Schl.G. 1 supported the 11th Army, under the command of Erich von Manstein in the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula (Operation Bustard Hunt). On 9 May it suffered its first casualty when a Hs 129B-1 of second group was shot down by ground-fire. Hauptmann Max Eck was posted missing in action. Nevertheless, the effective supporting attacks against Red Army infantry and troop columns immediately behind the front enabled German forces to break through. The Bf 109 fighters also engaged in air-to-air combat, though this was not the wing's mission. On 12 May first group claimed the first enemy aircraft shot down near Martovka. Kerch fell on 15 May. The cost to the group was two Bf 109s, lost to ground-fire.