Heinz Ewald
Heinz "Esau" Ewald (1 September 1922 – 14 March 2002) was a Luftwaffe fighter 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. Heinz Ewald was credited with 84 victories in 395 combat missions. Career. On 1 December 1941 Ewald volunteered for military service. After his pilot training, which included flight training with the "Fliegerausbildungsregiment 23" in Kaufbeuren, he was posted, in the fall of 1943, to 6. "Staffel" (6th squadron) of "Jagdgeschwader  52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing) on the Eastern Front and was soon one of the best young pilots of his group. He frequently flew as wingman to Gerhard Barkhorn. On his fourth sortie, and on his first enemy encounter, he shot down his first opponent on 11 December 1943. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class, on 8 January 1944; the Iron Cross 1st Class on 7 March. He was promoted to Leutnant" (second lieutenant) on 1 May, and he received the Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe () on 25 May. On 17 December 1943, Ewald made a forced landing  in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6. On 21 March 1944, he was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery in his Bf 109 G-6. On 24 June, he was again shot down, this time in his Bf 109 G-6 ("Werknummer" 163568—factory number) during combat with Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers southeast of Malu Roșu, Ploiești and wounded. Prior to being shot down, Esau claimed a B-24 bomber. He made two attacks on the bomber. The first attack, which was made in a head on attack, damaged the bomber and separated it from its combat box. The second attack, which flown from  a stern direction, was observed to have shot down the B-24 bomber with its left wing on fire. Flying a third attack on the bomber formation, Ewald was hit by the defensive fire of another bomber. His engine caught fire and he was forced to bail out. Fearing to come to get shot in his parachute by an escorting fighter, he let himself fall to approximately before deploying his parachute. In October, he returned to the front in Hungary, where he received the German Cross in Gold () on 30 November. On 15 February 1945, Eawald succeeded "Oberleutnant" Helmut Lipfert as  Staffelkapitän (squadron leader of 6. "Staffel" of JG 52. On 1 March, the "Staffel" was redesignated and became the 7. "Staffel". That day, he was shot down in his Bf 109 G-10/U4 ("Werknummer" 610964) by German anti-aircraft artillery near the airfield at Vesprém. On 3 April, he made a strafing attack on Russian positions and came under attack of 12 North American P-51 Mustang resulting in a forced landing near the front line. II. "Gruppe" moved to an airfield at Brünn, present-day Brno in the Czech Republic, on 14 April. There, Ewald claimed his last four aerial  victories. That day, he shot down two Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft and a Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter on 15 and 16 April, taking his total to 84. Four days later on 20 April, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (). Ewald was held as a Prisoner of War at Fürstenfeldbruck Lager from 8 May until 22 June 1945. Summary of career. Aerial victory claims. According to Spick, Ewald was credited with 84 aerial victories claimed in 396 combat missions. Matthews and Foreman, authors of "Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims", researched the German Federal Archives and  found records for 82 aerial victory claims, including one North American P-51 Mustang, plus 16 further unconfirmed claims. All of his confirmed victories were claimed on the Eastern Front. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = "Planquadrat"), for example "PQ 34 Ost 66562". 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. Heinz Ewald