The 7th Staffel of Adolf Galland’s famed Jagdgeschwader 26 (JG 26) “Schlageter,” fresh off the Lowlands and France campaigns and the drawn-out aerial combat against the RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, was sent south to warm the skins of their Messerschmitts along the assorted shores of the Mediterranean some 85 years ago this month.
This left Oberleutnant Joachim “Jochen” Müncheberg (at the time with 23 confirmed aerial victories), with his unit on a well-earned skiing vacation in the Austrian Alps, suddenly ordered off the slopes and rushed to Sicily with his pilots and ground crews (sans planes) to assist in the attempted reduction of stubborn Malta.
The squadron never got another vacation.
Arriving at Gela on 9 February, they received their factory-new Bf 109 “Emil” E-7/Ns, and by the 12th, Müncheberg tallied his 24th victory, a RAF No. 261 Squadron Hurricane flown by Flt. Lt. James MacLachlan (who bailed out, wounded), over Malta.
Messerschmitt Bf 109E4 7.JG26 White 1 Joachim Muncheberg transit flight Sicily, Feb 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E3 7.JG26 White 4 line up Gela Sicily March 1941-01
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 White 7
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 White 9 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily April 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 White 12 Joachim Muncheberg WNr 3826 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 White 1 Munchenberg Gela Sicily Feb 1941
7./JG 26 would continue its rampage across the theater, relocating to Grottaglie airfield near Taranto for the Yugoslav/Greece campaign in April, shifting to airfields in Greece (Molaoi) for the Crete campaign in May, then to join Fliegerführer Afrika where they operated from Libya (Ain el Gazala) until, with only a couple of planes left, were recalled to France in late August 1941, where they received newer Bf 109 F-4s.
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7B 7.JG26 Gela Sicily 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E4 7.JG26 White 3 Ernst Laube Gela Sicily May 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7 7.JG26 armorers 1941
Messerschmitt Bf 109E7N 7.JG26 White 11 Theo Lindemann WNr 4139-Gazala 21st Aug 1941. Note the flare cartridges around his legs.
By the time they did, Müncheberg’s tally had grown to 49 while 7./JG 26 claimed 52 enemy aircraft during their time in the Med without a single pilot lost to the Allies.
While 7/JG 26 never saw the sands of North Africa again, Müncheberg would return there as a Major in command of JG 77 in October 1942– by which time he had over 100 “kills” after Eastern Front service.
In the desert, he met his fate at the hands of Capt. Theodore Reilly Sweetland, USAAF, who reportedly rammed his flaming British-made 2nd FS/52nd FG Spitfire into the German uber-ace’s Bf 109 G-6 during a dogfight over Meknassy, French Tunisia, on 23 March 1943.
The Pomeranian-born Müncheberg, aged 24, is buried at the German cemetery at Bordj-Cedria, Tunisia, and was credited with 135 victories, while the Oakland-born Sweetland was just three months shy of his own 24th birthday. The American is still listed MIA, memorialized at Tablets of the Missing North Africa American Cemetery Carthage, and earned a posthumous Silver Star among other decorations.
In a bit of dark irony, RAF Squadron Leader James Archibald Findlay MacLachlan DSO, DFC & Two Bars, who had lost his arm to Müncheberg over Malta in February 1941, would perish in Pont-l’Évêque, German-occupied France, also aged 24, on 31 July 1943, just three months after Müncheberg and Sweetland’s mid-air inferno. “One-Armed Mac” at the time had 16 claimed victories, a triple ace, and had been shot down over France while piloting his American-made ADFU Mustang, then passed 13 days later at a German field hospital in Normandy.
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Fitzgerald’s motto is “Protect your people,” that “also links the Fitzgerald’s ancient family history (when their Gallic war cry, ‘Croom a boo‘ meant “Defend the castle forever”) with the gallantry, fearless dedication to duty and extraordinary heroism exhibited by Lieutenant Fitzgerald and the time honored traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
