Lossberg, Victor von.

Lossberg, Victor von, born on 14-03-1904 in Posen, present-day Poznań in Poland, at the time in the Province of Posen, a province of the Kingdom of Prussia  in the German Empire. The son of General der Infantry a D, Friedrich Karl and Clemence, born Herwarth,. General von Lossberg  von Bittenfeld von Lossberg last served as the commander in Chief of Group Command I before retering from the Army on 01-10-1926, He grately distinguished himself during World War I receiving the Prussian Pour Le Merite, on  21-09-1916, and with Oak Leaves on 24-04-1917, while serving as the Chief of the General Staff of the 2nd Army and later the 6th Army on the Western Front. He was married with Ella Schmidt, born 12-01-1909, on 15-07-1934 in Berlin and they had two sons.

He joined the military service of the Wehrmacht in late 1933 at Braunschweig. The Treaty of Versailles signed after World War I had prohibited Germany from having an air force. Before the Luftwaffe was unveiled in 1935 he was trained as a pilot at civilian flight schools. Prior to the Luftwaffe, von Lossberg followed his family military tradition by serving in the cavalry. He named his horse Ewald. He had a dog named Hundl and photographed the horse with the dog to show his fiancé Reta Kohle the dog sitting on the horse.

 He joined the Luftwaffe soon after it was formed. As a Luftwaffe Oberst, he created the „Zahme Sau” tactics, at the beginning of 1942. He played a significant role in the development and introduction of the Zahme Sau night fighter  system in mid-1943.

One of the aces was Hauptmann Hauptmann Heinz Rökker  He shot down 64 enemy aircraft (63 at night), all were British bombers. Since 26-09-2014 he has been the last living Luftwaffe night fighter ace. Another famous night fighter was Major Heinrich Prinz zur Sayn Wittgenstein.

This system proved itself to be more scalable to the increasing attacks by the Royal Air Force  Bomber Command and eventually replaced the Himmelbett, canopy bed of the Kammhuber Line. In the introductory phase of Zahme Sau, Von Loßberg flew 39 night fighter missions from airfields operated by I./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1  under command of Major Werner Streib.. In total he flew 39 missions without claiming any victories himself. Zahme Sau, German: tame boar,  was a night fighter intercept tactic introduced by the German Luftwaffe in 1943.  At the indication of a forthcoming raid, the fighters were be scrambled and collected together to orbit one of several radio beacons throughout Germany, ready to be directed en masse into the bomber stream by R/Trunning commentaries from the Jagd Division. Once fed into the stream, fighters made radar contact with a succession of individual bombers and maintained contact, and combat as far as their ammunition and fuel held out. Von Loßberg was involved in the testing and evaluation of various aircraft for use in the night fighter role. Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch favoured the conversion of already existing variants such as the Junkers Ju 88 or its successor the Junkers Ju 188 because it did not influence production numbers. Josef Kammhuber on the other hand preferred the then new Heinkel He 219. The Reichsluftfahrtministerium, RLM—Reich Air Ministry, ordered a comparison test which was held on 25–26 March 1943 at Rechlin. Von Loßberg was ordered to fly the Ju 188 E-1 in mock combat against the He 219 piloted by Werner Streib.  The test proved the He 219 to be superior to the Ju 188. Viktor von Loßberg was a highly decorated Oberleutnant in the Luftwaffe during World War II, and a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Von Loßberg was instrumental in conceiving the concept of Zahme Sau, a night fighter tactic. Von Lossberg was called into the Luftwaffe after the war and served as a distinguished officer in NATO. He visited the United States in this capacity and toured various aircraft plants in his official capacity. On these trips he grew fond of American beef and potatoes. He headed the Luftwaffe Materiel Command in Erding after the war. This made him a VIP in Erding on a par with the mayor.

Death and burial ground of Lossberg, Victor von.

  He represented the Luftwaffe at NATO in Fontainebleau, France from 1960 to 1962. Victor von Lossberg retired from his post-war Luftwaffe position in Garmisch where he died at the age of 79, on 24-05-1983. He is buried with his wife Reta, born Kohle, who died age 76, on 06-10-1983, in a family grave, on the Stadtfriedhof of Garmisch Partenkirche,