Hugo Dahmer

War on the Arctic Front

On 1 February 1941, a new I. Gruppe of JG 77 was created under the command of Hauptmann Walter Grommes. This unit was based at Stavanger-Sola and was tasked with providing fighter escort for German shipping on the southern and western Norwegian coast. Command of 1. Staffel of JG 77 was given to Oberleutnant Horst Carganico.^[15] On 4 June, 1. Staffel was detached from the Gruppe and relocated to Kirkenes Airfield in preparation of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.^[16][17] In northern Norway, 1. Staffel became part of IV. Gruppe of JG 77 which in September was referred to as Jagdgruppe z.b.V. Petsamo (zur besonderen Verwendung—for special deployment) and headed by Major Hennig Strümpell.^[18]

German forces launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941.^[19] On 25 June, the Staffel moved to Petsamo-Luostari as part of Operation Silver Fox.^[20] During the following weeks, Dahmer claimed further aerial victories, not all of which can be exactly dated.^[21] On 30 July, Dahmer was presented the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), the first pilot to receive this distinction on the Eismeerfront (Ice Sea Front)—the area of operations nearest the Arctic Ocean. The presentation was made by Carganico, his commanding officer.^{[22][Note 2]} On 12 October, Dahmer led a formation which intercepted a flight of Tupolev SB-2 bombers from 137 BAP (Bombardirovochnyy Aviatsionyy Polk—bomber aviation regiment) over Lake Tolvand. During this encounter, Dahmer shot down three of the SB-2 bombers.^[24]

In January 1942, Jagdgeschwader 5 (JG 5—5th Fighter Wing) was newly created and placed under the command of Oberst Carl-Alfred Schumacher. On 3 January, I. Gruppe of JG 77 was renamed and became the I. Gruppe of JG 5. In consequence, 1. Staffel became the newly created 1. Staffel of JG 5. On 21 March, 1. Staffel was subordinated to II. Gruppe of JG 5, commanded by Strümpell, and became the 6. Staffel of JG 5.^[25]

On the Western Front

On 1 December 1942, Dahmer briefly returned to JG 26 before he was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (JG 2—2nd Fighter Wing).^[26] Dahmer was assigned to 7. Staffel of JG 2 under command of Oberleutnant Erich Hohagen. The Staffel was subordinated to III. Gruppe of JG 2 headed by Hauptmann Egon Mayer and was based at Vannes, France.^[27] On 23 January 1943, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) VIII Bomber Command attacked the U-boat base at Lorient. Defending against this attack, Dahmer claimed his first aerial victory with JG 2 when he shot down a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber.^[28] On 6 March, the USAAF again attacked Lorient U-boat base and the port of Brest. That day, Dahmer claimed two B-17 bombers shot down.^[29]

On 17 August 1943, Dahmer was appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 1. Staffel of JG 2. He replaced Oberleutnant Ferdinand Müller who had been killed in action the day before. The Staffel was subordinated to I. Gruppe of JG 2 under command of Hauptmann Hohagen.^[30] On 11 September, Dahmer was shot down in aerial combat with Spitfire and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. Although he managed to bail out of his Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 (Werknummer 1171) 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) north of Rouen, Dahmer was severely injured.^[31] On 1 January 1944, command of 1. Staffel of JG 2 was officially transferred to Oberleutnant Siegfried Lemke.^[32] Due to his injuries, Dahmer never returned to combat operations, serving as an instructor.^[10] During the final weeks of the war, he worked on the R4M unguided air-to-air rocket.^[1]

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Dahmer was credited with 57 aerial victories.^[33] Obermaier lists him with 45 aerial victories, plus further twelve unconfirmed claims, achieved in 307 combat missions.^[1] Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and state that he was credited with more than 40 aerial victory claims, plus two further unconfirmed claims. This figure includes 26 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and another 14 over the Western Allies, including three four-engined bombers.^[34]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 14 West 4967". The Luftwaffe grid map (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 360 square miles (930 km²). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.^[35]

Awards

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class^[10]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 1 August 1941 as Oberfeldwebel and pilot in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 5^{[61][Note 5]}