Jagdgeschwader 54
Unit insignia, featuring the "Green Heart" ofThuringia
Active	1939–1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Luftwaffe
Type	Fighter Aircraft
Role	Air superiority
Size	Air Force Wing
Nicknames	Grünherz,Green Hearts
Engagements	Western Front Battle of France Battle of Britain Eastern Front (World War II) German-Soviet air war 22 June 1941 Operation Barbarossa Battle of Kursk
Commanders
Notable commanders	Hannes Trautloft
Aircraft flown
Fighter	Bf 109,Fw 190,Me 262

Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54)Grünherz was aLuftwaffe fighterwing that was founded in late 1936 and operated from 1939, the entire length of theSecond World War. It later existed under the reformed Luftwaffe from 1947 to 1991 as BG54/B54 A B and C. Originally, JG 54 flew most of its missions on theEastern Front where it claimed more than 9,600 aircraft shot down. It was the second-highest scoring wing in the Luftwaffe afterJG 52 (+10,000 victories). Notable pilotaces (Experten) that flew with JG 54 includedWalter Nowotny,Herbert Broennle,Otto Kittel,Hans-Ekkehard Bob,Max-Hellmuth Ostermann,Hugo Broch,Horst Ademeit andHannes Trautloft.

JG 54 participated in theInvasion of Poland in 1939, and theBattle of Britain andinvasion of the Balkans in 1940. The unit was transferred to the Eastern Front in the spring of 1941 in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa. It remained there for the rest of the Second World War. JG 54 first flewBf 109Fs before changing to the more powerfulFw 190.

I./JG 54 was initially formed as I./JG 70 in July 1939. On 15 September 1939, I./JG 70 was redesignated I./JG 54. The initial unit designation for II./JG 54 was I./JG 138. This unit was raised in 1938 after theAnschluss ofAustria and included many Austrian nationals. I./JG 138 became II./JG 54 on 6 April 1940. III./JG 54 was initially raised as I./JG 21 and redesignated III./JG 54 on 15 July 1939, with official records reflecting the change only after a year. Thus, III./JG 54 fought in Poland and France as I./JG 21.

JG 54 took part theinvasion of Poland in September–October 1939. Equipped withBf 109s, their operations consisted of ground attack, air superiority and escortingStukas. JG 54 was transferred back to Germany on 9 October 1939. Before the invasion of France, during a period known asPhoney War, it operated mainly in an air defence role.

Germanyinvaded France on 10 May 1940. The Luftwaffe operated by advancing in front of the German army to destroy French airfields and bomb cities, industrial complexes and transportation hubs. JG 54's role was to escort the bombers (Stukas andHeinkel He 111s mostly) and to conduct fighter sweeps in French airspace in order to maintain air superiority. The unit also operated at Dunkirk against the evacuatingBritish Expeditionary Force. During the period 10 May to 21 June (until the capitulation of France), JG 54 claimed 17 aircraft, according to JG 54 documentation.

Before theBattle of Britain the wing was transferred to the Netherlands. In a British raid on theSoesterberg airfield, III./JG 54 suffered heavy ground crew and equipment losses. While in the Netherlands, the unit claimed another 21 aircraft.

TheBattle of Britain began in late July and early August, with the goal of destroying theRAF, a prerequisite of a land invasion of Britain. The three JG 54 squadrons were transferred to airfields nearCalais. Fighter availability, at the starts of JG 54's Channel Front operations peaked at between 60 and 80 machines.^[1] The first major clash in the Battle came for JG 54 on 5 August 1940, when 1. and 3.Staffeln attacked six Spitfires ofNo. 64 Squadron over theKent coast and shot down two, suffering a Bf 109 damaged.^[2]

Dissatisfied with the fighter arm's performance in the operation, Göring's purge led to a command shakeup in mid-1940. MajorHannes Trautloft was placed in command of JG 54. The Battle of Britain proved costly for both the Luftwaffe and JG 54. The wing lost 43 pilots (40 percent of its strength at the onset of the operations): 18 killed in action and two in accidents, 13 missing in action and 10 made prisoners.^[3]In return, JG 54 claimed 238 enemy aircraft destroyed.After the Luftwaffe's poor performance, the three squadrons were assigned to separate locations in Germany and France.

On 29 March 1941 Stab, II., and III./JG 54 were relocated to theBalkans, for the war againstYugoslavia. With the Balkans campaign over, theGeschwader's tally of air victories had risen to 376. The unit was moved toPomerania to re-equip with the Bf 109F^[4] in preparation forOperation Barbarossa.

JG 54 was assigned toArmy Group North duringOperation Barbarossa, the invasion of Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 as part of the Luftwaffe'sLuftflotte 1. From the first days of the conflict, the unit proved to be one of the most effective units of the entire eastern front. June 30 was one of its most successful days of the entire war: JG 54 claimed no less than 65 kills (mostly bombers without fighters escort) over the town ofDaugavpils.^[5] The "Grünherz" pushed on, still supporting Army Group North, towards theGulf of Finland, fighting throughLithuania,Estonia andLatvia.^[5] JG 54's operations for 1941-43 had a twofold objective: to keep the pressure on theLeningrad sector, and to reduce Soviet pressure on theLake Ilmen area at the German flank. TheGeschwader remained on that part of the Eastern Front for most of its existence. In the period 22 June - 5 December 1941 the unit destroyed 1,078 Soviet aircraft in return for 46 losses in aerial combat and a single fighter on the ground.^[6] Such was the pace and scale of fighting that JG 54 celebrated its 1,000 kill on 1 August 1941, thanks to LieutenantMax-Hellmuth Ostermann.^[7]

JG 54 received its firstFocke-Wulf Fw 190s in February 1943. On the 19th of that month had claimed its 4,000th aerial victory.^[8] On February 23, "Grünherz" obtained another of their greatest victories of the war, claiming 32 kills for no losses, in theLeningrad area.^[9] The following day I and IIIGruppen claimed 43 more. By February 1943, JG 54 had flown 21,453 war sorties.^[8] I.Gruppe took part in theBattle of Kursk in July–August 1943.Feldwebel Helmut Missner was credited with JG 54's 5,000th aerial victory on 17 July.^[10] But IGruppe lost not less than treKommandeuren in succession between 6 July and 4 August.^[11] Moreover, still in July, Trautloft had left JG 54, when GeneralAdolf Galland asked him to join his staff (he ended the war with 57 victories and theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross). After his departure, JG 54 continued operating in the area of Army Group North, and their victory tally rose continuously. The 7,000th JG 54 claim was made on 23 March 1944, with the 8,000 mark passed on 15 August.

I., II. and IV./ JG 54 ended the war fighting around the Baltic region, supporting the troops ofArmy Group North throughLatvia andEstonia, and into theCourland Pocket. JG 54 could never hope to regain air superiority against the mounting number of Russian aircraft. The Russians never defeated Army Group North, which held out until the last day of the war, surrendering 210,000 Germans to the Soviets in Courland.

All remaining serviceable Fw 190's of JG 54 were ordered to fly toFlensburg on the German-Danish border. 90 personnel from JG 54 were able to flee to the west by air. The German Navy evacuated as many as possible of the remaining ground personnel by ship.

In February 1943 III./JG 54 was transferred back to the west for operations against theRAF andUSAAF. At first they operated as a stand-alone Bf 109GGruppe, but later were attached toJG 26. Intensive training in the more rigorous techniques of fighting on the Western Front were only partly successful, and OberstJosef Priller,Geschwaderkommodore of JG 26 and charged with III. Gruppe's training, refused to declare the gruppe operational. III Gruppe transferred to North Germany as a result, supportingJagdgeschwader 1.

During the autumn of 1944, III./JG 54 was the first Luftwaffe unit to be supplied with the newFw 190 D-9 "Dora". The D-9s were used in base defence missions for the Me 262 jets ofKommando Nowotny, and later over North-West Europe. 68 operational aircraft were available early in December, but due to heavy losses, the gruppe was disbanded soon after. PilotsRobert Weiß, theGruppenkommandeur, and 12 other pilots were killed by RAF fighters on 29 December 1944 alone.

At the end of 1944ZG 76 was disbanded and its pilots formed the nucleus of a new III./JG 54. Operating fromBerlin, the unit's Fw 190s saw intensive action against Soviet ground targets such as road and rail supply columns, flak positions, armour and the bridges across the River Oder. A few weeks before the war ended, the depleted III./JG 54 was disbanded, being absorbed into JG 26.

Although Luftwaffe documentation were destroyed at the end of the war surviving records indicate JG 54 lost 491 pilots killed in action and 242 pilots missing. A further 322 pilots were wounded in action. The ground personnel lost 570 killed.^[12] Total losses in aircraft were approximately 1,071 Bf 109 and 746 Fw 190.

• MajorMartin Mettig, 1 February 1940 – 24 August 1940^[13]
• OberstHannes Trautloft, 25 August 1940 – 6 July 1943^[13]
• MajorHubertus von Bonin, 6 July 1943 – 15 December 43^[13]
• OberstleutnantAnton Mader, 28 January 1944 – 30 September 1944^[13]
• OberstDietrich Hrabak, 1 October 1944 – 8 May 1945^[13]

• Major Hans-Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel, 15 September 1939 – 27 December 1939^[13]
• HauptmannHubertus von Bonin, 28 December 1939 – 1 July 1941^[13]
• HauptmannErich von Selle, 2 July 1941 – 20 December 1941^[13]
• HauptmannFranz Eckerle, 20 December 1941 – 14 February 1942^[13]
• HauptmannHans Philipp, 17 February 1942 – 1 April 1943^[13]
• MajorReinhard Seiler, 15 April 1943 – 6 July 1943^[13]
• MajorGerhard Homuth, 1 August 1943 – 3 August 1943^[13]
• Oberleutnant Hans Götz (acting), 3 August 1943 – 4 August 1943^[13]
• HauptmannWalter Nowotny, 21 August 1943 – 4 February 1944^[13]
• HauptmannHorst Ademeit, 4 February 1944 – 8 August 1944^[13]
• Hauptmann Franz Eisenach, 9 August 1944 – 8 May 1945^[13]

• Hauptmann Wilfried Müller-Rienzburg, 1 April 1938 – 9 January 1940^[13]
• Major Albert Blumensaat, 10 January 1940 – 5 February 1940^[13]
• Major Richard Kraut, 5 February 1940 – 10 July 1940^[13]
• Hauptmann Otto Hans Winterer, 11 July 1940 – 14 August 1940^[13]
• HauptmannDietrich Hrabak, 26 August 1940 – 27 October 1942^[13]
• MajorHans "Assi" Hahn, 19 November 1942 – 21 February 1943^[13]
• Hauptmann Heinrich Jung, 21 February 1943 – 30 July 1943^[13]
• HauptmannErich Rudorffer, 1 August 1943 – February 1945^[13]
• HauptmannHerbert Findeisen, February 1945 – 8 May 1945^[13]

• Major Martin Mettig, 15 July 1939 – 2 February 1940^[13]
• Hauptmann Fritz Ultsch, 3 February 1940 – 5 September 1940^[13]
• OberleutnantGünther Scholz (acting), 6 September 1940 – 4 November 1940^[13]
• HauptmannArnold Lignitz, 4 November 1940 – 30 September 1941^[13]
• HauptmannReinhard Seiler, 1 October 1941 – 15 April 1943^[13]
• HauptmannSiegfried Schnell, May 1943 – 11 February 1944^[13]
• Oberleutnant Rudolf Patzak (acting), February 1944 – 21 February 1944^[13]
• HauptmannRudolf Klemm (acting), February 1944 – March 1944^[13]
• HauptmannRudolf Sinner, March 1944 – 10 March 1944^[13]
• Major Reinhard Schroer, 14 March 1944 – 20 July 1944^[13]
• HauptmannRobert Weiß, 21 July 1944 – 29 December 1944^[13]
• OberleutnantHans Dortenmann (acting), January 1945^[13]
• Oberleutnant Wilhelm Heilmann (acting), January 1945 – 14 February 1945^[13]
• Major Rudolf Klemm, 14 February 1945 – 25 February 1945^[13]

• HauptmannErich Rudorffer, July 1943 – 30 July 1943^[13]
• HauptmannRudolf Sinner, August 1943 – 11 February 1944^[13]
• HauptmannSiegfried Schnell, 11 February 1944 – 25 February 1944 †^[13]
• HauptmannGerhard Koall (acting), February 1944 – 26 May 1944^[14]
• MajorWolfgang Späte, May 1944 – 30 September 1944^[13]
• Hauptmann Rudolf Klemm, 1 October 1944 – 12 February 1945^[13]

• Organization of the Luftwaffe during World War II

• Fighter wings of the Luftwaffe 1933-1945
• Military units and formations established in 1939
• Military units and formations disestablished in 1945

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• Short description matches Wikidata
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