As we’ve mentioned in the past, one of our more exciting eArticle projects is a biography of Kurt Bühligen, the final wartime Kommodore of the Richthofen fighter unit, Jagdgeschwader 2. Bühligen is a fascinating character, and due to his great modesty and low profile in the post-war years, he also proved to be a difficult man to research.

However, based on interviews and many published and unpublished sources, we have been able to reveal aspects of his personality, while outlining his lengthy and very successful Luftwaffe career, which saw him rise from the enlisted ranks to become an officer and victor over more than 100 Western Allied aircraft.

The article is in the final stages of production, and will be available very soon. Once released it will be found here, along with the story of another prominent Jagdgeschwader 2 personality, Fritz Schröter (see below for a wartime shot of the two men together).

Fritz Schröter and Kurt Bühligen

A still from a Jagdgeschwader 2 ‘home movie’, featuring two men very familiar to the Air War Publications team, Fritz Schröter on the left (see our article about him), and Kurt Bühligen on the right. At this stage Leutnant Schröter was a novice fighter pilot, while Bühligen was a rising star. The quality of this screenshot is not great, but we hope to present some of the original home movie footage in the near future – watch this space!