Without a doubt, the Allies defeated the Axis during World War II thanks in large part to air superiority; this air superiority was due to fantabulous fighter planes such as the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and especially the P-51D Mustang.
Yet ironically, in one of the great statistical anomalies of the war, the top-scoring individual aces of the Axis far outscored the Allies’ top aces. (An “ace” is defined as a combat aviator with a minimum of five air-to-air victories.) For example, the top three Allied aces were the Soviet Union’s Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub (sixty-four kills); Britain’s (South African-born) Marmaduke Thomas St John “Pat” Pattle (at least forty victories, more likely over fifty); and America’s Richard Ira “Dick” Bong (forty kills). Compare and contrast those numbers with the top three Axis aces: Imperial Japan’s Tetsuzo Iwamoto (at least ninety-four victories; 202 kills personally claimed); Nazi Germany’s Gerhard "Gerd" Barkhorn (301 kills); and Germany’s Erich Hartmann (whose mind-numbing tally of 352 kills makes him the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare).
Though both sides of the war had their fair share of “aces in a day” (including America’s Chuck Yeager), the Germans also laid the claim to the fastest pilot and plane combo to achieve that rarified status: then-Major Werner Streib and the Heinkel He 219 Uhu (“Eagle-Owl”).
The Uhu made her maiden flight on November 15, 1942, and officially entered operational service with "die Vaterland (the Fatherland)" the following year. The warbird had a number of features that were then state-of-the-art, such as cannons mounted to fire at an oblique angle, the first steerable nosewheel on an operational German aircraft, and the world's first ejection seats on an operational aircraft of any nation.
The He 219’s specifications and vital stats included:
-Fuselage Length: 50 ft 4 in (15.33 m)
-Wingspan: 60 ft 8 in (18.5 m)
-Height: 13 ft 5 in (4.1 m)
-Empty weight: 24,692 lb (11,200 kg)
-Gross weight: 33,731 lb (15,300 kg)
-Powerplant: two × Daimler-Benz DB 603E V-12 inverted liquid-cooled piston engines, 1,324 kW (1,776 hp) each
-Max Airspeed: 420 mph (670 km/h, 360 kn) at 23,000 ft (7,000 m)
-Cruise Speed: 340 mph (540 km/h, 290 kn)
-Combat Range: 960 mi (1,545 km, 834 NM)
-Service Ceiling: 41,700 ft (12,700 m) (absolute)
-Armament
--two × 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/20 cannons in a detachable fairing under the fuselage, 300 rounds per gun (rpg)
--two × 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons in wing roots, 300 rpg
--two × 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannons, Schrage Musik (oriented 65 degrees)
Total production of the He 219 amounted to just under 300 airframes.
Werner Streib was born on June 13, 1911, in Pforzheim in the southwest German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Werner began his military career as an infantryman in the Wehrmacht in 1934; however, he obtained a transfer to the Luftwaffe in 1936 and started as an observer in a reconnaissance unit. He later trained as a fighter pilot.
He scored his first aerial victory on May 10, 1940, setting the stage for a very successful combat record.
Warren Gray of Gunpowder Magazine tells the story in a September 25, 2021, article:
“[The Uhu’s] auspicious, combat debut occurred on the night of June 11 to 12, 1943, when Major Werner Streib, a Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4 Zerstörer (“Destroyer”) night-fighter ace with 50 confirmed kills to his credit already, and his radar operator, Sergeant Helmut Fischer, sitting back-to-back inside the cockpit, flew their He 219 pre-production prototype V9, recently upgraded to He 219A-0/R2 production standards, and marked “G9+FB” on the sides of the aircraft, on a nocturnal sortie from Venlo Airfield, in the German-occupied Netherlands … Streib quickly shot down a Royal Air Force (RAF) Halifax four-engine bomber at 1:05 AM, southeast of Roermond, then a second Halifax near Rheinberg at 1:20 AM, a third Halifax north of Mook at 1:55 AM, a four-engine, Avro Lancaster bomber southwest of Nijmegen at 2:16 AM, and a fourth Halifax bomber near Sambeek at 2:22 AM, for a total of five confirmed kills in a single mission, an astounding, ‘ace-in-a-night’ accomplishment. They expended virtually all of their ammunition.”
By the time of the collapse of the Third Reich, Werner Streib had attained the rank of oberst (colonel) with sixty-six confirmed aerial kills. He spent eleven years working in the grocery business, then resumed his military career with the post-WWII Luftwaffe (unlike the Wehrmacht turned Bundeswehr Heer [army] and the Kriegsmarine turned Deutsche Marine [navy], the German Air Force has retained its WWII moniker to the present day) from 1956 to 1966 retiring with the rank of brigadegeneral (Brigadier general). He passed away on June 15, 1986, at the age of seventy-five, and was buried with military honors at the Ostfriedhof (Eastern Cemetery) in Munich.
As for the aircraft flown by Streib on his history-making mission, there is exactly one fully intact, fully restored, surviving specimen today. Werknummer ("Work Number") 290202 is at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia (near Washington Dulles International Airport); I've personally toured the museum twice and recommend it highly.
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Shutterstock.
