Jorg Czypionka

Luftwaffe Pilot Trainer

Bf-109G-10 and Me-262A Night Fighter Pilot

By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

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I am painting one of the many Bf-109's that Jorg flew. I think everyone will like it.

I will also have a print available of both the Bf-109G-10 and the Me-262A Jorg flew in combat and shot down British Mosquito's in.

This is my painting of the Bf-109 painted in RLM 76 night fighting experimental camouflage.

Jorg flew this 109 on several mission. He clearly remembered the light blue color.

This painting is for sale. I will use the monies from the sale to publish the print.

Painting size is 2 feet by four feet.

Night-Fighter Pilot, Bf-109G-10

With the war in Europe entering its second year Germany was aggressively enlarging its military services. Jorg Czypionka was compelled as many other young men his age world wide who enlisted in the air force his country offered to became a fighter pilot. Jorg enlisted in the Luftwaffe in 1940. His flight training was in southern Austria . After the completion of his advanced training Jorg was made an instructor of both primary and basic flight instructing. He was not even sent to an operational unit before his talents were recognized as an operational training instructor.

"I have to say I loved that job," Jorg recounts. "We flew the Fw-44, the He-72 and the (Bu-131) Jungmann, as well as high performance fighters. I had a lot of time in the (Bu-133) Jungmeister.  Those were wonderful, maneuverable airplanes, so much fun to fly. We were far from the war and able to build our flying skills. I know for a fact that it was my better flying skills that are why I can tell you this story.”

Jorg spent almost the entire war as a trainer however by mid 1944 his skills were needed as a fighter pilot. His first squadron fighter was the Messerschmitt Bf-109. Jorg said the following in a previous interview; "I really liked that airplane," Jorg said fondly.  "It was tricky, but wonderfully capable; when you're young, that's part of the challenge."

With the rank of Leutnant, Jorg was assigned to NachtJagdgruppe JG 300. The group was a "Wilde Sau" unit. The primary fighter of this unit was the Bf-109. Jorg officially entered operational combat in September 1944. The airfield was the Luftwaffe base at Juterborg, located southwest of Berlin .

The most challenging target for the JG300 pilots was intercepting the pesky British Mosquito. They were light weight and fast that had developed the nick-name "The Berlin Express." "We flew special 109G-6s and G-10s, with a three-stage blower. The British would send sixty Mosquito’s over at a time, targeted almost always on Berlin ."

Jorg commented on the Mosquito; "That airplane, it was so beautiful; it flew so well, I almost hated to have to try and shoot at it."

The Mosquito’s were illusive and difficult to track by the Luftwaffe pilots. "They would send us off just before the British were to arrive. Our only hope was to get up to ten or eleven thousand meters and dive on them to catch them.  If they were flying higher than eight or nine thousand meters, we had little chance, they were so fast."

In October 1944, Jorg recalls an encounter in attempting to intercept a Mosquito. "The controller put me right up in front of a group of them, and I had the altitude to dive on them. One was caught by the searchlights, and I went after him. I was diving on him and he was still almost as fast as I was - it was such a beautiful plane! - So I pushed the throttle into over-boost, into takeoff power. I knew the engine wasn't going to like it, but I wanted to get him."

Jorg started his dive at eleven thousand and leveled off at seven thousand meters. The search lights had kept the Mosquito illuminated all the while. Just as Jorg was entering range he sighted the Mosquito in his gun sights when the Mosquito vanished, slipping out of the search lights. Frustrated, Jorg was about to reduce his speed, shutting back on the booster when his engine exploded.

"The searchlights lost him and there I was in the darkness. And then, before I could throttle back, the engine exploded!" Oil burst from the engine all over the windscreen, and the engine compartment caught fire. "I was going to bail right out," he recalls, "and I got rid of the hood, but then the wind blew out the fire in the engine. It was definitely dead, but I stuck with it a little longer. I got all my gear and disconnected everything. I was really calm, much more so than I would have expected. I could see the altimeter read almost five thousand meters when I got up on the back of the canopy, just like they instructed us, and pushed myself up so I would miss the rudder. There I was, falling up into space, and it was so beautiful in the night."

Jorg counted out a few seconds before his pulled his rip-cord. "There I was, back to reality.  I was over a district with a lot of small lakes, and I could see the moonlight and stars reflected on them." Jorg did not want to land in a lake where he could accidentally get tangled in his chute and drown so he tried to maneuver towards the dark areas suspecting the area would be treed. Before he hit the ground he fired a flare in the area he was falling. "It was all trees!  And then all of a sudden, something big and black went past me and I hit something very hard." Jorg landed on top of a small factory which was next to a lake. The dark object he saw go past was the factory chimney. "It took me a minute to get my bearings. I figured out where I was, and also discovered I couldn't find a way down."

Jorg shouted from the roof until his calls were heard. "An old gentleman who had that uniform with all the brass buttons, and his young Polish assistant, both of whom came out to see what the ruckus was about.” “The old German watchman, went to get a ladder for me, but the young guy, he thought I was American, he kept calling me a terrorflieger and wouldn't let the old man go get the ladder."

To convince the doubting young man Jorg tossed down his wallet with his identification in it. "They went inside their office and looked at it, and when they came out it was 'Ja, ja, Herr Leutnant!' and they fell all over themselves saluting while they got that ladder out and helped me down."

After the encounter with the two at the factory, Jorg had to walk several kilometers out of the forest or rural area to get to a road to where he could get a ride back to his airfield at Juterborg. Jorg flew after the Mosquito’s the very next night.

Messerschmitt Me-262A Jet Night-Fighter Pilot

This is my painting of the Me-262 that Jorg flew when he shot down a British Mosquito.

This painting is for sale. I will use the monies from the sale to publish the print.

Painting size is 2 feet by four feet.

I will add here in future.

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October 22, 2008