Jagdgeschwader 51 begins Barbarossa

Launched in the early hours of 22 June 1941, Operation Barbarossa was Hitler's greatest and most ambitious Blitzkrieg gamble of all. Its objective was nothing less than the destruction of the Soviet Union, and the timetable was perilously tight, with but five months to go before the expected onset of the Russian winter.

On their cluster of four fields to the east of Warsaw (which they shared with elements of JG 53), Oberstleutnant Werner Mölders' Gruppen were almost in the centre of the 4480 km-long front that stretched all the way from the Barents Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Their principal task in this new theatre of operations would be to clear the skies above and ahead of the armoured divisions of Panzergruppe 2, which itself formed the right-hand flank of Army Group Centre's twin pincer advance aimed northeastwards towards Moscow (whose fall, it was confidently predicted, would immediately bring about the collapse of the Soviet state).

But first, in true Blitzkrieg fashion, Barbarossa would begin with a series of pre-emptive air strikes intended to eliminate the enemy's air forces on the ground. The results on the opening day exceeded all expectations. By the time darkness fell on 22 June, it was estimated that although more than 300 Soviet aircraft had been shot down, some 1500(!) had been destroyed on the ground. Even Göring refused at first to believe these staggering claims. But, if anything, they were proved to be conservative after German troops had overrun the enemy's frontline areas - including all 31 of the airfields targeted - and a detailed survey of the damage inflicted could be carried out.

It is not known how many Soviet aircraft the Geschwader accounted for on the ground, but 2./JG 51, whose new Friedrichs - like their earlier Emils- had been fitted with ventral bomb racks, were alone credited with 43 destroyed in four separate ]abo sorties during the course of the day.

In the air, Mölders' four Gruppen (with IV./JG 51 temporarily attached to Stab JG 53) claimed no fewer than 93 enemy machines shot down! The Kommodore himself was responsible for four of the Stabsschwarm's five victories. These took his total to 72, and won him the immediate Swords. The first award of this newly instituted decoration had gone to Adolf Galland, for 69 kills in the west, just 24 hours earlier.

Many other pilots achieved multiple successes during these early hours of Barbarossa. Among them was l./JG 51's Leutnant Heinz Bar, whose trio of kills before mid-morning raised his score to 20. But Bar would have to wait ten days for his Knight's Cross, by which time he had added a further nine to his tally.

The second day of the campaign in the east saw the Geschwader carry out another round of low-level strikes, but in stark contrast to the day before, it resulted in only two aerial victories. One of these provided a first for future Knight's Cross recipient Feldwebel Anton 'Toni' Lindner of 2./]G 5l.

Another 'Toni' opened his shore-sheet 24 hours later. Fully recovered from the injuries he had sustained in the crash-landing at Mardyck three months earlier, the Soviet SB-2 bomber claimed by 6. Staffers Gefreiter Anton 'Toni' Hafner was the first rung on the ladder to his becoming JG 51's top scorer.

In addition to Hafner's opener, the Geschwader had been credited with a further 81 victories on that 24 June, for despite the Luftwaffe's best efforts, the Red Air Force was far from being knocked out. Having recovered from the immediate shock of the first days' savage onslaught, Soviet commanders called up bombers from as-yet untouched rear-area bases and hurled them in waves against the advancing German ground forces. With no frontal fighters to protect them, the Soviet bombers suffered horrendous losses. On 25 June JG 51 alone shot down 83 Tupolev SB-2s. And still the desperate Russians kept up the pressure. It peaked on the last day of the month, when Mölders and his Gruppen claimed an unprecedented 137 enemy aircraft destroyed!

This huge total included several personal and unit landmark scores. The third of the five Ilyushin DB-3 bombers downed by the Kommodore took Werner Mölders' score to 80 level with Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the legendary 'Red Baron', and top-scoring German fighter pilot of World War 1. Hauptmann Hermann-Friedrich Joppien was also credited with five victories, the fourth of which gave the Kommandeur of 1. Gruppe his half-century.

And 30 June 1941 was the date on which it was announced that JG 51 had become the first Jagdgeschwader to reach 1000 victories!

By now German forces had already smashed through Soviet frontier defences along the River Bug and breached the more substantial 'Stalin Line' some 300 km inside Russian territory guarding the approaches to Minsk. The fighting around the capital of White Russia resulted in the first of the great 'cauldron' battles of the eastern front. When it ended on 9 July, nearly a third of a million Russian prisoners had been taken.

Once again, regardless of cost, the Soviets had thrown in their unescorted bombers in a vain attempt to blast open an escape route for the survivors of the four Russian armies trapped inside the 'cauldron'. And once again JG 51's pilots had exacted a heavy toll. On 2 July an SB-2 had provided Hauptmann Josef Fözö with victory 22, and the immediate award of the Knight's Cross.

Minsk lay at the western end of the major Rollbahn, or supply highway, that linked it directly to Moscow. This formed the obvious axis for Army Group Centre's line of advance. And within 24 hours of the collapse of the Minsk 'cauldron', the Army Group's spearheads had captured the town of Vitebsk, nearly a third of the way along the 88G-km highway to the Soviet capital. JG 51's Gruppen had already leapfrogged forward four times since the launch of Barbarossa in their efforts to keep abreast of General Guderian's Panzers. By 10 July the bulk of the Geschwader was gathered on the complex of ex-Soviet airfields around Bobruisk, some way to the south of the Rollbahn. Only Major Beckh's IV.I]G 51, still operating under the control of]G 53, was based at Borissov, close to the highway itself.

Thus far, the Geschwader's losses had been incredibly light. Only five pilots had been reported killed or missing, including one brought down during a low-level attack on a Soviet armoured train. But the many recent moves, coupled with the multiple missions being flown almost daily, were having a serious effect on JG 51's serviceability figures. Many pilots were also beginning to feel the strain. On 11 July the newly decorated 'Joschko' Fözö crashed on take-off. His injuries were so severe that he would be off operations for ten months. In the meantime, IL/JG 51 would be led by acting Kommandeure.

The following day, one of the three kills credited to Hauptmann Richard Leppla gave the Geschwader its 500th eastern front victory (and, at the same time, took its overall wartime total to 1200). And in that summer of 1941, the greatest Experte of them all was undoubtedly Werner Mölders. On 14 July a trio of Soviet Pe-2 bombers had taken his total to a tantalising 99. Twenty-four hours later, another pair of Petlyakovs assured him a place in military aviation history as the first fighter pilot ever to reach the century!

Having been second in line for both the Oak Leaves and the Swords, Werner Molders' premier position was now firmly established by the immediate award of the newest and highest grade of the Knight's Cross the Diamonds. Or, as the special communiqué of 17 July announced in more formal, if somewhat fulsome terms, 'The Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht has awarded Oberstleutnant Molders, this shining example of Luftwaffe heroism and the most successful fighter pilot in the world, as the first officer in the Wehrmacht with Germany's highest medal for bravery, the Oak Leaves with Swords and Diamonds to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross'.