August Geiger

Geiger and the Hamm Massacre

I have for the past several years done some research on his brief but impressive career in the hopes of finding an interesting aspect in one of his missions. In chronicling his career, I found that he participated in what well may have been one of the bloodiest air battles of the time, The Hamm
Massacre. According to the book, Die Ritter Kreuz Träger Der Luftwaffe 1939-1945, which credits Geiger with 54 victories, he was born on 6 May 1920 in the town of Überlingen on the Bodensee. He entered the Luftwaffe in 1939 and was posted to 9/NJG1 in early 1941 with the rank of lieutenant. In
the night of 8/9 July 1941, he shot his first plane down, and on 5 January 1943 became Staffelkapitän of 7/NJG1. On 22 May 1943 both he and friend Herbert Lütje, also a ME110 pilot and an expert night fighter in his own right, were awarded the Knights Cross by Major General Kammhuber. Geiger, in his
ME110 G9+ER WkNr 5477, was considered during much of 1943 the most successful night fighter of the war. Der Adler magazine reports, in the 11 April 1944 issue, that Captain August Geiger was the 415th recipient of the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross. It was awarded posthumously as he had been shot down the night of 29/30 September 1943 by RAF night fighter and Wing Commander Bob Braham. Wing Commander Braham was flying a Beaufighter IVF during this engagement and must have surprised Geiger as when the tail fin wreckage was discovered in August of 1971 in South
Flevoland, Holland, the rear firing MG81Z machinegun barrels were still covered. Captain August Geiger and his radar/radio operator Feldwebel Dietrich Koch are buried in the Ysselsteyn German War Cemetery.

In October of 1942 elements of the 91st Bomber Group arrived in England which would begin a long and illustrious career but not without much pain and suffering. Fighter air support for the B-17 in the early stages of the air campaign was practically nonexistent, and as Dan F. Bauer writes in his story

“The Hamm Massacre” though they couldn’t stop the 8th Air Force they could inflict horrific losses. On 4 March 1943, four groups of B-17’s took off for a daylight raid deep into Germany. However, only one of the four bomber groups did not turn back because of bad weather. When the sixteen B-17’s of 91st BG emerged from the clouds they found that they were alone but continued on to their target of the Hamm marshaling yards near the Ruhr Valley. While the raid was a success, the return flight was a nightmare. According to Bauer, William Beasley piloting the B-17 Motise reported German aircraft of all types attacking them. Everything from JU-88’s to Me110 night fighters. When I read this account I decided to check various German records, publications and books to see if August Geiger had participated in this action. I also decided to find out as much as I could regarding the return flight of this mission. Germaine to this article, I discovered that three B-17’s, badly damaged, fell back from the others and grouped together for protection.
Bauer reports that they were the Stormy Weather, StupnTakit and the Hell’s Angels. I believe though, through my research, that it was rather the Rose O’Day and not the Hell’s Angels on this mission. Ralph Felton was the Captain of the Rose O’Day which did go down on that day but the Hell’s Angels went
down later on 14 May 1943. These three aircraft, the Stormy Weather captained by George Birdsong (Birdsong’s normal B-17, the Delta Rebel #2 experienced the loss of an engine on takeoff and switched out to the Stormy Weather), the StupnTakit captained by Martin “Charlie” McCarthy and the Rose O ‘Day captained by Ralph “Happy” Felton were set upon by numerous German fighters. According to Captain Birdsong in the same article, a FW190 attacked the StupnTakit which burst into flames and disappeared. Almost immediately, Birdsong continues, the Rose O’Day took hits from a ME110 and “… just pulled right up and rolled right over almost on top of us and went straight down”. German records show that at 11:31 hrs. at an altitude of 4,200 meters Captain Herbert Lutje downed a B-17 and then, at 11:33 hrs. Geiger downed a B-17 also at an altitude of 4,200 meters. Is it possible that
these two old friends and colleagues were responsible for downing the StupnTakit and the Rose O’ Day? Captain Birdsong went on to escape the carnage by putting the Stormy Weather into an almost suicidal dive, recovering barely feet off the ground. As his plane’s airspeed dropped, German fighters again resumed the attack. After a series of defensive and seemingly more suicidal maneuvers the German fighters broke off save one ME110. Birdsong describes this encounter, in his book Stormy Weather a B-17, as the German pilot giving us “a good once over … slowly waggled his wings, gave us a salute and channeled to the right back to land”. Steve Perri who had been the ball turret gunner for the B-17 Delta Rebel #2 has written about many of his experiences as a ball turret gunner. Among them was his
account of the Hamm raid of 4 March 1943 aboard the Stormy Weather. I contacted the 91st BG historical society to see if Mr. Perri could be reached for his recollections regarding the ME110 encounter. I was told that the general belief was that it was Hans-Joachim Jabs, also a famous nightfighter pilot. However, I could find no evidence that he was flying on that day. I guess I would just like to believe it was August Geiger.

This article may not be reprinted with out my permission. Frederic Geiger

This is the wreckage in the museum:

Possibly a war trophy of August Geiger has been discovered. I’m researching it at the moment.

The exact text is:

Dem Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 (Night Fighter Wing)
Zum 26. Juni 1942 (From 26th June 1942)
Der letzte Führer der Jagdstaffel Boelcke (the last leader of the Boelcke squadron).

Geiger had his first 2 claims on june 26 1942 (the date on the goblet), he was a night fighter and he was burried about 5 miles from the place this goblet was found.

I’m looking for more information about this goblet and August Geiger. Can anyone help me with this research or know someone who can?

Thanks in advance!

Geiger Picture

All, sorry if I double posted this. The man standing on the other side of the group is Herbert Lutje. The man in the middle could be Lutje’s father as there are some facial similarities. He may have been in WWI. Geiger was indeed shot down by Braham, which was his last flight in the 141 Squadron. Geiger’s aircraft was recovered in 1971 and it appears that Braham had take him by surprise as his rear guns were still covered. Hope this is interesting. I have been planning to write and article for one of the military magazines, but have not found the story behind the story which would take it beyond just facts. Thanks for your interest

I don’t really know anything about Geiger, but Moggy C was looking for a picture…

Yeah, I remember seeing some wreckage in a Dutch museum, but the pics I took were almost black, have deleted them a long time ago. I also saw his schirmmutze with a Dutch collecter. Tried to buy it, but the best deal I could get was that he contact me when he wants to get rid of it.

Any chance of posting the pictures you do have? It might spur more interest, and we’d enjoy them.

Moggy