In the early morning in North Africa, German Airforce personal are busy
at their desert airfield preparing for the day. Captain Marseille was in his
cockpit, ready to surprise the enemy in early morning hours. He raced over
the runway and smoothly lifted off into the air.
Marseilles on his bf109. Photo from World War II: A Visual Encyclopedia, page 334
Soon he spotted three Spitfires. From a higher altitude, he dove on the enemy, and within
minutes the Spitfires were destroyed. He returned to base for refuelling and was quickly ordered into the air to intercept more British aircraft. Marseille ordered two other pilots to take off with him.
As soon as the British saw them coming, they broke formation and took on their preferred tactic, which was to fly in a gigantic circle to cover each aircraft, so that the Germans wouldn't be able to approach them. But the intelligent Marseille knew this tactic, and immediately climbed his Bf 109 to higher altitude over the British circle. With lightning speed, he dove into the British formation, spraying bullets upon his chosen target. In a short, sharp dogfight, four aircraft were ablaze and the British formation fell into confusion. Soon Marseille shot down four more enemy aircraft. His two German fighters kept up with him and eight more Spitfires fell from the sky.
Out of the total 18 Spitfires, only two managed to escape. The Germans returned to base.
Half-hour later, Marseille was again up in the air, this time intercepting twelve enemy fighters. Soon British formation started firing at the three Germans fighters without pause. Marseille's fighter was hit several times. The volume of fire coming from the enemy
fighters was enormous. Marseille ordered his fellow German fighters, with
his characteristic determination, "After them!" In a swirling dogfight, nine British fighters were shot down, Marseille getting four this time.
When he landed, a telephone call was waiting for him. Field-Marshal Rommel was on the phone. He said that there are some enemy aircraft over my command post. Then he added, "Can you come and clear the air?"
Marseille replied, "Yes, I'll come straight away."
Marseille saw three American Mustangs flown by British pilots over Rommel's headquarters. He dove onto them with speed and two enemy aircraft were quickly shot down. The third gathered speed and disappeared.
When Marseille landed, Rommel called again, giving his thanks to the young pilot.
Soon after his conversation with the Field Marshal, the commander ordered a new attack on a British airfield.
Marseille and his Squadron attacked the British airbase and shot up a number of enemy aircraft. On their way back, the Germans were intercepted by ten British aircraft. In the dogfight that followed, Marseille and his Squadron shot down 8 more Spitfires. On that day the British did not attack again. It was Captain Joachim Marseille's most successful day. He had shot down seventeen enemy aircraft. (from Knights Of The Reich, page 57).
More Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille
Back to Table of Contents -- World War Two Newsletter Jan 2002
Back to World War Two Newsletter List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2002 by Shahram Khan.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com