Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer shot down 121 aircraft during the Second World War. Most of them were four-engined British bombers, such as the Lancaster.
Born in Calw, Schnaufer achieved his 100th aerial victory on 9 October 1944 and was awarded the Diamonds to his Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords on 16 October. He is one of only 27 men to have received the award, at the time Germany’s highest military decoration.
The night pilot was nicknamed ‘The Spook of St. Trond’, after the location of his unit’s base in occupied Belgium, from where he would fly out to intercept bombing attacks.
By the end of the war, Schnaufer’s night fighter crew held the unique distinction that every member was decorated with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.
Schnaufer was taken prisoner of war by British forces in May 1945. After his release a year later, he returned to his home town and took over the family wine business.
The pilot died in 1950 following a road accident.
The tail fin of a German plane that was flown during the Second World War by fighter pilot Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer was discovered by a military-air historian in the 1960s, who spotted the unique artifact being used to patch up a roof in the village of Hillegossen, Germany. The bullet-ridden section of the Messerschmitt is covered with stencil paintings of the 121 British and Commonwealth aircraft shot down by Luftwaffe pilot Schnaufer.
Wolfgang Lohmann, an expert on Luftwaffe aircraft, bought the fin from its owner – who had picked it out of wreckage after the war – and has had it on display at his home in Germany ever since.
The fin, which also features a large swastika, was expected to fetch up to £20,000 when it went up for sale, but it sold on 15 May 2016 at Dominic Winter Auctioneers Ltd in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, for £90,000.
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