Fritz Lüddecke


Fritz Paul Lüddecke was a Luftwaffe fighter ace from Brakel, Germany. He was the recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. Fritz Lüddecke was credited with 50 kills all in the Eastern Front. In 1944 he was killed in action over Wilkowischken, Lithuania.

Early life and career

Lüddecke was born on 23 February 1920 in Brakel, then in the Province of Westphalia within the Weimar Republic. He joined the military service of Luftwaffe and following flight training, he was posted to Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost, a supplementary training unit for fighter pilots destined for the Eastern Front, on 18 November 1941. Lüddecke was then transferred to 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 on the Eastern Front on 20 May 1942. At the time, the Staffel was commanded by Oberleutnant Walter Stengel and subordinated to II. Gruppe which was headed by Hauptmann Hartmann Grasser.

World War II

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. On 17 July 1942, II. Gruppe had moved from Bryansk to an airfield named Orel-North. Here on 24 August, Lüddecke claimed his first aerial victory when he shot down a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter, his only claim while flying with 6. Staffel.

With the ''Stabsstaffel''

In early October 1942, II. Gruppe of JG 51 was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to Jesau, near present-day Bagrationovsk, to Heiligenbeil, present-day Mamonovo, to be reequipped with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A. While undergoing training on this aircraft, the Gruppe received orders on 4 November to transfer to the Mediterranean theatre flying the Bf 109 again. 6. Staffel was exempt from this order, was detached from II. Gruppe, and continued its training on the Fw 190. In late November, 6. Staffel was renamed to Stabsstaffel of JG 51 and placed under the command of Diethelm von Eichel-Streiber on 30 November. Alternatively, the Stabsstaffel was also referred to as Geschwaderstabsstaffel z.b.V., roughly translating to fighter wing squadron for special deployment. The abbreviation z. b. V. is German and stands for zur besonderen Verwendung.
The Stabsstaffel transferred to the Eastern Front again on 5 February 1943 where it was based at an airfield at Smolensk. There, the fought in support of the 9th Army during the Battles of Rzhev. On 9 March, the Stabsstaffel was scrambled multiple times in defense of the airfield. At noon, a Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber was shot down southwest of Dugino, located approximately north of Vyazma, which was credited to Lüddecke. The Stabsstaffel was tasked with providing fighter protection of the Smolensk airfield on 15 March. In the morning, the Stabsstaffel was scrambled to intercept a flight of Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft north of Smolensk and claimed four aerial victories including an Il-2 aircraft by Lüddecke.
On the first day of the Battle of Kursk, 5 July 1943, the Stabsstaffel relocated from Smolensk to Oryol where it fought over the northern face of the salient. On 13 July, the Stabsstaffel was deployed over the combat area near Novosil where they engaged in combat with Soviet fighters. During this engagement, the Staffel claimed five aerial victories, including a Lavochkin La-5 fighter by Lüddecke, for the loss of one of their own. By end August, Lüddecke had increased his number of aerial victories to 13 and had been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross..

Operation Bagration and death

On 1 August 1944 during Operation Bagration, the Stabstaffel moved to Jürgenfelde, present-day Judino in Kaliningrad Oblast, flying its first combat missions the following day. Here, Lüddecke claimed ten aerial victories, including two on 9 August, taking his total to 50, his last claims.
On 10 August, Lüddecke was killed in action in his Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8 south-southwest of Wilkowischken, present-day Vilkaviškis. Following hits by anti-aircraft artillery, he attempted an emergency landing when his aircraft exploded in mid-air. He was posthumously awarded the German Cross in Gold on 1 October 1944, and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 November 1944.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Jacobs and Obermaier, Lüddecke was credited with 50 aerial victories all of which claimed on the Eastern Front. He flew more than 600 combat missions, including 150 fighter-bomber missions. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 51 aerial victory claims, all of which claimed on the Eastern Front.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 54284". 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