Gerhard Thyben

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Gerhard Thyben
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2007-1218-500, Gerhard Thyben.jpg
Gerhard Thyben
Nickname(s) Gerd
Born (1922-02-24)24 February 1922
Kiel
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Santiago de Cali, Colombia
Allegiance  Nazi Germany
Service/branch Balkenkreuz.svg Luftwaffe
Years of service 1940–45
Rank Oberleutnant
Unit JG 3, JG 54
Commands held 7./JG 54
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Other work La Violencia (Colombian Conflict, as instructor)

Gerhard Theben (24 February 1922 – 4 September 2006) was a German former Luftwaffe fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves during World War II. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat.[1]

Gerhard "Gerd" Thyben flew 385 combat missions and claimed 157 aerial victories. He claimed 152 victories on the Eastern Front, including 28 Il-2 Sturmoviks and five victories on the Western Front. He flew 22 fighter-bomber missions on which he claimed two aircraft and seven trucks destroyed on the ground.

Biography

Gerhard Thyben was born on 24 February 1922 in Kiel. He volunteered for military service in the Luftwaffe in late 1940 and by summer 1941 gained his pilot's licence. On 30 September 1944, Thyben was credited with his 100th aerial victory. He was the 93rd Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.[2]

On 8 May 1945 he claimed his last victory over the Baltic Sea. He shot down a Petlyakov Pe-2 that was almost certainly looking for German refugee ships escaping from the besieged Courland Pocket. Thyben caught the reconnaissance Pe-2 at 07:54 and achieved what very well might have been the last Focke-Wulf Fw 190 victory of World War II.[3] The Pe-2 crew, consisting of Starshiy Leytenant Grigoriy Davidenko, Kapitan Aleksey Grachev, and Starshina Mikhail Murashko were all killed in the engagement. Thyben surrendered to the British on touching down. Following his release in 1946 he traveled to Spain and Argentina before serving as an instructor with the Colombian Air Force.

Awards

Notes

  1. According to Obermaier on 30 August 1943.[6]
  2. According to Scherzer as Leutnant and pilot in the 7./Jagdgeschwader 54[9]

References

Citations

  1. Spick 1996, pp. 3–4.
  2. Obermaier 1989, p. 244.
  3. Weal 2001, p. 117.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Thomas 1998, p. 381.
  5. Patzwall 2008, p. 205.
  6. Obermaier 1989, p. 75.
  7. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 476.
  8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 423.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Scherzer 2007, p. 745.
  10. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 101.

Bibliography

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External links

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