Arnold Döring

Arnold Döring (born January 29, 1918 in Heilsberg , Warmia ; † April 10, 2001 in Düsseldorf ) was a German officer, pilot and knight's cross bearer .

Life

Youth and World War II

Arnold Döring was the son of a teacher in Heilsberg. His great uncle was Hermann Ganswindt (1856–1934). During his training at Heilsberger Gymnasium , he took part in training courses on gliders in Rossitten and Sensburg and acquired the A, B, and C glider license . After graduating from high school, he joined the Reich Air Force as a volunteer , was trained as a fighter pilot in the 4th Squadron of the Aviation Replacement Department in Neukuhren and first served in the ground crew at the end of 1938. He then took part in the training courses at the pilot school and the fighter pilot and blind flight school in Linz and Vienna- Aspern and was assigned to the front against England in November 1940 with the 9th Squadron of Kampfgeschwader 53 . On February 25, 1942, he received the Cup of Honor for Special Achievement in Air Warfare .

In the summer of 1942 he was assigned to the Eastern Front with Kampfgeschwader 55 . During the fighting for Stalingrad , he shot down three Soviet Tupolev TB-3 bombers in one night and destroyed six more TB-3s at an airfield about 300 km east of the Volga . During the day's operations, he shot down seven MiG-3 and MiG-1 fighters and bombed ground targets with the He 111 . On September 25, 1942, he was awarded the German Cross in Gold .

In the summer of 1943, Oberfeldwebel Döring was posted to the Western Front , deployed in the Wilde-Sau night hunting process against British bombers of the RAF Bomber Command , and flew day-to-day operations against American B-17 bombers . Since March 1944 he was with Jagdgeschwader 7 and since May 1944 with Nachtjagdgeschwader 7 . In the night of 3rd / 4th March 1945 he was used in the Gisela company , flew with the Junkers Ju 88 over the North Sea , shot down a Boeing B-17 and an Avro Lancaster at Dishforth and returned via Scarborough . Most recently he served as a lieutenant and pilot in the 2nd squadron of the 3rd night fighter squadron .

During the Second World War , Arnold Döring scored 23 confirmed kills, thirteen of them with day hunters and ten with night hunts . On April 17, 1945 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

After the end of the war

Arnold Döring was taken as a British prisoner of war in Husum after the end of the war and was assigned to restricted area G on the Eiderstedt peninsula , then to Uelvesbüll . On October 5, 1945, he was released from captivity in the British occupation zone , worked first as a craftsman and then as an employee at the German Federal Post Office.

On 1 July 1957 he joined the Air Force of the Armed Forces as a first lieutenant in the Air Force Training Regiment 1, and later he was captain in the 9th Company at the airport Uetersen . In 1963 he was sent to Dusseldorf to the MAD mixed group III. It was not until 1966 that he found out from the central verification office that he had already been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in April 1945. On March 31, 1972, he retired from active military service.

Web links

• Arnold Döring at ww2Awards ( Memento from October 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English).
• Arnold Döring Lieutenant (English).

literature

• Ernst Obermaier: The Air Force Knight's Cross bearers. Stuka and attack aircraft 1939–1945. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, Mainz 1976. ISBN 3-87341-021-4 .