Gerhard Sommer ( pilot ) Gerhard Sommer ( 14 September 1919 – 12 May 1944 ) was a German Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II . The Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership - for the fighter pilots , it was a quantifiable measure of skill and combat success . Gerhard Sommer was killed on 12 May 1944 after aerial combat with P - 47 fighters . He was posthumously awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 July 1944 . During his career he was credited with 20 aerial victories , all on the Western front . Career . Born 14 September 1919 at Steipleis near Zwickau in Saxony . After completing his pilot training , about December 1941 , Leutnant Sommer was posted to the 3rd " Staffel " of " Jagdgeschwader 1 " ( 3 . / JG 1 ) . At the time the unit was on Reich Defence duties , and relatively quiet covering the north - western approaches across the North Sea . It was not until 11 August 1942 that he scored his first victory - an RAF Wellington bomber southwest of Helgoland island . In autumn 1942 he was transferred and promoted to Staffelkapitän ( Squadron Leader ) of 1 . / JG 1 . It was 26 February 1943 before he scored his second victory - a B - 17 of the 8th US Bomber Command , the first of his 15 " Viermot " ( 4 - engined bomber ) victories . Having started in late January , the daylight incursions from the American bombers would become constant and steadily increase in size . However , with the Allied escort fighters forced to turn back as they neared the German frontier for lack of fuel , the German commanders had the time to carefully improve and hone their combat tactics against these mighty opponents . The threat was quickly appreciated and a new air unit , JG 11 , was authorised to be set up for Reich defence , by drawing on the experienced cadre of pilots in JG 1 . Thus , on 1 April 1943 , Sommer ' s squadron 1 . / JG 1 was redesignated 4 . / JG 11 . So by 17 April , when the Americans made their first and only raid in April , ( on the Focke Wulf factory in Bremen ) the Luftwaffe could now field over 20 squadrons of Bf109 and Fw190 fighters and it proved to be the costliest raid ( Mission # 50 ) to date : 16 of the 115 bombers were shot down . Although Sommer himself didn ' t add to his tally that day , Heinz Knoke and his pilots of sister - squadron 5 . / JG 11 had a degree of success by air - to - air bombing - dropping bombs into the middle of the bomber formations , primed on a short time - delay fuse , to break up and scatter the formation to make individual aircraft more vulnerable . Sommer did score a B - 24 victory ( his 4th overall ) on the 14 May raid ( Mission # 56 on the submarine pens at Kiel ) , and his 5th a week later ( a B - 17 over Wilhelmshaven ) . About this time , II . / JG 11 was re - equipping with Bf109G - 6 ' gunboats ' , carrying a pair of underwing 30mm cannons for a far - heavier punch . Now an experienced pilot against the " Viermots " Sommer ' s tally steadily rose and he scored a victory on most of the American raids in 1943 . The odds were now stacking up against the American bombers , still without fighter cover over a good third of their mission , and with increasing numbers of Luftwaffe fighters drawn into Reich Defence . For example on 13 June , where Sommer scored his 7th victory , the Mission # 62 on Kiel lost a catastrophic 22 bombers out of 60 sent . Desperate to provide any sort of fighter cover , the Allies were trying to develop jettisonable fuel - tanks on their P - 47D Thunderbolts to give them extra range . The last week of July was designated by the Allies for Operation " Gomorrah " - a 6 - day round - the - clock pounding of the Reich by the Americans by day and the British by night ( including the devastating Hamburg fire - raid of 27 July ) . Sommer shot down 3 bombers that week , taking his tally now to 11 victories . Missing the carnage of the combined Schweinfurt / Regensburg raids ( # 84 ) in August , Sommer ' s next victory was a B - 17 on 27 September . This raid marked the operational debut of the long - range P - 47s , now finally able to escort the bombers well into the Reich , and despite Sommer ' s success , II . / 11 took its heaviest losses to date . Reflecting the change in the airwar over the Reich , Sommer ' s three victories ( 15 - 17v . ) in December 1943 were all P - 47 escort fighters . Another aspect was the vast increase in numbers - his 18th victory , a B - 17 , was one of 650 bombers sent on Mission # 182 to bomb the aircraft factories in the Brunswick area . The bad weather of January 1944 limited operations but February saw the advent of the P - 51 Mustang - a fighter capable of escorting the bombers for the full 100 % mission distance , forever tipping the scales in the Allies favour in the Rich bombing campaign . February 20 was the start of Operation " Avalanche " , better known as ' Big Week ' , a coordinated assault on the Luftwaffe , its airfields and its factories , then in March attention turned to Berlin . Gerhard Sommer would not survive the war though - he scored a final " Viermot " on the Berlin raid of 29 April ( Mission # 327 ) , in what would be the last time in the war that the 8th USAAF lost over 60 bombers on a mission . Promoted to Hauptmann on 1 May , his last victory was a P - 47 fighter on yet another Berlin raid , on 8 May . Four days later , on 12 May , still as the " StaKa " ( " Staffelkapitän " ) of 4 . / JG 11 , he was shot down and killed in his Bf109 G - 6 ' White 14 ' ( W . Nr 140028 ) by P - 47 fighters south of Bielefeld . At the time of his death , Hauptmann Sommer was 25 years old and one of the Luftwaffe ' s highest scoring " Viermot - Töters " ( Bomber - killers ) with 14 ( or 15 ) of his confirmed 20 victories being " Viermots " . In recognition of this he was awarded a posthumous Knight ' s Cross on 27 July 1944 .