Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought- provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

Category: German Pilots and Flying Aces  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'WWII Pilots, Aces', 'Female Pilots'.

James Finnegan, who shot down Nazi Ace Adolf Gallant, dies at 85
63 years ago James Finnegan, a young fighter pilot flying his P-47, found himself in a dogfight - And at the end of it he downed the top German ace Adolf Galland flying Messerschmitt Me 262 jet. Finnegan was escorting Allied bombers when he "saw two objects come zipping through the formation, and 2 bombers blew up immediately. I watched the two objects go through the bomber formation, and thought, 'That can't be a prop job... it's got to be one of the 262 jets.'" Galland managed to land his crippled Me-262 jet, and years later the two pilots became friends, visiting each other to swap WWII stories.     [ sfgate :: 2008-04-26 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

Mystery solved: German fighter ace Horst Rippert shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"If I had known it was Saint-Exupery I would never have shot him down." German fighter ace Horst Rippert shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a pioneer aviator known for his book "The Little Prince." He said he had been flying a Messerschmitt Me-109 near Toulon on July 31, 1944, when he spotted Saint-Exupery's twin-tailed Lightning. "I saw his markings and manoeuvred myself behing him and shot him down." Rippert, 28 victories in WWII, only found out for sure recently who it was he had killed, when he was tracked down by Luc Vanrell and Lino van Gartzen, authors of "Saint-Exupery, the last secret."     [ adetocqueville :: 2008-03-16 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

Body of Luftwaffe fighter pilot ace Kurt Niederhagen found
After the rescue of the Messerschmitt BF-109 in Concordia Saggitaria, also the remains of the German pilot shot down by US fighters on January 30th, 1944, have been identified as Obfdw (Major Marshal) Kurt Niederhagen. He was Luftwaffe ace with 17 shooting-downs to his credit and and holder of the Iron Cross medal. The researchers of the GRSA determined the belonging of the pilot to the 1st Group of the 77th Fighter Wing, taken off that morning to intercept American bombers. Furious air combats took place in the skies over Friuli and 30 airplanes were lost that day on both sides.     [ avionews :: 2007-11-01 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

WWII Luftwaffe pilot Klaus Gerlach - "Thank God for General Patton"
Klaus Gerlach, a fighter pilot in Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe who shot down 13 planes and who was shot down 3 times himself, died at 83. In first 2 crashes, he escaped serious injury, but in 1945 he crash-landed his Focke-Wulf 190 fighter. Knocked out when the plane's radio rammed his head, he was pulled from the wreckage by farmers and taken to a military hospital. When he came out of a coma, Gerlach found that Americans under Gen. George Patton had taken over. He often said "Thank God for General Patton!" He was credited with flying 250 missions, and awarded the Iron Cross medal. "Once you stayed alive through 50 missions, you knew something about air-to-air combat."     [ - :: 2007-09-09 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

Remains of Bf 109 Flying Ace Sgt. Maximilian Volke Recovered
Researchers has located the remains and plane of a German ace Flight Sgt. Maximilian Volke - a Munich-born pilot credited with shooting down 37 planes - shot down during World War II. They also discovered some personal effects, including the dog tag and good luck charms the pilot carried into combat. Searchers located the plane after narrowing their area based on information from state archives and eyewitness accounts of the ace's final air battle in 1944, said Leo Venieri, president of Romagna Air Finders, a group that scours for signs of missing WWII pilots. Volke's Messerschmitt Bf 109 was dug out of a farmer's field north of Modena.     [ usatoday :: 2007-08-15 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

[PDF] Conversations with Luftwaffe Stuka Pilot Paul-Werner Hozzle
In this document German Air Force Brigadier General Paul-Werner Hozzle, presents his experiences as a Stuka pilot and commander of Stuka units, in organizer of the Luftwaffe Air Fleet. As part of a program to evaluate the lethality of current airborne automatic cannon ammunition against threat armored vehicles, he presented some of his experiences in combat in World War 2 in a one-day seminar at the National War College. General Hozzel is one of a few remaining German officers who fought in WW2 and held position high enough to allow generalizations about the war and to extract historical generals for future operations.     [ stinet :: 2007-03-14 :: Bomber Pilots of WWII: B-17, B-24 ]

Battle of Britain Messerschmitt lost in a cloud of Indian mystery
Only the swastika on the tail remained to identify the pile of rusting metal as one of the most sought after relics of World War II. The discovery of a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt that fought in the Battle of Britain was considered one of the most remarkable finds in aviation history. But within months the aircraft had disappeared. Now The Times has learnt that the aircraft is being restored in East Sussex. The Messerschmitt Bf 109E-1 was undamaged when Xavier Ray was forced to land in Lower Hardres on Nov 2, 1940. "He stated that his aircraft, works number 4034, had given trouble yesterday..."     [ timesonline :: 2007-03-03 :: Warbirds: Vintage aircrafts ]

Ex-Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber pilot to be U.S. citizen
64 years ago, Wolfgang Kaupisch was a young lieutenant in the German Luftwaffe, dropping bombs on Americans in England. Two years later, he was involved in an assassination attempt on his führer, Adolf Hitler. In 1940, Nazi Germany unleashed attacks against Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and France - and Kaupisch's anti-aircraft unit was with them. During the fighting, he earned an Iron Cross Second Class when his artillery pieces helped sink a British destroyer, and an Iron Cross First Class when the artillery silenced a French machine gun. In Oct 1941, he flew his first combat mission, as a co-pilot and navigator on a Junkers 88 bomber.     [ venturacountystar :: 2006-12-17 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

1994 interview with Luftwaffe General and Ace Pilot Adolf Galland
When historians talk about pilots and the history of air combat, certain names come up sooner or later: Manfred von Richthofen, Erich Hartmann... and Adolf Galland. Galland was the youngest general grade officer of either side in World War II, and at age 29 he was more skilled in aerial combat, strategy and tactics than many of the experts almost twice his age. A holder of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, Galland died in 1995. --- Galland: After one year of training as a commercial pilot I was strongly "invited" to join the "Black Air Force" (the undercover air force Germany was training prior to Adolf Hitler's rise to power).     [ historynet :: 2004-01-16 :: German Pilots and Flying Aces ]

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'Female Pilots'.

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