Gerhard Barkhorn

Gerhard Barkhorn (born March 20, 1919 in Königsberg ; † January 8, 1983 near Frechen ) was a German officer and fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe during the Second World War . With 301 confirmed kills and 1104 enemy flights, he is the second most successful fighter pilot in military aviation. In the Federal Air Force , he reached the rank of major general.

Life

Wehrmacht

Barkhorn volunteered for the Wehrmacht's Air Force in 1938 and was assigned to Jagdgeschwader 2 after his training . There he first took part in missions against Great Britain as a fighter pilot in World War II . During this time it did not have a single kill, but was hit twice by British pilots. Barkhorn was shot down once over the English Channel, but was able to save himself by parachute. In March 1940 he was briefly ordered back home because his brother had died. Among his teachers were the pilots Heinz Schmidt (1920–1943) and Waldemar Smelka (1920–1942).

As a first lieutenant he was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 52 in August 1940 , where he succeeded in the first kill on July 2, 1941 on his 120th enemy flight. In 1942 he became a squadron captain . On August 23, 1942, Barkhorn was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross after being shot down for the 59th time. On January 11, 1943, he was awarded the oak leaf for his 120th knight's cross . In the same year he also became group commander . As a captain , he scored the 250th kill on February 13, 1944. He was then awarded the Knight's Cross Swords on March 2, 1944 . In the summer of 1944 he was shot down by a Soviet machine during an attack on a unit of Russian bombers and spent four months in the hospital, seriously wounded.

In January 1945 he briefly took over the leadership of Jagdgeschwader 6 "Horst Wessel" before joining the Jagdverband 44 led by Adolf Galland . There he flew the Messerschmitt Me 262 until the end of the war . On April 21, one of the engines failed during an operation and he had to return to the base. During the approach he was attacked by several American fighters and was able to land, but only left his cockpit under machine-gun fire. Slightly wounded, he escaped the critical situation. Gerhard Barkhorn scored a total of 301 kills on 1104 enemy flights from 1940 to 1945. This makes him the pilot with the most aerial victories after Erich Hartmann . He himself was shot down eight times during the war.

On May 5, Gerhard Barkhorn was taken prisoner by the English, from which he was released in September 1945. When he returned home, he initially worked as a forestry worker and later in a photo factory to support the family. He then moved to Trier and was employed by the VW works there.

armed forces

Gerhard Barkhorn joined the Bundeswehr in 1956 from Trier . There he was trained on the new jet-powered aircraft, alongside other WWII veterans such as Johannes Steinhoff , Günther Rall and Erich Hartmann . The training took place in Great Britain and the USA, and from January 1957 also in Germany. Barkhorn was from October 23, 1956 to November 30, 1957 Squadron Captain of the 1st Fighter Bomber Squadron of JaboG 31 , where he flew the F-84F Thunderstreak , among other things . From then until 1962 he led the fighter-bomber squadron 31 "Boelcke" .

In 1964 he was promoted to colonel and a staff officer at the Air Force Test Command. In 1969 he was promoted to brigadier general and four years later to major general. Eventually Barkhorn became Chief of Staff of the 4th Tactical Air Fleet within the NATO armed forces of Central Europe and subsequently Chief of Staff of the 2nd Tactical Air Force . He retired in 1975 after he had hoped to be appointed Inspector of the Air Force , but Günther Rall had been selected in 1971 and Gerhard Limberg in 1974 .

The father of three and his wife Christl were killed in a car accident in Frechen near Cologne in 1983. Barkhorn and his wife were buried in a cemetery on Tegernsee .

Awards

Iron Cross (1939)
- Second class on October 23, 1940
- 1st class on December 3, 1940
Trophy of honor for special achievement in air warfare
Wound badge (1939) in black
German cross in gold on August 21, 1942
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves and swords
- Knight's Cross on August 23, 1942
- Oak leaves on January 11, 1943 (175th award)
- Swords on March 2, 1944 (52nd award)
Front flight clasp for hunting associations in gold with pendant, deployment number 1100
Arm band Africa

Web links

military short biography with hit list (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Edward H.Sims: Barkhorst in the English Channel in: Target areas seas, motor-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1988, p 17
^ Roderich Cescotti: Long-haul flight . Ed .: Kurt Braatz. 1st edition. Twenty-nine six publishing house, Moosburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-9811615-8-8 .
↑ ^a ^b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 202.

personal data
SURNAME	Barkhorn, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German fighter pilot in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH	March 20, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH	Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH	January 8, 1983
Place of death	at Frechen

[1] Edward H.Sims: Barkhorst in the English Channel in: Target areas seas, motor-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1988, p 17

[2] Roderich Cescotti: Long-haul flight . Ed .: Kurt Braatz. 1st edition. Twenty-nine six publishing house, Moosburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-9811615-8-8 .

[RKT-3] Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 202.