The Signatories to the print Fighter
General
General Leutnant Walter Krupinski
Born in 1920 in eats Prussia, Walter Kuprinski joined the Luftwaffe as
a 19 year old on the day of the war. Commissioned as a Leutnant in 6/JG52
in February 1941. He was awarded the Knights Cross in October 1942 after
56 victories. promoted Staffelkapitan of 7?jg52 in March 1943. awarded Oak
leaves in march 1944 after 154 Victories. taking over II/JG11 on the
invasion of France and later III?JG26. he led that group until its
disbandment on 26th march 1945. Haupmann Krupinski joined
Adolf Galland's squadron of experts of JV44 scoring 2 victories in the
ME262 Jet. Bringing his total to 197 confirmed victories Krupinski's
5 wounds were recognised by the award of the Wound Badge in Gold.
Major Erich Rudorffer
Born in 1917, Rudorffer won his Ritter Kreuz in May 1941. Whilst with
JG2 he down 45 RAF planes over the Channel and a further 27 in
Tunisia. But it was with JG54 in Russia that he had his spectacular
victories, scoring 5 Soviet Aircraft in 4 minutes on one mission and 7
aircraft in 7 minutes. But his most outstanding feat of arial combat was
13 enemy aircraft in just 17 minutes. The Oak Leaves followed on April
1944 and the Crossed swords on January 1945. he finished the War as an Ace
on Jets with JG7 scoring 12 victories in the mE262. In his remarkable
career he never went on leave, was shot down 16 times, bailed out 9 times,
flew over 1,000 missions and scored 222 victories, the seventh highest
ranking expert.
Major Gerhard Schoepfel.
Born in 1912, Transferred to the Luftwaffe from the infantry in 1935,
he was Steffelkapitan 9/JG26 at the beginning of the war. he succeeded Galland
as Kommandeur of III?JG26 when Galland was promoted Kommodore and was
awarded the Knights Cross in September 1940. he took over as
Kommodore when Galland was Promoted. A post he held for just over a
year. Serving as fighter operations officer in Italy then JAFU, Norway and later Hungary. As Kommodore JG6 in Czechoslovakia he was
captured by the Russians and remained a prisoner of War until 1949. he
flew 700 combat missions with the Jadwaffe.
Major Heinz Lange
Began his combat in the polish Campaign and in 1939 shot down his first
aircraft, a British Blenheim Bomber, During the Battle of Britain he flew
76 missions. After service with JG 54 he was given command of
3/JG51. By May 1944 he led IV Gruppe JG51 and reached
his total of 70 victories being awarded the Knights Cross in November.
promoted Major was appointed Kommodore of Molders JG51 and in all flew 628
combat missions.
Colonel Heinz Marquardt
He was born in Braunsberg in 1922 and spent his entire combat time with
JG51 and in 320 combat missions with the Luftwaffe Heinze Negus Marquardt
was accredited with 121 aerial victories, all scored on the eastern Front.
Flying both the BF109 and FW190. With 16 more unconfirmed. He was himself
shot down 8 times and on 7th October 1944 he downed 8 enemy aircraft in
one day and was awarded the German Cross in September 1944 and the coveted
Knights Cross in November 1944.
Captain Ernst-Wilhelm Reimert
Born in 1919 this well known and highly decorated fighter pilot had by
21942 achieved over 100 victories on the eastern Front with JG27. He was
posted to Tunisia where he became the top scoring Luftwaffe Ace in this
theatre of war. With JG77 sent to Italy he continued to score spectacular
and ended the war flying 715 combat mission and scored 174 aerial
victories and was awarded the Knights Cross with oak leaves and Crossed
Swords.
Leutnant Fritz Tegtmeier
Born in 1917 he joined 2/JG-54 in October 1940, but after being injured
in a crash it wasn't until 1941 that he achieved his first victory. A
brief time as a fighter Instructor in 1943 he returned to the Russian
Front and his score soon started to mount, By May 1944 he had over 100
victories. August 1944 saw his appointment as Staffelkapitan of
3/JG-54. In March 1945 he transferred to JG-7 flying mE262 Jet. By
the end of the war he had flown 700 combat missions and had 146 victories.
he was awarded the Knights Cross.
Leutnant Peter Duttmann
Peter Duttmann Joined the luftwaffe at the beginning of the war and
after Fighter training was posted to 5/JG-52 in the Spring of 1943 and
stayed with this top-scoring unit until the end of the War when he
was a Staffel-Kapitan. he was shot down or crash landed 17 times and on 3
occasions landed far behind Russian lines and each time walked back to his
unit, sometimes taking days to do so. The 2 years
Peter spent on the front he flew 395 missions and had 152 confirmed
victories and more unconfirmed, all in the BF109 including2
tanks. His decorations include the Knights Cross and was
recommended for the Oak leaves at the very end of the war.
No Escape by David Pentland Bf109 G2 of Major Gunther Rall pursues and downs an unidentified
Soviet aircraft over the Caucasus, Russia, early Autumn 1943. Rall went
on to become the third highest scoring ace of all time, with 275
victories in only 621 missions.
The Last Patrol by David Pentland A pair of Bf109 G-14s of 9th
Staffel, Jagdgeswader 54 (Greenheart
Wing) make a final sortie during the last days of March 1945.
