“See You in Valhalla”

On November 12, 1944, a formation of British Lancaster bombers coming from Scotland was spotted heading for the fjords near Tromsø, where the German battleship Tirpitz lay at anchor.

With no idea what the bombers were after, the alerted commodore of Jagdgeschwader 5, Major Heinrich Ehrler, took off with nothing but his wingman. Neither of them could intervene in time, and the enemy formation sank the vulnerable Tirpitz. Ehrler was held responsible for the loss of the last German battleship and sentenced to death by a court martial. Fighter pilots were urgently needed at the front, so his sentence was commuted to forced labor, to be served after the war.

Ehrler was then transferred to Jagdgeschwader 7 to fly the new Me 262 jet fighter. On April 4, 1945, he took off against a formation of four-engine B-24 bombers and shot two of them down. When he was out of ammunition, he radioed his friend and fellow fighter pilot: “Theo, Heinrich here. Shot down two bombers. Out of ammunition. I am going to ram. Goodbye, see you in Valhalla.”

Moments later he rammed the bomber “Trouble in Mind” and went down with it. Neither the bomber’s crew nor Major Heinrich Ehrler survived. With 208 confirmed kills he ranks as one of the most successful fighter pilots of all time. Whether Ehrler really carried any blame for the sinking of the Tirpitz is still doubted by historians today.

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