Heinrich Bär Lieutenant Colonel, Germans, Luftwaffe, Flying Ace, World War II, Military Aviation, Aircraft, Western Front (World War II), Eastern Front (World War II), Mediterranean

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Lieutenant Colonel Oskar-Heinz (Heinrich) Pritzl Bär (25 May 1913 28 April 1957) was a German Luftwaffe flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. He flew over a thousand combat missions, and fought in all major German theatres of the war, including the Western, Eastern and Mediterranean fronts. On 18 occasions he survived being shot down, and he was credited with 220 aerial victories. Bär, a Saxon with a strong accent, joined the Reichswehr in 1934 and transferred to the Luftwaffe in 1935. Serving first as a mechanic, then as a pilot on transport aircraft, he was informally trained as a fighter pilot. He claimed his first aerial victory in September 1939 on the French border. By the end of the Battle of Britain, his tally of victories had increased to 17