Hermann Graf (24 October 1912 – 4 November 1988) was a German Luftwaffe World War II fighter ace. He served on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. He became the first pilot in aviation history to claim 200 aerial victories—that is, 200 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. In about 830 combat missions, he claimed a total of 212 aerial victories, almost all of which were achieved on the Eastern Front.
Graf, a pre-war football player and glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe and started flight training in 1936. He was initially selected for transport aviation but was subsequently posted to Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing) in May 1939. At the outbreak of war he was stationed on the Franco–German border flying uneventful patrols. He was then posted as a flight instructor stationed in Romania as part of a German military mission training Romanian pilots. Graf flew a few ground support missions in the closing days of the German invasion of Crete.
Following the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Graf claimed his first aerial victory on 4 August 1941. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross after 45 victories on 24 January 1942. It was during the second summer of the eastern campaign; however, that his success rate dramatically increased. By 16 September 1942 his number of victories had increased to 172 for which he was honored with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. At the time of its presentation to Graf it was Germany's highest military decoration. On 26 September 1942 he shot down his 200th enemy aircraft.
By then a national hero, Graf was withdrawn from combat operations and posted to a fighter pilot training school in France before being tasked with the setting up of a new special unit: Jagdgeschwader 50 (JG 50—Fighter Wing 50). Its mission was as a high-altitude unit to intercept the de Havilland Mosquito intruders. In November 1943 Graf returned to combat operations. He was appointed Geschwaderkommodore (Wing Commander) of Jagdgeschwader 11 (JG 11—11th Fighter Wing) and claimed his last and 212th aerial victory on 29 March 1944. He was severely injured during that encounter and, after a period of convalescence, became Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52—52nd Fighter Wing). He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to units of the United States Army on 8 May 1945, but were turned over to the Red Army. Graf was held in Soviet captivity until 1949. After the war he worked as an electronic sales manager and died after a long illness in his home town of Engen on 4 November 1988.
Early life Hermann Anton Graf was born on 24 October 1912 in EngenLuftwaffe Officer Career Summaries website. in what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden near Lake Constance and the border to Switzerland, the son of Wilhelm Graf (1878–1937), a farmer, and his wife Maria, née Sailer (1877–1953). He was the third of three children, with two older brothers, Wilhelm Wilhelm (1904–1981) and Josef Wilhelm (1909–1981). His father fought in and survived World War I as an artillery soldier, being awarded the Iron Cross. Postwar, the Weimar Inflation crisis of 1923 wiped out virtually all the family savings, and as a result, from a very early age, Graf had to work.
As a young boy, Graf was an avid footballer. He started with his local football club DJK Engen and later became a goalkeeper at FC Höhen. In his teens, he was selected to join a group of talented young players trained by Sepp Herberger. Herberger was a forward in the Germany national football team from 1921–1925, and later head coach of the German 1954 FIFA World Cup-winning team. However, a broken thumb ended Graf's early hopes for a professional football career.
Graf finished his Volksschule (primary school) in 1926 at the age of thirteen. Without the means to fund a higher education, Graf applied for an apprenticeship. For the next three years, he worked as a locksmith's apprentice at a local factory. A locksmith had a low income, so when offered work as an apprentice clerk, he gladly accepted a change in career.
Amateur pilot and joining the Luftwaffe Graf saw his first aircraft when he was twelve years old. This sight created a conflict between his passion for football and a new obsession with flying. From 1930, he worked at the Engen town hall and saved all his money to buy a glider. Before his 20th birthday, he provided a homemade glider to the new Engen Sailplane Club. Every Sunday he would go out to the nearby Ballenberg mountain until a heavy crash destroyed his glider in the fall of 1932. In 1935, after Adolf Hitler officially revoked the Treaty of Versailles, Graf applied for flight training in the newly created Luftwaffe.
Graf was accepted for the Luftwaffes A-level pilot training school in Karlsruhe on 2 June 1936. This training included theoretical and practical training in aerobatics, navigation, long-distance flights and deadstick landings. He graduated to the B1 school in Ulm-Dornstadt on 4 October 1937. The B courses included high-altitude flying, instrument flights, night landings and training to handle an aircraft in difficult situations. He subsequently completed his B2 training in Karlsruhe on 31 May 1938.
After graduating from the B2 school Graf was, at the age of 26, initially thought to be too old for fighter pilot training and was selected for the C school for transport pilots. On 31 May 1939, Graf passed officer-candidate training at Neubiberg. Because the fighter force was in dire need for new officers, Unteroffizier (a rank equivalent to sergeant) Graf was then transferred to 2. Staffel (2nd squadron) of I./Jagdgeschwader 51 (I./JG 51—1st group of the 51st fighter wing) at Bad Aibling . At this time I./JG 51 was equipped with one of the leading fighter aircraft of the time, the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-1. Graf, who had never flown a modern fighter aircraft before, ended his first flight in a Bf 109 with a crash. When I./JG 51 was briefly reequipped with the Czech-built Avia B-534 biplane in July 1939, it gave Graf an opportunity to prove his flying expertise as well as to restore his self-confidence.
World War II 1939–1940 When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, I./JG 51 was stationed by the French border at Speyer and Graf was promoted to Feldwebel (a higher grade of sergeant). The unit immediately exchanged the Avia B-534 biplanes for Bf 109s and was tasked to protect Germany's western border. During this period of the so-called "Phoney War", Graf flew 21 combat sorties without firing his guns and was still considered an unreliable pilot. On 20 January 1940, his Gruppenkommandeur (Group Commander) Hans-Heinrich Brustellin had Graf transferred to Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Merseburg, which was a training unit for new fighter pilots to receive tactical instruction from pilots with combat experience. This unit was commanded by Major Gotthard Handrick, the 1936 Olympic gold medalist in the modern pentathlon and former commander of Jagdgruppe 88 of the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War.
While at this training unit, Graf was promoted to Leutnant (equivalent to second lieutenant) on 1 May 1940. At Merseburg, Graf met and befriended two other pilot trainees, Alfred Grislawski and Heinrich Füllgrabe, with whom he would later spend much of his combat career. Their time spent in the unit meant they missed the air combat of the Battle of France and Battle of Britain. On 6 October 1940, Handrick was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of III./Jagdgeschwader 52 (III./JG 52). Handrick had some influence on the personnel rotation within his Gruppe and had Graf and Füllgrabe transferred to 9./JG 52 with him, where they rejoined Grislawski.
Service in Romania and invasion of Greece The rise of General Antonescu in Romania in 1940 led to a reorganization of his country's armed forces. In this, he was supported by a military mission from Germany, the Luftwaffenmission Rumänien (Luftwaffe Mission Romania) under the command of Generalleutnant (equivalent to major general) . Handrick's III./JG 52 was transferred to Bucharest in mid-October and temporarily renamed I./Jagdgeschwader 28 (I./JG 28) until 4 January 1941. Its primary task was to train Romanian Air Force personnel. Here, the trio of Graf, Füllgrabe and Grislawski was joined by Ernst Süß, and later by Leopold Steinbatz and Edmund Roßmann.
The airmen of 9./JG 28 spent a couple of relaxing months in Bucharest, outside the close scrutiny of Berlin. Graf even managed to play football when a Luftwaffe team played against Cyclope Bucharesti at the Bucharest Sports Arena before 30,000 spectators. During its time in Romania, the unit was witness to a major earthquake in November and an abortive civil war in January.
In March 1941, III./ JG 52 flew several sorties as aerial cover for the German 12th Army as it crossed the Danube into Bulgaria in preparation for the German intervention in the Greco-Italian War and its Balkan Campaign. During that operation, Graf's unit was kept back to defend the strategically vital Ploiești oilfields from Allied bombing raids, which never eventuated. In May, Graf was able to organise a second soccer international against a Romanian army team. For this, he called upon Herberger, now manager of the national team. Herberger arranged for several of the German squad to play, including an international debut by Fritz Walter. With Graf in goal, it was Walter who scored a hattrick in the 3–2 win.
In the third week of May 1941 a detachment of III./JG 52, including Graf, was transferred to southern Greece to support Operation Merkur, the German invasion of Crete. The unit flew mostly ground attack and anti-shipping missions during the fortnight it was based there but Graf did not engage in any aerial combat.
War against the Soviet Union By mid-June, III./JG 52 was back together in Bucharest and re-equipped with the new, more powerful Bf 109F-4 model. The Gruppe was not involved in most of the fighting in the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa as it was once again kept back to defend Ploiești and the Romanian ports from Soviet bombers. The pilots’ mood was not helped when Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, criticised the unit on 4 July for its lack of success compared to virtually all the other Jagdgruppen. On 1 August, after German advances had removed the threat of Soviet air attacks on Romania, the unit was transferred to the front line and the major Luftwaffe airbase at Belaya Tserkov in Ukraine south of Kiev. Graf achieved his first victory in the early hours of 4 August when his squadron was escorting a Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombing strike, shooting down one of a pair of attacking Polikarpov I-16 fighters. Despite his success, he was reprimanded by his squadron leader, because he had broken formation and forgotten to arm his guns before firing. His second victory was achieved the next day, although Graf was lucky to get away unscathed – landing his aircraft riddled with bullet holes.