The Luftwaffe’s Last Battle
On the 7th of May 1945, Jodl, the German Chief of Staff, signed Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Western Allies, in Reims, France. The surrender was to be effective the next day, the 8th of May. The German high command had been trying to delay that surrender for days (since the death of Hitler, 30th of April 1945), as they were still in the process of trying to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers from the Eastern Front, where vengeful Soviet troops were on a rampage.
On the 8th of May, just before the surrender deadline, three Luftwaffe pilots would score Germany’s last air kills of the war. All occurred on the Eastern Front.
Gerhard Thyben’s Final Victory
Gerhard Thyben, an ace with 156 victories, took off with his FW-190 and headed to the Baltic, where German convoys were running the gauntlet of Soviet submarines and bombers, evacuating civilian refugees and troops from Eastern Prussia and the Courtland Pocket. There, he spotted a Soviet bomber looking for German shipping and dispatched it, scoring his 157th victory. He then flew toward British-occupied Germany, landed his plane, and casually surrendered. Gerhard became a flight instructor with the Colombian Air Force after the war.
Erich Hartmann’s Record Kill
Erich Hartmann, the German ace of aces with 351 air kills, took off with his Bf-109K and flew over Soviet lines, where he spotted a Soviet fighter formation. He attacked and quickly scored his 352nd air victory. He then disengaged and flew to American-occupied Germany, where he surrendered. However, the Americans handed the Luftwaffe pilot over to the Soviets, who wanted him and had nicknamed him “the Black Devil”: 350 of his victories had been achieved against Soviet pilots! Erich spent 10 years in Soviet captivity. Upon his release, he went straight back to serving as an officer in the newly minted West German Air Force! He flew Canadair Sabres, F-84 Thunderjets, and F-104 Starfighters. His outspoken criticism of the F-104 Starfighter earned him an early retirement in 1970. He subsequently became a civilian flight instructor.
Fritz Stehle’s Historic Last Kill
Fritz Stehle had 25 victories to his name on the last day of the war, but 10 of them were on the Me-262, making him one of 40 German jet aces. He took off shortly before the surrender deadline and went on the search for a Soviet plane. He found a fighter which he quickly shot down, scoring his 11th kill while flying the Me-262 (his 26th air victory). He then turned around and landed on a British-occupied airbase where he surrendered. He scored the very last German air victory of the war. History buffs and technology geeks will appreciate the fact the Luftwaffe’s last air victory was scored by a jet fighter – a passing of the torch of some sort, the ushering of a new era. Fritz Stehle’s Me-262 was subsequently transported to Canada for evaluation.
The Luftwaffe was formally dissolved by the Allied Control Council on August the 20th, 1946.
-RBM.
