who was fighter ace walter nowotny why was he important to aviation history and what were
the facts of his death hello again i'm colin heaton former professor of history former army
and marine sniper and these questions will be answered on this segment of forgotten history
walter nowotny nicknamed novi was born on december 7th 1920 in gmuend, austria his brother rudolf
said that he aspired to be a professional soccer player and was an excellent striker
however World War II got in the way he joined the Luftwaffe on one october 1939. his flying training
was completed at Jaegerliegerchule or fighter school 5 at Schwechat near Vienna february 23
1941 saw Nowotny assigned to the 9 Staffel of the third group of Jagdeschwader 54.
on February 23rd that very day he flew his first combat mission
he also met fellow luminaries Hans Phillip and his commodore Hannes Trautloft
he scored his first victories over Oesel Island on July 19 1941 when he shot down two Russian
I-153 biplane fighters he was then shot down in his Messerschmitt 109 E7 by another I-153
flown by the future Russian ace Aleksandr Adveev who scored 13 victories during the war but was
killed in action on August 12th 1942. the battle took place over Riga Bay Adveev's plane was also
shot down and he subsequently spent a months in the hospital due to his injuries
sustained during the crash his victim Nowotny spent three days and nights floating in the cold
Baltic Sea in a rubber dinghy them Nowotny finally reached the shore suffering from
hypothermia He was awarded of the Knight's Cross on September 4th for 56 victories in June 1943
he shot down 41 enemy aircraft and 49 victories were recorded for the month of August 1943.
In September when he shot down 45 aircraft. That was his top month with claims but not all claims
were verified as victories. This was when he met his best friend and longest serving wingman
Karl "Quax'" schnoerrer. On September 1st 1943 he shot down 10 enemy aircraft, five were shot down in the
space of 12 minutes during a morning mission and another five shot down in nine minutes at noon for
his second mission. He shot down six enemy aircraft the next day and his score stood at 189 victories
On September 4th first lieutenant or Oberleutnant nowotny was awarded the 293rd
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves. He shot down five enemy aircraft on September 8th
including his 200th victory on the 14th and 15th of September. He shot down six aircraft on each
day to raise his score to 215 victories. As a result he was the 37th recipient of the Swords
to the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 22nd September for 218 victories. During his last 10
days on the Eastern Front ending on October 14 1943 Nowotny shot down 32 more aircraft.
That day his score rose to 250. He was the first pilot in history to break 250 victories
that made him the top scoring fighter ace of the Luftwaffe and the world. On October 19th
he became the eighth recipient of the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross. Only 27 Diamonds would be
awarded during the entire war and 10 of those were awarded to Luftwaffe pilots .
As a result Nazi propaganda went ballistic and he was removed from combat on Hermann Goering's
direct order in mid-November as was standard for Diamonds recipients. Just before he returned
to Germany his wingman and best friend Schnoerrer was severely wounded while shooting
down an Il-2 diving on Nowtany. Another Il-2 shot up Schnoerrer's 190 setting it on fire. Schoerrer
had to bail out only 130 feet above the ground. The parachute just opened when he impacted breaking
both of his legs and fracturing his skull. During that fight Nowotny also lost his friend Anton
Doebele who was killed in action. Nowotny disobeyed his orders to arrive in Berlin staying with Karl
"Quax" for several days never leaving his bedside until a call from Gallad forced him to leave.
During the following months the propaganda tours continued but on April 1st 1944 now Captain Walter
Nowotny was appointed as Kommodore of JG-101 which was a training fighter base in Pul, France.
Galland's persuasion with Hitler allowed him to bring Nowotny back into the war and newly promoted
Major Nowotny took command of what became Kommando Nowotny in September using the Me-262 jet. They
operated from two airfields northwest of Osnabrueck Achmer and Hesepe. He brought his old friend Quax
with him. On November 7th Adolf Galland, General of the Fighters arrived to monitor the activities of
Kommando Nowotny along with Georg-Peter Eder the executive officer that monitored radio traffic.
The next day on November 8th 1944 the unit scrambled to intercept a large American
B-17 and B-24 formation. Nowotny was having problems with his jet, it would not start, but after a
small repair he was up in the air following Franz Schall who had taken off on the bomber intercept.
Schnorrer took off as well but would not be able to engage due to another technical error
even though he was not officially assigned to the unit. During their interviews Galland
and Eder described hearing combat above the clouds. Nowotny reported
he had downed a B-24 bomber and a P-51 mustang and had struck several other bombers but no confirms.
He then reported that he had an engine failure before making a transmission that was
garbled referring to having an engine on fire or burning. The result of this was First Lieutenant
Edward "Buddy" Hayden of the 364th Fighter Squadron 357th Fighter Group describing the encounter.
As he saw the jet he began to pursue it but he lost it around the tree line staying below the
anti-aircraft fire. He managed to pull right and then left and then right again and came up on the
tail of Nowotny's 262. He did not fire his guns as he was closing so fast when he cut power he pulled
alongside. Haydon looked at Nowotny's face he saw Nowotny thrashing in the cockpit in panic because
NOwotny knew that he was not going to be able to escape this and then the 262 engine smoked out
and Nowotny rotated to the left and impacted into the ground. At that same time Captain Ernest
Fiebelkorn of the 20th Fighter Group was shooting at Nowotny but was too far away to have any
appreciable damage. However both of them did share the victory the Nowotny's plane went down at 12:45
that day just near the Achmer airfield close to Hessepe. Walter Nowotny's legend as a Focke-Wulf
pilot became widespread throughout the Luftwaffe. His his funeral was attended by all the luminaries
even Goering and Hitler attended at a distance. His parents were there to receive his medals and
Galland had called him the best Focke-Wulf pilot that the Luftwaffe, and saying he was as good in
deflection shooting as Hans-Joachim Marseille, The Star of Africa both of them being Galland favorites.
If you want to learn more about Walter Nowotny and the history of the Messerschmitt Me-262 as
well as the personalities mentioned in this video please look at my books on Amazon. Above the Reich,
The German Aces Speak (speak volumes one and two) and The Me-262 Stormbird. We hope you've enjoyed this
segment of Forgotten History with the story of Walter Nowotny. Please click "like" and subscribe and
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