Siegfried Lemke

Siegfried "Wumm" Lemke (7 April 1921 – 18 December 1995) 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. During his career he was credited with between 70 and 96 aerial victories.

Biography
Lemke was born on 7 April 1921 in Schivelbein in Farther Pomerania, at the time in the Province of Pomerania within the Weimar Republic, present-day Świdwin, Poland. Following completion of flight and fighter pilot training, Lemke was posted to the 1. Staffel (1st squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (JG 2—2nd Fighter Wing) in October 1942. He claimed his first aerial victory on 12 March 1943 when he downed a Royal Air Force (RAF) Supermarine Spitfire fighter near Fécamp. For this, he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz zweiter Klasse).

Squadron leader
On 1 January 1944, Lemke was officially appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 1. Staffel of JG 2. He succeeded Leutnant Hugo Dahmer who had been injured on 11 September 1943. Since then, Lemke had inoffically led the Staffel as Staffelführer.

In late January 1944 following the Allied amphibious landing in Italy known as Operation Shingle, I. Gruppe under the command of Hauptmann Erich Hohagen was moved to Aix-en-Provence Aerodrome in southern France. There the unit fought against the 15th Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). On 9 February, Lemke engaged Spitfires from the 52nd Fighter Wing which were attacking shipping off the coast of France. During this encounter, Lemke claimed four Spitfires shot down. One of the pilots shot down was the American pilot Bob Hoover who was taken prisoner of war. In this engagement, Lemke also shot down Flight Officer James H. Montgomery and Lieutenant John L. Bishop, both pilots killed in action. Lemke's fourth claim did not lead to a loss by the Americans. His squadron were again transferred to Italy to counter the Allied landings at Anzio. In March, 1944 Lemke added sixteen further victories to his tally. The USAAF sent 200 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and 80 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers to the Rome marshalling yards on 3 March. The bombers were escorted by Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters of which two were shot down by Lemke.

In April, Lemke was awarded the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) after claiming 37 aerial victories. That month, he was also promoted to Leutnant (second lieutenant). By the early summer of 1944, Lemke's squadron was again moved, this time to Creil, an airfield north of Paris. From here Lemke flew combat missions over the developing campaign in Normandy following D-Day. On 14 June 1944, Lemke was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) for his then tally of 44 aerial victories.

Group commander
In July 1944, Lemke was appointed Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of the III. Gruppe of JG 2, replacing Hauptmann Josef Wurmheller who had been killed in action on 22 June. In consequence, command of 1. Staffel passed on to Leutnant Rudolf Wirtgen. The Gruppe flew its last combat mission from Creil, France on 19 August before they relocated to Königsberg in der Neumark, present-day Chojna, Poland, for a period of rest and replenishment. Their remaining aircraft were left in France and assigned to other units. At Königsberg in der Neumark, the Gruppe received factory new Fw 190 A-8/R6 aircraft. The Gruppe moved to Mohrin, present-day Moryń, on 5 October where training of the newly assigned pilots continued. Reaching operational readiness, Lemke relocated III. Gruppe to Altenstadt Airfield on 15 October.

Lemke led III. Gruppe during Operation Bodenplatte in their attack on Sint-Truiden airfield on 1 January 1945. Prior to the attack, he reported 40 Fw 190s operational, 34 of them Fw 190 Ds. However, only 28 of the 43 pilots in the unit were fit for operations and the formation fielded only 28 fighters. The attack turned out to be a disaster. III. Gruppe lost 19 Fw 190s and three were damaged, a loss rate of 79%. Nine pilots were killed, two were wounded and four were captured. While JG 2 moved to Bohemia in April 1945, III. Gruppe disappeared from German order of battle. It is said that Lemke led his surviving men north, though no record exists of the Gruppe movements. In the final days of the war, Lemke was nominated for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) which were not awarded before the war ended.

Later life
Lemke died on 18 December 1995 at the age of 74 in Worfelden, a municipality of Büttelborn, Germany.

Aerial victory claims
According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Lemke was credited with 70 aerial victories. Spick lists him with 96 aerial victories claimed in 325 combat missions. This figure includes one claim on the Eastern Front and 95 claims on the Western Front of which 21 are four-engined heavy bombers. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and state that Lemke was credited with more than 54 aerial victory claims, all of which claimed on the Western Front, including at least five four-engined bombers.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 14 West 4846". 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
 * Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 8 May 1944 as Fahnenjunker-Oberfeldwebel and pilot
 * German Cross in Gold on 3 April 1944 as Fahnenjunker-Oberfeldwebel in the 1./Jagdgeschwader 2
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 14 June 1944 as Leutnant and Staffelführer of the 1./Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen"