Herbert Ihlefeld

Herbert Ihlefeld was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, a fighter ace credited with 132 enemy aircraft shot down in over 1,000 combat missions. He claimed nine victories in the Spanish Civil War, and during World War II, 67 on the Eastern Front and 56 on the Western Front, includingfourengined bombers andSupermarine Spitfires. He survived being shot down eight times during his 1,000 combat missions.

Ihlefeld was born onJune 1914 in Pinnow, at the time in the Province of Pomerania, a province of the Kingdom of Prussia, the son of a farm laborer. Following a machinist vocational education, he volunteered for military service in the Reichsheer onApril 1933. As a Grenadier, he was first posted to InfanterieRegiment based in Stettin and in 1934 was posted to the aviation technical school at Jterbog. In March 1937, he was assigned to the I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 132 Richthofen .

Source: Wikipedia