Career
A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. Gerhard "Gerd" Thyben flew 385 combat missions and claimed 157 aerial victories. He claimed 152 victories on the Eastern Front, including 28 Il-2 Sturmoviks and five victories on the Western Front.
He flew 22 fighter-bomber missions on which he claimed two aircraft and seven trucks destroyed on the ground.
Gerhard Thyben was born on 24 February 1922 in Kiel. He volunteered for military service in the Luftwaffe in late 1940 and by summer 1941 gained his pilot"s licence.
On 30 September 1944, Thyben was credited with his 100th aerial victory. On 8 May 1945 he claimed his last victory over the Baltic Sea.
He shot down a Petlyakov Pe-2 that was almost certainly looking for German refugee ships escaping from the besieged Courland Pocket.
The Pe-2 crew, consisting of Starshiy Leytenant Grigoriy Davidenko, Kapitan Aleksey Grachev, and Starshina Mikhail Murashko were all killed in the engagement. Thyben surrendered to the British on touching down. Following his release in 1946 he traveled to Spain and Argentina before serving as an instructor with the Colombian Air Force.
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