Wehrpass to Stuka Bordschütze - Posthumous Ehrenpokal

[hucks216]

Here is a Wehrpass to Josef Kirn who joined the Luftwaffe in 1941. From the day he joined he was trained as a radio operator and progressed through the various flight schools for Bordschütze and Stuka crews. In April 1943 he was eventually transferred to the training staffel for Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 where he remained for one month before progressing to 1./StG 1 in June 1943. He only stayed with 1 Staffel for a month before he was transferred to 4 Staffel which is where he remained until he was shot down and killed on 9th March 1944. By this time StG-1 had been renamed Schlachtgeshwader 1.

Considering that he flew with the front line units of StG-1 for less then a year it is a measure of just how desperate the German situation was that he managed to fly on 219 sorties in an aircraft that was obsolete years before.


During his service Kirn was awarded:

Fliegerschützen mit Blitzbundel
Dive Bomber Clasp in Bronze, Silver & Gold
EK II
EK I
Ehrenpokal (Posthumous award 15th May 1944).

Here are the loss details for Josef Kirn:

9-3-44
4-/SG 1 northeast of Popowaska due to AA fire
Ju 87 D-5 6G+VR 130869
Pilot Uffz. Hermann Haage KIA
WOp Uffz. Josef Kirn KIA

The signature seen on pages 13, 22, 23 & 32 is that of Hans Steinwachs who won the Knights Cross, DKiG & Ehrenpokal.


With the expected release of Larryde Zeng & Doug Stankey's long awaited vol 2 of Dive Bomber And Ground Attack Units Of The Luftwaffe in April 2013 hopefully it will be possible to find out just what kind of operations Kirn was involved with during his service.







A while after obtaining this Wehrpass from another collector, a Russian posted a few images on WAF of items fround at the crash site of Kirn's Stuka. One of these items was his Airgunners Badge with his name scribed on the reverse.
While on one hand it would of been nice to of added this to the Wehrpass, considering that Kirn's body was not recovered I didn't feel entirely comfortable with the circumstances - i.e. was it taken from his remains? So while I was happy to add the images to the collection I didn't bother to contact the Russian to seek a deal.

[Gunny Hartmann]

Wow 219 sorties in the back seat of a Stuka, he did well to survive that long. Thanks for posting.

[big ned]

Hi Hucks,

The crash site was dug in 2007. The wreckage was only 1.5m underground and it had previously been dug as vodka bottles dating from 1970 were found at this level. Besides the airgunners badge, a wristwatch and handful of fragmentary human bones were also recovered. These were later given to the German Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge in St. Petersburg.

Some 37mm cannon shell cases were also found, indicating this was a ground attack/anti tank version of the Stuka.

Regards, Ned.

[Kevin Grootaers]

Thanks for sharing this nice wehrpass Kevin.

[hucks216]

Thanks for the extra information Ned, it's much appreciated. That's a great help and if this was a 37mm armed Stuka it makes this Wehrpass even better.

[harryamb2]

a sad story.RIP.

[Paul D]

Another wonderful interesting piece of history Kevin and great reseach work Ned !!

[Witt]

A poignant Wehrpaß to a well-decorated rear gunner. Impressive how many flights he completed in such a short time. They must have been in a hot situation, flying multiple sorties a day. The casualty cards to both of the crew lost in their Stuka.




Flugzeugführer unteroffizier Hermann Haage of 4. Staffel/Schlachtgeschwader 1

Name: Hermann Haage
Date of birth: 10.2.1915
Place of birth: Tübingen
Death/missing date: 9.3.1944
Death/missing place: nordostw. Popowka

Gefallen: absturz




Bordfunker akt Unteroffizier Josef Kirn of 4. Staffel/Schlachtgeschwader 1

Name: Josef Kirn
Date of birth: 3.2.1923
Place of birth: Bolzhausen
Death/missing date: 9.3.1944
Death/missing place: nordostw. Popowka

Gefallen: absturz