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Gordon Gollob Victories : 150 ----------------------------- Country : Germany Fought in : WW2 Fought for : Axis Died : 8th September 1987 Knights Cross Oak Leaves Swords Diamonds Oberst Gordon M. Gollob was born 16 June 1912. Died 8 September 1987. He was a German fighter pilot and flying ace in the Luftwaffe from 1938 to 1945 during World War II. He rose to the position of General der Jagdflieger, and was one of only 27 to receive the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. Gollob was credited with 150 aerial victories—that is, 150 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—achieved in 340 missions. He recorded 144 victories over the Eastern front. Gollob was the first pilot in aviation history to claim 150 aerial victories. ZG 76 was stationed on the Polish border and took part in Fall Weiss, the invasion of Poland from 1 September 1939. Gollob scored his first victories over Poland, and continued his success when ZG 76 took part in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. On 8 April 1940 Gollob was appointed Staffelkapitän of 3./ZG 76. The unit took part in Operation Weserübung and Gollob had two more victories over Norway. Later that year Gollob shot down a Spitfire during the Battle of Britain. He was then given night fighter training and assigned to II./JG 3 on 7 September. JG 3 was stationed on the Channel Front, and saw much action. On 9 October Gollob was appointed Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 3. In 1941 the unit was transferred east to take part in Operation Barbarossa. A few days after the invasion started, on 27 June, Gollob was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 3, and promoted to Hauptmann. Against the weak Soviet Air Force Gollob proved quite successful, downing 18 enemy aircraft in the month of August alone. On 18 September he was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his 42 victories. In October he had an impressive 37 victories, including 9 in one day on 18 October. On 26 October he was awarded the Eichenlaub after reaching 85 victories. In December Gollob was pulled of frontline service, and was transferred to a testing unit, to help with the development of the next version of the Bf 109. After a brief spell at the Stabschwarm of JG 54 Gollob, now a Major, assumed command over JG 77 as Geschwaderkommodore on 16 May 1942. JG 77 was given the task of supporting the hard fighting over the Kerch straits on the Crimean peninsula. The JG 77, led by such able experts as Gollob and Heinrich Bär leading I./JG 77, "took over" the air space over the Kerch-Taman area. Intense rivalry ensued between Gollob and Bär, each striving to outperform the other. On 20 May Gollob reached his victory number 100. On 23 June he was awarded the Schwerter, after his tally had risen to 107. Only two months later he reached 150 victories, becoming the Luftwaffe's highest scoring pilot at that point. For this he was awarded the Brillanten to his Ritterkreuz on 29 August, only number 3 to receive such honours. An anonymous JG 77 pilot described Gollob's methods; "Gollob flew from Kerch together with his wingman. They positioned themselves at a low altitude beneath a Russian formation. Then they started climbing in spirals, carefully maintaining their position beneath the enemy formation. Before the peacefully flying Russians had even suspected any mischief, the two planes at the bottom of their formation had been shot down and the two Germans were gone." After the war After being released from captivity following the surrender, Gollob made a living as a contributor to Aircraft Magazines and lecturing. In 1948 he became a foreman of the Federation of Independents in Austria. From 1951 he started working for a company making motors and vehicles. He had two sons and a daughter with his wife. Gollob died in Sulingen, Diepholz, Lower Saxony on 7 September 1987.

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Gordon Gollob