Kurt Welter

At 33 years old, Kurt Welter physical status not available right now. We will update Kurt Welter's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Welter was credited with 63 aerial victories and is the world's highest scoring jet-ace. Foreman, Matthews and Parry, authors of Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims 1939 – 1945, list 58 nocturnal victory claims, numerically ranging from 1 to 59, omitting the tenth claim. In addition to the nocturnal victory claims, authors Lorant and Goyat of Jagdgeschwader 300 "Wilde Sau" list five further day-time claims. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, also researched the German Federal Archives and found records for over 49 aerial victories, plus seven further unconfirmed claims. This number of confirmed aerial victories were all claimed on the Western Front and includes 43 by night and two four-four engine bombers by day. The authors list him 16 aerial victories claimed while flying the Me 262.

Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 14 Ost N/NB". The Luftwaffe grid map (Jägermeldenetz) covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about 360 square miles (930 km2). These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.

Much of the controversy surrounding Welter's claims for success in nocturnal aerial combat with the Me 262 stems from a memorandum written by Welter on 29 May 1945 for his British captors. In this memorandum Welter stated that between December 1944 and the end of January 1945, as the sole pilot of Kommando Welter, he flew seven Me 262 sorties and achieved three victories against Mosquito aircraft and two victories against Lancaster aircraft. Welter further stated that from the formation of 10./NJG 11 on 28 January 1945 to the end of the war, 10./NJG 11 flew around another 63 operational sorties and claimed a further 38 victories against Mosquito aircraft at night and five victories against Mosquito aircraft by day; his share being 20 Mosquitos at night and two during the day. Thus, according to the memo, a total of 25 Mosquitoes and two Lancasters were claimed in aerial combat by Welter, flying the Me 262 with the Kommando/Staffel, while other pilots of the Staffel claimed a further 21 kills (of which three were achieved with the two-seater Me 262). Official Luftwaffe documents show that by 4 April 1945, 10./NJG 11 had claimed 34 aerial victories, of which only one was claimed in a two-seater Me 262. Research of RAF records show that at most 15 Mosquitoes could have been possibly destroyed by Kommando Welter—10./NJG 11.

Officially Kurt Welter was credited with 63 victories in 93 missions, of which 56 victories were achieved at night and seven by day. Among his claimed 63 victories are up to 33 Mosquitos. Thus, there remains some controversy about the exact number of victories achieved while flying the Me 262, with only three of the Mosquito kills coinciding with RAF records; the rest might be overclaiming.

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