Operation Barbarossa

At Stolp-Reitz, JG 54 upgraded their aircraft to the Bf 109 F-2. For the next four weeks, the pilots familiarized themselves with the new aircraft before on 15 June, III. Gruppe was ordered to Blumenfeld in East Prussia, present-day Karczarningken in the Kaliningrad Oblast, in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the upcoming invasion, JG 54 would be deployed in the area of Army Group North, was subordinated to I. Fliegerkorps (1st Air Corps) and supported the 16th and 18th Army as well as the Panzer Group 4 in their strategic objective to reach Leningrad.^[9] On 30 June, Lange claimed his first aerial victories on the Eastern Front when he show down two Ilyushin DB-3 bombers shout down over southern Latvia.^[10]

On 1 October, Lange was transferred and appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 1. Staffel (1st squadron) of JG 54. He succeeded Hauptmann Reinhard Seiler was given command of III. Gruppe (3rd group) of JG 54.^[11]

On 15 October 1942, Lange left 1. Staffel of JG 54 and transferred command to Leutnant Walter Nowotny.^[12] On 6 November, Lange was then given command of 3. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing). He took over command from Oberleutnant Michael Sonner who had been transferred a week earlier.^[13] From 15 to 30 August 1943, Lange was temporarily placed in command of I. Gruppe of JG 51, stepping in for Major Erich Leie. During this assignment, command of 3. Staffel briefly passed on to Leutnant Walther Wever.^[14]

Group commander

On 7 January 1944, Lange was transferred and briefly commanded I. Gruppe of JG 54, stepping in for Hauptmann Walter Nowotny who was on home leave and then transferred. Command of the Gruppe was officially handed to Hauptmann Horst Ademeit on 4 February.^[15]

On 9 May, Lange succeeded Major Hans-Ekkehard Bob as Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of IV. Gruppe of JG 51.^[16] Command of his former 3. Staffel was then officially passed on to Wever.^[17] At the time, IV. Gruppe of JG 51 was based at Lysiatychi.^[18] On 22 June, Soviet forces launched Operation Bagration, the strategic offensive operation against Army Group Centre. In consequence, IV. Gruppe was moved to Mogilev that day and to an airfield named Bayary located 92 kilometers (57 miles) northeast of Minsk and 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) east of Barysaw.^[19] On 28 August, IV. Gruppe moved to Modlin Airfield located approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of Warsaw. Here, the Gruppe predominately flew combat missions to the area north and northeast of Warsaw.^[20] Lange was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 18 November for 70 aerial victories.^[21] He received the award together with fellow IV. Gruppepilot Oberfeldwebel Heinz Marquardt who had been credited with 89 aerial victories at the time.^[22]

Wing commander and end of war

On 2 April 1945, he was appointed Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) of fighter wing JG 51. He succeeded Major Fritz Losigkeit who took command of Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing).^[23] Command of IV. Gruppe of JG 51 was then passed to Oberleutnant Günther Josten.^[16]

Fw 190 D-13/R11, "Yellow 10" from the Champlin Fighter Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, c. 1995.

Shortly after the end of the war the British wanted to evaluate the performance of the German Focke Wulf Fw 190 D-13/R11 "Yellow 10" (Werknummer 836017—factory number) which had been assigned to the Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 26, Major Franz Götz. At Flensburg, the British Disarmament Wing wanted to compare the fighter's performance against a Hawker Tempest. Squadron Leader Evans approached Lange and asked him to fly a mock combat against one of their pilots. Lange accepted, even though he had only ten flights in a D-9.^[24] The mock dogfight was conducted at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,800 feet), with only enough fuel for the flight and no ammunition. The machines proved evenly matched. Lange assessed that the outcome of such a contest greatly depended on the skills of the individual pilot. At the time Lange was not aware that he was not flying a D-13, but rather a D-9.^[24] "Yellow 10" was further subjected to mock combat when on 25 June 1945 Josten was asked to fly a comparison flight against another Tempest.^[24] This very rare Fw 190 D-13/R11 is now on display at the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum in Everett, Washington, which recently had its Junkers Jumo 213 engine made operable once more. However, it will not be flown again.^[25]

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Lange was credited with 70 aerial victories.^[28] Obermaier aloso lists him with 70 aerial victories, claimed in 628 combat missions, all but one on the Eastern Front.^[2] Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 73 aerial victory claims, plus one further unconfirmed claim. This figure includes 72 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and one over the Western Allies.^[29]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 1928". 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.^[30]

Awards

• Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe) on 20 September 1943 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän^{[63][Note 11]}
• German Cross in Gold on 17 May 1943 as Hauptmann in the 3./Jagdgeschwader 51^[64]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 November 1944 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the IV./Jagdgeschwader 51 "Mölders"^{[65][Note 12]}

Citations

Bibliography