World War II in Europe began on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. On 1 March 1940, Seifert was appointed
Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 3.
Staffel (3rd squadron) of JG 26. This squadron was subordinated to I.
Gruppe (1st group) under the command of
Major Gotthard Handrick. Seifert claimed his first aerial victory on 10 May 1940 during the
Battle of the Netherlands, as part of the
Battle of France. The claim was made over a
Royal Netherlands Air Force Fokker D.XXI fighter shot down near
Rotterdam. On 28 May, during the
Battle of Dunkirk, I.
Gruppe engaged in combat with
Royal Air Force (RAF)
Supermarine Spitfire fighters from the
Hornchurch Wing over the
English Channel east of
Dunkirk. Fighter pilots from the
Gruppe claimed six aerial victories in this encounter. This figure includes a Spitfire fighter claimed by Seifert between
Dover and
Ostend. Only one Spitfire was lost by the RAF, making a
forced landing near Dunkirk on the beach. Two further Spitfires force landed in England. He claimed a
No. 103 Squadron Fairey Battle light bomber north of
Beauvais on 8 June. The following day, he shot down a
Potez 63 bomber southeast of
Rouen. This claim took his total to four aerial victories, his last during the Battle of France as he was injured that day.
Group Commander On 10 July 1941, the
Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of I.
Gruppe,
Hauptmann Rolf Pingel, was shot down over England and became a
prisoner of war. The next day, Seifert succeeded Pingel in this capacity, a position he would hold for nearly two years. Seifert's command of 3.
Staffel was passed on to
Oberleutnant Walter Otte. Seifert claimed his first aerial victory during the
Battle of Britain on 20 September. That day II.
Gruppe of
Lehrgeschwader 2 (LG 2—2nd Demonstration Wing) flew a
fighter bomber attack on
London. Supporting this attack, he claimed two
Hawker Hurricane fighters from
No. 253 Squadron over the
Thames Estuary and
Maidstone respectively. In 1941
Fighter Command began the
Circus offensive over Belgium and France, beginning on 10 January. JG 26 fought against these operations through the year to the final "Circus" on 8 November. Seifert claimed one of his first successes against "Circus" No. 19 on 23 June—he and Priller were the only claimants, while JG 26 suffered two crash-landed pilots.
No. 616 and
No. 485 (NZ) Squadron lost one Spitfire each, one pilot killed, the other captured, badly wounded. Combating "Circus" No. 45 on 11 July, Seifert claimed his 12th victory. JG 26 claimed seven in total while
Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (JG 2—2nd Fighter Wing) claimed three Spitfires.
No. 11 Group reported five pilots missing. Against "Circus" No. 48, Seifert claimed another Spitfire as his wing claimed three, possibly four for one pilot killed—the RAF reported four missing.
No. 54,
No. 603,
No. 611 and No. 616 Squadron were engaged with the third squadron losing three pilots. British reports state two of these collided while attacking a Bf 109. Seifert intercepted "Circus" No. 54 and 55 on 21 July, claiming a 15 Squadron Blenheim that had lost an engine to ground-fire and accounted for a Spitfire in the afternoon to inflate his tally to 15.
Pilot Officer Johnnie Johnson, future Wing Leader, remarked that the "Circus" was "badly bounced [jumped]" and his formation did not see the enemy until they had opened fire. In the ensuing
dogfight JG 26 claimed three for one loss—two Spitfires were lost and their pilots killed. One of them was Johnson's wingman. JG 26 claimed eight Spitfires from "Circus" No. 67 on 7 August. Seifert was among those successful pilots. Fighter Command reported four pilots missing and two wounded. The Germans suffered damage to two Bf 109s and one pilot was wounded. He claimed his 19th victory against "Circus" No. 82, in battle with 111 Squadron. "Circus" No. 95, on the morning of 17 September, cost Fighter Command six killed, two captured and three wounded and nine Spitfires. Seifert claimed his 20th victory—
Paul Galland achieved a victory against No. 603 Squadron. Seifert accounted for a 92 Squadron Spitfire on 3 October in combat with "Circus" No. 105—one of three losses sustained by that unit on the day. "Circus" No. 107 was intercepted by JG 2 and JG 26. The former claimed five Spitfires and the latter two; Seifert being one of those pilots. Fighter Command reported two losses. Postwar analysis suggests JG 26 were responsible for the two
Kenley Wing losses and the claims of JG 2 are not supported in British casualty records. On 8 November Fighter Command flew the last "Circus" of the year. No. 308 Squadron encountered Seifert's unit while on a bomber escort mission and lost one pilot killed in action; the Spitfire purportedly fell to Seifert. Fighter Command continued with "Circus" offensives in 1942. On 1 June, Fighter Command planned three "Circus" missions to France. Defending against these missions, Seifert claimed a
No. 111 Squadron Spitfire shot down in the vicinity of Ostend. According to Caldwell, this claim was his 35th aerial victory. Authors Prien, Stemmer, Rodeike and Bock consider this claim unconfirmed, creating a one aerial victory discrepancy between the two sources as of this date. Seifert was awarded the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross () on 7 June 1942 for 36 aerial victories. He was the only member of JG 26 to receive this distinction in 1942. On 31 July 1942, the RAF targeted the
Abbeville-Drucat Airfield with "Circus" No. 201. Twelve
Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers supported by the
North Weald Wing had already bombed the airfield before they were intercepted over the
Somme Estuary. Leading I.
Gruppe, Seifert encountered the attack force west of Somme Estuary and shot down a
No. 133 Squadron Spitfire west of
Berck. During the
Dieppe Raid on 19 August, Seifert claimed his 41st aerial victory west of
Dieppe.
Eastern Front In January 1943, the Luftwaffe planned to move JG 26 to the
Eastern Front. The idea was to exchange JG 26 with
Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG 54—54th Fighter Wing) which supported
Army Group North. The style of combat between the two fronts was quite different and overall the experiment was not a success; I.
Gruppe of JG 26 was the only
Gruppe of JG 26 to serve in Russia. On 21 January, I.
Gruppe left France and arrived in
Heiligenbeil, present-day Mamonovo, on 27 January. There, the
Gruppe received factory-new Fw 190 A-5 and A-4 aircraft. On 31 January, I.
Gruppe moved to
Riga and two days later to an airfield named Rielbitzi at
Lake Ilmen. Seifert claimed his first aerial victory on the Eastern Front during the
Battle of Demyansk on 16 February when he shot down an
Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. On 23 February, Soviet forces attempted to cross Lake Ilmen by boat which were attacked by Fw 190s of the
Stabsschwarm (headquarters flight). On a later mission that day, Seifert was credited with the destruction of an Il-2. Five days later, he claimed two aerial victories, shooting down a
Bell P-39 Airacobra and
Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3, two fighter aircraft. On 1 March,
Army Group Centre began a series of local retreats codenamed
Operation Büffel, eliminating the
Rzhev Salient by 23 March. On 5 March, Seifert led his
Stabsschwarm on a mission south of Lake Ilmen. On this mission, he wanted to evaluate the performance of a new pilot,
Feldwebel Karl Preeg, who was recently transferred to I.
Gruppe and was shot down and killed on this mission. Later that day, Seifert claimed a
Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber and two Il-2 ground-attack aircraft destroyed. On 14 March, I.
Gruppe moved to an airfield at
Dno, southwest of Rielbitzi and west of
Staraya Russa. That day, Seifert claimed a Pe-2 bomber destroyed, his 50th aerial victory. Two days later, he claimed an Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. On 12 May, I. Gruppe relocated to
Shatalovka and then east to Osinovka. On the transfer flight, Seifert shot down another Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. The next day, he claimed his 53rd and last aerial victory on the Eastern Front when he shot down a
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter aircraft. On 20 May 1943, Seifert had to leave his command of I.
Gruppe when transferred to a staff position with the Luftwaffe detachment of the
Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM—Ministry of Aviation) in Bulgaria. Unknown to Seifert, his mother had invoked the 'last surviving son' ruling as his younger brother, Gerhard, had been killed in action, and was thus allowed to be removed from active combat duties.
Hauptmann Fritz Losigkeit temporarily succeeded him as commander of I.
Gruppe.
Western Front and death . Seifert personally appealed to
Adolf Galland, the
General der Jagdflieger (general of the fighter force) and his former
Geschwaderkommodore (wing commander) of JG 26, to be placed on active duty. In consequence, his tour with the RLM ended and he returned to France in September 1943 and was appointed
Gruppenkommandeur II.
Gruppe of JG 26, replacing
Hauptmann Johannes Naumann in this capacity. Naumann had briefly led II.
Gruppe following the death of its previous commander
Major Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, brother of Adolf Galland, on 17 August. Seifert took command of the
Gruppe on 9 September, then based at
Beauvais–Tillé Airfield. At the time of his posting to II.
Gruppe, the
Western Allies were executing
Operation Cockade, a series of deception operations alleviate German pressure on
operations in Sicily and on the
Soviets on the Eastern Front. The idea behind Cockade was to force the Luftwaffe into massive air battles with the RAF and
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)
VIII Bomber Command that would give the Allies
air superiority over Western Europe. As part of this operation,
Martin B-26 Marauder bombers attacked Beauvais–Tillé Airfield on 23 September. In defense of this attack, Seifert claimed an escorting Spitfire fighter from the
No. 308 Polish Fighter Squadron shot down. On 10 October, VIII Bomber Command targeted
Münster with 274
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. Leading his II.
Gruppe from
Rheine Airfield, Seifert claimed a B-17 shot down northeast of
Rheine. Four days later, during the
second Schweinfurt raid, Seifert shot down a B-17 bomber from the
305th Bombardment Group, which lost 13 of its 16 aircraft, near
Maastricht. On 25 November 1943, Seifert led 6. and 8.
Staffel of JG 26 against the USAAF
Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters of the
55th Fighter Group over Lille. During combat, Seifert's Fw 190 A-6 (
Werknummer 470006—factory number) collided with a P-38, and crashed near
La Couture, south of
Estaires, killing both pilots. The American pilot, Lieutenant Manuel Aldecoa bailed out but his parachute had failed to deploy properly and he fell to his death. Seifert however, never attempted to leave his Fw 190, his body was recovered from the wreckage. Posthumously, he was promoted to the rank of
Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel). ==Summary of career==