New article about a Bf 110 gunner

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi,

The latest Air War Publications eArticle is available on our website, and it is a story about a category of Luftwaffe personnel that is often ignored: a gunner from a Zerstörergeschwader. It is called The Life of Martin Heinze - Stories of a Successful Luftwaffe Tail-gunner, and Tim Oliver has written a very interesting piece about the life of Heinze, who flew many Bf 110 missions between 1940 and 1944 in most theatres of war, serving with several very successful pilots.

Martin Heinze and his pilots claimed numerous aerial victories, and also participated in important ground-attack missions on vital sectors of the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1943. Further missions ensued in North Africa and Sicily, over the Bay of Biscay, and finally in defence of the Reich. Awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold, Martin Heinze would close out his flying days in the last months of 1944, but survived the war after several lucky escapes - one of which saw him awarded the Wound Badge in Black. He was credited with two aerial victories of his own, and could count Herbert Kutscha and Alfred Gräb amongst a slew of other pilots with whom he flew.

Tim has pieced together Martin Heinze’s experiences based almost entirely on his wartime records and personal documents. Also featured are numerous photographs of Heinze, his pilots, and Messerschmitt Bf 110s from his units.

We hope our readers enjoy Tim's article about this very experienced Luftwaffe airman. It can be purchased here: The Life of Martin Heinze.

All the best,
Andrew, Morten and Adam

Air War Publications