Gerhard Thyben

Gerhard Thyben (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.

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.

Thyben was born on 24 February 1922 in Kiel, at the time the capital of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein, a free State of Prussia in the Weimar Republic. Following graduation from school, he volunteered for military service in the Luftwaffe on 15 July 1940. He completed his recruit training with Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment 43 (43rd Aviators Training Regiment) in Wien-Stammersdorf and was then transferred to 3./Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment 32 (3rd company of the 32nd Aviators Training Regiment) in Rochefort-en-Terre for flight training on 14 October. On 15 November he was transferred to another flight school where he was promoted to Gefreiter (Privat First Class) on 1 July 1941.

On 16 September 1941, Thyben was posted to the Jagdfliegervorschule 2 (2nd fighter pilot pre-school), passing this course on 14 December. He was then transferred to the Jagdfliegerschule 5 (5th fighter pilot school) in Wien-Schwechat. There, for disciplinary reasons, he was arrested for six days in April and further five days in May 1942. After he completed his fighter pilot training on 1 November, Thyben was then posted to the 3. Staffel (3rd squadron) of Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost, a specialized training unit for new fighter pilots destined for the Eastern Front, and on 13 November to 1. Staffel of Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Süd. On 13 December 1942, Thyben was posted to the II. Gruppe (3rd group) ofJagdgeschwader 3 "Udet" (JG 3—3rd Fighter Wing), named after the World War I fighter ace Ernst Udet. This Gruppe was then based on the southern sector of the Eastern Front and Thyben was assigned to 6. Staffel.

On 30 September 1944, Thyben was credited with his 100th aerial victory. He was the 93rd Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.

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. 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.

Aerial victory claims

Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and state that Thyben was credited with 157 aerial victories. This figure includes 152 aerial victories on the Eastern Front and 5 over the Western Allies.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 34 Ost 79142". 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 km). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (25 May 1943)
  • 1st Class (10 July 1943)
• Honour Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 6 September 1943 as Unteroffizier and pilot
• German Cross in Gold on 24 October 1943 as Feldwebel in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 3
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 6 December 1944 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 7./Jagdgeschwader 54
  • 822nd Oak Leaves on 8 April 1945 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 7./Jagdgeschwader 54