WOW! I cant thank ya'll enough for all this. It is truly greatly appreciated and I've learned so much. So I do have some additional questions for you, if you don't mind.
Do you think there is a reason he was left off all reports?it seems like he was a seasoned pilot, and according to one of the only 2 photos we know of him, he won several medals but was not listed any where in any archive that I could find. Was this common? Men lost on the chaos of the end of the war?
So my mother would have been concieved Oct/Nov 1944. Given the ULTRA reports, what would have been the name of the base he was at during that timeframe? Was Gütersloh airfield also a base or one in which civilians worked as well? Unfortunately my grandmother every detail to the grave with her.
So if the latest reports are to be believed, he went missing in March 1945 and never had any type of funeral or burial (obviously) Is there a memorial somewhere for missing solders? Somewhere I can take my mom go pay our respects?
I'm sure after going over these details a few more times and will see what I can find on crashes in the Teutoburger Forest. I am certain I will have more questions. But In the meantime, thank you again for all this. I am beyond grateful!!!
-S
OK, first I will "back it up a bit" to give you an overview of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4.
NJG 4 at this period of the war consisted of 9 Staffeln (Squadrons). Each Staffel had an established strength of 12 aircraft. The Staffeln of NJG 4 were numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The nomenclature for a Staffel used Arabic numerals, i.e. 1./NJG 4, 7./NJG 4 etc. Each Staffel was commanded by a
Staffelführer.
Groups of three Staffeln were arranged into a Gruppe (Group), and each Gruppe had a Stab (Headquarters flight). Thus, the nine Staffeln of NJG 4 were arranged into three Gruppen. The nomenclature for a Gruppe used Roman numerals, i.e. I./NJG 4, II./NJG 4, III./NJG 4. Each Gruppe was commanded by a
Gruppenkommandeur - for II./NJG 4 this was Hauptmann, later Major Paul-Hubert Rauh.
The entire Nachtjagdgeschwader (NIght Fighter Wing) - in this case, all three Gruppen (Groups) - were commanded by a Stab (Headquarters) called Stab/NJG 4. The Stab consisted of four aircraft and crews, including the
Geschwaderkommodore (Commander of the Night Fighter Wing) - who for NJG 4 was Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer from November 1944 to May 1945
So, to summarise, here is the organisational structure and aircraft strength of NJG 4:
Stab/NJG 4 - 4 aircraft
I./NJG 4 - 40 aircraft, consisting of:
Stab I./NJG 4 - 4 aircraft
1./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
2./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
3./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
II./NJG 4 - 40 aircraft, consisting of:
Stab II./NJG 4 - 4 aircraft
4./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
5./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
6./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
III./NJG 4 - 40 aircraft, consisting of:
Stab III./NJG 4 - 4 aircraft
7./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
8./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
9./NJG 4 - 12 aircraft
So, we know Ofw. Hans Henjes was part of the 2nd Gruppe (II./NJG 4), but we don't know which Staffel he belonged to (4., 5., or 6./NJG 4).
In
October - November 1944, II./NJG 4 was based at
Rhein-Main airfield, near Frankfurt. Stab/NJG 4 (the headquarters) was based at Mainz-Finthen airfield, a little further east of Rhein-Main. This explains why so many wireless communications between II./NJG 4 and Stab/NJG 4 were intercepted by the British at that time.
Between 18 - 21 November 1944, II./NJG 4 and Stab/NJG 4 both relocated north to Gütersloh airfield (meanwhile, I./NJG 4 relocated to the vacant Rhein-Main and Mainz-Finthen airfields). This explains why wireless communications between II./NJG 4 and Stab/NJG 4 practically ceased in late November 1944 - there was little for the British to intercept.
II./NJG 4 remained at Gütersloh until around 30 March - 6 April 1945, when they retreated to Flensburg airfield in Schleswig-Holstein.
Civilians did work in administrative roles on airfields and military installations. Women could also be uniformed members of the Luftwaffe as well.
Here are another two ULTRA decrypts from just before the move to Gütersloh. One is a II./NJG 4 strength and serviceability return, and the other is an availability return for operations:
So, what are these messages telling us?
Nr. 4 shows that II./NJG 4 had a total of 26 aircraft on strength (remembering the Gruppe established strength was 40), of which 21 aircraft were serviceable and airworthy. II./NJG 4 had 36 pilots on strength (remembering the Gruppe established strength was 40 pilots), of which only 20 pilots were ready or available to fly operationally.
Nr. 5 doesn't mention Ofw. Henjes by name like the other such reports. This is simply because he wasn't assigned a special task on this night. The "Ops Gruppe" of seven aircraft and seven (unnamed) crews were ready to fly. Hans Henjes could have been included in the Ops Gruppe or he could have been unavailable to fly on this night (reasons could include sickness or leave for him or any one of his crew).
I have seen NO mentions of Hans Henjes in the 1945 ULTRA decrypts (I have a complete copy of all this ULTRA from Jan - May 1945, and I have gone through it with a fine-toothed comb). As previously mentioned, the reason for this is because the British intercepted very few wireless communications between II./NJG 4 and Stab/NJG 4 since they were both based on the same airfield. Contrast this to the enormous amount of ULTRA decrypts for I./NJG 4 and III./NJG 4. There are a couple of dozen operational reports available for I., and III./NJG 4 during the period 1 January - 30 March 1945 - most of which mention pilots by name. There are ZERO such reports for II./NJG 4....
I can give you a run-down on the types of missions Hans Henjes might have flown between October 1944 and March 1945.
The standard missions were night fighting against British air incursions.
When the Germans launched the Ardennes ground offensive in December 1944, the Nachtjagdverbände (German night fighter force) was called up to fly nighttime ground attack missions against the Americans. It's likely that Hans Henjes flew some of these missions in the second half of December 1944.
January and February 1945 would have seen a return to night fighting against British air incursions.
March 1945 brought something entirely different... besides the regular night fighting against British air incursions.
Firstly, the Nachtjagdverbände launched a massive attack over the United Kingdom on the night of 3-4 March 1945 - called Unternehmen (Operation) Gisela. This was an "all hands on deck" affair - 142 aircraft and crews despatched - so Hans Henjes would likely have participated in this operation if he was fit to fly.
II./NJG 4 flew this mission from Gütersloh and also the Dutch airfield of Steenwijk.
There was a follow-up attack over England on the night of 4-5 March 1945 (Unternehmen Adelheid), but only by less than a dozen aircraft. I don't know if any II./NJG 4 aircraft participated, since there is practically no documentary sources available. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that a couple of II,.NJG 4 aircraft could have flown the mission.
II./NJG 4 created a special long-range night fighting detachment for missions over the UK. This detachment of seven aircraft and crews was based at Steenwijk between 8 and 13 March 1945. However, the detachment flew no missions before it was disbanded on 14 March and the surviving aircraft (some Ju88s were destroyed/damaged by air attacks on Steenwijk) returned to Gütersloh.
The Anglo-Americans crossed the northern Rhine River on 24 Match 1945 and the Nachtjagdverbände flew three successive nights of ground attack missions against the Allied bridgeheads in the Wesel area - 24/25, 25/26, and 26/27 March 1945. II./NJG 4 participated in these missions - the Gruppe's last operational missions in March 1945.
It's impossible to know how many operational sorties Ofw, Hans Henjes flew between October 1944 and the end of March 1945. The Luftwaffe was experiencing a severe shortage of aviation fuel at this time, so a Gruppe like II./NJG 4 might have only been employing, say, 10-15 aircraft out of a paper strength of 40 during this period.
I will take an educated guess and state that Ofw. Hans Henjes likely flew some nighttime ground attack missions between 17 - 31 December 1944 and 24 - 27 March 1945. He also likely flew during the nighttime attack over the UK (Unternehmen Gisela) on 3-4 March 1945. Beyond that, it's impossible to know how many regular night fighting sorties he flew during the period.
Having said that, the photo of Hans shows he is wearing a
Frontflugspange - meaning he flew at least 20 operational missions. See:
Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe - Wikipedia. I suspect the version he is wearing is the Silver
Frontflugspange - meaning Hans would have flown 60 operational missions to qualify for the award.
Because Hans Henjes was never wounded in action, he doesn't show up in any of the loss lists. He's just one of many, many Nachtjagdverbände pilots whose name is practically anonymous to researchers.