[Aero007]

Hello gentlemen,

first of all thank you so much for all your answers and I’m so
sorry that it took so long, to reply them.
Well I don’t know exactly if he shot down this Spitfire but in his
diary he wrote that he had one Mission on this day and he wrote
about an Shot down Spitfire in 7000m and 150 Shots MG and 50 shots of the cannon were fired with an explosion while impacting.
I also have a few pictures of him with a Bf 109 E (or T) and a FW 190 (possibly A-Variant), as well as one picture with a description that he and his Wingman (maybe with the first name „Fritz“ or „Günther“) shot down the first Aircraft at Norway’s coast in high altitude.
So I think that either he shot down this Spitfire or his Wingman.
Two weeks before this accident he flew to Denmark to catch a new FW-190 Yellow 10 and a FW-190 Yellow 4 and after that he met with Lt. Schmidt (possibly Ludwig Schmidt of 2./JG5) in Kastrup/Denmark and finally flew back to Herdla.
On the 16th July 1942 he flew the FW-190 Yellow 4 and scrambled.
So I guess that he flew the FW-190 Yellow 4 while attacking the Spitfire.
That’s all I know but I will attach the pictures of him as well as the important diary entries.

To Brian:

Sorry but I don’t have anything of his time serving with the JG77.
I only found the Postal Code of this Squadron in his Diary as well as on a letter of him.

Here are all the Informations of Lt. Lepper, I found in his diary’s:

Leutnant Helmut Lepper

Born: 28. März 1920
Place of birth: Wahnhausen/Kassel
Place of residence: Obervellmar/Kassel, Schulstraße 4

Ranks:

Gefreiter
Unteroffizier
Feldwebel
Leutnant at 17.09.1942

Auszeichnungen:

Flugzeugführerabzeichen at 12. November 1940 (Nr.: 61606)
Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse
Frontflugspange f. Jagdflieger in Bronze
Frontflugspange f. Jagdflieger in Silber
Frontflugspange f. Jagdflieger in Gold at 03.08.1942
Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse at 25.03.1943
Bulgarisches Flugzeugführerabzeichen ?? at 24.01.1944

Units:

3.Staffel Jagdfliegerschule 3 Stolp-Reitz
3.Staffel Jagdgruppe Drontheim in Grove/Dänemark
Feldpostnr.: 37833 b. 3.Staffel I.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 77
Feldpostnr.: 36938 b. 13.Staffel I.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 77
Feldpostnr.: 02415 b. 14.Staffel 4.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 5
Feldpostnr.: 37610 b. 2.Staffel 1.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 5
Feldpostnr.: 21608 b. 1.Staffel 1.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 5
Feldpostnr.: 09462 bei 4.Staffel Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost (Instructor f. FW-190)

Possibly Claims:

30.07.1942 1 Spitfire in 7000m exploded whilst impacting (150 Shots MG, 50 Shots Cannon)
07.03.1942 1 Spitfire in 5600m ???

Known Aircrafts:

Fw-190 (A?) (Yellow +4)
Fw-190 (A?) (Yellow +10)
Fw-190 A3 (Yellow +7) WerkNr.: 2152