Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer
HeinzWolfgang Schnaufer was a German Luftwaffe night fighter pilot and is the highest scoring night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during combat. All of his 121 victories were claimed during World War II at night, mostly against British fourengine bombers, for which he was awarded the coveted Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds onOctober 1944, Germanys highest military decoration at the time. He was nicknamed The Spook of St. Trond, from the location of his units base in occupied Belgium.
HeinzWolfgang Schnaufer was born onFebruary 1922 in Calw, located in the Free Peoples State of Wrttemberg of the German Reich, during the Weimar Republic era. He was the first of four children of mechanical engineer and merchant Alfred Schnaufer and his wife Martha, ne Frey. The other three children were his brother Manfred, his sister Waltraut and his brother Eckart. His father owned and operated the family business, the winery SchnauferSchlossbergkellerei , in the Lederstrae, Calw.
Source: Wikipedia