Hans Waldmann (fighter pilot)

Hans Peter Waldmann (24 September 1922 – 18 March 1945) was a German Luftwaffe (Air Force) fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.

Waldmann received the award after he had shot down 85 enemy aircraft.

In total, he was credited with 134 aerial victories accumulated in 527 combat missions.

Waldmann was born in Braunschweig in the Free State of Brunswick on 24 September 1922.

He was the second son of Ludwig Waldmann, a bank manager, and his wife Maria.

Waldmann had an older brother Paul.

In 1928 he attended the Volksschule, a primary school, in the Comenius-Street.

Over Easter in 1932 he transferred to the humanities-oriented secondary school Wilhelm-Gymnasium.

In 1938, Waldmann applied for a career as an officer in the Luftwaffe for the first time.

Travelling to Berlin, he was deemed suitable but at the age of 16 was too young to volunteer for military service.

After the outbreak of World War II, while still at school, Waldmann and his fellow students were forced into compulsory labour service (Reichsarbeitsdienst).

Waldmann was assigned to the Brunswick Mechanical Engineering Institute.

Since Waldmann had intended to study aircraft construction after his military service, he was reassigned to the Institute of Aeronautical Metrology and Flight Meteorology at the Braunschweig-Waggum airfield under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Heinrich Koppe.

Born in Braunschweig, Waldmann volunteered for service in the Luftwaffe in 1940.

At the end of March 1940, Waldmann graduated from school with his Abitur (diploma).

After this he was accepted into the Luftwaffe, two years after his initial application.

Commencing in July 1940, he undertook 12 weeks of basic military training with Fliegerausbildungsregiment 72 (72nd Flight Training Regiment) at Fels am Wagram in Austria.

Upon completion, Waldmann was transferred to the Flugzeugführerschule A/B 72 (flight school for the pilot license) at Markersdorf near Sankt Pölten in early October 1940.

Eight days later his training group returned to Fels am Wagram because Markersdorf was overcrowded with other flight courses.

Thus flight training started on the improvised airfield without hangars at Fels am Wagram.

His first familiarisation flight was on 16 October 1940, in a Bücker Bü 131 "Jungmann" biplane marked "VTAF".

Waldmann logged his first solo flight on 13 November 1940 at 09:17 in a Bü 131 "CGNL", landing again after six minutes of flight time.

His training group returned to Markersdorf in February 1941.

From here, he conducted his first cross-country flights on the Bü 131 "Jungmann" as well as the Focke-Wulf Fw 44 "Stieglitz".

The majority of the cross-country flights were flown on the Gotha Go 145.

From 4 April to 28 April 1941 he made the round trip from Markersdorf to Pocking, Nürnberg, Ettingshausen, Ingolstadt, Zwickau, Hildesheim, Braunschweig, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Delmenhorst, Halberstadt and Fürth.

At Ettingshausen he received instruction in formation flying and aerobatics.

By August 1941 Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had been underway for two months, and after completing his A/B flight training at Markersdorf Waldmann was transferred to the Jagdfliegerschule 6 (6th Fighter Pilot School) at Lachen-Speyerdorf near Neustadt an der Weinstraße.

After training at various pilot and fighter-pilot schools, he was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing), operating on the Eastern Front, in August 1942.

Here Waldmann fought in the aerial battles over Stalingrad, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the Crimea.

He was credited with 84 aerial victories before briefly being transferred to the Western Front, where he was credited with one aerial victory.

He completed the final phase of his fighter pilot training in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, from 3 June to 17 August 1942, before transferring to the front.

Holding the rank of Unteroffizier, a non-commissioned officer similar in rank to sergeant, on 20 August 1942 Waldmann was tasked with shuttling new Messerschmitt Bf 109Gs from a factory at Krakau to units on the Eastern Front.

Along with six other newly trained pilots, he reached Lemberg where the group was scheduled for a stop over.

Bad weather closed in and Waldmann was the only one to take off before the group was grounded.

Getting away at 17:55, he headed for Proskuriv.

The next day he continued his journey to Uman, 230 km south of Kiev in Ukraine.

Back on the Eastern Front, Waldmann accumulated further victories, bringing his score to 125 victories by end of May 1944.

He then fought in the skies over France after the Western Allied Invasion of Normandy, claiming seven aerial victories, before converting to the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter in late 1944.

Flying the Me 262, Waldmann shot down two North American P-51 Mustangs on 22 February 1945 before being killed in a mid-air collision with one of his squadron members on 18 March 1945 near Schwarzenbek, Holstein.