Heinrich Sterr
Born	(1919-09-24)24 September 1919 Ortenburg,Vilshofen
Died	26 November 1944(1944-11-26) (aged 25) airport of Vörden/Bramsche
Cause of death	Killed in action
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/ branch	Luftwaffe
Years of service	1939–1944
Rank	Oberleutnant (first lieutenant)
Unit	JG 54
Commands	16./JG 54
Battles / wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Heinrich Sterr (24 September 1919 – 26 November 1944) was aWorld War IILuftwaffemilitary aviator. As aflying ace, he is credited with 130 aerial victories predominantly claimed on theEastern Front. He was a recipient of theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. On 26 November 1944, he was shot down andkilled in action by USAAF fighters.

Sterr was born on 24 September 1919 inOrtenburg,Lower Bavaria as part of theFree State of Bavaria.^[1] Unlike many other flying aces in the Luftwaffe, he was not a member of the pre-war Luftwaffe (he had only just turned 20 when war broke out) and he missed the early warfare over Poland, France and the first year in the East. After completing his pilot-training in 1942,^{[Note 1]} Sterr was sent as anUnteroffizier, to 6.Staffel (6th squadron) ofJagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54—54th Fighter Wing), a squadron of II.Gruppe (2nd group).^[3]

World War II in Europe had begun on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forcesinvaded Poland. In June 1941, German forces had launchedOperation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time of Sterr's posting to JG 54, II.Gruppe was based at Ryelbitzi, west ofLake Ilmen covering the battles aroundDemyansk Pocket as the Soviets continued to try and break through the German forces in front of Leningrad where he scored his first victory on 6 April when he shot down aMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter aircraft.^[4]

In late 1942, II.Gruppe was scheduled to be reequipped with theFocke-Wulf Fw 190 A-4 atHeiligenbeil, present-day Mamonovo.^[5] On 7 January 1943, Sterr was shot down and wounded in hisMesserschmitt Bf 109 G-2 (Werknummer 13609—factory number) byLavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 fighters in the vicinity of Ramushevo on theLovat River.^[6] By the end of March 1943, Sterr had over 30 victories, and on 30 April he was awarded theHonour Goblet of the Luftwaffe (Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe). In June,Luftflotte 1 staged a last big effort to blow the railway bridges of the vital supply link to Leningrad. In July, most other fighterGruppen were assembled around theKursk salient for the next German offensive -Operation Zitadelle. Although II./JG 54 was kept back guarding Leningrad, it appears several of its pilots, includingOberfeldwebel Sterr, went with II.Gruppe to Orel. In the fortnight or so that it was where he scored a further ten victories to add to his tally of shootdowns. On 23 July, he was awarded theGerman Cross in Gold (Deutsches Kreuz in Gold).^[7]

On 12 September 1943,HauptmannErich Rudorffer, at the time Sterr's group commander, filed a special report requesting his promotion to wartime officer. On 16 September,MajorHubertus von Bonin, wing commander of JG 54, concurred in the assessment, emphasizing on his ability as a mentor to other pilots, and stated that Sterr is well suited for promotion to wartime officer.^[8] In consequence, Sterr was promoted toLeutnant (second lieutenant) on 1 November 1943 with a rank age dated 1 January 1944.^[9]

Eventually the German forces were stretched too thin across the Eastern Front to provide constant air cover and were increasingly being used as "fire brigades", as new Soviet offensives broke out up and down the line. Sterr's victory list is a case in point, on the nomadic existence of II./JG 54 from here on: early August gave 15 victories over Leningrad, then later in the month a clutch of victories south-east of Smolensk. On 8 October 1943, Sterr became an "ace-in-a-day" for the second time, claiming sixLavochkin La-5 fighters shot down north ofKiev.^{[10][Note 2]} That day, Sterr was also shot down in his Fw 190 A-6 (Werknummer 530353) 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) northeast ofDymer. He managed tobail out but was wounded nevertheless.^[12]

Oberfeldwebel Sterr was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 5 December 1943 (nominally for 86 victories) and sent home for officer-training. Returning as aLeutnant in January he was back to Ukraine where he shot down more Soviet aircraft. On 31 March 1944, Sterr was credited with his 100th aerial victory,^[13] making him the 68th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.^[14] In March, he was then briefly posted to 3.Staffel of JG 54 in Estonia for a couple of months. On 3 April, Sterr was appointedStaffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 6.Staffel of JG 54, replacingLeutnantAlbin Wolf who had beenkilled in action the day before.^[15] On 29, II.Gruppe received orders to send a fully staffedStaffel for fighting indefense of the Reich. In consequence, 6.Staffel, augmented by pilots from the otherStaffeln, was detached and became a fourthStaffel of IV.Gruppe of JG 54.^[16]

IV.Gruppe of JG 54 had been withdrawn from the Eastern Front on 25 May and sent toIllesheim Airfield for conversion training to the Fw 190. Here, theGruppe was placed under command ofMajorWolfgang Späte and was joined by the pilots of 6.Staffel led by Sterr.^[17] On 22 June, Soviet forces launchedOperation Bagration, attackingArmy Group Centre inByelorussia, with the objective of encircling and destroying its main component armies. In consequence, IV.Gruppe was not sent to theWestern Front but was ordered to relocate east on 26 June. The following day, theGruppe arrived at an airfield nearBaranavichy located approximately 130 kilometers (81 miles) southwest ofMinsk.^[18] On 20 August, theJagdwaffe (Luftwaffe fighter force) had a major unit re-organization. Within IV.Gruppe, the 10.Staffel became the 13., the 11. was renamed to 14., the 12. to 15., and Sterr's 6.Staffel was made the 16.Staffel of JG 54.^[19]

On 14 September, IV.Gruppe was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and relocated toLöbnitz. Three days later, the Allied Forces launchedOperation Market Garden to seize the bridges to Arnhem. This forced the urgent transfer of IV.Gruppe of JG 54 toPlantlünne where the unit was subordinated to the3.Jagd Division (3rd Fighter Division).^[20] This was now a different air war - not the low-level dogfighting and pursuits of the Eastern Front, but the high-altitude engagement against the massive American bomber formations, and their hundreds of escort fighters. With such odds stacked against them, it was often just luck if a pilot would survive. In just 3 weeks, IV.Gruppe of JG 54 lost 30 pilots for only 10 victories - and was soon pulled out the line to reform for the second time in a month.^[21]

Flying Fw 190 A-8 (Werknummer 171684), Sterr was killed in action on 26 November 1944 during his landing approach at an airfield atVörden.^[22][23] He was shot down by aRepublic P-47 Thunderbolt piloted by Captain P.L. Larsen from the78th Fighter Group. He was nominated for theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub).^[7] He was succeeded byLeutnantPaul Brandt as commander of 16.Staffel of JG 54.^[24]

According to US historianDavid T. Zabecki, Sterr was credited with 129 aerial victories.^[25] Spick lists Sterr with 130 aerial victories in an unknown number of combat missions, all but three on the Eastern Front.^[26] Mathews and Foreman, authors ofLuftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched theGerman Federal Archives and found records for 108 aerial victories, all but two claimed on the Eastern Front.^[27]

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ =Planquadrat), for example "PQ 28142". The Luftwaffe grid map (Jägermeldenetz) covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15minutes oflatitude by 30 minutes oflongitude, an area of about 360 square miles (930 km²). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 km × 4 km (1.9 mi × 2.5 mi) in size.^[28]

• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (30 June 1942)^[9]
  • 1st Class (8 January 1943)^[9]
• Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe for Fighter Pilots
  • in Bronze (10 April 1942)^[9]
  • Silver (22 July 1942)^[9]
  • Gold (14 September 1942)^[9]
• Honor Goblet of the Luftwaffe on 30 April 1943 asFeldwebel and pilot^{[56][Note 8]}
• German Cross in Gold on 23 July 1943 asOberfeldwebel in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 54^[57]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 5 December 1943 asOberfeldwebel and pilot in the 6./Jagdgeschwader 54^[58][59]

• 1919 births
• 1944 deaths
• People from Passau (district)
• Luftwaffe pilots
• German World War II flying aces
• Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II
• Recipients of the Gold German Cross
• Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
• Military personnel from Bavaria
• Aviators killed by being shot down

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing German-language text
• CS1 interwiki-linked names
• CS1 German-language sources (de)