Wolf-Udo Ettel
Ettel as aLeutnant
Born	(1921-02-26)26 February 1921 Free City of Hamburg,German Empire
Died	17 July 1943(1943-07-17) (aged 22) nearLentini,Sicily,Fascist Italy
Cause of death	Killed in action
Buried	war cemetery atMotta Sant'Anastasia
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/ branch	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1939–1943
Rank	Oberleutnant (first lientenant)
Unit	JG 3,JG 27
Commands	8./JG 27
Battles / wars	See battles World War II Air campaigns: European air campaign Land campaigns: Mediterranean theatre  † Siege of Malta Eastern Front Battle of Stalingrad Kuban bridgehead
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (posthumous)

Wolf-Udo Ettel (26 February 1921 – 17 July 1943) was a GermanWorld War IILuftwaffeflying ace and a posthumous recipient of theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Ettel is listed with 124 aerial victories—that is, 124 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—claimed in over 250 missions.^[1] He waskilled in action byanti-aircraft artillery on 17 July 1943 overFascist Italy.

Ettel was born on 26 February 1921 inHamburg in theWeimar Republic. He was the son of a representative of theJunkers aircraft manufacture. Due to his father's work, the family lived in Teheran and in Colombia where he attended the German school. Following his parents' divorce and return to Germany in 1934, he and his two younger brothers attended thePotsdamNational Political Institutes of Education (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt—Napola) which was asecondaryboarding school founded under the recently establishedNazi state. The goal of the Napola schools was to raise a new generation for the political, military and administrative leadership of Nazi Germany.^[2]

World War II in Europe began on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forcesinvaded Poland. On 15 November 1939, Ettel volunteered for military service in theLuftwaffe. Following various training courses, he attended blind flying school in January 1941 and passed his A/B pilot license atPrenzlau.^{[Note 1]} He then attended aJagdfliegerschule (fighter pilot training school) based inParis, France. In September 1941, he was posted to aErgänzungs-Jagdgruppe (supplementary fighter group), a fighter pilot training unit based in Denmark.^[2]

On 10 April 1942,Leutnant Ettel was posted to 4.Staffel (squadron) ofJagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing),^{[Note 2]} a II.Gruppe (2nd group) squadron.^[2] At the time, II.Gruppe had been placed under the overall command ofJagdgeschwader 53 (JG 53—53rd Fighter Wing) and was based atSan Pietro Clarenza, Sicily, flying combat missions during theSiege of Malta.^[5]

On 5 May 1942,Adolf Hitler issued hisdirective No. 41 which summarized his orders for the summer campaign in the Soviet Union and resulted inCase Blue, the Wehrmacht plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia. In preparation for this campaign, II.Gruppe was moved to theEastern Front, arriving inPilsen from Sicily on 27 April. TheGruppe was then placed under the command ofHauptmannKurt Brändle and refit for the summer campaign.^[6] After three weeks of rest, II.Gruppe, as part of theVIII.Fliegerkorps, was placed on the left wing ofArmy Group South and ordered to relocate to an airfield atChuguyev, first elements arriving on 19 May. On 24 June, II.Gruppe moved to Shchigry, a forward airfield approximated 50 kilometers (31 miles) east ofKursk close to the front lines.^[7] That day, Ettel claimed his first two victories when he shot down twoIlyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik" ground-attack aircraft.^[8]

He, himself, was shot down approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) northVoronezh on 10 July while destroying a Soviet-flownDouglas Boston bomber, his seventh claim in total. He bailed out of his damagedMesserschmitt Bf 109 F-4 "White 1" (Werknummer 8383—factory number) behind Soviet lines, swam across theDon River and returned to his unit four days later.^[9] On 24 July 1942, he received theIron Cross 2nd Class (Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse) and the Iron Cross 1st Class (Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse) on 2 August. Ettel claimed his 20 aerial victory on 9 August, his 30th on 7 October, and was awarded theFront Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe for Fighter Pilots (Frontflugspange für Jagdflieger) on 23 October. Three further claims were filed on 31 October, his last victories in 1942, leading to the presentation of theGerman Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) in December 1942.^[10]

Following the German loss in theBattle of Stalingrad, 4.Staffel was relocated to theKuban bridgehead, and during the months of intensive operations, Ettel claimed 28 Soviet aircraft shot down in March and 36 more in April, including five shot down on 11 April, an "ace-in-a-day" achievement. On 28 April 1943, Ettel claimed his 100th aerial victory. He was the 38th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.^[11] In early May, II.Gruppe was moved toKharkiv, from where they operated over the combat area east ofBelgorod, operating in this area from 2 to 6 May. On 6 May, theGruppe claimed twelve aerial victories, including four by Ettel, taking his total to 104.^[12]

On 11 May, Ettel claimed his 120th victory, his last on the Eastern Front, but was shot down byanti-aircraft fire, resulting in a forced landing of his Bf 109 G-4 (Werknummer 19 453) between the front lines, west of Anastassiewskaja. During his return to German held territory, Ettel came under heavy rifle fire from Soviet infantry but escaped unharmed.^[13] That same night Ettel led a Wehrmacht patrol to his damaged aircraft to salvage important equipment. Ettel was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 1 June.^[14] The presentation was made byGeneral der JagdfliegerAdolf Galland while Ettel was on vacation in Berlin.^[15]

Promoted toOberleutnant (first lieutenant), Ettel was appointedStaffelkapitän (squadron leader) of the newly created 8.Staffel ofJagdgeschwader 27 (JG 27—27th Fighter Wing), a squadron of III.Gruppe JG 27, at the time based inTanagra, Greece.^{[Note 3]} While based at Tanagra, III.Gruppe was reequipped with a full contingent of the Bf 109 G-4 and G-6 series. In June, theGruppe familiarized themselves with the new aircraft, flying training missions. At the end of June, III.Gruppe was moved to an airfield atArgos inPeloponnese. There, the unit was tasked with flyingcombat air patrol mission over theAegean Sea.^[16] TheAllied invasion of Sicily resulted in the relocation of III.Gruppe toBrindisi in southern Italy on 14 July 1943.^[17]

III.Gruppe flew its first missions in support of the German ground forces southeast ofCatania, Sicily on 15 July. Because of the distance to the target area, the Bf 109s had to be equipped withdrop tanks. The flight engaged in aerial combat north ofMount Etna where Ettel claimed his first aerial victory in theMediterranean Theatre over aRoyal Air Force (RAF)Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft.^[17] The next day, he claimed another Spitfire shot down. At around noon that day, he claimed twoUnited States Army Air Forces (USAAF)B-24 Liberator bombers shot down.^[18]

On 17 July 1943, III.Gruppe was again tasked with flyingground support missions against British forces in the vicinity of Catania. In the vicinity ofLentini, theGruppe lost five of ten dispatched fighters to anti-aircraft fire, among them Ettel who was shot down andkilled in action.^[17][19] His Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 18 402) crashed northeast ofLago di Lentini.^[20] Ettel was posthumously awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) on 31 August 1943, the 289th officer or soldier of the Wehrmacht so honored.^[21] He was buried at the German cemetery atMotta Sant'Anastasia in an unmarked grave.^[18]

According to US historianDavid T. Zabecki, Ettel was credited with 124 aerial victories.^[22] Obermaier also lists Ettel with 124 victories claimed in over 250 missions. Of his 120 claims on the Eastern Front, 21 were Il-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft. He claimed four victories over Sicily, which included two USAAF four-engine bombers.^[23]

Mathews and Foreman, authors ofLuftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched theGerman Federal Archives and found records for 121 aerial victory claims, plus three further unconfirmed claims. This figure of confirmed claims includes 118 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and three on the Western Front, including two four-engined bomber.^[24]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ =Planquadrat), for example "PQ 29323". The Luftwaffe grid map (Jägermeldenetz) covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15minutes oflatitude by 30 minutes oflongitude, an area of about 360 square miles (930 km²). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.^[25]

• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (24 July 1942)^[10]
  • 1st Class (2 August 1942)^[10]
• Front Flying Clasp of theLuftwaffe in Gold (23 October 1942)^[10]
• Honour Goblet of theLuftwaffe on 25 June 1943 asLeutnant and pilot^[49]
• German Cross in Gold on 23 December 1942 asLeutnant in the 4./Jagdgeschwader 3^[50]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 1 June 1943 asLeutnant andStaffelführer of the 4./Jagdgeschwader 3 "Udet"^{[51][Note 8]}
  • 289th Oak Leaves on 31 August 1943 (posthumously) asOberleutnant andStaffelkapitän of the 8./Jagdgeschwader 27^[52][53]

• 1921 births
• 1943 deaths
• Military personnel from Hamburg
• 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 with Oak Leaves
• Aviators killed by being shot down

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