Walter Wolfrum joined 5./JG 52 in February 1943 operating on the Eastern Front, however he was not able to score his first victory until 25 May 1943. One year later his score stod at 32 confirmed victories. It was not until the next month that his found "his shooting eye" when in March 1944 he dispatched another 20 VVS aircraft .

By reaching a total of 52 Abschuss made Lt. Wolfrum the ninth most successful fighter pilot in his Gruppe. Hptm. Barkhorn led the scoring with 252 followed by Lt. Fönnekold with 116, Oblt. Batz with 101, Lt. Waldmann with 93, Lt. Sturm with 90. Additionally Fw. Sachsenberg had 76, Fw. Hoffmann 56, and Fw. Düttmann had 55 Abschüsse.

On 1 June Walter Wolfrum was appointed Staffelkapitän of 1./JG 52 and celebrated his 100th Abschüss. He was the 74th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. On 16 July, Wolfrum again became a double "ace-in-a-day" when he claimed ten aircraft shot down in combat near Kamionka, northeast of Lviv. Following these ten victories, he was severely wounded requiring a lengthy period of convalescence.

Walter Wolfrum would score his last 10 kills from 10 February including his two final claims filed on 17 April 1945, both Yak-9s downed in the vicinity of Görlitz. Finally during a control flight on 26 April he was wounded in a crash. After being treated for wounds in Trutow military hospital for two days he was told that the whole of JG 52 was to relocate to Deutsch Brod and that he should join his Staffel there.

However not fully recovered he took his car. However as the Czeck uprising has started he was force to turn back to Schweidnitz near Königsgrätz in a hope for find the III./JG 52 Gruppe based there. Luckily remnants of the unit was still in at the base, and a stroke of luck for Wolfram personally was that he also succeeded in finding a damage Bf 109 G-14/AS, "Yellow 6" that was left behind.

With the assistance of a mechanic he made the plane flyable and on 6 May Wolfrum took of flying towards Deutsch Brod. However bad weather forced him to return to Schweichitz. Although the next day at noon he mange to reach Deutsch Brod joining the rest of the JG 52.

At the end of the war he surrendered to the US 90th Infantry Division, who later handed him and the rest of JG 52 personal and many of their relatives over to the Russians. However he was released a few months later in July 1945 due to his wounds.

When the war ended on 8 May 1945 Oberleutnant Walter Wolfrum had amassed a total of 137 victories in 424 combat missions, while a further 40 claims were not confirmed due to a lack of eye-witnesses. He also claimed one gunboat sunk. On the debit side was that he was wounded four times and made 12 forced landings.

After the war he became a successful aerobatics pilot, winning the German Championship in 1962 and taking second place in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966.

An interesting note, when I met with Walter I asked him which type of late war Bf 109 he preferred, the K-4, the G-10 or the G-14? His replied was the G-14 or the G-10 due to its armament of that center mounted 20 mm canon. A gun he was familiar with, in opposite to the K-4s 30 mm cannon. This gun that had a bad trajectory and fire rate and often jammed during combat. When it came to performance of them, according to Wolfrum there was little to district them from each other.

Another note, check out the yellow "Comet " with a red tail on the spinner!