Helmut Lipfert


Helmut Lipfert was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of Knight's Cross of the Iron 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.

Early life and career

Lipfert was born on 6 August 1916 in Lippelsdorf, present-day a borough of Gräfenthal, at the time in Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, as part of the German Empire. Following the compulsory labour service, Lipfert joined the military service with Nachrichten-Abteilung 37, a unit of 1st Panzer Division on 3 November 1937.

World War II

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland. Lipfert, who held the rank of Unteroffizier, participated in the Invasion of Poland and in the Battle of France as a member of the 1st Panzer Division. In early 1941, he transferred to the Luftwaffe where he trained as a fighter pilot. He was promoted to Fahnenjunker-Feldwebel on 16 June 1942 and to Leutnant on 1 August 1942.
Lipfert was then posted to the Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost based at Saint-Jean-d'Angély, France and then via the Frontleitstelle Krakau, front dispatch center based at Krakau, to 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 52 on 16 December 1942. At the time, JG 52 was based on the southern sector of the Eastern Front in the vicinity of Stalingrad.

Eastern Front

He is remembered by contemporaries as a consistent, professional pilot and leader. He withdrew often from squadron mates into long periods of contemplation. He claimed his first aerial victory over a Lavochkin La-5, a radial engined fighter aircraft, on the 30 January 1943, in Malaya-Balabinka.
On 20 March 1943, Lipfert was appointed acting Staffelkapitän of 4. Staffel of JG 52. He replaced Leutnant Wolf-Dieter von Coester in this capacity who had been killed in action that day. Following the death of Oberleutnant Karl Ritzenberger on 24 May, Lipfert was transferred to take command of 6. Staffel of JG 52. He was succeeded by Leutnant Heinrich Sturm as commander of 4. Staffel.
On 8 October, he shot down five Russian aircraft. 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 of the Iron Cross. Six days later, 11 April 1944, an "all-white Sturmovik" provided him with his 100th aerial victory. He was the 69th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.
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. On 11 June 1944 he destroyed his first American four engined bomber, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in the sky of Tateroi. Two weeks later, on the 24 of June, he downed a Consolidated B-24 Liberator over Ştefăneşti in the historical Romanian region of Moldavia. His 150th claim came on 24 October 1944: a Yakovlev Yak-7 over Feherto, Hungary. Lipfert was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 53 on 15 February 1945.
Lipfert claimed his 200th aerial victory in the vicinity of Hainburg an der Donau, west of Bratislava, on 8 April 1945. He flew his last and 687th combat mission on 16 April, claiming a Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter shot down, taking his total to 203 aerial victories. The next day, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. He was the 837th member of the German armed forces to be so honored. The presentation was made by Generalleutnant Paul Deichmann on 17 April.
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.

Later life

After the war, Lipfert became a school teacher, and was seldom seen by his war comrades. He died on 10 August 1990 in Einbeck.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 200 aerial victory claims, plus six further unconfirmed claims. This figure of confirmed claims includes 198 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and two on the Western Front, including one four-engined bomber.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 08693". The Luftwaffe grid map covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Awards