Hans Dammers

Hans Dammers (8 August 1913 – 17 March 1944) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II.

As a fighter ace, he was credited with 113 aerial victories claimed in an unknown number of combat missions.

During his numerous ground attack missions he destroyed eleven aircraft, eight locomotives, 39 horse-drawn wagons, 34 trucks, three anti-aircraft emplacements and one armored reconnaissance vehicle.

Fighting on the Eastern Front, he claimed his first aerial victory on 31 August 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Dammers was born on 8 December 1913 in Scherpenberg, present-day a borough of Moers, at the time in the Rhine Province of the German Empire.

[3] There, the unit was subordinated to the Luftwaffenmission Rumänien (Luftwaffe Mission Romania) and reequipped with the new, more powerful Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 model.

On 21 June 1941, the Gruppe was ordered to Mizil in preparation of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Gruppe had reached an airfield named Stschastliwaja located approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) east-southeast of Oleksandriia.

Gruppe had relocated to Zürichtal, a small village at the Inhul in the former German settlement west of Feodosia in the Crimea during the Crimean campaign.

[16] The next day, Dammers claimed three aerial victories over MiG-1 fighters in the combat area of Staryi Saltiv on the Donets.

On 19 May, the Gruppe moved to Barvinkove where they stayed until 12 June mostly fighting over the encircled Soviet forces in the Izium salient.

[18] The Grupp was then ordered to Belgorod and to Grakowo, located approximately halfway between Kharkov and Kupiansk, on 22 June.

[20] On 28 June, German forces had launched Case Blue, the strategic summer offensive in southern Russia.

[23] There on 17 July, Dammers (flying Bf 109 G-2 Werknummer 13435—factory number) and his wingman Unteroffizier Kurt Keser jumped Soviet Yak-1 fighter pilot (then Starshiy Leytenant) Aleksandr Pokryshkin, but the future second highest scoring Soviet ace managed to shoot both down.

[23] Dammers continued his successes, shooting down two Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3s on 28 July, and on 6 August 1942 he claimed an Polikarpov I-153 biplane fighter and two LaGG-3s.

There Dammers became an "ace-in-a-day" for the second time on 5 September over five Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters which took his total to 63 aerial victories claimed.

[30] By the end of 1942, his total number of aerial victories had increased to 89, making him the fourth most successful fighter pilot of III.

[32] The Gruppe was moved to the combat area of the Kuban bridgehead on 1 April 1943 where it was based at an airfield at Taman.

Gruppe also flew missions from Kerch on 12 May, from Sarabuz and Saky on 14 May, Zürichtal, present-day Solote Pole, a village near the urban settlement Kirovske on 23 May, and Yevpatoria on 25/26 June.

[35] In May 1943, Dammers transferred to Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost, specialized training unit for new fighter pilots destined for the Eastern Front, as an instructor.

[39] Dammers' Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 20162—factory number) "yellow 9" was struck on 13 March 1944 by debris from a shot down Lavochkin La-5 near Oleschyn.

[2][44] In numerous ground attack missions, he destroyed eleven aircraft, eight locomotives, 39 horse-drawn wagons, 34 trucks, three anti-aircraft emplacements and one armored reconnaissance vehicle.

The German advance: May to November 1942.
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