Franz Barten

Franz Barten (26 January 1912 – 4 August 1944) was a World War II fighter ace from Germany. He was born on 26 January 1912 at Saarbrücken. Barten was credited with having shot down a total of 52 Allied aircraft.

Franz Barten
Born(1912-01-26)26 January 1912
Saarbrücken, Germany
Died4 August 1944(1944-08-04) (aged 32)
near Reinsehlen
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service/branchBalkenkreuz (Iron Cross) Luftwaffe
RankHauptmann (captain)
UnitJG 77, JG 51, JG 53
Commands held9./JG 53
Battles/wars
See battles

World War II

AwardsGerman Cross in Gold
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (posthumous)

On 4 August 1944, Barten was shot down in a Messerschmitt Bf 109 in aerial combat with P-47 Thunderbolt belonging to the United States Army Air Forces near Reinsehlen. He bailed out of his aircraft, but was shot while hanging in his parachute.

Career

Barten was born on 26 January 1912 in Saarbrücken. Following flight training,[Note 1] he was transferred to the 2. Staffel (2nd squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing) on 1 July 1939.[2] At the time, the Staffel was commanded by Oberleutnant Hannes Trautloft and subordinated to I. Gruppe (1st group) of JG 77 which was based at Breslau-Schöngarten.[3]

World War II

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. In preparation for the invasion in end-August 1939, I. Gruppe of JG 77, to which the 2. Staffel was subordinated, had been moved from Breslau-Schöngarten to an airfield at Juliusburg, present-day Dobroszyce. The Gruppe operated over the left flank of Army Group South, supporting the 8th Army advance into Poland. Its main task was flying combat air patrols but had relatively little enemy contact.[4]

On 25 August 1940, I. Gruppe of JG 77 relocated from Wyk auf Föhr to Marquise located near the English Channel to fight in the Battle of Britain.[5] Barten claimed his first aerial victory on 14 September. That day, I. Gruppe flew a combat air patrol in the area of Tonbridge. On this mission, the Gruppe claimed five aerial victories, including a Hawker Hurricane by Barten, for the loss of two of their own.[6] On 17 October, I. Gruppe flew a mission over southeastern England and to London. That day, Barten claimed two Hurricanes shot down.[7]

On 13 July 1943, Barten was transferred and appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of the 9. Staffel (9th squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 53 (JG 53—53rd Fighter Wing). He succeeded Oberleutnant Hans Röhrig who was killed in action that day.[8]

Defense of the Reich and death

On 28 June 1944, III. Gruppe arrived by train in Bad Lippspringe and initially subordinated to the 3. Jagd-Division (3rd Fighter Division) where they would be based for flying missions in Defense of the Reich.[9] There, the Gruppe was assigned a number of inexperienced pilots directly coming from the Ergänungsgruppe, the supplementary training unit of JG 53. Over the next weeks, Barten and other experienced pilots further trained and prepared these pilots for their first combat missions.[10] The Gruppe received a full complement of Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 aircraft, most of them equipped with the 20 mm MG 151/20 underwing gun pod. The Gruppenkommandeur Franz Götz ordered these gun pods removed as the additional weight had an adverse effect on the handling qualities, reducing the Bf 109s performance in fighter-versus-fighter combat.[11] The Gruppe flew its first operational mission on 28 July. That day, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force targeted German fuel production in central Germany.[12]

On 4 August 1944, Barten was shot down in aerial combat with USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters near the Luftwaffe airfield at Reinsehlen. He bailed out of his Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 441575—factory number) but was then killed. According to records of the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), a German government agency which maintained records of who were killed in action, Barten fell to his death because his parachute failed to fully deploy after a low altitude bail-out.[13] According to Weal, he was shot in his parachute by P-47 fighters. Posthumously, Barten was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 24 October 1944 and also promoted to Hauptmann (captain).[14] He was succeeded by Oberleutnant Martin von Vacano as commander of 9. Staffel.[15]

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Obermaier, Barten was credited with 52 aerial victories, 39 of which on the Eastern Front, achieved in 895 combat missions.[2] Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 52 aerial victory claims. This number includes four claims during the Battle of Britain, 39 on the Eastern Front, and nine in the Mediterranean Theater including three heavy bombers.[16]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 47612". 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.[17]

Chronicle of aerial victories
  This and the ? (question mark) indicates information discrepancies listed by Prien, Stemmer, Rodeike, Bock, Mathews and Foreman.
Claim Date Time Type Location Claim Date Time Type Location
– 2. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 77 –[18]
Action at the Channel and over England — 25 August – 21 November 1940
1 14 September 1940 17:00 Hurricane[19] 3 17 October 40 18:05 Spitfire Tunbridge Wells[20]
2 17 October 1940 17:56 Hurricane south of Tunbridge Wells[20]
– 11. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –[18]
Action at the Channel and over England — 21 November 1940 – 7 June 1941
4 15 April 1941 08:55 Spitfire southeast of Boulogne[20]
– 11. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –[18]
Operation Barbarossa — 22 June – 5 December 1941
5 22 June 1941 16:10 DB-3[21] 15 7 September 1941 17:12 SB-2[22]
6 24 June 1941 09:38 SB-3[21] 16 8 September 1941 05:30 I-18 (MiG-1)[22]
7 29 June 1941 18:38 SB-2[21] 17 9 September 1941 12:55 R-3[22]
8 4 July 41 14:50 SB-2[23] 18 9 September 1941 13:00 R-3[22]
9 11 July 1941 07:40 ZKB-19[24]?[Note 2] 19 10 September 1941 11:56 R-3[22]
10 13 July 1941 12:24 Pe-2[24] 20 6 October 1941 16:55 I-18 (MiG-1)[25]
11 15 July 1941 09:45 I-16[26] 21 23 October 1941 15:20 Yak-1[25]?[Note 3]
12 15 July 1941 16:20 DB-3[26] 22 27 October 1941 14:20 DB-3[25]
13 9 August 1941 12:05 Pe-2[27] 23 12 November 1941 08:10 SB-3[28]
14 27 August 1941 16:50 Pe-2[29] 24 12 November 1941 08:11 SB-3[28]
– 11. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –[16]
Eastern Front — 6 December 1941 – 30 April 1942
25 4 February 42 12:55 I-18 (MiG-1)[30] 30 21 March 42 07:40 Pe-2[30]
26 13 February 42 12:45 I-18 (MiG-1)[30] 31 1 April 42 10:55 MiG-3[31]
27 18 February 42 12:47 I-18 (MiG-1)[30] 32 6 April 42 07:20 Pe-2[31]
28 19 February 42 14:00 I-61 (MiG-3)[30] 33 6 April 42 14:35 MiG-3[31]
29 18 March 42 14:12 I-18 (MiG-1)[30]
– 11. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –[32]
Eastern Front — 1 May – August 1942
34 30 May 42 05:40 MiG-3[33] 38 3 August 42 06:50 Il-2 PQ 47612[34]
20 km (12 mi) northeast of Rzhev
35 13 July 42 09:35 LaGG-3[35] 39 4 August 42 12:14 Il-2 PQ 36291[34]
5 km (3.1 mi) west of Konaja
36 2 August 42 11:55 LaGG-3 PQ 47551[34]
15 km (9.3 mi) north-northwest of Rzhev		 40 5 August 42 06:10 LaGG-3 PQ 47662[34]
15 km (9.3 mi) south of Staritsa
37 2 August 42 17:45 LaGG-3 PQ 47522[34]
20 km (12 mi) north-northwest of Rzhev		 41 5 August 42 06:20 Il-2 PQ 47852[34]
15 km (9.3 mi) southeast of Zubtsov
– 11. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 –[32]
Eastern Front — April 1943
42 8 April 43 15:40 Il-2 PQ 35 Ost 45521[36]
15 km (9.3 mi) northeast of Utrikowo		 43 8 April 43 15:42 Il-2 PQ 35 Ost 45342[36]
25 km (16 mi) north of Spas-Demensk
– 7. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 53 –[32]
Mediterranean Theater — July 1943
44 12 July 43 18:28 Spitfire 5 km (3.1 mi) southeast of Ramacca[37]
– 9. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 53 –[32]
Mediterranean Theater — 13 July – 31 December 1943
45 19 August 43 12:33 B-17 east of Salerno[37] 48 3 September 43 13:53 B-24 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Villa Literno[38]
46 20 August 43 12:32?[Note 4] P-38 2 km (1.2 mi) east of Castel Volturno[39] 49 1 December 43 12:48 P-38 40 km (25 mi) south of La Spezia[40]
47 28 August 43 15:48?[Note 5] P-38 50 km (31 mi) southeast of Fondi[39] 50 28 December 43 11:45 B-24 32 km (20 mi) south-southwest of Padua[40]
– 9. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 53 –[32]
Mediterranean Theater — 1 January – 27 June 1944
51 6 February 44 16:37 Spitfire 10 km (6.2 mi) north of Nettuno[41] 52 14 April 44 10:24 P-47 PQ 14 Ost S/FD-5[42]
south of Elba

Awards

Notes
  1. Flight training in the Luftwaffe progressed through the levels A1, A2 and B1, B2, referred to as A/B flight training. A training included theoretical and practical training in aerobatics, navigation, long-distance flights and dead-stick landings. The B courses included high-altitude flights, instrument flights, night landings and training to handle the aircraft in difficult situations.[1]
  2. According to Mathews and Foreman claimed as a Ilyushin DB-3.[18]
  3. According to Mathews and Foreman claimed as a Yakovlev Yak-3.[18]
  4. According to Mathews and Foreman claimed at 12:22.[32]
  5. According to Mathews and Foreman claimed at 15:25.[32]
  6. According to Scherzer as Staffelkapitän in the III./Jagdgeschwader 53.[46]

References

Citations
  1. Bergström, Antipov & Sundin 2003, p. 17.
  2. Obermaier 1989, p. 85.
  3. Prien et al. 2000a, pp. 268–269.
  4. Prien et al. 2000a, p. 455.
  5. Prien 1992, p. 329.
  6. Prien 1992, p. 386.
  7. Prien 1992, pp. 412–413.
  8. Prien et al. 2011, pp. 260, 278.
  9. Prien et al. 2019, p. 399.
  10. Prien 1991, p. 1374.
  11. Prien 1991, p. 1377.
  12. Prien et al. 2019, p. 400.
  13. Prien et al. 2019, p. 410.
  14. Weal 2012, p. 110.
  15. Prien et al. 2019, p. 406.
  16. Mathews & Foreman 2014, pp. 49–50.
  17. Planquadrat.
  18. Mathews & Foreman 2014, p. 49.
  19. Prien et al. 2002, p. 105.
  20. Prien et al. 2002, p. 106.
  21. Prien et al. 2003, p. 334.
  22. Prien et al. 2003, p. 344.
  23. Prien et al. 2003, p. 336.
  24. Prien et al. 2003, p. 337.
  25. Prien et al. 2003, p. 345.
  26. Prien et al. 2003, p. 338.
  27. Prien et al. 2003, p. 341.
  28. Prien et al. 2003, p. 346.
  29. Prien et al. 2003, p. 343.
  30. Prien et al. 2005, p. 119.
  31. Prien et al. 2005, p. 120.
  32. Mathews & Foreman 2014, p. 50.
  33. Prien et al. 2006, p. 352.
  34. Prien et al. 2006, p. 355.
  35. Prien et al. 2006, p. 354.
  36. Prien et al. 2012, p. 147.
  37. Prien et al. 2011, p. 269.
  38. Prien et al. 2011, p. 271.
  39. Prien et al. 2011, p. 270.
  40. Prien et al. 2011, p. 272.
  41. Prien et al. 2021, p. 254.
  42. Prien et al. 2021, p. 255.
  43. Patzwall 2008, p. 45.
  44. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 25.
  45. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 122.
  46. Scherzer 2007, p. 203.

Bibliography
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