Hans-Joachim "Hajo" Herrmann (* August 1, 1913 in Kiel; † November 5, 2010 in Düsseldorf) was a German fighter pilot and fighter pilot during World War II, last in the rank of colonel, who spent more than ten years in Soviet captivity after the war. He later practiced law, defending well-known old and neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and right-wing extremists, among others.
Service in World War II:
Herrmann joined the Hamburg police in May 1933 and transferred to the newly formed Luftwaffe on August 1, 1935. He gained his first flying experience as a lieutenant in the Nordhausen Fliegergruppe before transferring to the 9th Squadron of Fighter Wing 253 in the summer of 1936. From August 1936 to April 1937, he served as a bomber pilot with the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War. In June 1938 he was promoted to first lieutenant and in September 1939 transferred to the 7th Squadron of Fighter Squadron 4. On June 20, 1940, he assumed command of this squadron as a squadron captain and led it during the Battle of Britain until October 1940, during which he took part, among other things, in the attacks on the India Docks in the great Thames Loop in east London. After a series of further engagements, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 13, 1940.
In October 1940, the entire 7th Squadron transferred to Kampfgeschwader 30. Herrmann remained its squadron captain and was promoted to captain in that capacity on 19 December 1940. Beginning in February 1941, Herrmann's III Group operated in the Mediterranean, participating in air attacks on the strategically important British naval base of Malta and in the Battle of Greece. In a mission on April 6, 1941, it succeeded in sinking the British munitions carrier SS Clan Fraser in the port of Piraeus, sinking a total of eleven ships as a result of the explosion and rendering the port facilities unusable for an extended period.
From May 23 to September 1, 1941, Herrmann performed the duties of First General Staff Officer (Ia) of the IX Air Corps. On September 1, 1941, he assumed command of III Group of Fighter Squadron 30 as group commander, which was soon transferred to northern Norway. There Herrmann made a name for himself fighting Allied North Sea convoys to the Soviet port of Murmansk. Among other things, he played a decisive role in the success of the battle for convoy PQ-17 in the summer of 1942.
Shortly thereafter, he transferred to the Luftwaffe Joint Staff in July 1942, where he was promoted to major on March 1, 1943. Hermann recognized quite early on that German night fighter operations were losing combat power due to Allied countermeasures, and on June 27, 1943, he suggested to the commanding general of the night fighters, Josef Kammhuber, that he allow day fighters to operate at night directly over the attack area using a specially developed procedure - "Wilde Sau" - which the latter initially rejected. It was not until the British Royal Air Force carried out Operation Gomorrah (devastating air raids on Hamburg with a firestorm) on July 25, 1943, that it was decided to test the new procedure. The fighter squadron 300 "Wilde Sau" was established. Hermann rose to the rank of squadron commodore and division commander (commander of the 1st Fighter Division from the end of March 1944 to September 1944), ultimately holding the rank of colonel. The defense against Allied night bomber attacks actually became more efficient; for this Hermann received the Oak Leaf to the Knight's Cross on August 2, 1943. Herrmann was considered a confidant of Hermann Göring, who, because of his organizational skills, entrusted him with special tasks regarding the Reich's defense against Allied bombardments, often bypassing the Luftwaffe hierarchy.
His achievements in the defense of the Reich were recognized on January 23, 1944, when he was awarded the Swords of the Knight's Cross. Herrmann was the initiator of Sonderkommando Elbe (also known as Rammjäger), a unit designed to bring down enemy bombers by ramming them. The only - and extremely loss-making - mission of this unit took place on April 7, 1945.
During the course of the war, Herrmann completed a total of 370 enemy flights, being shot down four times and wounded twice. He and his crew sank twelve ships of about 60,000 GRT and shot down 9 bombers as night fighters.
Activities after 1945:
After the end of the war, Herrmann was taken as a Soviet prisoner of war in May 1945, where, by his own account, he was severely maltreated. He did not return to the Federal Republic of Germany until October 12, 1955. He then took up law studies and settled as a lawyer in Düsseldorf in 1965. Herrmann, who according to the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance occupied a "central position in the far-right and neo-Nazi scene," soon became a well-known defender of old and neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers and right-wing extremists. Among his clients were retired general Otto Ernst Remer, British author David Irving, and convicted Holocaust denier Fred A. Leuchter. Herrmann also published books on World War II and was active as a speaker for the DVU and NPD. In his old age, Herrmann also appeared as a guest of honor at the Bund für Gotteserkenntnis.
The debate about how to deal with Herrmann, who had never clearly distanced himself from National Socialism, continued even after his death. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung refused to print an obituary for him, which spoke of a "commitment to Germany," on the grounds that the text contained a political statement, which in turn fueled a debate on how to deal with deceased persons of National Socialism that extended as far as Austria.
Private life:
Herrmann had been married to the singer and university lecturer Ingeborg Reichelt since 1959. The marriage produced two sons, Benno and Thilo. Thilo Hermann (born 1960) became a guitarist, singer and songwriter and has been performing under the stage name Thilo Martinho since 2005. His younger brother Benno became a pilot and head of the training department of the continental fleet at Lufthansa and at the time also flew its traditional aircraft Ju 52 D-AQUI, a type that his father had already piloted.The burial at sea of Hajo Herrmann took place off his birthplace of Kiel over the Baltic Sea.[16]
Awards:
Iron Cross (1939) II and I Class.
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves and swords
Knight's Cross on 13 October 1940
Oak leaves on August 2, 1943 (269th award)
Swords on 23 January 1944 (43rd award)
German Cross in Gold on June 5, 1942[17]
Front Flying Cross in Gold
Spanish Cross in bronze with swords
