He fought in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and claimed his first aerial victory on 8 August 1941.

Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert was born 2 February 1919 in Cologne-Lindenthal, at the time in the Rhine Province of the Free State of Prussia.

In January 1939, he was admitted to the Reichsschule für Motorflug (motor powered flight school of the Reich) at Bielefeld where he attained his A/2 license.

[1][Note 1] World War II in Europe had begun on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland.

At the time he was based in Bordeaux, France with the Ergänzungsgruppe, a supplementary training unit, of Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing).

With this unit, he participated in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of the Eastern Front on 22 June 1941.

(J)./Lehrgeschwader 2 (LG 2—2nd Demonstration Wing), primary role in Operation Barbarossa was to support the German advance as part of Army Group South.

The objective of this operation was to give the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen fighter protection in the breakout from Brest to Germany.

[15] On 14 July 1942, the day Reinert claimed three Bell P-39 Airacobras shot down, he crashed his Bf 109 F-4 (Werknummer 13 117—factory number) during the landing at Kastornoje.

Reinert, together with Alfred Druschel, Johannes Steinhoff, Günther Rall and Max Stotz received the Oak Leaves from Adolf Hitler personally on 4 November 1942.

[29] On 20 January 1943 Reinert shot down a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk piloted by Lieutenant Richard Kimball of the 65th Fighter Squadron who was taken prisoner of war.

A confident Erwin Rommel ordered the 5th Panzer Army under Hans-Jürgen von Arnim to begin operation Ochsenkopf on 26 February.

[43] Among the losses were Major Robert F. Worley, commanding the 314th Fighter Squadron was shot down but evaded capture and reached American lines.

On this sortie, Reinert claimed four victories, after Müncheberg ordered them to attack some low-flying United States Army Air Force (USAAF) P-39 Airacobras while returning to base.

Nine American fighters were lost in total: Lieutenants Murray, Turkington, Smith, Leech, McCreight and Lewis from the 93rd and Lyons from the 91st.

JG 77 lost three pilots over the airfield when P-40s attacked low-flying Bf 109s—Rudolf Fischer, Ewald Bleul and Gunter Schimmelpfennig were killed.

Captain Kenneth D. Boggs was killed, Lieutenant Harlan E. Highfield was captured and the third pilot escaped to Allied lines.

[51] On 4 April, JG 77 engaged in a day of heavy air combat with the new commanding officer Johannes Steinhoff and lost three pilots.

145 Squadron RAF led by Wing Commander Ian Gleed intercepted the mixed Axis force over Cape Bon.

[54] The Germans failed to protect the Italians and seven transports were shot down along with Bf 109 (Werknummer 16 485), "White 9" and its pilot Leutnant Rüdiger.

[57] In the afternoon he claimed the Spitfire J17616 flown by Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Warrant Officer Bruce Edward Anderson, with 145 Squadron.

[66] Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder ordered all-out attacks to destroy Axis aviation in and over Sicily.

Reinert shot down three P-40's and his Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 20 380—factory number) was hit in the radiator forcing him to ditch in the sea north of Milazzo.

The authors state, that particularly Oberstleutnant Johannes Steinhoff, the commander of JG 77 at the time, had a number of pilots transferred for redemption in defense of the Reich combat, this measure included pilots Reinert, Major Heinrich Bär, Hauptmann Lutz-Wilhelm Burckhardt, Oberfeldwebel Herbert Kaiser, and Oberfeldwebel Alexander Preinfalk.

They relocated to Champfleury-la-Perthe, an airfield approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Reims, before they arrived in Hustedt, present-day part of Celle, for a period of replenishment and refitting.

[79] On 1 January 1945, JG 27 participated in Operation Bodenplatte, a Luftwaffe mass attack against Allied airfields in the Benelux area.

[81] Reinert, together with Erich Hartmann, Werner Schröer, Günther Rall and others, was posted to a group commanders training course at Königsberg, present-day Chojna in western Poland.

Gruppe was annihilated at Achmer by an attack of 180 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers of the USAAF Eighth Air Force which destroyed 37 of the 38 remaining Bf 109 on the ground.

Before the end of World War II in Europe, the unit relocated multiple times, from Berlin to Prague, to Lagerlechfeld, to Munich–Holzkirchen, Plattling and to Mühldorf.

On 1 April 1956, he reentered military service in the Bundeswehr as an Hauptmann in the West German Air Force, at the time referred to as the Bundesluftwaffe.