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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. CareerOn 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.[1] 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 (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe) on 25 May.[2] On 17 December 1943, Ewald made a forced landing in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6.[3] On 21 March 1944, he was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery in his Bf 109 G-6.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] 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 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) before deploying his parachute.[7] On 30 September, II. Gruppe moved to Nagyrábé. Here on 6 October, Ewald claimed his first aerial victory following his injuries sustained on 24 June when he shot down a Yakovlev Yak-11 aircraft.[8] He received the German Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold) on 30 November.[9] On 18 January, II. Gruppe relocated to Veszprém where they stayed until 21 March. Here the Gruppe supported the 6th Army fighting in Operation Konrad III in an attempt to relieve the siege of Budapest. Here, Ewald claimed an aerial victory over an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft the next day, a Douglas A-20 Havoc bomber, also named "Boston", on 20 January. On 22 January, he was credited with four Lavochkin La-5 fighters shot down near Stuhlweißenburg, present-day Székesfehérvár, followed by another La-5 on 30 January and 2 February, and two La-5s on 4 February.[10] Squadron leaderOn 15 February 1945, Ewald 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.[11] 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.[12] 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 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) near the front line.[13] 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 Il-2 ground-attack aircraft and a Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter on 15 and 16 April, taking his total to 84.[14] Four days later on 20 April, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), the last pilot of II. Gruppe to receive this distinction.[15][16][17] Ewald was held as a Prisoner of War at Fürstenfeldbruck Lager from 8 May until 22 June 1945. Summary of careerAerial victory claimsAccording to US historian David T. Zabecki, Ewald was credited with 84 aerial victories.[18] Spick also lists Ewald with 84 aerial victories claimed in 396 combat missions.[19] Mathews 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 P-51 fighter, plus 16 further unconfirmed claims. All of his confirmed victories were claimed on the Eastern Front.[20] Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 34 Ost 66562". 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 km2). 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.[21]
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