Warbird Information Exchange

Otto Bach had a long and distinguished career as a fighter pilot. Bach was one of the more seasoned fighter pilots who flew with JG1 and served as a steady and reassuring influence over the many green pilots entering his Staffel. Indeed, I possess a poem about Bach which his fellow pilots jokingly entitled, "The Oldest Fighter Pilot."

During his time with JG1, he served on 12, 4, and 5 Staffel. Around May 1943, he transferred to 5./JG 1. Bach was fortunate to escape injury on 29 May 1944 when his Fw 190 overturned on landing when he ran into a bomb crater. He was appointed Staffelkapitän of 7./JG 1 on 15 July, 1944.

Fritz Wegner, another JG1 pilot, remembers the day he was assigned to 5./J.G.1 as a fresh recruit. "I was nominated as wingman to Oberfeldwebel Otto Bach. He came straight to the point: being a green pilot, I only had one thing to do - remain glued to him. 'You get on my wing and stay there.' It wasn't always very easy, but both our lives depended on it. So we would go through the masses of Viermots [four engined bombers]. I, thinking we would fall to the bursts of steel, he showing me not only the way to attack, but also the way to survive." Thanks in part to Bach's willingness to mentor his young comrade, Wegner would survive the war, finally reaching the rank of Leutenant-General in the 1970s (Mombeek, Eric, Defending the Reich).

Bach is credited with appx. 25 victories

The Last Flight
On 26 November 1944, II./JG 1 intercepted 1,137 USAAF bombers attacking targets in the Ruhr area. The bombers were escorted by almost 700 fighters. Overwhelmed by superior numbers, Bach, then Staffelkapitan of 7th Staffel, was shot down and killed in combat with P-51 Mustangs over Stendal, Germany in Fw 190 A-9 (WNr 205186) Yellow 15.