Schnaufer, Heinz Wolfgang

After graduating from the flight school, he served in the 1st and 4th night fighter aviation Luftwaffe squadrons.

Piloted only fighter Messerschmitt Bf . 110 . His first aircraft - the Handley Page Halifax bomber - shot down in the sky over Belgium on the night of June 1 to 2, 1942, while being wounded in the leg.

During the war, made 164 night sorties, gaining 121 night victories in the air, 114 of them over the English 4-engine bombers.

In May 1945, he surrendered to British troops and was released from captivity in 1946, after which he took up winemaking .

Died July 15, 1950 in a hospital in Bordeaux from the effects of a head injury sustained in a collision of a truck with his sports car in the area of Biarritz ( France ).

Unlike the best night experts, Schnaufer sat at the helm of a night fighter right after the flight school. As part of Group II / NJG 1, he operated in the Himmelbett air defense system. He won his first victory on June 2, 1942, but for almost a whole year his successes were few. The combat report of May 29, 1943 reads:

“At about 00.35 I was aimed at intercepting an enemy aircraft flying at an altitude of 3500 meters. The airborne radar detected it, and following the instructions of operator Baro, at 00.45 I could see in the sky to the right and above me a heavy four-engine bomber of the enemy. The enemy was desperately trying to slip away but I didn’t let him go and attacked from below from a distance of about 80 meters. After my turn from the cannons, the left wing of the bomber was engulfed in flames. The flaming plane banked and began to fall. At 00.48 it hit the ground and exploded. "

Ten minutes passed from the moment of receiving the directives from the ground command post to visual contact with the enemy, and only three minutes from the visual detection of an enemy aircraft until it crashed into flames, enveloped in flames. The chase was slow and painstaking, and the attack was quick and deadly.

By August 1943, Schnaufer's victory list reached 23, and he was appointed squadron commander 12./NJG 1. At about the same time, his talented radar operator Franz Rumpelhard became his partner, destroying 100 enemy aircraft with him and understanding him perfectly. Schnaufer previously had two operators - Baro, with whom he won 12 victories, and Erich Handke (8). Subsequently, Handke made a successful company to Martin Drews. Another member of this lucky crew in the Luftwaffe’s night aviation was Gansler, an exceptionally sharp-sighted sniper shooter. Gansler shared with the crews 115 victories, of which 17 - with Ludwig Becker and 98 - after the transfer, with the team of Schnaufer.

When Rumpelhardt took his place behind the radar screen, the score of Schnaufer's victories began to grow rapidly. On the night of December 16-17, 1943, four British “Lancaster” became its victims, as a result of which the list of ace increased to 40 downed aircraft. The weather that night was just disgusting, and in the dense clouds Schnaufer literally flew to the airfield by touch. He nevertheless managed to land the plane safely, emerging from the cloud only 30 meters above the runway, is another example of his outstanding flying skills.

During 1944, Schnaufer shot down 64 enemy aircraft (this record was never broken), and many of these victories were achieved in conditions of qualitative and quantitative superiority of the enemy. He destroyed the last 15 aircraft in the final year of the war, nine of them during the day on February 21. In total, Schnaufer has 121 shot down aircraft. The secret of his success lies in his excellent fighter ownership, great accuracy of firing, and, of course, in the unrivaled Rumpelhard as a radar operator. Schnaufer flew only on the Messerschmitt Bf 110.

• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd class - 06/02/1942
  • 1st grade - September 1942
• German cross in gold - 08/16/1943
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
  • Knight's Cross - 12/31/1943
  • Oak leaves - 06/24/1944
  • Swords - 07/30/1944 (84th awarded)
  • Diamonds - 10/16/1944 (21st awarded)
• Breastplate "For the wound" in black - 1942
• Pilot and observer badge in gold with diamonds
• Aircraft bar for night battles in gold
• “ Luftwaffe Cup of Honor ” - 07/26/1943
• Mention in the "Wehrmachtbericht" - 10/10/1944

• Florian Berger. Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges. - 2. - Wien: Selbstverlag Florian Berger, 2000 .-- 415 p. - ISBN 3-9501307-0-5 .
• Walther-Peer Fellgiebel . Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. - Friedburg: Podzun-Pallas, 1986.- 472 p. - ISBN 3-790-90284-5 .
• Fritjof Schaulen. Eichenlaubträger 1940 - 1945. Zeitgeschichte in Farbe. Band III: Radusch - Zwernemann. - Selent: Pour le Mérite Verlag, 2005 .-- Vol. 3. - 158 p. - ISBN 3-932-38122-X .

• Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer on the site “Corner of the Sky” (Russian) (inaccessible link) . airwar.ru. Archived on May 14, 2012.
• Biography of Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (German) (inaccessible link) . lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de. Archived on August 5, 2011.
• Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer on the website of Peter Kashi (English) (inaccessible link) . luftwaffe.cz. Archived on June 17, 2008.