Date of birth:

March 3rd, 1913

Nationality:

German

Helmut Pliefke entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1933. Towards the end of the 1930's he was trained as pilot on the Junkers Ju 52 and later the Heinkel He 111. Between January 12th and May 19th, 1939 he served with the Kondor Legion in Spain. In 1940 he took part in the operations in Norway (Oslo, Stavanger and Trondheim), in 1941 in Africa (Tripolis) and Crete (Canea), in 1942 at the Eastern Front (Demjansk, Stalingrad and Pitomnik) and in 1945 in France (La Rochelle). During the operations at Crete he was wounded. During a landing at Guernsey on December 26th, 1944 his plane was damaged. On February 22nd 1945 he had to make a crash landing with his Heinkel He 111 H-6 as the result of a lack of fuel. He was reported missing in action on February 24th. However he was taken prisoner by the resisentce and later found himself in British imprisonment in New Thumberland. At that moment he already had the rank of Hauptmann.

In 1948 he was released and returned to Germany.

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• - Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002
  - Patzwall K., Scherzer V., Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Geschichte und Inhaber Band II, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001, ISBN 3-931533-45-X
  - Patzwall K.D., Der Ehrenpokal für besondere Leistung im Luftkrieg, Studien zur Geschichte der Auszeichnungen, Band 6, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2008, ISBN 978-3-931533-08-3
  - Family records