When did Erich Hartmann lose his only wingman Günther Capito?

[CHen10]

Erich Hartmann only lost one wingman in his career, this being Günther Capito. Unfortunately, Hartmann never stated exactly when this happened just that it was in 1945, and all that we know is that he was credited with shooting down the P-39 that shot down Capito. I've seen some sources say it was in March 1945 but Hartmann wasn't credited with a P-39 in March 1945?

This is Hartmann's quote:

I called to him to turn hard opposite, so I could sandwich the Red fighters, but in his standard-rate bomber turn he got hit. I saw the whole thing and ordered him to dive and bail out immediately. To my intense relief I saw him leave the aircraft and his parachute blossom. I was happy to get this Airacobra, but I was mad at myself for not harkening to my intuition not to fly with Günther Capito.

 

[GregP]

Interesting. I have read that all his wingmen survived combat with him.

So, I assume you mean above his wingman was shot down, but survived? Or do you say he was shot down and died? Not arguing, just curious and trying to clarify.

I was at a talk in the 1980s when he said he had never lost a wingman ... but that might have meant one never died. That does not preclude being shot down.

 

[fubar57]

He survived the war

 

[Luft.4]

Verified Victories, p.130 in a good chunky paragraph. The date was 7 March 1945. The story and aircraft details are also in the book, 5 footnotes. This section of his chapter deals with some misconceptions about Erich Hartmann. Hartmann is quoted twice in this paragraph, once he states he never lost a wingman and another time he says he only lost 1 wingman so there is a bit of back-and-forth.
Major Capito was shot down but not killed. According to his PERS-1 file, he also served with NJG 3 and JG 101 beforehand transitioning to JG 52 in February 1945.
Dan.

 

[CHen10]

Interesting. I have read that all his wingmen survived combat with him.

So, I assume you mean above his wingman was shot down, but survived? Or do you say he was shot down and died? Not arguing, just curious and trying to clarify.

I was at a talk in the 1980s when he said he had never lost a wingman ... but that might have meant one never died. That does not preclude being shot down.

Capito survived and also survived the war. Hartmann meant that he never had a wingman die. There was probably some translation issue and people thought he meant that no wingman was shot down.

Of course, never having a wingman die is a great accomplishment, and the only reason Capito was shot down was because of his inexperience with flying fighter aircraft.

 

[CHen10]

Verified Victories, p.130 in a good chunky paragraph. The date was 7 March 1945. The story and aircraft details are also in the book, 5 footnotes. This section of this chapters deals with some misconceptions about Erich Hartmann. Hartmann is quoted twice in this paragraph, once he states he never lost a wingman and another time he says he only lost 1 wingman so there is a bit of back-and-forth.
Major Capito was shot down but not killed. Acording to his PERS-1 file, he also served with NJG 3 and JG 101 beforehand transitioning to JG 52 in February 1945.
Dan.

I've read that section on page 130, but I don't understand how it's 7 March 1945 because Hartmann was credited with a Yak-9 that day, but in his quote he says it was a P-39.

 

[Snautzer01]

I've read that section on page 130, but I don't understand how it's 7 March 1945 because Hartmann was credited with a Yak-9 that day, but in his quote he says it was a P-39.

I think you need to read the book better..
Not all that was claimed was what thought it was.

 

[CHen10]

I think you need to read the book better..
Not all that was claimed was what thought it was.

But if Hartmann said he shot down a Yak-9, why would he later say it was a P-39? Hartmann never got to see the Soviet records to see if he did misidentification.

It probably was 7 March, but this contradiction made me question that. Maybe there's a reason why he said Yak-9 and then changed it to P-39?

I have read the whole of Verified Victories and it's one of my favourite books.

 

[Luft.4]

The date is known because it is the date of the German loss.
This did not take place over Hungary so we did not examine it, however one must keep in mind that you need to be very particular about where you source your claims. Ex. BNoG is a very poor source after claims ~150. Bernd Barbas has a better list of claims for Hartmann's service with I./JG 52. P-39s were from the recollection as found in the latter publication, note not from Hartmann, but someone from his unit.

 

[CHen10]

The date is known because it is the date of the German loss.
This did not take place over Hungary so we did not examine it, however one must keep in mind that you need to be very particular about where you source your claims. Ex. BNoG is a very poor source after claims ~150. Bernd Barbas has a better list of claims for Hartmann's service with I./JG 52. P-39s were from the recollection as found in the latter publication, note not from Hartmann, but someone from his unit.

That makes sense as I never knew it was someone else from his unit that said it was a P-39. So it was on 7 March.