Wolf-Dietrich Huy
Wolf-Dietrich Huy (2 August 1917 – 13 July 2003) was a former Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War II. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. Career. Born on 2 August 1917 in Freiburg. "Oberleutnant" Huy joined "Trägergruppe" II./186 in July 1939. His first combat claim was a Spitfire on 31 May 1940. On 13 August 1940, Huy was appointed the first "Staffelkapitän" (squadron leader) of the newly  created 7. "Staffel" (7th squadron) of "Jagdgeschwader" 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing). By early 1941 Huy's staffel served mainly as a "Jaboflieger", flying ground support missions. During operations against Greece and Crete Huy carried out several successful attacks on shipping in an Bf 109F-4 coded 'White 1', ("Werknummer" 8334—factory number). III./JG 77 claimed some 34,000 tonnes of shipping sunk, including the 22,000 ton freighter 'Hellas' as well as damaging the Royal Navy cruiser HMS "Fiji" and a destroyer. On 22 May 1941, Huy led 7. "Staffel" of JG 77 which attacked the British battleship between 12:13 and 12:48  during the Battle of Crete. "Oberleutnant" Huth, "Feldwebel" Furth and "Unteroffizier" Pichler each had hit the "Warspite" and damaged her. The pilots had misidentified the ship and had reported an attack on HMS "Valiant". Following the operations in Crete, JG 77 was withdrawn to prepare for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on 22 June 1941, III. Gruppe supported the advance East as part of Army Group South, and scored heavily. Huy was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ("Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes") on 5 July 1941, awarded principally for his actions in  the Balkans and Crete. The award was presented by "Generalleutnant" Kurt Pflugbeil. III./JG 77 served in the Crimea through to early 1942. On 23 January 1942, his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 was damaged in aerial combat resulting in a forced landing at Tarpowka. His opponent may have been the Soviet pilot from 32 IAP, "Starshiy Leytenant" Mikhail Avdeyev. A Soviet offensive aimed at relieving Sevastopol ensued and "Oberleutnant" Huy claimed the Gruppe's 600th victory on 11 March, and his thirty-eight victory, but was then mistakenly shot down and wounded by German anti-aircraft fire. Huy was awarded the  Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves () on 17 March 1942. The presentation was made by Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg, present-day Kętrzyn in Poland. Also presented with awards that day by Hitler were "Hauptmann" Herbert Ihlefeld, who received the Swords to his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, and "Oberleutnant" Wolfgang Späte who was also honored with the Oak Leaves. Following his recovery from the wounds sustained in March, Huy returned to JG 77 on 2 August 1942, again taking command of 7. "Staffel". North Africa and prisoner  of war. On 23 October 1942, the British Eighth Army launched the Second Battle of El Alamein. Preceding this attack, the Luftwaffe had already planned to replace "Jagdgeschwader" 27 (JG 27—27th Fighter Wing), which had been fighting in North African theater, with JG 77. In preparation for this rotation, III. "Gruppe" of JG 77 was moved to Munich on 19 October where it was equipped with the Bf 109 G-2/trop. On 23 and 24 October, the "Gruppe" moved to Bari in southern Italy. The "Gruppe" then relocated to Tobruk Airfield on 26 October. The following day, the "Gruppe" moved  to an airfield at Tanyet-Harun. On 28 October, Huy claimed a Spitfire shot down near El Alamein. On 29 October, Huy was shot down in his Bf 109 G-2 ("Werknummer" 13633) and baled out. His victor was P/O JH Nicholls (an eventual 7-kill ace) flying a Supermarine Spitfire Vc of No. 601 Squadron. Huy survived the encounter and spent the rest of World War II as a prisoner of war. He was held in a POW camp near the Great Bitter Lake and released in March 1947. Huy died on 13 July 2003 in Gernsbach. Summary of  career. Aerial victory claims. According to Obermaier, Huy was credited with 40 aerial victories, including 37 on the Eastern Front, claimed in over 500 combat missions. Matthews and Foreman, authors of "Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims", researched the German Federal Archives and found documentation for 35 aerial victory claims, plus three further unconfirmed claims. This number of confirmed claims includes 34 on the Eastern Front and one on the Western Front. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = "Planquadrat"), for example "PQ 3629". The Luftwaffe grid map () 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 . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.