | 27 August 1943 | 09:12 | Il-2 m.H. | southwest of Kotelva | |
| 19♠ | 13 July 1943 | 13:48 | Il-2 | PQ 35 Ost 63242 10km (10miles) south of Zalegoshch | 29 | 19 September 1943 | 08:15 | Il-2 m.H. | northwest of Sajzewo | |
| 20♠ | 13 July 1943 | 13:52 | Il-2 | PQ 35 Ost 63241 10km (10miles) south of Zalegoshch | 30 | 4 October 1943 | 10:48 | Yak-1 | northwest of Klushino | |
| 21♠ | 13 July 1943 | 14:00 | LaGG-3 | PQ 35 Ost 63251 15km (09miles) southeast of Zalegoshch | 31 | 4 October 1943 | 13:03 | Pe-2 | southwest of Nowy-Orlik | |
| – Stab IV. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" – Defense of the Reich — 18 April – 31 May 1944 | ||||||||||
| 32 | 22 April 1944 | 19:46 | B-24 | PQ 05 Ost S/NQ-OQ Westerwald, southeast of Bonn | 35 | 8 May 1944 | 10:14 | B-24* | PQ 15 Ost S/FA-9, northwest of Braunschweig | |
| 33 | 29 April 1944 | 13:20 | B-24* | PQ 15 Ost S/FC-EC northwest of Gardelegen | 36 | 13 May 1944 | 14:16 | B-17 | PQ 15 Ost S/AF, Lake Kummerow | |
| 34 | 8 May 1944 | 10:07 | B-24* | PQ 15 Ost S/FA north of Braunschweig | 37 | 13 May 1944 | 14:24 | B-17* | PQ 15 Ost S/AF, Lake Kummerow | |
| – Stab IV. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" – Defense of the Reich — July – December 1944 | ||||||||||
| 38 | 7 July 1944 | 09:42 | B-24* | PQ 15 Ost S/HC, Oschersleben | 41? | 27 September 1944 | B-24 | |||
| 39 | 18 July 1944 | 10:50 | B-17 | Kempten | 42? | 2 November 1944 | 12:47 | B-17 | PQ 15 Ost JB/JC/JD/KC/KD | |
| 40 | 23 August 1944 | 12:20 | B-24 | PQ 15 Ost S/FL-FM Mürzzuschlag | 43? | 28 November 1944 | 13:52 | P-51 | ||
sv:Christer Bergström
. Identifying a Luftwaffe Planquadrat . Bergström Black Cross/Red Star website . 28 January 2021 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20181222042030/http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/bc-rs/planquadrat.htm . 22 December 2018 . dead.de:Walther-Peer Fellgiebel
. 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 . German . Friedberg, Germany . Podzun-Pallas . 978-3-7909-0284-6.