Franz Barten

Franz Barten (26 January 1912 – 4 August 1944) was a World War II fighter ace from Germany. He was born on 26 January 1912 at Saarbrücken. Barten was credited with having shot down a total of 52 Allied aircraft.

On 4 August 1944, Barten was shot down in a Messerschmitt Bf 109 in aerial combat with P-47 Thunderbolt belonging to the United States Army Air Forces near Reinsehlen. He bailed out of his aircraft, but was shot while hanging in his parachute.

Career

Barten was born on 26 January 1912 in Saarbrücken in the Rhine Province within the German Empire. Following flight training, he was transferred to the 2. '' Staffel'' (2nd squadron) of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing) on 1 July 1939. At the time, the ''Staffel'' was commanded by ''Oberleutnant'' Hannes Trautloft and subordinated to I. '' Gruppe'' (1st group) of JG 77 which was based at Breslau-Schöngarten.

World War II

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. In preparation for the invasion in end-August 1939, I. ''Gruppe'' of JG 77, to which the 2. ''Staffel'' was subordinated, had been moved from Breslau-Schöngarten to an airfield at Juliusburg, present-day Dobroszyce. The ''Gruppe'' operated over the left flank of Army Group South, supporting the 8th Army advance into Poland. Its main task was flying combat air patrols but had relatively little enemy contact.

On 25 August 1940, I. ''Gruppe'' of JG 77 relocated from Wyk auf Föhr to Marquise located near the English Channel to fight in the Battle of Britain. Barten claimed his first aerial victory on 14 September. That day, I. ''Gruppe'' flew a combat air patrol in the area of Tonbridge. On this mission, the ''Gruppe'' claimed five aerial victories, including a Hawker Hurricane by Barten, for the loss of two of their own. On 17 October, I. ''Gruppe'' flew a mission over southeastern England and to London. That day, Barten claimed two Hurricanes shot down. On 21 November, I. ''Gruppe'' of JG 77 was redesignated and became the IV. ''Gruppe'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing). Consequently, Barten became a member of 11. ''Staffel'' of JG 51. On 7 December, the ''Gruppe'' was withdrawn from the English Channel, relocating to Mannheim-Sandhofen Airfield for a period of rest and replenishment. On 9 February 1941, IV. ''Gruppe'' returned to France, then based at an airfield near Le Touquet. There, Barten claimed a Spitfire fighter shot down on 15 April southeast of Boulogne.

Operation Barbarossa

On 15 June, IV. ''Gruppe'' of JG 51 began transferring east and was located at an airfield named Krzewicze, located approximately west of Brest-Litovsk. On 22 June, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. JG 51 was subordinated to II. ''Fliegerkorps'' (2nd Air Corps), which as part of ''Luftflotte'' 2 (Air Fleet 2). JG 51 area of operation during Operation Barbarossa was over the right flank of Army Group Center in the combat area of the 2nd Panzer Group as well as the 4th Army.

On 10 November 1942, Barten was injured when his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2 (''Werknummer'' 12878—factory number) aircraft suffered engine failure, forcing him to bail out near Surazh.

On 13 July 1943, Barten was transferred and appointed ''Staffelkapitän'' (squadron leader) of the 9. ''Staffel'' of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 53 (JG 53—53rd Fighter Wing). He succeeded ''Oberleutnant'' Hans Röhrig who was killed in action that day.

Defense of the Reich and death

On 28 June 1944, III. ''Gruppe'' arrived by train in Bad Lippspringe and initially subordinated to the 3. ''Jagd-Division'' (3rd Fighter Division) where they would be based for flying missions in Defense of the Reich. There, the ''Gruppe'' was assigned a number of inexperienced pilots directly coming from the ''Ergänungsgruppe'', the supplementary training unit of JG 53. Over the next weeks, Barten and other experienced pilots further trained and prepared these pilots for their first combat missions. The ''Gruppe'' received a full complement of Bf 109 G-6 aircraft, most of them equipped with the 20 mm MG 151/20 underwing gun pod. The ''Gruppenkommandeur'' Franz Götz ordered these gun pods removed as the additional weight had an adverse effect on the handling qualities, reducing the Bf 109s performance in fighter-versus-fighter combat. The ''Gruppe'' flew its first operational mission on 28 July. That day, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force targeted German fuel production in central Germany.

On 4 August 1944, Barten was shot down in aerial combat with USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters near the Luftwaffe airfield at Reinsehlen. He bailed out of his Bf 109 G-6 (''Werknummer'' 441575) but was then killed. According to records of the ''Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)'', a German government agency which maintained records of who were killed in action, Barten fell to his death because his parachute failed to fully deploy after a low altitude bail-out. According to Weal, he was shot in his parachute by P-47 fighters. Posthumously, Barten was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross () on 24 October 1944 and also promoted to ''Hauptmann'' (captain). He was succeeded by ''Oberleutnant'' Martin von Vacano as commander of 9. ''Staffel''.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Obermaier, Barten was credited with 52 aerial victories, 39 of which on the Eastern Front, achieved in 895 combat missions. Mathews and Foreman, authors of ''Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims'', researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 52 aerial victory claims. This number includes four claims during the Battle of Britain, 39 on the Eastern Front, and nine in the Mediterranean Theater including three heavy bombers.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = ''Planquadrat''), for example "PQ 47612". The Luftwaffe grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area in size.

Awards

* Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
* Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 20 October 1941 as ''Oberfeldwebel'' in a ''Jagdgeschwader''
*German Cross in Gold on 22 May 1942 as ''Oberfeldwebel'' in the 11./''Jagdgeschwader'' 51
*Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 24 October 1944 as ''Oberleutnant'' and ''Staffelkapitän of the 9./''Jagdgeschwader'' 53

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barten, Franz
1912 births
1944 deaths
Luftwaffe pilots
German World War II flying aces
Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II
Recipients of the Gold German Cross
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Aviators killed by being shot down
People from Saarbrücken
Military personnel from Saarland