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Messerschmitt Bf-109E JG27.1 ((+ $Eduard Neumann El Gazala, North Africa April 1941 00
Messerschmitt Bf-109E.7 Trop flown by Hptm. Eduard Neumann, Kommandeur of I./JG27, Gazala, late June 1941 Before moving to North Africa, this aircraft was resprayed in an 02/71/65 scheme which has concealed the aircraft stencilling and the octane triangle which would normally have appeared on the fuselage. The Kommandeurs double chevron has been applied and seven victory bars decorate the rudder. It is believed this victory tally appeared only on the port side.
Messerschmitt Bf-109E JG27.1 ((+ $Eduard Neumann Sicily April 1941 01 Photo 01: Hptm. Eduard Neumann, Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG27 in April 1941, almost immediately before his transfer flight from Sicily to Tripoli.
Messerschmitt Bf-109E JG27.1 ((+ $Eduard Neumann El Gazala, North Africa April 1941 02 Photo 02: The Gruppenstab of I./JG27 re-equipped with the Bf109F-4 Trop in November 1941. This photograph shows Neumann returning from one of his first missions in the new type.
Messerschmitt Bf-109E JG27.1 ((+ $Eduard Neumann El Gazala, North Africa April 1941 03 Photo 01: Neumanns machine photographed at Gazala in the Summer of 1941, shortly after he claimed a Hurricane as his seventh victory near Fort Capuzzo on 15 June 1941.
Messerschmitt Bf-109E JG27.1 ((+ $Eduard Neumann El Gazala, North Africa April 1941 04 As this machine was later damaged and the tail unit completely severed, it is not known whether this later view of Neumann posing by his rudder shows another machine or perhaps the same one with a new tail unit. In any event, the rudder is now yellow and is marked with eight victory bars, his latest being a Hurricane destroyed near Halfaya Pass on the morning of 8 July 1941.
Pilots JG27 $Eduard Neumann 01 Pilots JG27 $Eduard Neumann with Adolf Galland in North Africa Sep 22 1942 01 Eduard Neumann, photo taken during World War 2.Photograph published in: German Fighter Ace- Hans-Joachim Marseille, Franz Kurowski, Schiffer Military History, 1994, ISBN 0-88740-517-7.
"Every- Gescl1wader has its own personality"
EDUARD NEUMANN, JG27
During the campaign in the West, I was Gescbwaderadjutant to Oberst Max Ibel. He had already fought as a pioneer during the First World War, but at that time our Stab was distinguished by Hptm. Adolf Galland who showed great abilities as a promising fighter pilot. In July 1940, I became Kommandeur of I./JG27 and claimed my first victory, a Spitfire, on 8 August. At the end of the Battle of Britain, I had six Abscbusse and one of my best pilots was Obit. Gerhard Homuth, Kapitan of 3. Staffel.
We were assigned to North Africa even before the end of the Balkan campaign. We flew to Sicily and then on to. Africa where we landed at Gazala, between Derna and Tobruk. Part of the first Staffel was already there. When we arrived, our opponents were Hurricanes which had had it easy with the unescorted Stukas. We had significant advantages over the Hurricanes. Homuth, Marseille, Schroer, and Stahlschmidt were very good pilots. Marseille in particular was magnificent, looked after by the gods, though he was a little rascal and an impertinent lad. Consequently, when other Gescbwader had to release some pilots to our unit, he was assigned to our unit at Doberitz even though he was a very good pilot and already had several Abscbusse. When he arrived, his hair was too long, and his jacket was shabby. His father was a general in the Army, but at that time Marseille was not yet a Leutnant. It was said that he kept the company of film actresses and he was not considered suitable to be an officer. His Staffelkapitan was Homuth who was serious and intellectual, the opposite of Marseille, and Homuth did not like him. I kept a tight rein on Marseille and he trusted me. Every Gescbwader has its own personality. We had our own intentions and we protected our own. In Africa, Kesselring wanted us to attack the airfields at Alamein with the Stukas, but I told him that this would result only in our annihilation. One had to protest vehemently to achieve the objective and in JG27 there was a dedicated loyalty which is the reason members of the Gescbwader continue to this day to come to the reunions. I became Kommodore of JG27 on 10 June 1942. Homuth took my place as Kommandeur of 1. Gruppe and Marseille took over Homuth's Staffel. From Africa I went to Athens in Greece for the air defence of the Aegean. One Gruppe was at Athens, one on Crete, and another in France. In March 1943 I returned to Berlin and Radel took command of the Gescbwader. When I left, my tally was relatively poor compared to those of the aces which our unit had generated, but I considered that I had carried out my duties the best way I could.
In 1928 Eduard went to Berlin to study mechanical and aviation engineering. It was here that he discovered his enthusiasm for flight and quickly became a member of the ‘Akakflieg’ Glider club in 1929. In 1932 he passed his flying examinations in powered flight in Cottbus. In 1934 he began training on the Fieseler Fi-5 aircraft, then later the same year he joined the fledgling Luftwaffe, which was still under secret construction. In Schleissheim he received final combat training, Neumann was then deployed to II./JG 132 ‘Richthofen’ in July 1935.
After the re-training on the BF 109D at Barth in August 1937 he was transferred to the Luftwaffe’s ‘Condor Legion’ which was to be sent to aid General Franco’s Fascists in the Spanish Civil War along with other notable personalities like Adolf Galland and Werner Mölders. After a year’s service Neumann returned to Germany at the rank of Oberleutnant with two victories and the Spanish Cross in Gold with Swords, and was then appointed Gruppenkommandeur with 4/JG26 in Düsseldorf, remaining with the unit until departing for Jagdgeschwader 27 in early 1940, becoming the unit’s Adjutant.
The day after scoring his first (World War Two) victory during the opening phase of the Battle of Britain, a RAF 236 Squadron Blenheim off the coast of Cherbourg on the 20th July 1940, he was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG27 to replace Major Helmut Riegel, shot down and killed by 501 Squadron Hurricanes off the Island of Alderney. After a brief participation In the Invasion of Yugoslavia, in April 1941 the unit moved to Ain-el Gazala, Libya, North Africa on 18 April 1941. He received the German Cross in Gold on 11 May 1942 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur I./JG27.
On 8th June 1942 he was promoted to Major and Geschwaderkommodore of JG27, which he successfully led until 22 April 1943 when he joined the Staff of General der Jagdflieger. In March 1943 Neumann was promoted to Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel), and later in 1944 to Oberst (Colonel). Eduard Neumann finished the war as the Commander of Fighter Forces in Northern Italy. Neumann was a believer in leading his squadron from the ground, and given these long periods of administrative command, Neumann’s active combat career was somewhat limited, although he became one of the most respected and influential field commanders in the Luftwaffe. As a consequence he only achieved 13 victories during his Luftwaffe career (2 in Spain). In early 1945 Neumann was among those courageous men to protest against Hermann Göring in what came to be known as the "Fighter Pilots Revolt" or "Fighter Pilots Mutiny".
One of Neumann’s most successful achievements was the molding of the career of Hans-Joachim Marseille, giving the unorthodox fighter pilot a free reign to practice his tactics. Marseille went on to score 158 victories against the Western Allied Air Forces, a number no other pilot would match. [6]In 1989 Neumann and other members of JG27 erected a Pyramid with the co-operation of the Egyptian Government on the place that Marseille fell to his death.
After the War After the war Eduard ‘Edu’ Neumann developed an engineering company. He continued to fly as hobby, after the banning of civilian flight clubs had been lifted. Neumann remained a member of the German Fighter Pilot’s Association, until his death from a long illness aged 93.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Neumann
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