Victory
301
Biography
In 1104 missions, Gerhard Barkhorn managed to achieve 301 victories, which made of him the second fighter of the Luftwaffe and the second world ace
Born on March 20, 1919 in Konigsberg (East Prussia), Gerhard Barkhorn joined the Luftwaffe in 1938. A year later, he flew a Messerschmitt Bf-109 and began an air career that was to make him the second ace not only of Germany, but more people.
By ordinary standards, Barkhorn in his early days was far from being a prodigy pilot. Incorporated into Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG-2) "Richthofen" during the Battle of Britain, then transferred to II/JG-52 in August 1940, he did not achieve his first victory until 1941, when JG-52 moved to the Russian front for Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.
He shot down his first enemy aircraft on July 2 (when he was already on his 120th operational sortie). From then on, his score of confirmed victories progressed slowly, unlike that of many pilots engaged on this front. His best daily record was on July 20, 1942, when he shot down seven Soviet aircraft in a single sortie. Given the large number of Russian planes involved, it was not uncommon to see the Germans shoot down three or four on each mission. In this regard, the record was held by Erich Rudorffe, of JG-54, who, on November 6, 1943, shot down thirteen Soviet aircraft in a single sortie, while Emil Lang, of the same group, destroyed eighteen in the same day.
On August 23, 1942, after adding a fifty-ninth victory to his record, Gerhard Barkhorn was made a Knight of the Iron Cross; on December 19 of the same year, he shot down his hundredth aircraft.
In June 1943, Barkhorn was promoted to the rank of commander of JG-52. On November 30, having destroyed two hundred enemy planes, he placed himself, for the number of his victories, in the fifth rank of the German aces, near Hermann Graf, Hans Philipp, Günther Rall and Walter Nowotny. His two hundred and fiftieth success, obtained on February 13, 1944, earned him the swords on his Knight's Cross.
A year later, he had reached the prestigious total of three hundred victories, despite a long hospital stay. Indeed, one day in May 1944, Barkhorn, at the controls of his Bf-109, was escorting a formation of Stukas commanded by the famous ace Hans Ulrich Rude], who had specialized in the destruction of armored vehicles. It was the sixth escort mission of the day, and all were on their way home when the flight controller alerted the Messerschmitt pilots to the arrival of Soviet fighters. At that time, Barkhorn had 273 wins and relied a little too much on skill and luck. A Russian fighter swooped through the German formation and opened fire on its commander, shooting down Barkhorn's Messerschmitt. He had to be hospitalized for four months.
During his operational career, Barkhorn found himself struggling with most of the types of Soviet fighters, and even with Allied aircraft delivered to the USSR, such as the American Airacobra, the Hurricane or the English Spitfire. According to him, the best Russian fighter was the Yak 3.
His plane was shot down nine times, he himself parachuted twice and was also injured twice. During one mission, after attacking and setting fire to a Russian fighter, he escorted the flaming aircraft, signaling the pilot to jump, which he did. When asked why he wasn't done with his opponent sooner, he said:
"I thought this pilot was the boyfriend of a pretty Russian girl, whom he had the right to live and love, like us." In the summer of 1944, when Erich Hartmann passed the balance sheet of Barkhorn, he was among the first to congratulate his young friend. The two men - who also held each other in great esteem - were the only ones during the Second World War to shoot down more than three hundred aircraft (352 for Hartmann, 301 for Barkhorn). Hartmann was not the only one to recognize the merits of "Gerd" Barkhorn. Almost all surviving German pilots who knew him or served under him agree that he was one of the most respected Luftwaffe pilots of the war.
Appointed commander of JG-6 in 1945, he was then transferred to JV-44, the group of aces, to fly on the new Messerschmitt 262 jets. He only flew two missions on this aircraft and was shot down during the second. He was about to attack a formation of American bombers when his right engine failed. Having chased him, the Mustangs were quickly gaining on him and Barkhorn had no choice but to make a forced landing in rough terrain. He took the precaution of opening the canopy of his cockpit, ready to leave the aircraft as soon as it touched the ground. But he did not have time, his canopy having slid forward under the impact and the having touched the neck. This wound, which could have cost him his life, only earned him a stay in the hospital, and the war ended before he had a chance to return to combat.
In total, Gerhard Barkhorn had carried out 1,104 hunting missions. By his own admission, his toughest fight took place in 1943, during an encounter with a Soviet LaGG-3 fighter piloted by a Red Guard officer. The two planes chased each other for nearly forty minutes. Neither of the two pilots managing to dominate the other, they broke off the fight and each returned to his base. On landing, Barkhorn, covered in sweat, was convinced that his opponent must be in the same condition. This was high praise for the Soviet pilot, as Barkhorn was recognized by his comrades as one of the best dog-fighting pilots on the entire Eastern Front.
At the end of the war, Barkhorn was, like hundreds of other pilots, taken prisoner, but, fortunately for him, he fell into American hands, which spared him the long years of captivity in Russia.
In 1955, he entered the new Federal German Air Force and took refresher courses in the RAF, Wales. He had been made a colonel and later became a general, with the position of director of operations at the 4th ATAF (Allied Tactical Air Force) in Ramstein. Gerhard Barkhorn was still active in the mid-seventies.