Josef Jennewein

Josef Jennewein

Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1919-11-21)21 November 1919 St Anton am Arlberg, Austria
Died	27 July 1943(1943-07-27) (aged 23)
Sport
Sport	Alpine skiing
Medal record Representing Germany Men's Alpine skiing World Championship 1939 Zakopane Combined 1939 Zakopane Slalom 1939 Zakopane Downhill

Josef Jennewein (21 November 1919 – 27 July 1943) was a German alpine skier and world champion. During World War II, he served first in the Wehrmacht and then in the Luftwaffe, and was credited with 86 air victories. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.

Jennewein was born on 21 November 1919 at St Anton in the Tyrolean Alps, Austria. He became a world champion in the combined event in Zakopane in 1939, and received silver medals in slalom and in downhill. In 1941 Jennewein participated at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1941 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and won gold medals in downhill and the combined event. In 1946, the results were cancelled by the FIS because of the limited number of participants from only German-friendly countries during World War II.

World War II

Jennewein joined the Luftwaffe as a fighter pilot and was posted to 4.(Eins)/JFS 5. He became an ace, claiming five air victories on the Western Front. On his fourth combat mission on 20 September 1941, he claimed his first victories over three Spitfire fighters and on 15 October he was credited with two more Spitfire kills. Subsequently he was posted to 2./JG 51 and transferred on the Eastern Front. By the end of July 1942, when he was posted to serve as a flight instructor, he had added 12 Russian aircraft to his tally. He returned to 2./JG 51 before the end of the year, starting a surprising sequence of multiple victories [1]. On January 18, 1943, as a Feldwebel, flying a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 as a wingman of Leutnant Joachim Brendel, he attacked a formation of nine Petlyakov Pe-2 bombers from 202 BAP, in the area of Velikiye Luki, and claimed five kills in five minutes (Brendel claimed three, actual Soviet losses were six).

On the Eastern Front, he claimed another 76 victories, for a total of 81. In the entire war, Jennewein flew 271 missions and shot down 86 enemy planes. He went missing in action following combat east of Orel on 27 July 1943.

World War II awards

• German Cross in Gold on 12 April 1943 as Oberfeldwebel in the I./JG 51
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 5 December 1943 (posthumously) as Leutnant and pilot in the 1./JG 51 "Mölders"

References

• Bergström, Christer (2019). Black Cross – Red Star, Air War over the Eastern Front. Volume 4. Stalingrad to Kuban. Eskilstuna: Vaktel Books. ISBN 978-91-88441-21-8.
• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Obermaier, Ernst (1989). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe Jagdflieger 1939 – 1945 [The Knight's Cross Bearers of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force 1939 – 1945] (in German). Mainz, Germany: Verlag Dieter Hoffmann. ISBN 978-3-87341-065-7.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.

External links

• Biography in Luftwaffe's aces website
• Josef Jennewein at FIS (alpine)