Friedrich Lang was a German Luftwaffe pilot and one of the most accomplished Stuka aces of the Second World War. Born on 12 January 1915 in Mährisch Trübau in the Sudetenland, he flew a total of 1,008 combat sorties from the first day of the invasion of Poland until February 1945 without ever being shot down, bailing out or force-landing, a record believed to be unique in its length and consistency. Known to his comrades as Fritz, Lang served primarily with Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 Immelmann before commanding elements of Schlachtgeschwader 1 and briefly standing in as Geschwaderkommodore of Schlachtgeschwader 2. His precision in the steep dive of the Junkers Ju 87 and his leadership under extreme pressure earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. After the war he rebuilt his life as a mason and construction engineer before rejoining the Bundeswehr, where he rose to the rank of Oberst and held several key training and command posts until his retirement.
Lang came from a family with academic roots. He was the son of a professor who directed the German Gymnasium in Czernowitz from 1919 onward, and his parents later settled in Bremen after being expelled from Silesia. After attending the German Gymnasium in Czernowitz he passed his Abitur in 1932 and studied physics and mathematics for four semesters at Chernivtsi University before transferring to the Technical University of Breslau in October 1934 to study aeronautical engineering. He acquired German citizenship in April 1935. In October 1935 he joined the 9th Company of Infantry Regiment 28, then transferred to ground crew duties with Kampfgeschwader 153 in March 1936. He attended the Luftkriegsschule in Dresden and the Kampffliegerschule in Lechfeld, where he trained as an observer on Dornier Do 23, Junkers Ju 52 and Heinkel He 46 aircraft before converting to dive-bombers. On 1 January 1938 he was commissioned as Leutnant and posted to the 1st Staffel of Sturzkampfgeschwader 163, flying Henschel Hs 123 and then Ju 87 Stukas.
The outbreak of war in September 1939 saw Lang's unit renamed 1st Group of StG 2 Immelmann and thrown immediately into the Polish Campaign. He supported the assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael on 10 May 1940 and played a direct role in the breakthrough at Sedan during the Western Campaign, delivering close air support against French and British forces at Arras and a French armoured column near St Quentin. Over Calais and Dunkirk his Stukas tangled with British fighters while covering the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force. On 8 June 1940 he was severely wounded in the back by French fighters near Soissons and spent the following months in a Heidelberg hospital, missing the Battle of Britain. Recovered by early 1941, he rejoined his unit for operations in the Balkans, raiding the Greek port of Piraeus and airfields around Athens before shifting to Crete, where he attacked British naval units.
The decisive actions that brought Lang his Knight's Cross occurred during the Mediterranean phase and the opening of Operation Barbarossa. In May 1941, east of Crete, he dove through intense flak and fighter screens and scored direct hits that sank one British destroyer outright while leaving a second burning and crippled in the same attack. Transferred to the Eastern Front, his Gruppe struck at Leningrad and Kronstadt harbour in the north, then supported the advance through Smolensk and the Donets Basin. By late 1941 he had completed roughly 300 sorties, demonstrating unerring accuracy against ships, tanks, bridges and troop concentrations while never suffering an aircraft loss. Promoted Oberleutnant and appointed Staffelkapitän of 1st Staffel StG 2 on 1 October 1941, he received the Knight's Cross on 23 November 1941. In the following months he continued to fly over the southern sector, supporting the drive toward Stalingrad and later covering the German withdrawal into the Kuban bridgehead.
By November 1942 Lang had flown approximately 700 sorties, mostly against Soviet artillery positions, tank columns and fortified river crossings under heavy anti-aircraft fire and constant fighter threats. On typical missions his Stukas screamed down through smoke and explosions to destroy T-34s threatening German infantry or scored direct hits on vital railway bridges that halted entire Soviet supply trains for days. His calm leadership and personal example turned these attacks into decisive tactical successes at the height of the fighting for Stalingrad. Promoted Hauptmann, he was awarded the Oak Leaves on 21 November 1942. In April 1943 he took command of III Group of StG 1, later redesignated Schlachtgeschwader 1, and continued operations over the Kursk region and the central sector. On 7 March 1944 south of Witebsk he flew his 1,000th combat sortie, leading his Gruppe through curtains of flak and fighters to hammer massing Soviet troops, artillery and armoured reserves exactly where German ground forces needed relief most. The strikes helped stabilise the front for several critical days.
Lang reached 1,007 sorties by the summer of 1944 and had also taken temporary command of larger formations, including a brief spell as Gruppenkommandeur of I Group Schlachtgeschwader 151. On 2 July 1944, after assuming acting command of Schlachtgeschwader 2 in February 1945 for the wounded Hans-Ulrich Rudel, he received the Swords. From 9 February to 13 February 1945 he led the Geschwader before overshooting a landing and being sidelined. At war's end he held the rank of Major. Captured while hospitalised, he spent several months as a prisoner of war before release in August 1945. In civilian life he married in 1947, passed a mason's journeyman's examination and attended construction school in Bremen, working as a construction engineer there until 1955.
On 1 January 1956 Lang joined the newly formed Bundeswehr. Declared unfit for flying duties because of a heart condition that impaired blood re-oxygenation, he served first as a staff officer in the Luftwaffe leadership section of the Defence Ministry. In 1960 he became commander of the Luftwaffe training school, a post he held until 1963, and was promoted Oberst in 1961. He later headed the infrastructure department of Wehrbereichskommando II and from 1967 commanded Defence District Command 22 in Hanover until his retirement in 1971. Friedrich Lang died in Hanover on 29 December 2003 at the age of eighty-eight. His extraordinary survival record, precision bombing and steady leadership across five years of continuous combat made him one of the Luftwaffe's most respected Stuka pilots.
Lang came from a family with academic roots. He was the son of a professor who directed the German Gymnasium in Czernowitz from 1919 onward, and his parents later settled in Bremen after being expelled from Silesia. After attending the German Gymnasium in Czernowitz he passed his Abitur in 1932 and studied physics and mathematics for four semesters at Chernivtsi University before transferring to the Technical University of Breslau in October 1934 to study aeronautical engineering. He acquired German citizenship in April 1935. In October 1935 he joined the 9th Company of Infantry Regiment 28, then transferred to ground crew duties with Kampfgeschwader 153 in March 1936. He attended the Luftkriegsschule in Dresden and the Kampffliegerschule in Lechfeld, where he trained as an observer on Dornier Do 23, Junkers Ju 52 and Heinkel He 46 aircraft before converting to dive-bombers. On 1 January 1938 he was commissioned as Leutnant and posted to the 1st Staffel of Sturzkampfgeschwader 163, flying Henschel Hs 123 and then Ju 87 Stukas.
The outbreak of war in September 1939 saw Lang's unit renamed 1st Group of StG 2 Immelmann and thrown immediately into the Polish Campaign. He supported the assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben Emael on 10 May 1940 and played a direct role in the breakthrough at Sedan during the Western Campaign, delivering close air support against French and British forces at Arras and a French armoured column near St Quentin. Over Calais and Dunkirk his Stukas tangled with British fighters while covering the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force. On 8 June 1940 he was severely wounded in the back by French fighters near Soissons and spent the following months in a Heidelberg hospital, missing the Battle of Britain. Recovered by early 1941, he rejoined his unit for operations in the Balkans, raiding the Greek port of Piraeus and airfields around Athens before shifting to Crete, where he attacked British naval units.
The decisive actions that brought Lang his Knight's Cross occurred during the Mediterranean phase and the opening of Operation Barbarossa. In May 1941, east of Crete, he dove through intense flak and fighter screens and scored direct hits that sank one British destroyer outright while leaving a second burning and crippled in the same attack. Transferred to the Eastern Front, his Gruppe struck at Leningrad and Kronstadt harbour in the north, then supported the advance through Smolensk and the Donets Basin. By late 1941 he had completed roughly 300 sorties, demonstrating unerring accuracy against ships, tanks, bridges and troop concentrations while never suffering an aircraft loss. Promoted Oberleutnant and appointed Staffelkapitän of 1st Staffel StG 2 on 1 October 1941, he received the Knight's Cross on 23 November 1941. In the following months he continued to fly over the southern sector, supporting the drive toward Stalingrad and later covering the German withdrawal into the Kuban bridgehead.
By November 1942 Lang had flown approximately 700 sorties, mostly against Soviet artillery positions, tank columns and fortified river crossings under heavy anti-aircraft fire and constant fighter threats. On typical missions his Stukas screamed down through smoke and explosions to destroy T-34s threatening German infantry or scored direct hits on vital railway bridges that halted entire Soviet supply trains for days. His calm leadership and personal example turned these attacks into decisive tactical successes at the height of the fighting for Stalingrad. Promoted Hauptmann, he was awarded the Oak Leaves on 21 November 1942. In April 1943 he took command of III Group of StG 1, later redesignated Schlachtgeschwader 1, and continued operations over the Kursk region and the central sector. On 7 March 1944 south of Witebsk he flew his 1,000th combat sortie, leading his Gruppe through curtains of flak and fighters to hammer massing Soviet troops, artillery and armoured reserves exactly where German ground forces needed relief most. The strikes helped stabilise the front for several critical days.
Lang reached 1,007 sorties by the summer of 1944 and had also taken temporary command of larger formations, including a brief spell as Gruppenkommandeur of I Group Schlachtgeschwader 151. On 2 July 1944, after assuming acting command of Schlachtgeschwader 2 in February 1945 for the wounded Hans-Ulrich Rudel, he received the Swords. From 9 February to 13 February 1945 he led the Geschwader before overshooting a landing and being sidelined. At war's end he held the rank of Major. Captured while hospitalised, he spent several months as a prisoner of war before release in August 1945. In civilian life he married in 1947, passed a mason's journeyman's examination and attended construction school in Bremen, working as a construction engineer there until 1955.
On 1 January 1956 Lang joined the newly formed Bundeswehr. Declared unfit for flying duties because of a heart condition that impaired blood re-oxygenation, he served first as a staff officer in the Luftwaffe leadership section of the Defence Ministry. In 1960 he became commander of the Luftwaffe training school, a post he held until 1963, and was promoted Oberst in 1961. He later headed the infrastructure department of Wehrbereichskommando II and from 1967 commanded Defence District Command 22 in Hanover until his retirement in 1971. Friedrich Lang died in Hanover on 29 December 2003 at the age of eighty-eight. His extraordinary survival record, precision bombing and steady leadership across five years of continuous combat made him one of the Luftwaffe's most respected Stuka pilots.
Source:
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
https://aircrewremembered.com/KrackerDatabase/?q=units
https://www.ww2.dk/lwoffz.html
Additional cross-referenced data from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Lang_(Pilot), https://aircrewremembered.com/lang-friedrich.html, https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/24372/Lang-Friedrich-LW-Flieger.htm and books Georg Brütting "Das waren die deutschen Stuka-Asse 1939-1945" as well as Mike Spick "Luftwaffe Bomber Aces".
No comments:
Post a Comment