Heinz Rökker

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinz Rökker (born October 20, 1920 in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) ; † August 2, 2018 there ) was a German military pilot and later a book author during World War II .

youth

Information on the life of Heinz Rökker is available in the form of an autobiography by the VDM Heinz Nickel publishing house , from which the following information is taken. Rökker attended high school in his hometown, where he successfully passed the Abitur exam.

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, he volunteered for the Air Force , where he was trained as an officer candidate to become a military pilot.

Rökker's first operations were in 1942 with the I. Group of Night Fighter Squadron 2 in the Mediterranean area. He stayed with this unit until the end of the war and was deployed in Africa and the West. He flew the night fighter variants of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and the Junkers Ju 88 . With both types of aircraft he scored a total of 64 kills. 63 during the night, 55 of which were four-engine bombers . In his most successful night he got six kills. Rökker experienced the end of the war as a captain .

post war period

Rökker became a teacher after completing his studies. He also worked in the Bundeswehr as a reserve captain. In his old age two books by him were published by VDM Heinz Nickel . One is his autobiography, the second book - the Chronicle I. Gruppe Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 I. / NJG July 2, 1940 to the end of the war in 1945 Fernnachtjagd 1940-1942 - deals with war events in which he was involved. After the end of the Second World War, he was no longer active in aviation. He exchanged views on the events of the war at personal meetings with some of his opponents at the time. When he died in 2018, he was the last living bearer of the oak leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

In a letter to the editor to the Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung on May 3rd, 2008 from Peter Hild, from the Holocaust denier center "Gedächnisstätte" in Guthmannshausen near Borna , it says: "On April 4th in Wunstorf-Idensen, hundreds of companions said goodbye to the upright commander of "U-995", Hans Georg Hess. His comrades in the order Günter Halm (honored by Rommel in 1942 as a Panzergrenadier in the African desert sands, today Federal Chairman of the Representation of the Knight's Cross Bearers (OdR)) and Heinz Rökker (oak foliage bearer of the night hunt) proved the great with their orders of command Dead, who had always remained modest, the last honor. On March 15, the courageous Knight's Cross holder and lawyer - together with Lieutenant Colonel Walter Held and Standartenoberjunker Gert Rittner - had to attend the memorial for the 11.5 million civilian war dead of our people in Borna, Saxony talked about the subject that made him defend the German Sol "Re-zoning and destruction of soldiers' memorials in Germany" is particularly moving. "

On his death, the former leading Berlin neo-Nazi Oliver Schweigert wrote on his blog "Captain Heinz Rökker has been recalled to the great army!"

Awards

Publications

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 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. 635.
  2. ↑ Obituary
  3. ↑ Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung, page V: Last honor for U-boat commander Hess Re: "One of the last has left" (No. 15)
  4. ^ Training and deployment of a night fighter in World War II - memory from the war diary. VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrücken 2006
personal data
SURNAME Rökker, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and aviation author
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg (Oldenburg)
DATE OF DEATH 2nd August 2018
Place of death Oldenburg (Oldenburg)