Gerhard Schöpfel's name is intimately linked to the history of the famous JG 26 Schlageter, with which he served during more than half the war. Schöpfel, a former police officer, commenced his pilot training in 1936. In June 1938, with the rank of an Oberleutnant, he was posted to Jagdgeschwader Schlageter, and was assigned as Staffelkapitän 9./JG 26 shortly after the outbreak of the war. He succeeded Adolf Galland twice-as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 26 on August 21, 1940, and as Geschwaderkommodore on December 6, 1941. It has been said that Schöpfel not quite was able to assume the role that Galland had played as Geschwaderkommodore, but he seems to have been more popular among the NCOs of JG 26 than Galland. On one occasion in May 1942, Major Schöpfel hit a Spitfire decisively with a burst from his Fw 190. The Spitfire descended vertically, trailing smoke. Six thousand feet further down, another Fw 190 attacked the doomed Spitfire and took a shot at it. After landing, Schöpfel approached the pilot of this Fw 190, an Oberfeldwebel, with the following words: "If I would have been an Oberfeldwebel and you were a Major, I would have been forced to give you credit for the victory. Because of that, I say that you will have the victory, and I congratulate you." In January 1943, after attaining a total of forty-five victories with JG 26, Schöpfel was shifted to the staff of Jafü Bretagne. Between June 1943 and November 1943 he served as Fighter Leader Sicily-Italy, and thereafter was appointed Jafü Norway. On June 1, 1944 he assumed command of JG 4, but was shortly afterward shot down and injured. He ended the war as Geschwaderkommodore JG 6. On August 2, 1945, Schöpfel was arrested in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and would spend the next four years in Soviet captivity. Gerhard Schöpfel passed away on May 17 2003.