Hans Grünberg

Hans "Specker" Grünberg (8 July 1917 – 16 January 1998) was a German military aviator who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II. As a fighter ace, he was credited with 82 aerial victories in approximately 550 combat missions. The majority of his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front, with 21 claims over the Western Front, including five flying the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.

Born in Gross-Fahlenwerder, Grünberg served in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany. Following flight training, he was posted to Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing) in 1942, operating on the Eastern Front. He claimed his first aerial victory on 19 August 1942. On 9 May 1944, Grünberg was appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 5. Staffel (5th squadron) of JG 3 and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 June 1944. In January 1945, Grünberg was posted to Jagdgeschwader 7 "Nowotny" (JG 7—7th Fighter Wing), the first jet fighter wing where he served as a Staffelkapitän of 1. Staffel. He died on 16 January 1998 in Ellerau.

Grünberg was born on 8 July 1917 in Gross-Fahlenwerder in the Province of Province of Pomerania as part of the German Empire, present-day Ściechów in western Poland. Following fighter pilot training, he was posted to 5. Staffel (5th squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing) with the rank of Unteroffizier (a junior non-commissioned officer) in May 1942. Initially his commanding officer in 5. Staffel was Oberleutnant Harald Moldenhauer, replaced by Oberleutnant Joachim Kirschner on 1 October. The squadron was subordinated to II. Gruppe (2nd group) of JG 3 headed by Hauptmann Kurt Brändle.

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland. In June 1941, German forces had launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time of Grünberg's posting to JG 3, II. Gruppe had just arrived at Pilsen, present-day Plzeň in the Czech Republic, after service in the Mediterranean theater. Here, the Gruppe was equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4. After three weeks of rest and replenishment, II. Gruppe was ordered to the southern sector of the Eastern Front on 18 May. Based at Chuhuiv, the Gruppe was subordinated to the VIII. Fliegerkorps (8th Air Corps), fighting on the left wing of Army Group South.

Following the Battle of Kalach on 15 August, the German 6th Army attempted to win bridgeheads on the eastern banks of the Don river and advance towards Stalingrad, which then became the Battle of Stalingrad. Grünberg achieved his first victory on 19 August, when he shot down a Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 twin-engine bomber. In December 1942, Grünberg 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 Stalingrad. Flying from Pitomnik Airfield, Grünberg claimed his last aerial victory of 1942 and eleventh in total on 27 December when he shot down an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft.

Grünberg became an "ace-in-a-day" on 5 July 1943, the first day of Operation Citadel, the German offensive phase of the Battle of Kursk. That day he was credited with seven aerial victories. On 16 July, it is possible he became a victim of a female fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak. His Bf 109 G-6 suffered engine failure following aerial combat with a Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter, forcing him to bail out. On 1 August 1943, Grünberg claimed his last aerial victory on the Eastern Front when he shot down an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. Promoted to Oberfeldwebel (staff sergeant), Grünberg received the Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe) on 9 August followed by the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 31 August.

In early August 1943, II. Gruppe was withdrawn from the Eastern Front for service in Defense of the Reich on the Western Front. The Gruppe spent one-month training in northern Germany before they arrived at the Schiphol airfield near Amsterdam in the Netherlands on 12 September. While based at Uetersen Airfield, the Gruppe received the Bf 109 G-6 which was equipped with Y-Control for fighters, a system used to control groups of fighters intercepting United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bomber formations.

On 20 December 1943, Hauptmann Heinrich Sannemann, at the time Grünberg's acting group commander, filed a special report requesting his promotion to wartime officer, based on his bravery before the enemy. On 1 January 1944, Oberst Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke, wing commander of JG 3, concurred in the assessment and stated that Grünberg is well suited for promotion to Leutnant (second lieutenant). Lastly, the request was forwarded to Generalmajor Max Ibel, commander of 2. Jagd-Division (2nd Fighter Division), who approved the promotion to Leutnant on 21 January. On 24 February 1944, the USAAF Eighth and Fifteenth Air Force attacked German aircraft manufacturing during Operation Argument, also known as "Big Week". II. Gruppe intercepted west of Gotha, making several passes through the combat box formations. During this encounter, II. Gruppe pilots claimed seven bombers shot and two Herausschüsse (separation shot) —a severely damaged heavy bomber forced to separate from its combat box which was counted as an aerial victory. That day, Grünberg was credited with an aerial victory over a Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

On 9 May 1944, Grünberg was appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 5. Staffel of JG 3. He replaced Leutnant Leopold Münster who was killed in action the day before. In April, he had already briefly led 4. Staffel after its commander, Leutnant Franz Ruhl, had fallen ill. Grünberg was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 9 June 1944. II. Gruppe flew its last combat mission of the war on 19 November. On 25 November, the Gruppe was withdrawn from combat operations and relocated to Landsberg-Lech Airfield for conversion training to the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft.

JG 7 "Nowotny" was the first operational jet fighter wing in the world and was named after Walter Nowotny, who was killed in action on 8 November 1944. Nowotny, a fighter pilot credited with 258 aerial victories and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten), had been assessing the Me 262 jet aircraft under operational conditions. JG 7 "Nowotny" was equipped with the Me 262, an aircraft which was heavily armed and faster than any Allied fighter. General der Jagdflieger (General of the Fighter Force) Adolf Galland hoped that the Me 262 would compensate for the Allies' numerical superiority. On 12 November 1944, the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL—Air Force High Command) ordered JG 7 "Nowotny" to be equipped with the Me 262. Galland appointed Oberst Johannes Steinhoff as its first Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander).

JG 7 "Nowotny" was initially formed with the Stab (headquarters unit) and III. Gruppe at Brandenburg-Briest from the remnants of Kommando Nowotny. I. Gruppe was created on 27 November from pilots and personnel from II. Gruppe of JG 3 and placed under the command of Major Theodor Weissenberger. Weissenberger's appointed Staffelkapitäne in I. Gruppe were Oberleutnant Grünberg, Oberleutnant Fritz Stehle, and Oberleutnant Hans Waldmann, commanding 1.–3. Staffel respectively. In March, 1. Staffel was based at Kaltenkirchen. Grünberg claimed his first aerial victory flying the Me 262 on 31 March 1945. That day, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force attacked Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, and Hamburg. This attack force was intercepted by 20 Me 262 jet fighters from I. and III. Gruppe of JG 7. At approximately 08:15 Grünberg took off with his Staffel of eight Me 262s and was vectored to a point of intercept over the urban area of Hamburg where Grünberg claimed two Avro Lancaster bombers shot down.

On 10 April, the USAAF Eighth Air Force sent 1,315 heavy bombers against German operations, attacking the airfields at Brandenburg-Briest, Rechlin-Lärz, Oranienburg, Neuruppin, Burg and Parchim. The bombers were escorted by 905 fighter aircraft. The bombers were intercepted by 30 Me 262 jet fighters. In this encounter, Grünberg shot down two Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. Grünberg claimed his last aerial victory on 19 April. That day, 20 Me 262s from JG 7 and I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader 54 (J), the jet fighter equipped Gruppe of the 54th Bomber Wing, intercepted USAAF bombers in the Dresden-Aussig-Pirna area. In the timeframe 12:14 to 12:34, six B-17 bombers of the 3rd Air Division were attacked by Me 262s from JG 7. Five B-17s were shot down, including one by Grünberg. In the second half of April, assumed in the timeframe 17 to 27 April, Grünberg joined Galland's Jagdverband 44 (JV 44—44th Fighter Detachment).

Grünberg died on 16 January 1998 at the age of 80 in Ellerau, Germany.

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Grünberg was credited with 82 aerial victories. Spick also lists Grünberg with 82 aerial victories claimed in approximately 550 combat missions and a mission-to-claim ratio of 6.71. This figure includes 61 aerial victories on the Eastern Front, and further 21 victories over the Western Allies, including 14 heavy bombers, among them five flying the Me 262. Obermaier also states that he was credited with 82 aerial victories with 61 on the Eastern Front and 21 over the Western Allies. Additionally, he was credited with destroying 21 trucks, one locomotive and an armoured reconnaissance vehicle. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 78 aerial victory claims, plus one further unconfirmed claim. This figure includes 61 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and 17 over the Western Allies, including 10 heavy bombers, among them five flying the Me 262.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 40793". 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 square miles (930 km²). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
• Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 9 August 1943 as Feldwebel and pilot
• German Cross in Gold on 31 August 1943 as Feldwebel in the 5./Jagdgeschwader 3
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 June 1944 as Leutnant (war officer) and pilot in the 5./Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet"