Erich Hohagen


Erich Alfred Hohagen was a German general in the Bundeswehr. During World War II, he served as a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe. A fighter ace, Hohagen was credited with 56 aerial victories and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Early life and career

Hohagen was born on 9 January 1915 in Velbert, at the time in the Rhine Province of the German Empire. He joined the military service of the Luftwaffe in 1938 and following completion of flight and fighter pilot training, Hohagen was posted to 4. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 in 1939.

World War II

World War II in Europe began on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland. Hohagen claimed his first aerial victory, a Royal Air Force Supermarine Spitfire over Southern England, on 5 July 1940. On 20 February 1941, Hohagen was appointed Staffelkapitän of 4. Staffel of JG 51. He succeeded Oberleutnant Josef Fözö who was promoted to command II. Gruppe of JG 51.

Operation Barbarossa

II. Gruppe of JG 51 was withdrawn from the English Channel in early June 1941 and ordered to Dortmund where the unit was reequipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F series. On 10 June, II. Gruppe began transferring east and was located at Siedlce. On 22 June, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. JG 51, under the command of Oberstleutnant Werner Mölders, was subordinated to II. Fliegerkorps, which as part of Luftflotte 2. JG 51 area of operation during Operation Barbarossa was over the right flank of Army Group Center in the combat area of the 2nd Panzer Group as well as the 4th Army.
On the first day of the invasion, Hohagen shot down three Soviet SB-2 bombers in the space of five minutes. In August, he was given command of II. Gruppe after its former acting commander Hauptmann Hubertus von Bonin was wounded on 8 August. On 4 September, Hohagen was shot down in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2 by Soviet fighters near Bryansk. Wounded, he transferred command of II. Gruppe to Oberleutnant Hartmann Grasser. Hohagen received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 5 October 1941, after 30 victories.

Training assignment and Western Front

Following a lengthy period of convalescence, Hohagen was posted to a Jagdfliegerschule on 1 March 1942. On 1 September, he was placed in command of the Jagdlehrer-Überprüfungsstaffel, a squadron responsible for the evaluation of fighter pilot instructors.
On 1 November 1942, Hohagen was posted to Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen", taking command of its 7. Staffel. The Staffel was subordinated to III. Gruppe of JG 2 headed by Hauptmann Egon Mayer. On 7 April, Hohagen was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 27 where he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe. He succeeded Hauptmann Hans-Joachim Heinecke who temporarily led the Gruppe after Hauptmann Heinrich Setz had been killed in action on 13 March. On 1 June, Hohagen became a victim of friendly fire when he was shot down in his Bf 109 G-6 north of Marquise, a village approximately north-northeast of Boulogne-sur-Mer. He successfully bailed out, taking to his parachute, but was injured in the incident. The pilot that shot him down was Hauptmann Wilhelm Steinmann, also from JG 27, who misidentified Hohagen's Bf 109 for a Spitfire fighter. Due to his injuries, Hohagen was temporarily replaced by Hauptmann Hans Remmer before Hauptmann Ludwig Franzisket officially took command of I. Gruppe of JG 27 on 15 July.
Hohagen was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe of JG 2 in August 1943. He replaced Major Helmut-Felix Bolz who was transferred. On 16 September 1943, Hohagen, was piloting an Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-6 fighter when his aircraft was hit by the defensive fire of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Hohagen was again wounded and made a forced landing near Rennes, France. On 28 September 1944, Hohagen was severely injured, sustaining a skull fracture, when the engine of his Fw 190 A-8 failed, resulting in a forced landing near the airfield at Merzhausen. He was succeeded by Major Walter Matoni as commander of I. Gruppe.

Flying the Messerschmitt Me 262

In late 1944, Hohagen was posted to III. Gruppe of Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 2, a training unit based at Lechfeld Airfiled. There, he learned to fly the new Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft. He was then posted to Jagdgeschwader 7 "Nowotny" "Nowotny", the first operational jet fighter wing which was named after Walter Nowotny. Kommando Nowotny had been assessing the Me 262 under operational conditions. Nowotny himself was killed in action while flying the Me 262 on 8 November. On 12 November, the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe ordered JG 7 to be equipped with the Me 262 and Oberst Johannes Steinhoff became its first Geschwaderkommodore. On 19 November, the remnants of Kommando Nowotny became the nucleus of III. Gruppe of JG 7. Placed under the command of Hohagen, III. Gruppe began assembling aircraft and personnel at Lechfeld Air Field. In the latter months of 1944 Hohagen helped to convert pilots to the new jets. On 21 January, Steinhoff was replaced by Major Theodor Weissenberger as Geschwaderkommodore of JG 7, while Hohagen was replaced by Major Rudolf Sinner as Gruppenkommandeur of III. Gruppe.
On 24 February 1945, Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Steinhoff recruited Hohagen and Major Karl-Heinz Schnell from hospital to join the new Jagdverband 44 forming at Brandenburg-Briest. Galland had received permission to create and staff the unorthodox fighter group from Luftwaffe Chief, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. JV 44 received its first Me 262 aircraft by 14 March. On 31 March, JV 44 moved to Munich-Riem Airfield.
Hohagen became the Technical Officer for JV 44 and assisted with the conversion of newly arriving pilots to the Me 262. The unit transferred to München-Riem on 31 March 1945.
He served as JV 44's Technical Officer until the crash of Steinhoff on 18 April 1945, and Hohagen replaced the injured Steinhoff as the unit's Einsatzchef.
On 28 April, moved to JV 44 Maxglan Airfield, near Salzburg. There they surrendered to U.S. forces on 4 May. Hohagen and other pilots were taken to a makeshift prisoner of war camp near Bad Aibling. Five days later, a U.S. officer was looking for JV 44 pilots and Hohagen, Schnell, Gerhard Barkhorn, Walter Krupinski, and Waldemar Wübke stepped up.

Later life and service

Following World War II, Hohagen joined the newly created German Air Force, at the time referred to as the Bundesluftwaffe. On 30 March 1957, he was given command of 2. Ausbildungsstaffel of Flugzeugführerschule "S" at Memmingen Air Field. He led this training unit until 31 March 1958. From November 1959 to October 1961, he commanded Jagdgeschwader 72 as Geschwaderkommodore, a unit which in October 1964 became Jagdbombergeschwader 43. He was succeeded by Oberstleutnant Friedrich Obleser in this capacity. On 16 February 1963, Hohagen replaced Oberst Herbert Wehnelt as commander of the Waffenschule der Luftwaffe 10. He served in the role until 15 August 1967 when he was succeeded by Oberst Ulrich Pieper. In April 1968, Hohagen was promoted to Brigadegeneral. Until 30 September 1971, he served as department chief of Rüstung und Waffensysteme in the Führungsstab der Luftwaffe. He died on 8 March 1990 at the age of in Jever.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Hohagen was credited with 56 aerial victories. Obermaier also lists him with 56 aerial victories claimed in over 500 combat missions. This figure includes 20 claims on the Eastern Front, and 36 on the Western Front, 13 of them being four-engined bombers and one while flying the Me 262 jet fighter. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and state that he claimed at least 49 aerial victories, plus two further unconfirmed claims. This number includes 20 on the Eastern Front and more than 29 on the Western Front, including at least eight four-engined bombers.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 14 West 3884". The Luftwaffe grid map 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. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area in size.

Awards