Lucas, Werner Georg Emil.

Lucas, Werner Georg Emil, born 27-12-1917, in Berlin , Joseph Goebbels  (did you know) was Gauleiter of Berlin. Lucas joined 4./Jagdgeschwader 3  Ernst Udet under Hauptmann, Walter “Gulle” Oesau   on 08-02-1941 as an Unteroffizier, receiving the Luftwaffe Honour Goblet on 02-10-1941, the German Cross in Gold on 27-03- 1942, and the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 19-09-1942, as a Feldwebel with 57 air victories.

Death and burial ground of Lucas, Werner Georg Emil.

He was appointed Leutnant in November 1942 and held the rank of Hauptmann (Staffelkapitän) at the time of his death in October 1943.   105 of his claims were made against the Soviet Air Force in 1941-43 while serving on the Eastern front with Jagdgeschwader 3. Whilst with JG 3 flying from Schiphol, Holland, (see About) he was killed in combat with a Spitfire possibly escorting USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress bombers on 24-10-1943, and crashed in the city centre of Leiden Holland. Whether on purpose or by chance, his Me 109-G crashed exactly in the courtyard of a hospital on the Hooigracht, thus taking no other people with him than his 106 kills. This made him an unsung hero. His body remains in his plane until this day.. Werner Lucas was credited with 106 enemy aircraft shot down. All but one victory were claimed over the Eastern Front, which included 43 bombers and 31 II-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft. His only victory claimed on the Western Front was over a four-engined heavy bomber. Werner Lucas, age 25 was buried at the Oosterbegraafplaats of Amsterdam.Netherlands, after the war Lucas was reburied at the German war cemetery of Ysselsteyn. Ysselstein, Kriegsgräber. Blok CW-Reihe 1-Grab 21. Timmermannsweg 75, 5813 AM Ysselsteyn, together with the war personalities, Jagdfliegerass Major Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn Wittgenstein   , Oberleutnant, Hellmut Woltersdorf, Oberleutnant in the 26^th JG, Air Fighter Squadron, Karl Willius  and Major, Kommandeur II/NJG 2, Paul Semrau.   During Operation Bodenplatte, the massed attack on Allied airfields, also my hometown Eindhoven‘s airport Welschap, on 01-01-1945, Jagdschwader 3 was one of the few German fighter units to carry out their operations successfully despite fielding the smallest German force that day. The 22 Fw 190s committed destroyed 43 Typhoons and Spitfires and damaged 60 more in a 20 minute attack on the 2^nd TAF airfield at Eindhoven, JG 3 claimed 116 destroyed). However the loss of 16 pilots was a serious blow to the unit. Six were captured, 6 were killed while four were posted as missing. Six pilots returned, three of them were wounded.

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