Walter_Borchers

Walter Borchers

Walter Borchers

German night fighter ace and wing commander

Walter Borchers (22 January 1916 – 6 March 1945) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator and wing commander during World War II. As a flying ace, he was credited with 59 aerial victories, including 43 nocturnal victories, 10 as a destroyer pilot and 6 four-engined bombers at day time, claimed in roughly 300 combat missions.[1] Prior to his death he held the position of wing commander of the 5th Night Fighter Wing.

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Biography

Walter Borchers was born on 22 January 1916 in Ofen in Ammerland, Duchy of Oldenburg as the third of three brothers, all of whom would be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during the course of World War II. His brother, Major Adolf Borchers received the Knight's Cross on 22 November 1944 as Staffelkapitän of 11./Jagdgeschwader 51 "Mölders". A second brother, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hermann Borchers received the Knight's Cross on 16 October 1944 as commander of the I. Battalion of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 19.[2]

Borchers was a member of the 5th Staffel (squadron) of Zerstörergeschwader 76 (ZG 76—76th Destroyer Wing) at the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939. He became the Staffelkapitän of 5./ZG 76 in the fall of 1940. He claimed 10 aerial victories during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain.[1]

Night fighter career

A map of part of the Kammhuber Line. The 'belt' and night fighter 'boxes' are shown.

Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, RAF attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defence of the Reich campaign.[3] By mid-1940, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Josef Kammhuber had established a night air defense system dubbed the Kammhuber Line. It consisted of a series of control sectors equipped with radars and searchlights and an associated night fighter. Each sector named a Himmelbett (canopy bed) would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers. In 1941, the Luftwaffe started equipping night fighters with airborne radar such as the Lichtenstein radar. This airborne radar did not come into general use until early 1942.[4]

Borchers' Staffel was transformed to the 8. Staffel of Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 (NJG 3—3rd Night Fighter Wing) in the fall of 1941, flying night fighter missions in Defence of the Reich. Borchers claimed his first nocturnal aerial victory on the night of 3 March 1943. He claimed his 12th and 15th against the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) heavies—four-engined strategic bombers—in 1943. Still an Oberleutnant, he was made Gruppenkommandeur of the III./Nachtjagdgeschwader 5 (NJG 5—5th Night Fighter Wing) on 22 April 1943, leading the Gruppe (group) until 15 March 1944.[5] In this position he claimed a further six nocturnal victories and four heavy USAAF bombers shot down.

Wing commander

He was promoted to Major and took command of NJG 5 as Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) on 15 March, succeeding Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld.[5] He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 27 July 1944 by which time he had achieved 45 aerial victories in total.[1]

Having claimed an Avro Lancaster, Borchers was shot down and killed in action on the night of 6 March 1945 by a long-range British night fighter north of Altenburg. Flying Junkers Ju 88 G-6 "C9+GA" (Werknummer 622 319—factory number) his air gunner parachuted to safety while his radio operator Leutnant Friedrich Reul was also killed. Borchers had been nominated for the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross which he never received.[1] His victors were Wing Commander Walter Gibb and Flying Officer Kendall of No 239 Squadron, Royal Air Force (RAF), part of No. 100 Group RAF, flying a de Havilland Mosquito night fighter[6]

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Borchers was credited with 59 aerial victories.[7] Foreman, Parry and Mathews, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 32 nocturnal victory claims.[8] Mathews and Foreman also published Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, listing Borchers with additional eleven aerial victories claimed as a Zerstörer pilot.[9]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 4317". 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 km2). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.[10]

More information Chronicle of aerial victories, Claim (total) ...

Awards

References

Citations

  1. [1]
    Obermaier 1989, p. 92.
  2. [2]
    Fellgiebel 2000, p. 140.
  3. [3]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 9.
  4. [4]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 27.
  5. [5]
    Aders 1978, p. 229.
  6. [6]
    Bowman 1998, p. 86.
  7. [7]
    Zabecki 2014, p. 1618.
  8. [8]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, pp. 68–240.
  9. [9]
    Mathews & Foreman 2014, pp. 127–128.
  10. [10]
    Planquadrat.
  11. [11]
    Mathews & Foreman 2014, p. 127.
  12. [12]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 68.
  13. [13]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 72.
  14. [14]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 73.
  15. [15]
    Wellington HE432.
  16. [16]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 75.
  17. [17]
    B-17 42-5337.
  18. [18]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 106.
  19. [19]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 109.
  20. [20]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 110.
  21. [21]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 133.
  22. [22]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 138.
  23. [23]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 179.
  24. [24]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 185.
  25. [25]
    Youngs 2021.
  26. [26]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 192.
  27. [27]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 193.
  28. [28]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 196.
  29. [29]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 201.
  30. [30]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 206.
  31. [31]
    Lancaster PB172.
  32. [32]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 220.
  33. [33]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 230.
  34. [34]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 234.
  35. [35]
    Foreman, Parry & Mathews 2004, p. 240.
  36. [36]
    Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 52.
  37. [37]
    Scherzer 2007, p. 235.

Bibliography

  • Aders, Gebhard (1978). History of the German Night Fighter Force, 1917–1945. London: Janes. ISBN 978-0-354-01247-8.
  • Bergström, Christer [in Swedish]. "Bergström Black Cross/Red Star website". Identifying a Luftwaffe Planquadrat. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  • Bowman, Martin W. (1998). Mosquito Fighter/Fighter-Bomber Units of World War 2. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-731-3.
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer [in German] (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
  • Foreman, John; Parry, Simon; Mathews, Johannes (2004). Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939–1945. Walton on Thames: Red Kite. ISBN 978-0-9538061-4-0.
  • Mathews, Andrew Johannes; Foreman, John (2014). Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims — Volume 1 A–F. Walton on Thames: Red Kite. ISBN 978-1-906592-18-9.
  • Obermaier, Ernst (1989). Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe Jagdflieger 1939 – 1945 [The Knight's Cross Bearers of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force 1939 – 1945] (in German). Mainz, Germany: Verlag Dieter Hoffmann. ISBN 978-3-87341-065-7.
  • Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
  • Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
  • Scutts, Jerry (1998). German Night Fighter Aces of World War 2. Aircraft of the Aces. Vol. 20. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-696-5.
  • Zabecki, David T., ed. (2014). Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-1-59884-981-3.
  • Accident description for Boeing B-17 42-5337 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 September 2022.
  • Accident description for Lancaster PB172 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 September 2022.
  • Accident description for Wellington HE432 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 12 September 2022.
  • Youngs, Kelvin (3 March 2021). "Archive Report: Allied Forces". AircrewRemembered.com. Great Yarmouth. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
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