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In the morning
of April 29, 1944, Major Heinz Bär in his Fw 190
A-7, led 27 other Fw 190s from II./JG 1, in the first attack
against the American bombers, heading for Berlin. At 10:46 Bär
shot down a P-47 Thunderbolt - his victory No 201 - and three
minutes later he downed a B-24 Liberator. "Pritzl" Bär belongs to the most well-known and talented fighter pilots of World War II. When he achieved his 200th victory flying another Fw 190, "Red 23", on April 22, 1944, he had recently re-started his career. Bär had a total of 113 victories to his credit when he was transferred to the Mediterranean area together with his unit, I./JG 77, in June 1942. During the final battle in North Africa from October 1942 onward, Bär succeeded in downing 45 Allied aircraft. The hard conditions in North Africa together with the defeat in sight however wore down Bär physically and mentally. He was relieved from his command under disgracing forms and sent to Germany to "rehabilitate". Bär ended the war in Gallands´s "squadron of the outcast", the Me 262-equipped JV 44. He was killed in 1957, in a light plane accident in Germany. |
