MARTIN DREWES

Martin Drewes was one of the truly great Luftwaffe Night Fighter Ace's. Between 1941-45 he flew no less than 235 combat missions with the ME 110. Martin Drewes started his military career on the 2nd of  November 1937 when he enters service with Panzer Regiment 6 (3 Panzerdivision) in Neuruppin. In October 1938 he is sent to the Army school in Munich and on a solemn occasion on August 1st 1939 in Tannenberg-Denkmal, he is promoted to Lieutenant. (Leutnant) At the end of his training he decides to transfer to the Luftwaffe. He trains as a pilot and in February 1941, he joins II ZG 76, the so-called Haifischgruppe (Group of Sharks) that flies patrols over the North Sea. In mid-April he takes part in an operational mission in Iraq and Syria, called Sonderkommando Junck (Special command Junck) which is tasked to support the revolt against the British. On the 20th of  June  1941, he makes his first kill over Iraq, a Gloster Gladiator. From mid-June to the end of October he is flying over the North Sea once again, where on the 29th of  August 1941, he shoots down a Spitfire. He flies a total of 88 sorties and scores only two victories with his slower Me 110.

Around this time, the British nightly bombing raids over Germany increase dramatically. Finally, it is decided to introduce a new form of aerial warfare by converting most Zerstörer Geschwader (Fighter squadrons), equipped with the new and successful Messerschmidt Bf 110 C/D to Nachtjagd Geschwader (Nightfighter squadrons). So Drewes, recently promoted to Oberleutnant and his II/ZG 76 is retrained in this way too and renamed III NJG 3 (III Nightfighter Group). Drewes' nightly victories increase with time. He scores his first kill in the night of January 17th/18th, 1943. In May 1943, he transfers to II NJG 1 and on the 1st of August, 1943, he takes command of the Group (Staffelkapitän). The 1st of March 1944, he is promoted to Kommandeur (Commander) of III NJG 1 and receives a Knight's Cross after his 48th kill on the 27th of July, 1944. In the night of  the 20th/21st July , 1944, northeast of Tubbergen near the Dutch-German border, he shoots down two Lancaster bombers but is injured and shot down himself. He and his crew, Ofw Petz and Fw Handke have to use their parachutes. On the night of  the 3rd/4th of  March , 1945, Drewes scores his last victory in the air.
On the 17th of April, 1945, after 52 victories in the air, he receives the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. He ends the war with 235 sorties and 52 kills to his credit. He shot down 50 four-engined bombers, 43 of which at night, most of them Lancaster's, a total of seven B-17's and B-24's and two fighters.

At the end of the war he was captured by the British and during an interrogation, was told that 'those enormous German scores against the RAF were pure fantasy, lies'. Drewes told them to browse the RAF operational records to see how many planes had been lost; this good advice cost him several months in a British prison camp!! In  February 1947, after having been released from imprisonment, he emigrated to Brazil, where Drewes worked as a civilian airline pilot.

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