Friedrich Beckh Oberstleutnant Friedrich Beckh ( born 17 January 1908 in Nuremberg – killed in action 21 June 1942 near Charkow on the Eastern front ) was 48 victory - Luftwaffe flying ace and recipient of the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . The Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership . He held the position of Geschwaderkommodore of fighter wing Jagdgeschwader 51 and Jagdgeschwader 52 . Biography . Born in 1908 in Nuremberg , he was a career soldier having joined the cavalry in 1926 as part of the - then 100 , 000 strong German Army . He joined the Luftwaffe with the rank of Oberleutnant in 1935 and trained to be a fighter pilot but Beckh had no particular aptitude for flying . By the time World War II broke out he had already occupied several positions on the General Staff and because of his age did not fly any combat sorties . Instead he was lecturing at the Air War Academy . It was during 1940 as Jägerverbindungsoffizier in the Luftgaukommando Wiesbaden ( fighter communications or liaison officer ) that he became close friends with Werner Mölders , the two men served in Jagdgeschwader 134 " Horst Wessel " . When Mölders became Geschwaderkommodore of JG 51 on 27 July 1940 he arranged for Beckh to transfer to his Geschwaderstab , as an officer on secondment from the General Staff . Beckh was nonetheless an enthusiastic fighter pilot . However there was one further factor in Beckh ' s make - up that would constitute something of a handicap when flying fighters . He was simply unable to see anything in the air . In fact , Beckh ' s eyesight had deteriorated considerably since he had first joined the Luftwaffe . During the opening weeks of Operation Barbarossa Beckh had considerable success , mostly in tandem with his Wingman Leutnant Bernd Gallowitsch , who at the time was credited with around twenty victories . The two pilots invariably returned from sorties with a victory each . On 21 July 1941 Beckh was appointed Geschwaderkommodore of JG 51 in succession to Werner Mölders and on 8 September while JG 51 supported Guderian ' s Panzerarmee in the battles around Kiev , Beckh claimed the Geschwader ' s 2000th victory . However on 16 September his luck ran out during a fighter sweep in his Bf 109 F - 2 and he was hit by flak , taking an incendiary round through the left foot . Two days after being wounded in action he was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross for 27 victories , 23 of them in Russia . He had also claimed around twenty aircraft destroyed on the ground . Initially he insisted on leading the Geschwader from the ground but on 3 October he was eventually admitted to a hospital with the foot infected . Beckh returned to the Geschwader on 21 December 1941 and he achieved approximately twenty further victories before being transferred back to the Reich Air Ministry on 9 April 1942 . He was then appointed Kommodore of JG 52 barely two months later following the death of Major Wilhelm Lessmann . On 21 June 1942 Beckh was airborne in his Bf 109 F - 4 " weiße 4 " W . Nr 13362 with his wingman for a low - level sortie of the type he preferred in the area of Izium - Kupiansk - Waluiki , east of Charkov . East of Waluiki the duo observed a Russian air base teeming with Russian fighters . Beckh threw his aircraft into combat against a large force of LaGG - 3s that appeared in the skies . While shooting down at least two Russian fighters , his wingman observed Beckh ' s F - 4 taking a number of flak hits before it too nosed down and appeared to plunge to the ground .