On June 6th there was only Priller's two Fw's, but the next day the Luftwaffe had redeployed to face the threat. It was too little too late of course, but they flew some daring sorties in the days following the invasion.
From Closest to the beachheads: JG 2 on D-Day
Numerous Luftwaffe fighter units were dispatched to Normandy following the 06 June landings including I and II./JG 11. Deploying to Normandy on 7 June 1944, the pilots of I./JG 11 encountered a group of Mustangs over Rambouillet and downed four of them without loss, while II./JG 11 flew their first sorties over the beachhead. They were tasked with escorting Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers attacking the invasion fleets. Gruppenkommandeur Oblt. Walter Krupinski was seriously concerned for his pilots. Their Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/AS aircraft were high-altitude fighters and while their performance at 6000-7500 meters was comparable to that of American fighters, below this level they behaved more like lame ducks in Krupinski’s own words. Uffz. Rudolf Strosetzki of 6./JG 11 took part in the action; “The weather was awful that day-almost total cloud cover with the cloud ceiling at 300-400 meters.. Our 6. Staffel flew at the head of the formation in the following order; Lt. Lüchau and his Katschmarek Uffz. Strosetzki in front, left Rotte of Lt. Wimmers and right Rotte of Uffz. Berndt. When we got to Rouen we couldn’t find the Stukas of course. This would usually have meant scratching the sortie and turning back! Lt Lüchau, however, decided to continue the operation even without the Stukas, so we flew on alone over Caen towards the coast, where we saw the invasion fleet. The view was horrifying-we had never seen so many warships before in our lives! There were some 60-70 landing ships directly in front of us and they opened up with everything they had. Instead of coming up behind the ships –from the west - which would have enabled us to put down along the coast in the event of any misfortune- we had approached them from the east with the result that their top cover- some 150 Thunderbolts- immediately had us in their sights. Everything happened at a height of just 100-200 metres under the cloud deck. I saw Lüchau weaving then something slammed into my kite. I glanced back and saw Thunderbolts that slid in onto our tails. With their initial salvos I took some serious hits; a thick trail of coolant was streaming from one radiator and a projectile had gone straight through my canopy, smashing into the armoured glass behind my head, jamming the canopy - I couldn't open it to bail out. There was nothing left to do but to try and make an emergency landing. I was quite lucky as my pursuer let me go and I could calmly find a suitable field to force land on.. I spotted a wide, slightly ascending meadow and put the kite down on its belly. It hit a small rise, was thrown into the air and crashed back down to earth again with a bang. As the careering aircraft slid to a stand, I hit a small wall that was separating the meadow from a road. In the collision my left wing smashed down part of the wall and I hit the gun sight with my head and got a black eye. The concussion caused by the crash almost knocked me out - I knew what was happening around me but didn’t realize how it had happened and why I was there. British soldiers soon appeared to take me captive. I was put on a stretcher and loaded onto a jeep and driven back in the direction of the coast. On our way we passed invasion units marching further inland. I clearly remember French civilians cheering and greeting them as their liberators. Shortly before the end of our journey we encountered a group of elderly French civilians that threatened to lynch me. I owe my life to my British guards who immediately reached for their machine guns and forced the crowd back. The hatred in the French people’s eyes will stay with me for ever.”
