Hajo Herrmann

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Hajo Herrmann
1 August 1913
Place of birth	Kiel
Allegiance	Germany
Service/branch	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1935-1945
Rank	Oberst
Unit	KG 4, KG 30, JG 300
Commands	7./KG 4, III./KG 30
Battles/wars	Spanish Civil War Battle of Britain Balkans Campaign
Awards	Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern
Other work	Lawyer

Hajo Herrmann (born 1 August 1913 in Kiel, Germany), is a German lawyer focusing his activities mostly on the defense of former Nazis and Neo-Nazis, deniers of the holocaust and political activists of the far-right. In World War II, he was a high ranking and influential member of the Luftwaffe.

[edit] Military career in WWII

He was one of the Luftwaffe's most innovative air tacticians during World War II. Beginning his military career as an infantry officer, he was commissioned in the newly formed Luftwaffe in 1935. From 1936 til 1937 he was a bomber pilot of the Condor Legion, which was responsible for the almost complete destruction of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war, joined KG-4, and wrote several well received tactical reports. When WWII began, he flew Heinkel He-111's in Poland and Norway. By 1940 Herrmann was Commander of the 7th Staffel of KG-4, and led many attacks on England during the Battle of Britain. In February of 1941 his group went to Sicily, where they flew against Malta and Greece. In one such attack, he dropped a single bomb on an ammunition ship. The resulting explosion sank 11 ships and made the Greek port of Piraeus unusable for many months. In early 1942 he was Commander of III./KG 30, attacking arctic convoys from Norway, including the infamous attacks on PQ-17. July of 1942 saw him assigned to the general staff in Germany, where he became a close confidant of Hermann Göring. During his career as a bomber pilot Hermann had flown 320 operations and sunk 12 ships totalling 70,000 tons.

In 1942 he was appointed to the Luftwaffe Operational Staff. Quickly gaining a reputation as one of the leading tactical and operational innovators of the Luftwaffe, Hajo Herrmann was creator of the night fighter formation Jagdgeschwader 300, nicknamed Wilde Sau (German: wild boar). Raised as a response to the growing threat of RAF Bomber Command's night raids on the Reich in mid 1943, Herrman's theory was for experienced night flying pilots and ex-instructors to be equipped with Fw 190 day fighters and visually 'free-hunt' the bombers by the light of the fires below and with the aid of special 'flare-carrier' Junkers Ju 88's following the bomber streams. Herrmann himself flew over 50 night fighter missions and claimed nine RAF bombers destroyed. Although JG 300 and subsequent units raised met with promising initial success, the high wastage of both pilots and aircraft due to high accident rates curtailed extensive use of 'Wilde sau' beyond the start of 1944.

In December 1943 he was appointed Luftwaffe Inspector of Aerial Defense. By 1944 Herrmann was Inspector General of night fighters and received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. At the end of 1944 he led the 9th Fliegerdivision.

At this time he was a leading exponent of the tactical deployment of the so- called Rammjäger. Sonderkommando Elbe (German: ram fighters, task force Elbe), sent into action in April 1945. Pilot volunteers , often aged 18 to 20, were to be trained to be simply competent enough to control specially lightened and unarmoured Bf 109 fighters and charged with downing Allied bombers by deliberately ramming the tail or control surfaces with the propellers of their aircraft, and thereafter (hopefully) baling out. Hermann's intention was to gather a large number of these fighters for a one-off attack on the USAAF bomber streams, hopefully causing enough losses to curtail the bombing offensive for a few months. Fuel shortages prevented employment of the large numbers necessary, although from one mission of this type of the 138 planes thus committed only 50 came back.

[edit] Post war activities

He was captured by the Russians after the war and was held prisoner for ten years. Back in Germany he studied law and settled in Düsseldorf. Among others, he defended these deniers of the holocaust: Otto Ernst Remer, David Irving and the American, self styled "expert for gas chambers" Fred A. Leuchter.