Fritz Dinger


Fritz Dinger was born into an aristocratic German family. Fritz enlisted into the German Luftwaffe in 1939 and would later end up becoming an ace. Fritz was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Career

Dinger was born on 20 August 1915 in Ottweiler in the Kingdom of Prussia within the German Empire. Following flight and fighter pilot training, Dinger was posted to the 4. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 53. At 14:45 on 16 August 1940 during the Battle of Britain, Dinger was shot down in aerial combat with the Royal Air Force and crashed his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1 into the sea in a location south of Cherbourg.
The bulk of the Geschwaders air elements were moved via Jever, in northern Germany, to Mannheim-Sandhofen on 8 June 1941. There the aircraft were given a maintenance overhaul prior to moving east. The II. Gruppe was transferred to Neusiedel in East Prussia, present-day Malomožaiskojė in Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia, between 12–14 June.

Operation Barbarossa

On 22 June the Geschwader crossed into Soviet airspace in support of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union which opened the Eastern Front.
Following aerial combat on 5 October 1941, Dinger made a forced landing in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 at Sologubovka, located southeast of Saint Petersburg. That day, his unit had flown its final missions in the area of Shlisselburg. The Gruppe then relocated to the Western Front where it arrived at Leeuwarden in the Netherlands on 12 October. While based at Leeuwarden, Dinger claimed his twelfth aerial victory when he shot down a RAF Bristol Blenheim bomber on 27 October. On 2 December 1941, II. Gruppe moved to the Mediterranean theater and where then based at Comiso airfield during the siege of Malta.

Squadron leader and death

In October 1942, Dinger was transferred to take command of 4. Staffel of JG 53. He succeeded Oberleutnant Wilhelm Hobirk who had led the Staffel for two months after its former commander, Oberleutnant Gerhard Michalski had been transferred in August.
On an early morning mission flown on 27 July 1943, Dinger claimed his 67th aerial victory. Following this mission, the airfield at Scalea came under an Allied bombing attack. Dinger was hit in the back of his head by shrapnel, killing him instantly. In consequence, Hauptmann Willi Krauss replaced him as commander of 4. Staffel.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Dinger was credited with 67 aerial victories. Obermaier also list him with 67 aerial victories, 41 of which on the Eastern Front and 25 over the Western Allies in the Mediterranean theater, claimed in over 600 combat missions. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found documentation for 64 aerial victory claims. This number includes 37 claims on the Eastern Front and 27 over the Western Allies, including one four-engined heavy bomber.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 49442". The Luftwaffe grid map 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. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area in size.

Awards