Ludwig Meister

Ludwig Meister (14 December 1919 – 26 November 2011) was a Luftwaffe night fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. During his career he claimed 39 aerial victories, 38 of them at night.

Career Meister was born on 14 December 1919 in Rohrmühle, present-day part of Erbendorf, at the time in the Free State of Bavaria within the Weimar Republic. In October 1939, Meister joined the Luftwaffe and served his basic military training with 4. Kompanie (4th company) of Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment 51 (51st Flight Training Regiment) at Weimar before he was transferred to the Air War School Klotzsche in Dresden in November. On 30 June 1940, Meister then attended the advanced Flugzeugführerschule C 9 (FFS C 9—advanced flight school) at Altenburg. He the attended the blind flying school Blindflugschule 1 (BFS 1—1st blind flying school) at Brandis, Germany from 21 February 1941. He was then posted to the Zerstörerschule (destroyer school) at Neubiberg where he received operational training on the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter. In mid-June 1941, Meister was posted to Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (NJG 1—Night Fighter Wing 1).

Night fighter career A map of part of the Kammhuber Line. The 'belt' and night fighter 'boxes' are shown. Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, Royal Air Force (RAF) attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defense of the Reich campaign. By mid-1940, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Josef Kammhuber had established a night air defense system dubbed the Kammhuber Line. It consisted of a series of control sectors equipped with radars and searchlights and an associated night fighter. Each sector named a Himmelbett (canopy bed) would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers. In 1941, the Luftwaffe started equipping night fighters with airborne radar such as the Lichtenstein radar. This airborne radar did not come into general use until early 1942.

The effectiveness of RAF Bomber Command to accurately hit German targets had been questioned by the War Cabinet Secretary David Bensusan-Butt who published the Butt Report in August 1941. The report in parts concluded that the British crews failed to navigate to, identify, and bomb their targets. Although the report was not widely accepted by senior RAF commanders, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, instructed Commander-in-Chief Richard Peirse that during the winter months only limited operations were to be conducted. Flight operations were also hindered by bad weather in the first months of 1942, so II. Gruppe only saw very limited action and Meister was the only pilot of II. Gruppe to claim an aerial victory during that period.

On 8 February 1942, Meister along with other pilots of II. Gruppe was transferred to Koksijde Air Base. The objective of this assignment was to give the German battleships and and the heavy cruiser fighter protection in the breakout from Brest to Germany. The Channel Dash operation (11–13 February 1942) by the Kriegsmarine (Navy) was codenamed Operation Cerberus by the Germans. In support of this, the Luftwaffe under the leadership of General der Jagdflieger (General of the Fighter Force) Adolf Galland, formulated an air superiority plan dubbed Operation Donnerkeil for the protection of the three German capital ships. II./NJG 1 was briefed of these plans in the early morning hours on 12 February. The plan called for protection of the German ships at all costs. The crews were told that if they ran out of ammunition they must ram the enemy aircraft. To the relief of the night fighters they were assigned to the first-line reserves. The operation, which took the British by surprise, was successful and the night fighters were kept in their reserve role. On the evening of 12 February, II. Gruppe was relocated to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. They then relocated again to Aalborg-West in Denmark from where they made a low-level flight in close formation over the Skaggerak, landing at Stavanger-Sola. Over the following days they operated from the airfield at Forus, making a short-term landing at Bergen-Herdla. In total, Schnaufer made two operational flights without contact with the enemy. Following this assignment they relocated to 5. Staffels new base in Germany at Bonn-Hangelar via Oslo-Gardermoen, Aalborg, and Lüneburg.

On the morning of 23 March 1943, while returning from Hildesheim, Meister's aircraft was shot down by a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt near Namur, Belgium, crashing in flames at Naninne. The three crewmembers were wounded but ultimately survived .

On 11 August 1943, Meister was appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 1. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 (NJG 4—Night Fighter Wing 4). On 6 December 1944, Meister was appointed Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of III. Gruppe of NJG 4, succeeding Hauptmann Hans-Karl Kamp in this capacity.

Summary of career Aerial victory claims According to Obermaier, Meister was credited with 39 aerial victories, 38 of which at night and over a four-engined bomber by day, claimed in 125 combat missions. Boiten lists him with 29 confirmed plus four further unconfirmed aerial victories. Foreman, Parry and Mathews, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 39 nocturnal victory claims. Mathews and Foreman also published Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, listing Meister with 32 claims plus four further unconfirmed claims.

Chronicle of aerial victories Claim Date Time Type Location Serial No./Squadron No. – 5. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 – 1 30 November 1941 22:21 Halifax south of Bramstedt 2 30 November 1941 22:25 Whitley northwest of Stade 3? 30 November 1941 23:25 Wellington Hamburg – 8. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 – 4 29 August 1942 00:12 Wellington north-northeast of Worms 5? 29 August 1942 00:15 Wellington Bad Kreuznach 6 29 August 1942 00:43 Stirling Allenbach – 1. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 – 7 25 October 1942 02:54 Wellington southeast of Valenciennes 8 22 November 1942 23:48 Lancaster Le Tilleul-Lambert 9? 21 December 1942 23:00 Stirling 10 9 March 1943 00:30 Halifax east of Le Cateau Halifax W7851/No. XXXV (Madras Presidency) Squadron 11 17 April 1943 04:08 Halifax northwest of Saint-Hubert 12 30 May 1943 02:07 Stirling southwest of Cambrai Stirling EF349/No. 90 Squadron RAF 13 26 June 1943 01:23 Stirling southwest of Aalter 14 4 July 1943 02:40 Halifax vicinity of Rance Halifax JD262/No. 51 Squadron RAF 15? 14 July 1943 02:30 Halifax Vossigny-la-Victoire 16 28 August 1943 01:35 Lancaster Wolpertshausen 17 28 August 1943 01:57 four-engined bomber vicinity of Nuremberg 18 4 October 1943 21:02 Halifax Neuerburg 19? 4 October 1943 21:03 Halifax Trier 20 3 November 1943 19:57 Halifax west-northwest of Cologne 21 23 November 1943 20:16 Halifax central BerlinGrebs 22 20 December 1943 19:12 Halifax south of Euskirchen 23 2 January 1944 05:00 Lancaster northwest of Saint-Pol 24 2 January 1944 05:15 Lancaster southeast of Mons 25 2 January 1944 05:51 Lancaster west of Saint-Pol 26 2 January 1944 06:00 Halifax west of Saint-Pol 27? 7 January 1944 13:00 B-17 Cambrai 28 20 January 1944 19:20 Halifax southwest of Liebenwalde 29 20 January 1944 19:37 Halifax northeast of Neuruppin 30 20 February 1944 02:48 Lancaster northeast of Celle 31 20 February 1944 03:19 Lancaster Wesendorf 32 21 February 1944 03:17 Lancaster vicinity of Rastatt 33 25 February 1944 20:55 Lancaster west of Rethel 34 25 February 1944 20:59 Lancaster southeast of Rethel 35 25 February 1944 21:14 Lancaster south of Vouziers 36 16 March 1944 01:18 Halifax south of Aachen 37 16 March 1944 01:30 Lancaster south of Berine 38 22 March 1944 21:51 four-engined bomber Gütersloh – III. Gruppe of Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 – 39 7 March 1945 20:30 Lancaster north of Kassel

Awards Flugzeugführerabzeichen Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe in Gold Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe) on 23 August 1943 as Oberleutnant and pilot German Cross in Gold on 28 January 1944 as Oberleutnant in the 1./Nachtjagdgeschwader 4 Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 June 1944 as Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän of the 1./Nachtjagdgeschwader 4