Steiner, Felix Martin. Volkenrath, Elisabeth. His Luftwaffe career began in as a member of the ground staff.

He then spent two months posted with Jagdfliegerschule 1 getting advanced fighter training, graduating on On he joined 2.

In March , I. Schroer claimed his first victory, a RAF Hurricane, on , however, his Bf E was hit and he had to make a forced-landing near his airfield with 48 bullet holes in his aircraft.

On 21 April, in an engagement with RAF Hurricanes, an aircraft collided with his Bf E slightly injuring him and requiring him to make another forced-landing.

By the end of his score stood at seven. In March , he was appointed Adjutant of I. Schroer was appointed Staffelkapitän of 8.

The Luftwaffe fighters reported meeting a total of 40 to 45 British fighters, Unteroffizier Josef Vavra of 5 staffel claiming a Spitfire at east of El Alamein.

At the same time claimed Leutnant Werner Schroer of 8 staffel, one Spitfire 10km south-east of El Alamein at meters altitude, followed at by Oberleutnant Ernst Börngen of 5 staffel, who claimed a Spitfire south-west of El Alamein.

Four Ps were claimed at one each by Leutnant Werner Schroer?? In February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive retaking a lot of the same ground all over again.

So by March , when Werner became Adjutant in I. On 22 June, the day after the fall of Tobruk, he was promoted to Staffelkapitän of 8. The next day, 23 June, with Marseille having just reached victories, Werner scored his 12th and finally started scoring regularly.

With the Battle of Gazala well underway, and Rommel charging km onto El Alamein, the airwar finally heated up. Schroer scored 16 victories in July, then after a month away, a further 13 victories bringing his total to 44 including six on 15 September.

However, German pilots in North Africa may have significantly over-reported kills. He continued scoring regularly in October, downing a further 15 aircraft.

In the frantic air battles overhead, Schroer shot down 10 aircraft in a week. Fittingly, as the Gruppe's highest scorer, Werner scored one of its last African victories on 16 November his 61st.

Those 61 victories, all scored in Africa, made him the second-highest scoring ace of the Desert War, after Marseille who had been killed in a flying accident on 30 September with victories.

In the few months they were in the Aegean, including a posting with the Italian forces on Rhodes, the newly promoted Hauptmann Schroer shot down two light bombers on 15 February.

After that he had extended leave at home for his wedding. Schroer is appointed Gruppenkommandeur of II. Based at Trapani, on the western corner of the island, they were up against complete Allied air superiority and had the hopeless task of trying to protect transport aircraft makign desperate evacuation flights of remaining wounded and specialists our of the beleaguered Afrika Korps, now bottled up in Tunis.

Just before Schroer took over command, on the evening of 18 April, only 6 transports had made it to Sicily out of 65 leaving Tunis.

Flying at sea-level, half had been shot down and the remainder turned back damaged. Powerless to help, II.

However, with renewed vigour Werner led from the front and over the next two months, claimed 22 Allied aircraft shot down, including 12 four-engined heavy bombers.

Operation Husky , the Allied invasion of Sicily, started on 10 July. Unable to influence the result to any great degree, II.

On 28 July, the unit was ordered to hand its aircraft over to other units and the pilots and crews returned to Germany for much-needed rest and re-equipment.

The pilots took a train to Vienna - Aspern. In August , II. From August to March, Schroer shot down 14 aircraft, 11 of them being Viermots - an indication of the type of air-combat in which he was now fighting.

The unit's first operational sortie in the Reich, 6 September, was their most successful with nine bombers claimed, including three for Schröer v.

Marsiglia of the 55th Fighter Group , th Fighter Squadron. Marsiglia had to bail out and was apprehended near Holz in the district of Saarbrücken.

This was Schröer's 92nd aerial victory. In April the unit retrained and transferred onto the Focke-Wulf Fw He was the 73rd Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.

The Geschwaderstab headquarters unit withdrew along the Baltic coast into Schleswig-Holstein. There, on 5 May , Schröer surrendered to British forces and was taken prisoner of war.

Schröer was kept in British custody until 7 February In , the spelling of his last name changed from Schroer to Schröer, with the Umlaut "ö".

Schröer died on 10 February in Ottobrunn, aged He was buried with military honors at the Parkfriedhof park cemetery in Ottobrunn on 15 February Schröer was credited with enemy aircraft shot down claimed in combat missions, the majority of which on the Western Front, including 61 in North Africa and 22 in Italy.

This figure includes 26 four-engined bombers, four of which claimed as Herausschüsse separation shots. This and the? From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Werner Schröer. See battles. At least two are in Baden-Württemberg , which is where Schröer's other combats on 6 September took place. It may not be possible to determine which Geislingen this was.

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Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients of Jagdgeschwader Erich Hartmann Gerhard Barkhorn Gollob Categories :.

Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. File:Werner Schroer. Nazi Germany. Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Squadron Leader of 8.

Group Commander of II. Group Commander of III.

My flight of four had gotten scattered in the twisting and turning and I found myself very much alone and out of radio contact. Luftwaffe Fighter Aces. Gruppe was tasked with flying combat air patrols over the German Bight. Unteroffizier [48]. ISBN Vaditim Inhaber On 24 February, the pilots of 1. In the frantic air battles overhead, Schroer shot down 10 aircraft in a week. Steiner, Felix Martin. London, UK: Osprey Publishing. Views Read Edit View history.