Martin Becker was born on April 12, 1916, in Wiesbaden. After completing his flight training, he flew a Bf-110C in reconnaissance aviation from 1940.
In early 1943, Oberleutnant Becker transferred to night fighter aviation. He was assigned to I./NJG4 and then to 2./NJG4. Becker achieved his first victory on September 23, 1943, shooting down a “Lancaster.”
Rise of a Night Fighter Ace
In March 1944, Becker shot down 33 British bombers over just 6 nights. On the night of March 22-23, 816 British bombers attacked Frankfurt, dropping 3116 tons of bombs. German night fighters shot down 44 aircraft, and Becker, with his radio operator Karl-Ludwig Johanssen, accounted for 6 bombers (3 Lancasters and 3 Halifax) that night.
On the night of March 30-31, 1944, 795 British bombers raided Nuremberg. As they crossed the North Sea and appeared over Belgium, the Germans intercepted signals from the 2HS navigation and blind bombing system. This allowed Luftwaffe ground control to pinpoint the British location, enabling them to ignore diversionary raids on Cologne and Kassel.
The command post of the 3rd Fighter Division ordered all night fighters to concentrate southeast of Aachen. They were to remain there until the British’s final target could be precisely determined. The bombers’ flight path was routed directly through this area, and upon making a turn, they flew straight into the waiting German fighters.
That night, several circumstances worked against the British. The wind speed reported to bomber crews before takeoff did not match the actual conditions, and not all navigators could make the necessary in-flight corrections. This resulted in most crews turning at the wrong point, disrupting their combat formation. Additionally, over the North Sea, long condensation trails formed behind the engines due to very cold air, clearly visible from several kilometers in the clear night.
Critical Victory Over Nuremberg
The Luftwaffe scrambled 246 night fighters, downing 97 bombers and causing another 9 to crash-land in England, totaling 13.3% British losses. Becker initially shot down 3 Lancasters and 3 Halifax using “Schräge Musik” within 30 minutes. After landing in Mainz for refueling, he took off again and achieved his 7th victory of the night, another Halifax from 429 Sqdn. RCAF.
The course taken by the British bombers towards Nuremberg was marked on the ground by the flaming wreckage of downed aircraft. Lieutenant Graham Ross, a Lancaster pilot, recalled the carnage, while H2S operator George Foley heard his pilot say, “I’ve already seen more than twenty planes go down.” When the British finally reached Nuremberg, their formations were utterly broken, and thick cloud cover obscured the city, resulting in minimal damage.
On April 1, 1944, Becker was summoned to Rastenburg, where Hitler personally awarded him the Knight’s Cross. On October 26, 1944, Hauptmann Becker was appointed commander of IV./NJG6.
On the night of March 14-15, 1945, during a British raid on the Lützkendorf oil refinery, Hauptmann Becker and his radio operator, Lieutenant Johanssen, set a “record” by shooting down 9 Lancasters with their Bf-110G-4b/R3 “2Z+BB” in a single sortie—an unprecedented feat for a night fighter crew. On the night of March 16-17, Becker shot down yet another Lancaster during a raid on Nuremberg.
On March 17, Lieutenant Johanssen received the Knight’s Cross. On March 20, 1945, Hauptmann Becker was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross (No. 792).
In total, Becker amassed 58 victories. He completed 110 combat sorties as a night fighter and 27 as a reconnaissance pilot.