Remember reading his book as a youngster for a couple of times!! Helmut Lipfert http://www.luftwaffe.cz/lipfert.html Helmut Lipfert was born on 6 August 1916 at Lippelsdorf / Thüringen. Leutnant Lipfert was assigned to JG 52 following flying training. On his arrival at Simovniki in Russia, Lipfert was assigned to 6./JG 52. He gained his first victory on his 18th combat mission shooting down a Russian LaGG-5 fighter. He achieved his 20th victory on 5 September 1943. During September Lipfert assumed command of 6./JG 52. By the end of 1943 his tally had reached 80, which included five enemy aircraft shot down on 8 October. His 100th victory was achieved on 11 April 1944 and his 150th on 24 October 1944. He had received the Ritterkreuz for his achievements. On 15 February 1945 Hauptmann Lipfert was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 53. He shot down his 200th victim on 8 April 1945. On 17 April 1945 he was awarded the Eichenlauben. Post-war Lipfert became a schoolteacher. He died on 10 August 1990. Helmut Lipfert was credited with 203 victories all achieved while operating over the Eastern front. Included in his total are two four-engined bombers and 36 Il-2 Sturmoviks. ------- Shot down 15 times over the Eastern Front from 1943 to 1945, Helmut Lipfert was never seriously injured in the course of his flying career. Only twenty eight months after his first score, he flew his 700th combat mission and scored his 203rd victory. He scored 100 victories in just 11 months, but the remaining 103 to total his score took 14 months as the tide turned against the Luftwaffe. A lack of fuel, spares, pilots and being outnumbered 10 to 1 at times in the air all contributed to the difficulty in scoring as the war wound down. http://www.luftwaffe-experten.com/pilots_day/H_Lipfert.html The War Diary of Hauptmann Helmut Lipfert JG 52 On the Russian Front o 1943-1945 Helmut Lipfert Werner Girbig ISBN: 0887404464 Aerial combat over the Russian front from one who knew it first hand. Hauptmann Helmut Lipfert's vivid portrayal of his experiences in JG 52 during the last three years of the Second World War will stand as one of the truly classic chronicles of the Jagdwaffe over Russia. JG 52 Experten Walter Krupinski, Erich Hartmann, Gerhard Barkhorn and Heinz Ewald make their way through Lipfert's memoirs in an epic tale of combat over the Caucasus, Crimea, Hungary, and Rumania during the late war years of 1943-1945. Lipfert begins the story with his early experiences in the Bf 109 G-2 over Russia in II/JG 52 in 1943, and ends with I/JG 53 in 1945 with 203 aerial victories, one of the few pilots in histiry to reach 200. This book is a rare view into the air war over Russia, when Luftwaffe pilots accumulated incredible kill tallies while facing overwhelming odds against them in mass assaults. http://www.schifferbooks.com/military/luftwaffe/inside/0887404464.html
Great stuff Kai, and at sometime--I would like to own a copy of his book. I wonder when Erich will see this?
Hot ace ! I remember when there was talk of the book coming out......JG 52 materials are almost unknown to me as I haven't much on Ost front activites during 41-44. E<
I recommend! At least when I was some 13 years old I read it some four times in a year and enjoyed every time reading it-the name bringing back memories and must admit I´ll have to get it myself as I borrowed it back then from a library. One funny thing comes to my mind. As I borrowed a lot of books I was one to be chosen to make an exhibition of the books in the local library what I recommended for reading...You know what it was like ( ). Actually I was surprised the library put up my books as it was war and science fiction...
I have the German Edition of Lipfert's Diary. Erich. Check http://www.jg52.de/chronic.htm Bernd Barbas is working on a 4 volume history. Also somewhere on the site a book about the career of "Bonafiafius" or something like that. I can't find it now. You can get it by mailing the webmaster of the site. I also have the autobiography of Heinz "Esau" Ewald WO WIR SIND IST IMMER OBEN, available @ http://www.ewald-net.com/esau/ The book came with a nice autographed picture postcard. Ewald died about a year ago. This book ties in nicely with Lipfert's Diary and the Bonaficius book. Together they give a real nice picture of JG52. I must say that the Ewald book (I don't have the third yet) is very well done. Good quality and some really nice pics. The you also got the Graf/Grislawski book coming out soon.
Thanks Stevin ! Yes I am in contact with Christer Bergström about the G/G book. My interest lies with the boys in the anti-Mossie JG 50 as we have some details in our book so I picked Christers brain about 2 years ago for some info's.....this book by him will be hot stuff !! also ealge-editions will be offeriing signed copies with Grislawski's sig in it ! Yes, Bernd Barbas and I go way back. The two of us discussed the colours of his Luftwaffe aces books some years ago and that with the JV 44 Würger staffel incorrectly called the Papegai staffel. He thought the underwings were black/white stripes and I told him they were red and white and he freaked out ! True from what I hear he is the JG 52 master along with Niko Fast. ^E
Up comes a thread from the murky past.... I've just finished reading 'The War Diary Of Helmut Lipfert' - a worthy addition to my library. In the English translation, the book does read a little 'flat' and it's clearly diary-based ( there's rather a lot of 'the next day I scored my 147th kill...' ) and one never really feels that one 'knows' Lipfert ( unlike, say, Steinhoff in 'The Straits Of Messina'). But there is much of interest to anyone who'd like to know more about the Eastern Front airwar, particularly with regard to tactics and weaponry. And yes, as mentioned elsewhere, the 3-cm Mk108-equipped Me109 does appear, but very late in 1944. Lipfert finds the destructive power to be fantastic, but suffers many instances of jamming. One for the enthusiast rather than the general reader - but first-hand accounts of airwar on the Ostfront are rare.....
Thanx Martin! One of the first WW2 books I ever read and I think one of the few I´ve read so many times. I think the only book that I have read more often is the " War of Troy " actually ( in the 1980´s ).
Hello gentlemen, Has anyone read Norbert Hannig's 'Luftwaffe Fighter Ace, From the Eastern Front to the Defense of the Homeland' ? Grubstreet 2004 And yes !!!, in october will 'Red Star Airacobra; Memoirs of a Soviet Fighter Ace, 1941-45' by Evgeniy Mariinski be available ! ( Helion & Company )
