Friedrich Beckh

Background

Beckh was born on 17 January 1908 in Nuremberg.

Career

The Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. He held the position of Geschwaderkommodore of fighter wing Jagdgeschwader 51 and Jagdgeschwader 52. He was a career soldier having joined the cavalry in 1926 as part of the-then 100,000 strong German Army.

He joined the Luftwaffe with the rank of Oberleutnant in 1935 and trained to be a fighter pilot but Beckh had no particular aptitude for flying.

By the time broke out he had already occupied several positions on the General Staff and because of his age did not fly any combat sorties. Instead, he was lecturing at the Air War Academy.

When Mölders became Geschwaderkommodore of JG 51 on 27 July 1940 he arranged for Beckh to transfer to his Geschwaderstab, as an officer on secondment from the General Staff. Beckh was nonetheless an enthusiastic fighter pilot.

However, there was one further factor in Beckh"s make-up that would constitute something of a handicap when flying fighters.

He was simply unable to see anything in the air. In fact, Beckh"s eyesight had deteriorated considerably since he had first joined the Luftwaffe. During the opening weeks of Operation Barbarossa Beckh had considerable success, mostly in tandem with his Wingman Leutnant Bernd Gallowitsch, who at the time was credited with around twenty victories.

The two pilots invariably returned from sorties with a victory each.

On 21 July 1941 Beckh was appointed Geschwaderkommodore of JG 51 in succession to Werner Mölders and on 8 September while JG 51 supported Guderian"s Panzerarmee in the battles around Kiev, Beckh claimed the Geschwader"s 2000th victory. However on 16 September his luck ran out during a fighter sweep in his Bf 109 F-2 and he was hit by flak, taking an incendiary round through the left foot.

He had also claimed around twenty aircraft destroyed on the ground. Initially he insisted on leading the Geschwader from the ground but on 3 October he was eventually admitted to a hospital with the foot infected.

He was then appointed Kommodore of JG 52 barely two months later following the death of Major Wilhelm Lessmann.

On 21 June 1942 Beckh was airborne in his Bf 109 F-4 "weiße 4" West.Nr 13362 with his wingman for a low-level sortie of the type he preferred in the area of Izium-Kupiansk-Waluiki, east of Charkov. East of Waluiki the duo observed a Russian air base teeming with Russian fighters. Beckh threw his aircraft into combat against a large force of LaGG-3s that appeared in the skies.

While shooting down at least two Russian fighters, his wingman observed Beckh"s F-4 taking a number of flak hits before it too nosed down and appeared to plunge to the ground.

Bibliography.

Achievements

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (11 May 1942) Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross on 18 September 1941 as Major and Geschwaderkommodore of JG 51.

Connections

Friend:

Horst Wessel