During the vast majority of combat on the Eastern Front under Trautloft’s command, JG 54 operated over the northern and central sectors within the framework of Luftflotte 1. Despite the size of the area of operations, Trautloft managed to maintain contact with all elements of the fighter wing and personally knew all the pilots, including non commissioned officers. Under his command, there was a line of successful fighter pilots and commanders, such as Nowotny, Kittel, Phillip, Beisswenger, Hrabak, Ostermann, etc. Trautloft was awarded the Knight’s Cross on July 27th, 1941, not f

At the end of September, 1939, Trautloft took control of the fighter Gruppe designated I./JG 20 in Brandenburg – Briest. At the time, the unit was provisionally placed under JG 2 ‘Richthofen’ and in the future was to have been transformed into III./JG 2. The plans changed, however, and progressively, Trautloft’s unit was attached to JG 3 and finally JG 51. During ‘Sitzkrieg’ (or The Phoney War), I./JG 20 was able to down only two enemy aircraft, but during the fighting in the west in May, 1940,thirty-five were claimed. Hannes Trautloft accounted for two Spitfires during this period

Read the first part of this article here. At the end of September, 1939, I./JG 77 was moved to western Germany, and Priebe managed a kill on the very first combat flight in the area. It occurred on the 11th of October over Lauterburg, and the victim was a French high-wing Mureaux 115 (No. 12) reconnaissance plane from GAO 553. The French crew’s mission was to photograph bridges over the Rhein around Worth. S/Lt Laluée was injured and taken prisoner, while Lt. B. Hautiere was killed. At the beginning of 1940, fuselage of Red ‘1’ received a coat of light blue paint, but the fuselage

In April 1939, Janke’s Wanderzirkus moved again from Olomouc to Breslau-Schöngarten airfield, and in May began to re-equip from the Messerschmitt Bf 109 D-1 to ‘light’ Bf 109 E-1s and ‘heavy’ Bf 109 E-3s. At the end of August, I./JG 77 moved to the field at Juliusburg (today Dobroszyce not far from Wroclaw) to be in a location better suited to support the attack on Poland. There are two color films from this period, available on the internet, that capture not only Trautloft, but also aircraft from his 2. Staffel. In case you missed it, you might want to read the previous article

In the fall of 1937, Hannes Trautloft was named commanding officer and head of training at Werneuchen’s fighter school. In July, 1938, finally came the longed for attachment to a fighter squadron, and that to the elite Richthofen unit. Trautloft was named CO of 12. Staffel within the framework of Jagdgeschwader 132 in Werneuchen. The Gruppe was equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 D-1, and the Gruppenkommandeur was Hptm. Johannes Janke. He became a friend of Trautloft’s, and more will be warranted about him later. Hannes Trautloft almost met his Czechoslovak opponents from Zurich