Bomber pilots.

[krichter33]

I'm doing some research into German bomber pilots. I was wondering if anyone had a list, or could point me to a book or link that had such information on the top bomber pilots, based on missions flown, and (or) shipping destroyed. Any help on such information or literature would be appreciated. Also as a side note, if anyone knew of any literature that dealt with the top Stuka, and Schlacht pilots (based on missions flown, tanks destroyed, air kills, ect), other than Obermaier's book, as well as the top Recon, and transport pilots (missions flown), any book or link would be greatly appreciated. There has already been plenty written on Ritterkreuztrager of the Jagdflieger, so I am thinking about working on a book(s) on Ritterkreuztrager (and successful pilots not necessarily awarded the RK) of those other flying units. Sorry for the long post...Thanks.

Klaus Richter

[Doug Stankey]

The most obvious source choices are:

Brütting , Georg. Das Waren die Deutschen Kampfflieger-Asse 1939-1945 (Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1981).
Brütting , Georg. Das Waren die Deutschen Stuka-Asse 1939-1945 (Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1984).


which cover exactly what you are asking about. Unfortunately there is nothing corresponding for transports or recon.

For certain bomber units there are also:
Schumann, Ralf. Die Ritterkreuzträger des Kampfgeschwader 1 ‘Hindenburg’ (Zweibrücken: Heinz Nickel Verlag, 2000). ISBN 3-925480-40-4.
Schumann, Ralf. Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945 des KG 2 ‘Hölzhammer’ (Zweibrucken: VDM Heinz Nickel, 2003). ISBN 3-925480-77-3.
Schumann, Ralf. Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945 des LG 1 (Zweibrucken: VDM Heinz Nickel, 2007). ISBN 3-978-3-86619-013-9.
Schumann, Ralf. Ritterkreuzträger Profile Nr. 1 Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (Stengelheim: Unitec/Flugzeug Publikations GmbH) ISBN - none?
Schumann, Ralf. Ritterkreuzträger Profile Nr. 2 Rudolf Winnerl (Stengelheim: Unitec/Flugzeug Publikations GmbH) ISBN - none?
Schumann, Ralf. Ritterkreuzträger Profile Nr. 3 Hermann Graf (Stengelheim: Unitec/Flugzeug Publikations GmbH) ISBN - none?

You could also troll through:
http://www.das-ritterkreuz.de/
which tries to list all the Ritterkreuz holders (but misses some!)

What might also help is:
http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-4...-Luftwaffe.htm
which is very detailed but misses about 60% of them!

Apart from the above there is only fragmentary information scattered over many many sources.

Good Luck!

DGS

[krichter33]

Thanks for the reply. I have the Brutting and most of the Schumann books... Just trying to cover as much as I can. There seems to be enough info about Kampfflieger, Stukaflieger, and Schlachtflieger. The real problem is finding info on the Transport and Recon RK winners.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Klaus -

The two books listed below will give you a list of all the Nahaufklärungsflieger and Fernaufklärungsflieger who were Ritterkreuzträger. There were 52 of the former and 66 of the latter. As for the Transportflieger, lot’s of luck. There were very few Ritterkreuz awardees from this branch, perhaps 5 to 10 at most.

Nowarra, Heinz J. Nahaufklärer 1910-1945: Die Augen des Heeres (Motorbuch Verlag: Stuttgart, 1981).
Nowarra, Heinz J. Fernaufklärer 1915-1945: Entstehung, Entwicklung, Einsatz (Motorbuch Verlag: Stuttgart, 1982).

L.

[Andy Mitchell]

For the Transport units look to Transporter v1 from Martin Pegg part of the Luftwaffe Colours/Classic Colours series from Classic/Ian Allan.

page 64 will give you a list of 43 RK holders for the Transport Units for the period 1940 to 1945.


If you are interested in DKiG holders then please refer to the datafile that can be downloaded from the Luftwaffedata Wiki

[leonventer]

Hi Klaus,

The best resource on Transportflieger is this book:

• "Die deutschen Transportflieger im Zweiten Weltkrieg" by Fritz Morzik and Gerhard Hümmelchen, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1966, 320 pages

The book covers organization and aircraft (20%) and transport operations in all theaters (80%.) It lists forty Transportflieger Ritterkreuzträger, the first being awarded on May 11 1940 and the last on Feb 28 1945.

Hope that helps,
Leon Venter

[Larry deZeng]

40, 43, hmmm........

I wonder if maybe some of those listed were assigned to a Transport unit at the time the award was bestowed, but were actually getting it for a large number of Feindflüge flown while serving in bomber units? There was considerable assigning back and forth of personnel between the Kampfflieger, C- and BF-Schulen and Transportflieger branches, with bomber crews often being moved to transports after accumulating a hefty number of combat missions. These happened especially during 1943-44 when the Kampfflieger were in decline and the other branches were in their ascendancy. What they held in common was the multi-engine "B" license with bad weather and instrument training and this made them interchangeable to a large extent. There are lot's of examples of this in the records. A minor point, but possibly worth a thought.

L.

[krichter33]

Wow! Thank you guys for all the great info. I really appreciate it.

[byron-]

a very interesting book about reconnaissance aircrafts is the attached

[krichter33]

Byron, does that book "Aufklarer" by Wadman have any info on RK winners?