Three Fingers¹ Over Leningrad

Servicing a Ju 88 in the Russian winter
(Source)

"Gottverdammt!" Flieger Manfred Auerbach stepped back from servicing the left main gear on the Ju 88. He had taken his glove off to get a better grip on the nut he was trying to thread onto a bolt and his hand had slipped off the wrench and smacked against the cold hard metal of the wheel hub. He was shaking his hand vigorously and wincing in pain.

"Manfred, what did I tell you about that?" Obergefreiter Friedrich Berg barked at the young airman.

"I know, Friedrich, I know, but I had to get the nut started and figured I could put my glove on after that. I just forgot."

Auerbach had his hand stuffed inside his coveralls trying to get it warm. When he pulled it out to put his glove on, the outside of his thumb was badly scraped and bloody.

"Go see the Sani, I'll finish up here, the crew is due any minute now. Remember, the cold makes you clumsy and your hands will be numb, you can injure yourself and not notice it until later."

As Auerbach went to see the Sanitäter, Berg shook his head. The kid was from the Rhineland and wasn't used to this kind of cold. He'd learn. Berg wished they could have replaced the tire in the hangar, which was heated, but they were low on available birds so it was replace the damaged tire while they were loading bombs on the aircraft. A less than ideal situation!

The LKW rolled to a stop, its tires crunching on the packed snow of the aircraft parking area. As hard as they tried to keep the field plowed, there was just so much snow that eventually it just packed down, even with near constant plowing. Which was fine as long as it stayed cold, given a warmer day and the packed snow would turn to ice with the constant vehicle traffic.

But at the moment, with temperatures well below zero, the hard packed snow was as good as pavement. With a good pair of boots that is. If you stepped carefully, you were okay.

"Mein Gott, it's cold today." Gefreiter Alois Holweck grumbled as he jumped up and down, slapping his arms, as he waited to board the aircraft. The rear gunner always went up the ladder last.

Feldwebel Leo Habicht, the navigator and ventral gunner was on the ladder, waiting. He turned and looked down at Holweck. "Patience, Junge, our fearless pilot is waiting for the bombardier to stow his gear."

Oberleutnant Johannes Boden shook his head and grinned, the cockpit of the Ju 88 wasn't very roomy, wearing thick winter clothing and flight gear made it even less so. As the pilot he had slightly more room than the others, but his bombardier, Oberfeldwebel Max Jürgens, was taking an awfully long time to get into position.

"Come on Max, we have a time on target don't you know!"

"Scheiße! Ah, there we go. Damned seatbelt was wedged between the seat and the fuselage. Okay, I'm in!" he announced as he settled into his position.

"About damned time! No disrespect intended Herr Oberfeldwebel, but I was starting to freeze my balls off out there!" Holweck groused as he got into position.

When the ground crew secured the entry hatch, Boden went through the engine start procedure. Fortunately the ground crew had been out early, warming the oil and turning the propellers to get the oil circulating. Soon the engines were purring and their aircraft was taxiing out to join the rest of the Staffel. Their Kette was the last in line.²

Shortly after getting airborne, as the Staffel was forming up, Boden's right wingman radioed in, "Left engine is missing badly, seems to miss a beat every three or four seconds."

"Copy, Elefant Two. Mixture okay?"

"Ja, ah crap, oil pressure is dropping, I have to abort. Sorry Elefant Lead."

"Okay, put her down, we'll see you after the mission."

"Hals- und Beinbruch, Johannes."

Now reduced to only eight aircraft, the Staffel climbed to altitude and headed towards their target, a troop concentration along the Volkhov sector of the front.

"Any escort today, Chef?" Jürgens asked.

"No, Soviet fighter strength is way down in this sector. Earlier raids reported no fighter resistance, though anti-aircraft was a bit heavier than normal. I wonder where Ivan got all the ammunition?" Boden answered.

"Blyat'!" Kazankov swore loudly as he heard the aircraft engine noises. "Everybody to cover!"

The platoon, what was left of it, quickly dove into shell holes, trenches, anything which might protect them from what was coming. The damned Germans seemed to be coming over every day now, sometimes three times a day, hitting the Russians as they tried to mass for an attack to break through to Leningrad.

"Where the hell is the Red Air Force?" Petrenko yelled at the sky.

"Probably chasing Ukrainian women down in Kiev!" Berezhnoy quipped, "Lord knows they're nowhere to be seen around Leningrad!"

"Shut up lads, here comes the storm!"

Boden could see nothing below that looked like a target, damned Russians melted into the ground like burrowing animals. "Drop when the Staffelkapitän does, Max. There's nothing down there that I can see."

"Snow and frozen mud, that's all that's there." Jürgens answered as he pickled his bombs when the lead aircraft did. "We're bombing dirt and ruins, we're not even melting the f**king snow!"

"Ah Mensch, we get paid to do this." Habicht shouted as he plotted a course back to base.

Holweck started to laugh, then stopped, "Enemy Jagdflieger, high at six o'clock!"

"Scheiße, just when I thought we were going to get lucky! Hang on boys!" Boden was ready to maneuver, he knew they weren't going to win a gunfight with a Soviet fighter.

Serzhánt Lidia (Lidka to her friends) Kirillovna Yaroslavskaya had her eye on a German bomber, a Ju 88, she realized. It was trailing slightly behind the rest of its Vic. Perhaps a rookie pilot, perhaps an ailing aircraft. She didn't care.

She rolled in behind and slightly below the twin engine machine. The rear gunner was already firing at her but the rounds went high. She triggered her guns at less than a hundred meters.

"Oh no, Schmundt's going in!" Boden was jinking and accelerating, he was gaining separation on the Soviet birds. Yak 7s from what he could see while trying not to die.

"Aha! Eat that Ivan!" Habicht shouted from his position on the ventral gun.

Jürgens opened fire as the aircraft which Habicht had damaged flashed by underneath, trailing smoke. The white-painted Soviet aircraft attempted a split-S, he didn't have nearly the altitude required.

"He's done for!" Jürgens shouted as the Yak flew straight into the ground.

Unbeknownst to the Luftwaffe flyers, that burning Yak had done more damage to the Soviets than all of the bombs they had just dropped.

Still and all, it wasn't much but it hurt the Russians when they saw their ration truck die when the Yak hit it. It would be another hungry night in the Soviet trenches.

¹ The Ju 88 was powered by Daimler-Benz DB 600 engines, installed in cowlings with circular radiators. The inverted V-12 engines were installed in front of the wing leading edge, not under the wing. Because of the long cowlings the Ju 88 earned the nickname Dreifinger, three fingers. (Source)

² German bombers flew in Ketten of three aircraft rather than in a Schwarm of four, forming a V. The leader took the lead position with his wingmen to his left and right separated by a gap of one wingspan. This formation conferred mutual protection when attacked, avoided the slipstream of adjacent aircraft and permitted a compact bombing pattern.