Friedrich Rumpelhardt

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Friedrich "Fritz" Rumpelhardt
Friedrich Rumpelhardt.jpg
Nickname(s) "Fritz"
Born 19 June 1920
Nordhalden
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Kehl
Allegiance  Nazi Germany
Service/branch Luftwaffe
Years of service 1940–45
Rank Leutnant
Unit NJG 1
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Friedrich "Fritz" Rumpelhardt (19 June 1920 – 20 January 2011) was a highly decorated Leutnant in the Luftwaffe during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

During his career he participated in 130 missions as a Bordfunker (radio/radar operator) with Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 and Nachtjagdgeschwader 4, and participated in 100 aerial victories as a crewman with Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer from October 1942 (as a Unteroffizier) until the end of the war. He was the most successful radar operator—in terms of aerial victories claimed—in the Luftwaffe night fighter force.[1]

Career

Lichtenstein cathode-ray tubes:
 • The left tube indicated other aircraft ahead as bumps.
 • The centre tube indicated range to a specific target and whether they were higher or lower.
 • The right tube indicated whether the target was to left or right.[2]

Rumpelhardt was born 19 June 1920 in Nordhalden near Konstanz, at the time in the Republic of Baden of the German Reich during the Weimar Republic. He was one of three sons of the teacher Emil Rumpelhardt and his wife Rosa. Both his twin brothers were killed in action as Luftwaffe pilots during the war.[3]

As a Leutnant he was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in July 1944 and was nominated for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves on 8 March 1945.

In the late nineties Rumpelhardt self-published an 119 page account of his wartime experiences, "Meine Geschichte und die meiner Familie: Die Zeit des Kriegsdienstes".

Awards and decorations

Notes

  1. According to Hinchliffe on 20 March 1944.[4]
  2. According to Hinchliffe and Scherzer on 8 August 1944.[4][8]

References

Citations
  1. Obermaier 1989, p. 190.
  2. Hinchliffe 1999, p. 56.
  3. Hinchliffe 1999, p. 29.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Hinchliffe 1999, p. 251.
  5. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 391.
  6. Patzwall 2008, p. 175.
  7. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 299.
  8. Scherzer 2007, p. 645.
Bibliography
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External links