On this day 10 May 1940, the first day of the German assault in the West, the II./186 (T) was tasked with attacking Dutch airfields at the Island Texel and De Kooy. And over Den Helder the Gruppe was engaged in a hard dog fight with Dutch Fokker D-XXI:s.

In this fight the 5. Staffeln filed claimes for a total of four Fokkers, for an own loss of two Bf 109s. One of the pilots that was shot down this day was the Staffelkapitän Hptm. Dietrich Robitzsch. The another pilot was Uffz. Wilhelm Rudolf who was killed when crashing his machine at Den Helder.

Robitzsch however was able to belly land his stricken machin in enemy held territory at De Kooy and taken prisoner. Unlucky for him he was promply handed over to the British and later shipped over to a POW camp in Cananda. Here he would on 1 June 1942 beeing promoted to Major.

Dietrich Leopold Eugen Robitzsch was as an Oblt. posted to 6./JG 135 as their Staffelkapitän on 1 August 1938, then he was posted to 3./JG 333 followed by a transfer to 3./JG 54. After another two transfers on 21 September 1939 he ended up in 3./JGr. 101.

Flying as the Staffelkapitän in this unit he would on 18 December 1939 score his first and only abschuss, a RAF Wellington. In this encounter his Bf 109 E-1 would also be hit by the RAF bomber return fire wounding him.

The Träger Gruppe II./186 is an interesting unit, it was established in November 1938 as a carrier fighter unit to equip Germany's first aircraft carrier, the "Graf Zeppelin". The 4. Staffel mustered with the Ju 87 C Stuka while the 5. and 6. Staffeln received the Bf 109 E.

The unit first saw action in Poland and then in Norway. During the fall of 1939, the two fighter Staffeln flew mostly surveillance flights over Germany's North Sea coast. This was followed by the campaign in the West.

A number of well-known and future ace Luftwaffe pilots experienced their first battles with II./186 such as Emil Omert, Kurt Lasse, Wolf Dietrich Huy, Kurt Ubben, Hans Wilhelm Schlepper, Reinhold Schmetzer and Erwin Piehl. After the carrier initiative was finally shelved by the German high command, the unit was incorporated into III./JG 77.

Please note the writing in front of the cockpit "Der Alte" "The old one" probably a reference to its pilot age, as by this time Dietrich Robitzsch was a 29 year old pilot.

This profile was one of six newly made profiles made this week. This machine would be included in my upcoming Profile Book No 18, due to be published in 2026.