Wilhelm Beier
German fighter ace and Knight's Cross recipient
Wilhelm Beier (18 November 1913 – 12 July 1977) was a Luftwaffe night fighter ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Depending on source, Beier claimed 38 nocturnal aerial victories, including 14 of which flying intruder missions, intercepting bombers on their return flight to England.
Career
Beier was born on 18 November 1913 in Homberg, present-day part of Duisburg, at the time in the Rhine Province within the German Empire.
Night fighter career
Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, Royal Air Force (RAF) attacks shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defense of the Reich campaign. By mid-1940, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Josef Kammhuber had established a night air defense system dubbed the Kammhuber Line. It consisted of a series of control sectors equipped with radars and searchlights and an associated night fighter. Each sector named a Himmelbett (canopy bed) would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers. In 1941, the Luftwaffe started equipping night fighters with airborne radar such as the Lichtenstein radar. This airborne radar did not come into general use until early 1942.
On 10 April 1941, Beier claimed his second aerial victory, a Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber shot down near Chelmsford on an intruder mission over England.
Beier was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 10 October 1941 for 14 nocturnal aerial victories.
“Wilhelm Beier” enters the record as german fighter ace and Knight's Cross recipient. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wilhelm, Beier and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Wilhelm Beier” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Wilhelm, Beier and German provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10393605. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1977, 1939 and 1940.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Wilhelm Beier”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Wilhelm Beier primary sources, Wilhelm Beier archive and Wilhelm research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wilhelm Beier”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Wilhelm Beier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.