Georg Schentke

Georg 'Peterle' Schentke (23 November 1919 – 25 December 1942) was a Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Career
Schentke was born on 23 November 1919 in Kriescht in the Province of Brandenburg within the Weimar Republic, present-day Krzeszyce in western Poland. Following flight and fighter pilot training, Schentke was posted to 9. Staffel (9th squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 3 (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing) on 1 March 1940. The Staffel was subordinated to the newly created III. Gruppe (3rd group) of JG 3, based at Jena. The Gruppe was commanded by Hauptmann Walter Kienitz and equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1 and E-3. On 28 March 1940, III. Gruppe of JG 3 was considered operationally ready and transferred to Detmold Airfield where it was tasked with defending Germany's western border during the "Phoney War". On 10 April, the Gruppe relocated to Hopsten Airfield. In preparation for the Battle of France, III. Gruppe was subordinated to Luftflotte 2, supporting Army Group Bs attack into the Netherlands. Schentke claimed his first aerial victory on 8 June when he shot down a Bristol Blenheim bomber.

Schentke claimed his first aerial victory during the Battle of Britain on 7 September during Operation Loge, the first deliberate attack on London which mainly targeted the Port of London. That day, III. Gruppe had been tasked with escorting the returning Luftwaffe bombers following their bomb run. On this mission, Schentke claimed a Royal Air Force (RAF) Supermarine Spitfire fighter shot down. He claimed a second Spitfire shot down on 1 December. On 15 February 1941, III. Gruppe was withdrawn from the English Channel and relocated to Gütersloh Airfield for a period of rest and replenishment. Schentke and other pilots of III. Gruppe spent a couple of days of R&R skiing in the Kleinwalsertal before returning for active service on 17 March. On 17 April, the Gruppe received the then new Bf 109 F-2, training on this type until they relocated to Lillers, France on 3 May. On 15 May, Schentke claimed his last aerial victory over the RAF when he shot down a Hawker Hurricane fighter.

Eastern Front
The Gruppe relocated to an airfield at Moderówka on 18 June where the Gruppe concluded their last preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. At the start of the campaign, JG 3 was subordinated to the V. Fliegerkorps (5th Air Corps), under command of General der Flieger Robert Ritter von Greim, which was part of Luftflotte 4 (4th Air Fleet), under command of Generaloberst Alexander Löhr. These air elements supported Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt's Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South), with the objective of capturing the Ukraine and its capital Kiev. Then, continuing eastward over the steppes of southern USSR to the Volga with the aim of controlling the oil-rich Caucasus Schentke claimed his first aerial victory on the Eastern Front on 24 June when he shot down a Soviet Polikarpov I-15 biplane fighter aircraft. Over the next weeks, Schentke frequently flew as wingman to Hauptmann Walter Oesau, who was the Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of III. Gruppe of JG 3. On 4 September 1941, Schentke and fellow JG 3 pilot Oberfeldwebel Hans Stechmann, received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernes Kreuzes) for 30 aerial victories claimed.

On 6 November, III. Gruppe was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to Mannheim-Sandhofen Airfield for a period of rest and replenishment. The first elements of the Gruppe arrived by train in Mannheim on 8 December, the transfer was completed a week later. There, the personnel was sent on home leave. Following the death of Generaloberst Ernst Udet, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring ordered JG 3 to be given the honorary name "Udet" on 1 December. The Gruppe received a full complement of 41 Bf 109 F-4 aircraft and on 6 January 1942 was ordered to relocated to Sicily. On 13 January, 7. Staffel and elements of 8. and 9. Staffel boarded a train to Bari in southern Italy while the rest of III. Gruppe headed for Sciacca, Sicily. The relocation progressed until 26 January when new orders were received, ordering the Gruppe to return to Germany. At Jesau near Königsberg, present-day Kaliningrad in Russia, III. Gruppe began preparations for redeployment to the Eastern Front.

Supporting German forces fighting in the Demyansk Pocket on 18 February 1942, Schentke claimed a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter shot down, which may have been misidentified Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 fighters. In late July 1942, after 71 aerial victories victories claimed, Schentke was transferred to Ergänzungsgruppe Süd (Supplementary Fighter Group South) as an instructor, promoted to Leutnant (second lieutenant) and awarded the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 24 September.

Stalingrad and missing in action
In November 1942, Schentke returned to the Eastern Front and was assigned to the 2. Staffel of JG 3. At the time the Staffel was under the command of Oberleutnant Detlev Rohwer. In December, Schentke volunteered for the Platzschutzstaffel (airfield defence squadron) of the Pitomnik Airfield. The Staffel, largely made up from volunteers from I. and II. Gruppe of JG 3, was responsible for providing fighter escort to Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft and Heinkel He 111 bombers shuttling supplies for the encircled German forces fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad. On 12 December 1942, the German LVII Panzer Corps of the 4th Panzer Army began its north-eastward drive from Kotelnikovo toward German forces trapped in the Stalingrad pocket. That day, JG 3 supported the attack in the combat area south of Stalingrad. During these missions, Schentke claimed six aerial victories, making him an "ace-in-a-day" for the second time.

On 25 December 1942, Schentke claimed an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft and was then was shot down in aerial combat with Soviet bombers near the Kotluban train station. Although he was seen to bail out of his Bf 109 G-2 (Werknummer 13885—factory number) behind enemy lines, Schentke remains missing in action. He was posthumously promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant).

Aerial victory claims
According to Spick, Schentke was credited with 87 aerial victories, including four during the Battle of France and Britain and further 83 on the Eastern Front, claimed in an unknown number of combat missions. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 88 aerial victories, four of his aerial victories were claimed on the Western Front, the others on the Eastern Front..

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 35 Ost 49147". 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 sqmi. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 x in size.

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 September 1941 as Oberfeldwebel and pilot in the 9./Jagdgeschwader 3
 * German Cross in Gold on 24 September 1942 as Oberfeldwebel in the 9./Jagdgeschwader 3