World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHans-Joachim Walter Rudolf Siegfried Marseille was born in Berlin, Germany in 1919 to Siegfried Marseille and Charlotte Marseille (née Riemer). His French family name was due to the fact that his paternal ancestors were among the Huguenot refugees who fled religious persecution in France many generations prior. To those closest to him, he was known by his nickname "Jochen". His parents divorced when he was still young, and he remained with his mother, using his step-father's name, Reuter briefly on his school records before reverting to his original family name. He took interest to music as a child, and he was classically trained in piano; this interest would continue even after the start of his military career, as shown by his large records collection, most of which were of the American Jazz genre. His best friend during his younger years was a Jew, as was the doctor who delivered him; both of them disappeared during the mid-1930s, and their disappearance troubled Marseille. He was a rebellious teen, driven in whatever interested him at the time but lazy with the mundane. Between Mar and Aug 1938, he fulfilled his mandatory service with the Reich Labor Service, and in Oct 1938 he began basic infantry training. Although he and his father were never close, Siegfried Marseille, a military officer, was the one who helped him secure flight training after the younger Marseille expressed interest. He received flight training at Jagdfliegerschule 5 flight school in Schwechat, Austria. Although he excelled both academically and in the cockpit, his rebelliousness nature caused his record to be tainted with a great many reprimands. On a few occasions he was found drunk just before flight, which was a dismissal offense, and once he landed on the autobahn without authorization just because he needed to urinate, knowing well that it could lead to a court martial. Nevertheless, he graduated from flight training in Jul 1940, just in time to participate in the air battle over Britain.

ww2dbaseMarseille's first kill was achieved on 24 Aug 1940, merely two weeks after being assigned to a front line squadron; the victim was a British Hurricane Mk I fighter which he shot down over Kent, England, United Kingdom after having abandoned his wingman to pursue this target. After he returned from the mission, his commanding officer Oberleutnant Herbert Ihlefeld congratulated him on the first kill as well as reprimanded him for having abandoned his wingman. This would be the first of many exhibits of Marseille being a great fighter pilot yet a very poor team player. His rebelliousness continued while stationed in France. More than once, he stole his commanding officer's vehicle to drive into town to pick up girls. Even more daringly, he became romantically involved with the daughter of a local Nazi Party official; after the official had learned of it, Marseille only got away with it because his superior chose to play dumb with confronted with the party official. It was said that Marseille's bedroom conquests included a German general's wife, a Hungarian Countess, singer Nilla Pizzi, actress Zarah Leander, and many others. In 1941, Oberleutnant Johannes Steinhoff finally grew intolerant of the undisciplined Marseille and successfully transferred him to another unit in North Africa. In retrospect, this transfer allowed Marseille to change from a good fighter pilot to a larger-than-life figure. "If there had been girls in Africa, I do not think he would have had such success", Steinhoff would later say, concluding that the lack of girls, bars, and distractions of that type allowed him to concentrate on the war.

ww2dbaseIn Feb 1942, Marseille became engaged to Hannelies Küpper, a Berlin teacher. This came as a surprise for many of his comrades given Marseille's reputation with women.

ww2dbaseMarseille's performance as a fighter pilot shined brighter by the day, not only regularly scoring multiple kills during each sortie, but he also amazingly spent very little ammunition with each kill. Perhaps reflecting chivalrous values of a prior era, he always aimed at the engines of his victims and avoided shooting at the cockpits, so that his victims would have a greater chance of survival. On more than one occasion, as he noticed that his victims became wounded or could not see out of their cockpit windows, he would fly alongside the enemy aircraft in an attempt to guide his victims to a potential safe crash landing. He had also made several flights over enemy airfields, risking being shot down by anti-aircraft defenses in order to deliver messages about the fate of Allied pilots who were shot down in battle. Two such flights were made for Australian pilot Lieutenant Pat Byers, with the first flight made to inform his squadron mates that Byers was shot down but was under the care of German doctors, and the second flight delivering a message of condolence that Byers had passed away from his wounds several days later.

ww2dbaseMarseille's status as a successful pilot brought him some exposure to top level German leaders. While most others at comparable lowly ranks would be on their best behaviors when meeting such political celebrities, that just would not be Marseille. Having known that Marseille had extensive classical piano training, he was asked to play for Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Arthur Axmann, Erhard Milch, and others dignitaries in Germany in Jun 1942. Characteristically, he thought it would be funny to play a jazz tune, a genre of music that was considered degenerate and was banned in Nazi Germany. Somehow, he got away with it without any punishment.

ww2dbaseWhile serving in Libya, Marseille had several sorties during which he performed superbly, but his achievements on 1 Sep 1942 would go down as his greatest in his short career. On that day, he flew three sorties and had 17 confirmed kills. While his squadron mates celebrated with Marseille, who was extremely exhausted from the over-excitement, German leaders from the highest ranks called in to congratulate him. For his achievements on this day, he was nominated to receive the coveted Diamonds to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal. While he knew it was a great honor, he knew that once he had his hands on this decoration, there was a good chance that he would be recalled to Germany to serve in morale-raising roles. Such a transfer would remove him from his fellow pilots and his good friend Mathias.

ww2dbaseMathias was the nickname given to South African prisoner of war Corporal Mathew Letulu, who Marseille had taken on initially as his servant, but very quickly became a close friend. Marseille knew that as his kill score grew, the chance of him being pulled from the front lines increased every day, and if he was to be taken away, Mathias, who was black, might be in danger given the Nazi racial philosophy. With utmost seriousness, he had his fellow pilot Ludwig Franzisket promise to become Mathias' protector should Marseille lose the capability to be in that role.

ww2dbaseOn 30 Sep 1942, Marseille's brilliant 158-kill career came to an end. After the engine of his Bf 109G fighter developed serious trouble, he bailed from the aircraft close to friendly territory under the watchful eyes of his squadron mates. To their horror, Marseille's fighter unexpected fell at a steep angle, the vertical stabilizer striking him across the chest and hip. He either was killed at that moment or was knocked unconscious; in either case, his parachute did not deploy, and he struck the ground at about 1142 hours at about 7 kilometers south of Sidi Abdel Rahman, Egypt. Franzisket, along with the squadron surgeon Dr. Winkelmann, were the first two to arrive on the scene, bringing Marseille's remains back to the base. Mathias was the first to greet them, having already heard the bad news. While the entire squadron was devastated, Mathias, despite having known Marseille only for a short time, was deeply depressed at the loss of a dear friend; Mathias would survive the war under the protection of Franzisket. Marseille was initially buried in a German military cemetery in Derna, Libya during a ceremony which was attended by leaders such as Albert Kesselring and Eduard Neumann. He was later re-interned at Tobruk, Libya. In 1989, a new grave marker and a new plaque was placed at his grave site; Marseille's surviving comrades, as well as Mathew "Mathias" Letulu, attended the ceremony.

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3.  C. Peter Chen says:
17 May 2017 05:18:06 AM

Thank you Cody, the "Göring" spelling has been corrected.