Friedrich Herz

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Friedrich "Fred" Herz (* 1929 in Bottrop ) is a German pilot and mercenary who became known for his work in the Biafra war .

Life

Herz completed his pilot training with the Air Force during the Second World War , where he achieved the rank of ensign . In the Bundeswehr he served as a flight instructor at the FFS-C pilot school in Uetersen .

There he made the acquaintance of Nigerian student pilots who joined the newly founded state after the Biafras secession . According to his own account, he was recruited by them as an instructor for the newly established Biafras Air Force , where he arrived in September 1967. While Herz insisted that he only took part in combat operations after the Nigerian armed forces bombed civilians, other contemporary witnesses said he was hired to fly one of two B-25 bombers that Biafra had recently bought. Shortly after his arrival, Herz was making up to three attacks a day against Nigerian artillery positions. After a night attack on a Nigerian airfield, the Herz-controlled B-25 crash-landed on December 3, 1967 due to a pilot's error, in which the navigator was killed. Herz broke a leg and lost a finger. When he returned to Biafra after convalescence in January 1968, there were initially no more opportunities for him to work because Biafra no longer had operational aircraft. In October of the same year, Herz bought spare parts in France , supposedly for civil use, and equipment for pilot training in Biafra.

After a nearly two-year hiatus Heart pilot in one of the mentioned Biafra Babies were squadrons of MFI-9B . The unit founded by Carl Gustaf von Rosen attacked Nigerian airfields, troop concentrations and oil production facilities. At the end of September 1969, Heinz was the only foreigner among the ten pilots in the Biafra Air Force. In November, Herz is also said to have piloted one of the newly arrived T-6s in an attack on Port Harcourt , in which several MiG-17s were destroyed. In December 1969, Herz returned to Germany for the Christmas vacation, shortly afterwards the Biafra war was over. Herz had flown 172 missions on the MFI-9B and most recently held the rank of major .

In 1970, Herz turned down an offer from the CIA to fly combat missions against the Viet Cong in Cambodia as an employee of Air America .

In the mid-1970s, Herz was sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling 500 Ceska Vzor pistols from Czechoslovakia to Bavaria by plane .

literature

  • Michael I. Draper: Shadows. Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria , 1967-1970, Hikoki Publications 1999, UK ISBN 1-902109-63-5
  • Frederick Forsyth : The Biafra Story. The Making of an African Legend , Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 1-84415-523-4 , pp. 111-153
  • Laurent Joachim: The use of “private military companies” in the modern conflict. A new tool for "New Wars"? , Lit-Verlag Münster, 2010 ISBN 978-3-643-10665-0
  • Jürgen Roth : You kill for money. The mercenaries - a report , Knaur, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-426-03996-6 , pp. 88-92

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frederick Forsyth : The Biafra Story. The Making of an African Legend, Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 1-84415-523-4 , p. 122
  2. ↑ a b c “Is that the last mission or not?” Spiegel interview with the German Biafra fighter pilot Friedrich Herz . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1969, p. 92 ( Online - Feb. 3, 1969 ).
  3. ↑ a b Mad Michel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1970, pp. 84 ( online - 20 July 1970 ).
  4. ↑ a b Better than phantom . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1971, p. 97-98 ( Online - June 28, 1971 ).
  5. ↑ Michael I. Draper: Shadows. Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970, Hikoki Publications 1999, UK ISBN 1-902109-63-5 , p. 43
  6. ↑ Michael I. Draper: Shadows. Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970, Hikoki Publications 1999, UK ISBN 1-902109-63-5 , p. 43ff
  7. ↑ Michael I. Draper: Shadows. Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970, Hikoki Publications 1999, UK ISBN 1-902109-63-5 , p. 227ff
  8. ^ Frederick Forsyth : The Biafra Story. The Making of an African Legend, Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 1-84415-523-4 , p. 147
  9. ↑ Michael I. Draper: Shadows. Airlift and Airwar in Biafra and Nigeria, 1967-1970, Hikoki Publications 1999, UK ISBN 1-902109-63-5 , p. 246
  10. ↑ Guns are the bomb business . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1976, p. 54-68 ( Online - Dec. 13, 1976 ).
personal data
SURNAME Heart, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heart, Fred (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and mercenary
DATE OF BIRTH 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Bottrop