DESPERATE MEASURES

Volksjäger, the Luftwaffe's last hope

- BY EDDIE CREEK

The Leck-captured "People's Fighter," He-162A Wn. 120077 is seen here at Freeman Field, Indiana for technical evaluation in 1945. Originally given the Foreign Equipment number (FE)-489, it was later changed to T-2-489. It survived the massive scrapping of 1946 and is now in the Planes of Fame collection at Chino, California.

THE FALL OF GERMANY came at an unexpected rate with thousands of troops and facilities falling to the Allies in a matter of days. We seldom see those local surrenders from any but the Allies' view. The surrender of JG.1 and the capture of its jet-powered He 162s, however, are documented. The development of the Volksjäger (People's Fighter), the formation of an operational unit and its almost overnight capture and dissolution are presented here to give a better understanding of what the end of a war looks like to the vanquished.

Reorganizing the chaos

By the middle of 1944, the situation in Germany had become extremely serious and was getting increasingly worse by the day. Hitler put the blame squarely on the performance of the Luftwaffe for failing to not only defend the Reich, but also for inadequate support for the ground troops on all fronts. As head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring was blamed for the failure. In August of 1944 he was summoned by Hitler and severely humiliated in front of Army Generals Jodl and Guderian, being told that the Luftwaffe was no longer worthy of being an independent force.

Also during August 1944, all departments connected with aircraft production were transferred to Albert Speer's Ministry for Armament Production. That also brought the Technical Department run by Dipl.Ing Karl-Otto Saur under Speer's control as well as the remaining departments in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium—the German Air Ministry (RLM).