Kupfer, Ernst

Oberst Dr. Ernst Kupfer



Died 2.7.1907 in Coburg.


On 1.10.1928 he joined the 5th company of the 17th Bavarian Cavalry Regiment after the law faculty of the University of Heibelberg, on 1.4.1933 he was promoted to lieutenant and on 1.12.1934 to the rank of lieutenant. On 4.3.1937 he completed his studies and became a Doctor of Laws, followed by command of the company and 1939 promotion to Rifleman.
He joined the Luftwaffe and on 30.9.1939 he joined the aerial reconnaissance school, at the turn of the year he achieved a transfer to dive bombers.
7.9.1940 he joined a combat unit - I./ StG 2 Immelmann. After his combat baptism in the Battle of Britain, he took command of 7 Squadron on 1.10.1940, which, following his example, painted a Bamberg Demo sculpture on its machines for the Stuk directional rudders.
Over Crete he managed to sink a British cruiser, for which he was awarded the German Cross in gold.
He scored another cruiser during a deployment against the Soviet Kronstadt, but the flight was only luckily ended by an emergency landing. A deployment against the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya followed the same day, again with a direct hit and again followed by an emergency landing. An emergency landing made a few days later resulted in a triple fracture of the base of the skull, severe concussion, a broken optic nerve and several broken bones. While still in the hospital, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Spoke with Gold Badge for his injuries on 23 November 1941. After six months he recovered sufficiently to return to the front. On 1.4.1942 he was promoted to Major and took command of II Group.
8.1.1943 as the 173rd soldier of the Wehrmacht he received the Oak Leaf Cluster and became commodore of St.G 2 Immelmann.
In the Battle of Kursk he commanded Kampfgruppe Kupfer consisting of I./St.G 3, II./St.G 77 and III./JG 3 in addition to St.G 2.
After 636 combat sorties, he was appointed in September 1943 as Commander of the Inspectorate of Combat Aviation and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel at the same time.
While on duty in Greece on 6.11.1943, a He 111 crashed in the Belasica Mountains near Semer Kajasen, 60 km north of Thessaloniki. The death caught the general of the battle air force as two years earlier the general of fighters Mölders.
22.12.1943 was retroactively promoted to the rank of colonel on 1.11.1943 and 11.4.4.1944 in memoriam Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross as the 62nd soldier of the Wehrmacht.


Source:
author's personal archive