Any Luftwaffe Pilot Experts out there??

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Based on the information you provided and other information I have:

Oberfeldwebel Hans Henjes was almost certainly a pilot with the German night fighter unit II./NJG 4 (2nd Gruppe of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4).

If you look at the handwriting on the Karte you provided, at least four entries are almost certainly post-war additions to the card:

1.) "Major Schnaüfer 2. Nachtjagdbomben 4. Staffel"
2.) "15.11.46 O. Feldw."
3.) "30.12.46 seit / 28. 3.45 vermisst Teütobürger Wald (U 8355)"
4.) "15.11.46 Antrag der Ehefrau von 20.2.46 an Außenstelle Hamburg, Mitteilung, k.M., Nachforschungen werden nicht angestellt. (seit 27/28.3 (?) 45, vermisst / Teütobürger Wald abgestürzt.)" (with thanks to reseacher John Manrho for confirming the text)
5.) I suspect the wife's name and address were also added post-war.

What these entries indicate are:

a) Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer was the Geschwaderkommodore of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 during 1945.
b) If the card is taken literally, Ofw. Hans Henjes went missing circa 27 or 28 March 1945 after a crash in the Teutoberg Forest. This forest was very close to the II./NJG 4 airfields at Gütersloh and Lippsringe. II./NJG 4 flew Ju88 twin-engined night fighters.

How can I be certain Hans Henjes was with II./NJG 4? He is mentioned by name in a British ULTRA decrypt of an II./NJG 4 communication from November 1944. That communication also confirms he was a pilot (see attached image).


(Source: The National Archives, HW 5/613, msg CX/MSS/R.361/A/8)

[NOTE - the ULTRA decrypt details the II./NJG4 aircraft that are available for night operations on the night of 6/7 November 1944 - 14 Ju88 night fighters. The Gruppe has assigned pilot Hptm. Erwin Strobel in a Ju88 with Naxos as the Gruppe leader aircraft. Eleven other crews in Ju88s are available for general Zahme Sau night fighting, while pilot Ofw. Hans Henjes in a Ju88 is tasked with Himmelbett night fighting (i.e. Ground Controlled Intercept night fighting in a specific geographical zone) under the control of radar station DACHS, and pilot Fw. Hans-Heinrich Staenglen in a Ju88 is tasked with Himmelbett night fighting under the control of radar station BERGZIEGE]

If Hans Henjes did indeed die in an aircraft crash at the Teutoberg Forest on 27 or 28 March 1945, then it was an accident and not a result of enemy action. The accident likely did not happen at night. Nachtjagdgeschwader 4, subordinated to 3 Jagddivision, flew no missions on the nights of 27/28 or 28/29 March 1945. Thus, any such aircraft crash was likely on a transfer flight made during the day or during twilight. It's also worth pointing out that Henjes would've had two or three crew onboard the aircraft as well.

The British definitely did not shoot down any Ju88 by day or night during the period in question. I don't have enough information about American daytime air combat claims to comment further.

Sadly, a large number of German aircraft and aircrew losses from the last couple of months of the war remain undiscovered by researchers, mostly because Luftwaffe unit records were destroyed before the end of the war. Any surviving information is likely locked up in German Federal Archives for the foreseeable future, and even then, there will be gaps and omissions.

The last aircraft loss of II./NJG 4 for which I have no aircrew details, occurred on the night of 24/25 March 1945, during Luftwaffe attacks against the Allied bridgeheads across the Rhine.

II./NJG 4 Ju88G-1 aircraft W.Nr. 711104 (3C+BP) was shot down by anti-aircraft fire at 03:10 am on 25 March and crashed 2.6 km NNW of Till, 3 km NW of Wissel, on the west side of the Rhine. All four crewmen onboard died, and their bodies were recovered. Sadly, I have no information about their identities or subsequent burial (researcher Matti Salonen has the names of three German airmen from II./NJG 4 whose date of death is 25 March 1945, but who aren't linked to any specific aircraft crash: Lt. Wolfgang Laumanns (radio operator), Ofw. Paul Nowak (air gunner), and Uffz. Heinrich Fuchsius). It's highly unlikely Hans Henjes was piloting Ju88 711104, but all options should be kept open at this stage.

Your best bet now is to try and discover if there was an aircraft crash in the Teütobürger Wald.
 
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I don't have copies of all the ULTRA from late 1944, but I found a few more mentions of Hans Henjes in II./NJG 4, beginning in October 1944.

Firstly, let me explain what this ULTRA is and its limitations.

In the case of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4, all three Gruppen sent regular reports to Stab/Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 (i.e. the headquarters).

These reports were encrypted using the Enigma machine. Once encrypted, the reports could then be transmitted to the headquarters either over a land line or, when no land line was immediately available, by wireless radio signal in Morse Code. The British could obviously only intercept those communications sent wirelessly. Sometimes, they missed intercepting communications and other times they likely couldn't decrypt the communications (at lot depended on the skill of the person listening in and writing down the intercepted Morse Code).

II./NJG 4 (the unit Hans Henjes was in) regularly communicated with Stab/NJG 4 wirelessly during October and November 1944. Then the intercepted messages mostly disappeared. By early 1945, II./NJG 4 had the least intercepted messages by far out of the three Gruppen of NJG 4 (I., II., and III./NJG 4). This can likely be explained by II./NJG 4 sharing the same airfield (Gütersloh) as Stab/NJG 4. There would be little need to wirelessly transmit reports to a headquarters on the same airfield.

In 1945, the majority of the intercepted communications from II./NJG 4 were the daily strength & serviceability returns, detailing the number of aircraft and aircrew on unit strength, the serviceability of the aircraft, and the reasons individual aircraft were unserviceable. These returns also listed new aircraft taken on strength and aircraft struck off strength. The returns don't name people.

To put all the ULTRA intercepts into perspective - all the NJG 4 War Diaries and practically all the administrative files were destroyed before the end of the war. This means there are very few surviving archival or documentary sources about Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 flying operations. Of the main surviving sources:

1. Namentliche Verlustemeldungen - Personal loss reports sent by NJG 4 to the Luftwaffe High Command. Most of these only cover losses up to early/mid March 1945.

2. Daily aircraft loss returns tabulated by the Luftwaffe High Command Quartermaster General. These reports go up to 1 April 1945, but because of a delay in reporting, the last Nachtjagd losses listed are from 14 March 1945.

3. Flying logbooks and documents kept by aircrew veterans after the war.

4. British ULTRA decrypts. Quite frankly, without the existence of this ULTRA, very little would be known about NJG 4 in the last months of the war. Sadly, as previously mentioned, II./NJG 4 has the least ULTRA coverage in the last several months of the war.


Anyway, here is some more ULTRA:









So, the ULTRA mentions of Hans Henjes I've seen so far, begin on 10 October and end of 6 November 1944. There are a couple of reports post-6 November, but Hans Henjes isn't listed. Then the reports cease by around 10-15 November.
 




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
 

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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.
 
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Y'all have helped to answer so many questions my family has wondered for years. Again, cannot thank everyone enough for being so kind. We are waiting on a few additional records and I am hoping it will shed more light on the details on how he went missing. I know you stated there was no formal mission the night of March 27/28, 1945. So would you say that it's more likely it was like a training flight or relocation flight and something happened, low fuel, mechanical, etc. or is there a chance the Luftwaffe records are incorrect and he was in a crash on a different date? Did pilots always fly in the same exact plane each mission? If so, is there a way to figure out what his tail number was? Are those details available somewhere?

Also, i looked up the airfield Rhein-Main you mentioned. That location would make a lot of sense in the fact that my grandmother lived near Darmstadt, so the Frankfurt airbase seems likely. I am ever so curious as to what he was doing over Teutoburger Forest then. If not a mission, where were they headed?? I guess we may never know…

I do have a question on the dog tags. In the record we received in the right hand corner on the very top it lists
"Major Schnaufer 2.Nachtjagdbomber 4.Staffel" "B60519/3"

Was that his commander? And is the B60519/3 Hans dog tag number or Major Schnaufer's dog tag number? And does that mean he flew under him or why would Major Schnaufer be listed? I have read some about him. Seems like he was a great pilot! And I love that he went on and ran his family wine business after the war.
I'm just trying to figure out what Hans's dog tag number was.

Again, cannot thank everyone enough!
 

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OK, some answers.

I will start with the easy one first.

On the first page of the Karte you posted, "B60519/3" was likely written in when the card was first drawn up. It will be Hans Henjes' service number. The "Major Schnaufer..." part was written in at a later date and has nothing to do with Henjes' service number.

Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer was the commander of NJG 4 at the time Henjes went missing (March 1945). I suspect the entry was added to the Karte in 1946, along with the other entries written on the back of the Karte. It's clear that whoever wrote "2.Nachtjagdbomber 4.Staffel" had absolutely no idea about Luftwaffe unit nomenclature. There is no such thing as "Nachtjagdbomber".

The 1946 entry about Henjes' fate says "27/28"... I don't know if this means Henjes went missing on the night of 27th-28th OR if Henjes went missing on the 27th or the 28th.

Also, notice that the entry reads "27/28.3. (?) 45". This suggests to me that there was uncertainty about what month (let alone the day) Henjes went missing.

The entry added to the back of the card on 15 November 1946 reads, in part: "...seit 27/28.3 (?) 45, vermisst / Teütobürger Wald abgestürzt"...

"...since 27/28 March (?) 1945, missing / crashed in Teutoburg Forest"

This is fairly implicit. If Henjes had taken off never to return, the normal procedure was to list the airfield an aircraft had taken off from as the last place seen. I assume Henjes took off from either Gütersloh or Lippsringe, both of which are close to the Teutoburg Forest. If the date os 27 or 28 March 1945 is correct, then Henjes was making a non-operational flight. There are many reasons why pilots made such flights.

Because the entry is so implicit, I assume there must have been a crash in the Forest. The problem is... have accurate was this 1946 information? Was it from someone's memory or heresy?

There is no way at this point to know what the Werke Nummer (serial number) of Henjes Ju88 was. Crews could fly the same aircraft multiple times, but they also often flew different aircraft as well (no single aircraft could remain serviceable 100% of the time).

You best bet is to source more documentary information (from German Federal Archives), if it exists, about the circumstances that Henjes went missing. Hans would not have been alone in the aircraft, so what happened to the two or three other crew members?

If a general crash location was known at the time, why is Hans still missing? Was the wreckage recovered?

In a perfect world, you will be able to find out the details of the crash and who the other crew members on the aircraft were, leading to contact with surviving relatives and maybe, just maybe, access to a copy of a crew member's Flugbuch (Flying Logbook), detailing their flights with Henjes. I don't want to get your hopes up - doing this was far easier 20-30 years ago, when veterans etc (people with first-hand knowledge) were still alive.

PS - if I was a betting man, I'd wager that a signal was sent by or on behalf of Maj. Schnaufer (as the commander of NJG 4) to the Luftwaffe High Command, detailing the circumstances that Hans Henjes went missing. This is likely the source of the information added to the card in 1946. The good news? If the information was available in 1946, then it survived the war and should be buried somewhere in German Federal Archives (i.e. the records of the Wehrmachtsauskunftstelle für Kriegerverluste und Kriegsgefangene (WASt), known after the war as the Deutsche Dienststelle. All their records are now held by the Bundesarchiv (to the best of my knowledge). See: Übertragung der Aufgaben der Deutschen Dienststelle (WASt) an das Bundesarchiv You should make an enquiry of their records, although a reply may take months.)
 
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We actually received his death declaration this morning via email. However google translate is having a very hard time reading it. Esp the lower left hand corner. Anyone able to read old school German?
 

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Below is my mom's translation of the document on post 31. First of all, she says "Well that handwriting is atrocious! There are words I could not even guess and the name of this guy I thought was Hans, but comparing the letters, the H in Henjes is not the same as the one in his first name. Also the writing is a mixture of the old German and the one we use now. Anyway, I did my best and hope it will help the person looking for the answer."

District Court
Business Number: 87.2. (Roman Letter). 51/46

Legal/Valid
Hannover on 13/9,1946
Name? Helper to Notice-Inspector


Registration
​
In the research procedure for the purpose to find the time of death of the missing Decorator / Oberfeldwebel Guns? [Hans] Henjes, born 7th​ December 1917
in Hannover latest residence in Hannover, the district court in Hannover concluded on 9 May 1946 that the missing Decorator/Oberfeldwebel Guns? [Hans] Henjes, nee Hannover
has been declared dead.

The time of death of Decorator/Oberfeldwebel Guns? [Hans] in Hannover is established as 28 March 1945 @ 24 hour.

The legal costs are the responsibility of the estate.

Hannover, 31/5.1946
District Court Dept.87
Name? District Judge

1) Beschlußzustellerin=
Person who delivers conclusions
a) Antragsstellerin=
Person who files an application
b) Oberstaatsanwalt=
Upper(superior) public prosecutor
c) Standesamt=
Registration Office 1 (Roman number) Berlin
2) Conclusion to Court Board June
Going out until 1.7.46
3) Published in the Nauan? Courier (Collection)
4) Costs
5) ? ?
H.31/5.46 1: 2 x delivery
1 x Fach?
2 single
from 3/6.46 R



Hope this little bit helps in your searches.

PS. I could not get the spacing and tabs to work in my translation so if you have questions about which words correspond to what, let me know and I'll do my best to help.
 


Oh my goodness thank you soo much and thank you to your mother. Bless her for even attempting to read the handwriting. I thought doctors always had the worst handwriting but this definitely rivals it.

Truly appreciate your time & thoughtfulness. Yes, its a big help as we are trying to track down if they ever had a memorial or a honorary headstone for him. And having these details & dates are very helpful.

Please pass on to your mother my gratitude and warmest regards. She has helped with another piece of this 70+ year mystery for my mother and our family.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
 

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