Herbert Ihlefeld

Herbert Ihlefeld (born June 1, 1914 in Pinnow , Randow district ; † August 8, 1995 in Wennigsen (Deister) , Lower Saxony ) was a German air force officer and commodore ( colonel since 1945 ) in the Wehrmacht .

Life

In 1933 Ihlefeld joined the 5th Infantry Regiment. In 1934 he was trained as an aircraft mechanic and did not begin his training as an aircraft pilot until January 1935. In March 1935 he was transferred to the Air Force . After completing his training as a fighter pilot, he volunteered in Spain in 1937 for the 2nd squadron of Jagdgruppe 88 of the Condor Legion and won nine aerial victories there with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 , seven of them during his time in La Sénia . He was considered one of the few aviator aces there and was awarded the Spanish Cross in gold as a sergeant major. On August 1, 1939, he was transferred to Group I of Lehrgeschwader 2 . On August 20, 1939, Ihlefeld was promoted to lieutenant . With the I. Group of the Lehrgeschwader 2 he flew missions over Poland , France and Great Britain . On June 1, 1940 he was promoted to first lieutenant and on October 1, 1940 to captain . He won his 40th victory over Russia. In April 1941, Operation Marita in Yugoslavia was shot down from the ground and spent a few days in captivity. On April 22, 1942, he was the fifth fighter pilot to achieve the 100th kill. With the rank of major he became commodore of Jagdgeschwader 52 on June 22, 1942 as part of the defense of the Reich. During one of his missions he was wounded and after recovering was appointed commodore of Jagdgeschwader 103. On January 27, 1943 Ihlefeld commander was Fighter Wing 25. On 1 February 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was on May 1, 1944 commander of Fighter Squadron 11. After Walter Oesau he fell on May 20, 1944 took over his successor as commodore of Jagdgeschwader 1. On January 30, 1945 Herbert Ihlefeld was promoted to colonel . Most recently, Ihlefeld and the pilots of JG-1 flew the Heinkel He 162 fighter , an early jet-powered fighter . After the Germans surrendered, he handed over fifteen operational aircraft to the Allied military authorities. The aircraft he last flown with the factory number 120230 is said to be in the United States today.

During the Second World War , Herbert Ihlefeld made over 1000 enemy flights, was shot down eight times and achieved 132 victories, including nine kills in Spain, 67 on the Eastern Front and 56 on the Western Front, including 15 victories against four-engine heavy bombers .

Ihlefeld ended his military career after the Second World War. Ihlefeld did not join the newly founded Federal Air Force. He settled in Lower Saxony, where he died in 1995. His urn grave is in the old cemetery of Kirchheim unter Teck (Baden-Württemberg).

Awards

• Spain cross in gold
• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class
• Wound badge in black
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with oak leaves and swords
  • Knight's Cross on September 13, 1940
  • Oak leaves on June 27, 1941 (16th award)
  • Swords on April 24, 1942 (9th award)
• German cross in gold on April 9, 1942
• mentioned six times in the Wehrmacht report , on June 27, 1941, March 26, 1942, March 31, 1942, April 20, 1942, April 21, 1942 and on April 23, 1942

Others

Herbert Ihlefeld was a member of the Air Force aerobatic team.

See also

• List of German fighter pilots in World War II
• List of bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Fighter Pilots
  • Oak leaves
  • Swords

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tony Holmes: Spitfire Vs Bf 109: Battle of Britain. P. 9 books.google.de
2. ^ Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in World War II. P. 47 books.google.de
3. ↑ On the field of honor: a history of the Knight's Cross bearers , R. James Bender Publishing, 1979, p. 122 books.google.de
4. ↑ Walter Musciano: The famous Me 109 and their pilots. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1955, ISBN 3-89350-557-1 , p. 142.
5. ↑ Harold A. Skaarup: Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC Warbird Survivors 2003: A Handbook on Where to Find Them. iUniverse, 2003, ISBN 978-0-595-27412-3 , p. 147 books.google.de
6. ↑ Ernst Obermaier: The Knight's Cross bearers of the Air Force. Volume I. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, ISBN 3-87341-065-6 , p. 31 (other sources speak of 7 kills in Spain and thus a total of 130 aerial victories)
7. ↑ ^{a b} German agricultural policy. Volume 1–2, Edition 3, 1942, p. 423 books.google.de
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. 413.
9. ↑ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. Volume 2. Parkland-Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89340-063-X , p. 167.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. Volume 3. Parkland-Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89340-063-X , pp. 69, 74, 91, 92 and 93.

literature

• Ernst Obermaier: The Air Force Knight's Cross bearers. Volume I, Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, ISBN 3-87341-065-6 .
• Tony Holmes: Spitfire vs. Bf 109: Battle of Britain . In: Duel . tape 5 . Osprey, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-190-8 , pp. 47 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• John A. Weal: More Bf 109 aces of the Russian front . In: Tony Holmes (Ed.): Osprey aircraft of the aces . tape 76 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-177-9 , pp. 9 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• John A. Weal: Bf 109 Defense of the Reich aces . In: Aircraft of the Aces . 1st edition. tape 68 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2006, ISBN 1-84176-879-0 , pp. 33 ( limited preview in Google Book search).