Heinz-Horst Hißbach


Heinz-Horst Hißbach was a Luftwaffe night fighter ace and 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. Hißbach claimed 27 aerial victories, 22 of them at night.

Career

Hißbach was born on 30 January 1916 in Dessau.

Night fighter career

Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, RAF attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defence of the Reich campaign. By mid-1940, Generalmajor 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 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.
On 1 November 1944, Hißbach succeeded Major Paul Semrau as Gruppenkommandeur of II. Gruppe of Nachtjagdgeschwader 2.
In the night of 14/15 April 1945, Hißbach and his crew of Hubert Varzecha and Max Mayer were killed in action when they were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery. The three were strafing a US resupply column, destroying eight vehicles, in the area of Gelnhausen when their aircraft was hit and exploded. Posthumously, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross that day.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According Spick, Hißbach was credited with 34 nocturnal aerial victories, claimed in approximately 200 combat missions. Foreman, Parry and Mathews, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 30 victory claims. Mathews and Foreman also published Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, stating that Hißbach claimed more than 29 aerial victories, plus two further unconfirmed claims.
Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ DF-DG". 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