World War II
Walter "Nowi" Nowotny (December 7, 1920 – November 8, 1944) was an Austrian-born German fighter ace of World War II with 258 confirmed victories in 442 missions, 255 victories over Russian pilots
Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 he shot down his first two enemy aircraft (both Polikarpov I-153 biplanes) over Saaremaa on July 19, 1941, and was shot down the same day by Alexandr Avdeev and spent three days in a dinghy in the Gulf of Riga. At year's end he was credited with ten victories.
In 1942, Nowotny continued to increase his successes, shooting down five aircraft on a single day in July and seven on 2 August. He was shot down again on 11 August and sustained moderate injuries in a crash-landing. In September, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz, having achieved 56 victories. He was made Staffelkapitän of 1./JG 54 on 25 October.
In January 1943, JG 54 started converting to the Focke-Wulf 190 fighter. With the new aircraft "Nowi" scored at an unprecedented rate, often averaging more than two planes a day for weeks on end. He scored his 75th victory in March and his 100th in June — shooting down forty-one aircraft that month. In August, he was promoted to Oberleutnant, made Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 54, and shot down forty-nine aircraft. On 1 September, he scored ten victories in two sorties. He claimed his 200th victory on 8 September and had Eichenlaub added to his Knight's Cross, was promoted to Hauptmann and had the Schwerter added a few weeks later.
On 14 October 1943, Nowotny became the first pilot ever to reach 250 victories, and his Knight's Cross was augmented with diamonds (the Brillanten). He was the eighth recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds, and was withdrawn from combat and given a long series of propaganda activities. He had shot down 255 enemy aircraft: 196 in 1943 alone.
Death
Nowotny was Geschwaderkommodore of JG 101, a training unit, from April 1944. In September 1944, he was made commander of the specialist unit dubbed Kommando Nowotny, flying the new Messerschmitt Me 262 out of airfields near Osnabrück. The unit had not only the enemy to contend with, they also had to work through the "teething" phase of the Me 262 and also develop the tactics appropriate for a Jet unit. Nowotny had achieved three victories in his temperamental aircraft (two B-24s and a P-51) before he was killed in a crash following his Me 262 being shot down by USAAF Capt. Ernest Fiebelkorn (20th Fighter Group) and 1st Lt. Edward "Buddy" Haydon (357th Fighter Group) east of Hesepe. His Me 262 A-1a (W.Nr. 110 400) “White 8” was seen to dive vertically out of the clouds and crash at Epe, 2.5 kilometres east of Hesepe
Walter Nowotny was buried at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna in a grave of honor sponsored by the city of Vienna. After a long public debate, provoked by the Austrian Green Party, who declared Nowotny as a killer, the Vienna Landtag passed a resolution supported by Social Democrats and Greens to remove the status of honor in 2004, which means that only the designation grave of honor has been withdrawn and the maintenance is no more due to the municipality, yet neither his tombstone nor his remains have been relocated. But this only, for his grave is a war grave and may not be removed by law. The Greens wanted to have him exhumed by all means
