Ulrich Steinhilper

He earned his Pilotenabzeichen (Pilot's Badge) and in 1939 was assigned to Jagdgeschwader (fighter wing) 433, where he was Adolf Galland's adjutant.[2] As the youngest officer, he was also made the Staffel Nachrichtenoffizier (communications officer), a job no one else wanted (or even knew much about).[2] Steinhilper learned that he was supposed to provide pilots with ground-to-ground and ground-to-air communications using two 1.5 kilowatt radio stations and two field telephone units.[2] He tried hard to promote the use of radios, but most pilots were against the idea, among them Galland, considering the equipment an unnecessary additional weight and the concept a waste of their time.[2] Steinhilper managed to demonstrate the advantages during a large training exercise commanded by General Hugo Sperrle involving a simulated bombing attack on Stuttgart, only to have the results dismissed by Galland and ignored by the rest.[2]

His unit, now redesignated I/JG 52, was assigned to protect the Ruhr region in the west during the 1939 invasion of Poland in the east. Steinhilper saw sporadic combat in the Battle of France, flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.[1] Beginning in August 1940, he participated in the Battle of Britain. In two months, he flew over 150 sorties against England,[1] seven in a single day.[3] He became an ace.[4] He destroyed two[5] or three[1] Spitfires on the ground at RAF Manston on 19 August, but it was not until 19 September that he got his first aerial victory, another Spitfire. According to one source, his other four aerial victims were two Spitfires on 24 September, another on 30 September, and a Bristol Blenheim on 4 October.[6]

Steinhilper was shot down on 27 October over Canterbury, possibly by fellow ace Squadron Leader Archie McKellar or by Sergeant Bill Skinner[7] of 74 Squadron, and made a prisoner of war after parachuting to safety.[8] (The "substantial remains" of Oberleutnant Steinhilper's Bf 109E were recovered in 1980 and are displayed in the Dowding Memorial Hangar of the Kent Battle of Britain Museum.[9])

In January 1941, he was sent across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada to be interned in Camp W in Neys, Ontario,[10] or Camp 30 in Bowmanville, Ontario.[1][11] He made his first escape on 23 November, remaining at large for two days before being recaptured at Niagara Falls, Ontario.[1][11] He tried again several weeks later, managing to reach Montreal's Windsor Station.[1][11] On his third attempt, on 18 February 1942, he and his friend Albert Waller made it to Watertown, New York, United States, before being caught.[1][12][13] He was then transferred to Camp 20 in Gravenhurst, Ontario, where he made two further unsuccessful breakouts.[1][14]

After the end of the war in 1945, he was returned to Germany and released in late 1946.