# Walter Borchers

Walter Borchers (22 January 1916 – 6 March 1945) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator and wing commander during World War II. As a flying ace, he was credited with 59 aerial victories, including 43 nocturnal victories, 10 as a destroyer pilot and 6 four-engined bombers at day time, claimed in roughly 300 combat missions. Prior to his death he held the position of wing commander of the 5th Night Fighter Wing.

## Biography

Walter Borchers was born on 22 January 1916 in Ofen in Ammerland, Duchy of Oldenburg as the third of three brothers, all of whom would be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during the course of World War II. His brother, Major Adolf Borchers received the Knight's Cross on 22 November 1944 as Staffelkapitän of 11./Jagdgeschwader 51 "Mölders". A second brother, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hermann Borchers received the Knight's Cross on 16 October 1944 as commander of the I. Battalion of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 19.
Borchers was a member of the 5th Staffel (squadron) of Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76—76th Destroyer Wing) at the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939. He became the Staffelkapitän of 5./ZG 76 in the fall of 1940. He claimed 10 aerial victories during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain.

### Night fighter career

Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, RAF attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defence of the Reich campaign. By mid-1940, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Josef Kammhuber had established a night air defense system dubbed the Kammhuber Line. It consisted of a series of control sectors equipped with radars and searchlights and an associated night fighter. Each sector named a Himmelbett (canopy bed) would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers. In 1941, the Luftwaffe started equipping night fighters with airborne radar such as the Lichtenstein radar. This airborne radar did not come into general use until early 1942.
Borchers' Staffel was transformed to the 8. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (NJG 3—3rd Night Fighter Wing) in the fall of 1941, flying night fighter missions in Defence of the Reich. Borchers claimed his first nocturnal aerial victory on the night of 3 March 1943. He claimed his 12th and 15th against the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) heavies—four-engined strategic bombers—in 1943. Still an Oberleutnant, he was made Gruppenkommandeur of the III./Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 (NJG 5—5th Night Fighter Wing) on 22 April 1943, leading the Gruppe (group) until 15 March 1944. In this position he claimed a further six nocturnal victories and four heavy USAAF bombers shot down.

### Wing commander

He was promoted to Major and took command of NJG 5 as Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) on 15 March, succeeding Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 27 July 1944 by which time he had achieved 45 aerial victories in total.
Having claimed an Avro Lancaster, Borchers was shot down and killed in action on the night of 6 March 1945 by a long-range British night fighter north of Altenburg. Flying Junkers Ju 88 G-6 "C9+GA" (Werknummer 622 319—factory number) his air gunner parachuted to safety while his radio operator Leutnant Friedrich Reul was also killed. Borchers had been nominated for the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross which he never received. His victors were Wing Commander Walter Gibb and Flying Officer Kendall of No 239 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF), part of No. 100 Group RAF, flying a de Havilland Mosquito night fighter

## Summary of career
### Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Borchers was credited with 59 aerial victories. Foreman, Parry and Mathews, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 32 nocturnal victory claims. Mathews and Foreman also published Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, listing Borchers with additional eleven aerial victories claimed as a Zerstörer pilot.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 4317". The Luftwaffe grid map (Jägermeldenetz) 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 360 square miles (930 km$^2$). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.
Chronicle of aerial victories :
| Claim (total) | Claim (nocturnal) | Date | Time | Type | Location | Serial No./Squadron No. |
| – 4. Staffel of Zerstörergeschwader 76 – |||||||
| 1 | | 17 May 1940 | 12:40 | M.S.406 | | |
| 2 | | 29 May 1940 | 14:00 | Spitfire | | |
| 3 | | 8 June 1940 | 17:40 | Hawk 75 | | |
| 4 | | 22 June 1940 | 17:50 | M.S.406 | | |
| 5 | | 15 August 1940 | 19:05 | Spitfire | south of Salisbury | |
| 6 | | 30 August 1940 | 12:30 | Hurricane | | |
| 7 | | 4 September 1940 | 14:05 | Spitfire | | |
| 8 | | 4 September 1940 | 14:10 | Spitfire | 10 km (6.2 mi) south of London | |
| 9 | | 4 September 1940 | 14:35 | Hurricane | 10 km (6.2 mi) south of London | |
| 10 | | 11 September 1940 | 17:05 | Hurricane | south of Portsmouth | |
| – 5. Staffel of Zerstörergeschwader 76 – |||||||
| 11 | | 20 August 1941 | 15:35 | Spitfire | PQ 4317 | |
| – 8. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 – |||||||
| 12 | 1 | 3 March 1943 | 22:30 | Wellington | east of Emden | |
| – Stab III. Gruppe of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 – |||||||
| 13 | 2 | 18 March 1943 | 15:45 | B-24 | Jade Bight 50–100 km (31–62 mi) northwest of Jade Bight | |
| 14 | 3 | 5 April 1943 | 00:46 | Wellington | 70 km (43 mi) west of Terschelling | Wellington HE432/428 Ghost Squadron |
| 15 | 4 | 17 April 1943 | 13:45 | B-17 | PQ 05 Ost 7412 | B-17 42-5337/91st Bombardment Group |
| 16 | 5 | 24 August 1943 | 01:14 | Stirling | Helenau | |
| 17 | 6 | 1 September 1943 | 00:50 | Stirling | south of Berlin | |
| 18 | 7 | 4 September 1943 | 00:45 | Lancaster | 10 km (6.2 mi) south-southeast of Neuruppin | |
| 19 | 8 | 16 December 1943 | 20:08 | Lancaster | 10 km (6.2 mi) northeast of Berlin | |
| 20 | 9 | 4 January 1944 | 12:45 | B-24 | | |
| 21 | 10 | 5 January 1944 | 11:50 | B-24 | | |
| – 7. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 – |||||||
| 22 | 11 | 25 May 1944 | 00:54 | four-engined bomber | 30 km (19 mi) west of Aachen | |
| – Stab of Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 – |||||||
| 23 | 12 | 8 June 1944 | 02:21 | four-engined bomber | 30 km (19 mi) west of Paris | Lancaster LL864/No. 115 Squadron |
| 24 | 13 | 8 June 1944 | 02:29 | four-engined bomber | 35 km (22 mi) west of Paris | |
| 25 | 14 | 8 June 1944 | 02:31 | four-engined bomber | 30 km (19 mi) west-southwest of Paris | |
| 26 | 15 | 25 June 1944 | 00:25 | four-engined bomber | PQ QD | |
| 27 | 16 | 25 June 1944 | 00:48 | four-engined bomber | PQ NB-3 | |
| 28 | 17 | 5 July 1944 | 01:50 | four-engined bomber | Amiens | |
| 29 | 18 | 16 July 1944 | 01:35 | four-engined bomber | Châlons-sur-Marne | |
| 30 | 19 | 29 July 1944 | 01:58 | four-engined bomber | northwest of Stuttgart | Lancaster PB172/No. 100 Squadron RAF |
| 31 | 20 | 15 October 1944 | 19:23 | PS-84 | | |
| 32 | 21 | 23 October 1944 | 18:09 | DB-3 | Eastern Front | |
| 33 | 22 | 14/15 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 34 | 23 | 14/15 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 35 | 24 | 14/15 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 36 | 25 | 15/16 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 37 | 26 | 15/16 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 38 | 27 | 15/16 January 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 39 | 28 | 8/9 February 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 40 | 29 | 8/9 February 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 41 | 30 | 8/9 February 1945 | — | Lancaster | Western Front | |
| 42 | 31 | 5/6 March 1945 | — | four-engined bomber | Western Front | |
| 43 | 32 | 5/6 March 1945 | — | four-engined bomber | Western Front | |

### Awards

* Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st Class
* German Cross in Gold on 12 July 1943 as Oberleutnant in the 8./Nachtjagdgeschwader 3
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 July 1944 as Major and Gruppenkommandeur of the III./Nachtjagdgeschwader 5.