Heinz Hackler

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Heinz Hackler (often listed as Heinrich Hackler) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace in World War II. He was born on 14 December 1918 in Siegen, Germany, and died on 1 January 1945 near Antwerp, Belgium, at the age of 26. Hackler served with Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77) and climbed to lead a squadron. He fought on multiple fronts, scoring many aerial victories from 1941 through 1944, including over the Eastern Front, North Africa, and Europe. He was awarded the German Cross in Gold in May 1943 and, on 19 August 1944, received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, one of Nazi Germany’s highest military honors, together with Johann Pichler.

In the last days of 1944, Hackler helped prepare Operation Bodenplatte, the Allied airfield attack plan for the Low Countries. On 1 January 1945, near Antwerp, his fighter was shot down and he was killed in action. He was buried at the Ysselsteyn German war cemetery in the Netherlands and later reinterred there. Sources disagree on his total number of aerial victories, listing 56, 67, or other totals, with varying counts used by historians.