Helmut Lipfert

Helmut Lipfert (6 August 1916 – 10 August 1990) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves. Lipfert ranks as the world's thirteenth fighter ace. Lipfert was credited with 203 victories achieved in 687 combat missions. All his victories were claimed over the Eastern front and included a P-51 Mustang, 41 Yakovlev Yak-1, 41 Yakovlev Yak-9 fighters, two four-engine bombers and 39 Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. He was shot down fifteen times, without being injured.

Biography
He is remembered by contemporaries as a consistent, professional pilot and leader. He withdrew often from squadron mates into long periods of contemplation. Helmut Lipfert joined the Luftwaffe in 1941 and underwent fighter pilot training. Lipfert was posted to 6./Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing), based on the Eastern Front, on 16 December 1942. His first kill was a Lavochkin La-5, a powerful radial engined fighter, on the 30 January 1943, in Malaya-Balabinka (Southern Russia). In September 1943, Lipfert assumed command of 6./JG 52. On 8 October, he shot down five Russian aircraft (kills 30 to 34). Four more are shot down on 5 December and his score raises to 72. By the end of 1943 his victories total had reached 80. On 5 April 1944 his 90th air victory had won him the Knight's Cross (Ritterkreuz). Six days later, 11 April 1944, an “all-white Sturmovik” provided him with his century. But the last Germans had to evacuate from Crimea in May, retiring to Kherson. There, the Luftwaffe Gruppen were subjected to near-constant Soviet bombing raids, and Lipfert's 6./JG 52, in particular, lost a number of aircraft. The 11 June 1944 he destroyed his first American four engined bomber, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress on the sky of Tateroi (victory number 127). Two weeks later, on the 24 of June, he downed a Consolidated B-24 Liberator over Ştefăneşti in the historical Romanian region of Moldavia ("victim" number 128). His 150th claim came on 24 October 1944: a Yakovlev Yak-7 over Feherto, Hungary. Hauptmann Lipfert was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 53 (based in Hungary) on 15 February 1945. And on 8 April 1945 was the last “experten” to pass quote 200. Eight days later, 16 April 1945, he shot down his last victim, a Yakovlev Yak-9, a formidable Russian dogfighter, in the sky of Goding. The following day he was awarded the Eichenlaub (Nr 837) for his 203 victories. After the dissolution of I./JG 53, Lipfert was transferred to 7./JG 52, until the end of the conflict. He claimed 27 unconfirmed victories. After the end of the war he was not turned over to the Soviet forces (unlike Erich Hartmann). After the war, he became a school teacher, and was seldom seen by his war comrades. He died on 10 August 1990

Awards

 * Iron Cross (1939)
 * 2nd Class (12 March 1943)
 * 1st Class (29 April 1943)
 * Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe for fighter pilots in gold (26 April 1943)
 * Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (14 November 1943)
 * German Cross in Gold on 28 January 1944 as Leutnant in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 52
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
 * Knight's Cross on 5 April 1944 as Leutnant of the Reserves and Staffelführer of the 6./Jagdgeschwader 52
 * 837th Oak Leaves on 17 April 1945 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Jagdgeschwader 53