[Note 1] Bahr was born on 18 July 1921 in Neu-Legden, a small settlement northeast of Königsberg, East Prussia, present-day part of Dobroje in the Guryevsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast.

[2] Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, bombing missions by the Royal Air Force (RAF) shifted to the cover of darkness, initiating the Defence of the Reich campaign.

Each sector, named a Himmelbett (canopy bed), would direct the night fighter into visual range with target bombers.

[1] On the night of 23/24 August 1943, the RAF targeted Berlin with 727 Avro Lancaster, Handley Page Halifax, Short Stirling and de Havilland Mosquito bombers, losing 57 aircraft in the attack.

[5] Defending against this mission, Bahr claimed his first nocturnal aerial victories over a Halifax and Stirling bomber.

[10] Bahr filed claim for a Halifax bomber shot down 25 kilometers (16 miles) west of Düsseldorf.

[13] That night, the RAF lost 34 aircraft, 26 of which were credited to Bahr, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, Heinz Rökker and Johannes Hager.

[2] Following World War II, Bahr rejoined military service with the German Air Force, at the time referred to as the Bundesluftwaffe, in 1962.

[17] This and the ♠ (Ace of spades) indicates those aerial victories which made Bahr an "ace-in-a-day", a term which designates a fighter pilot who has shot down five or more airplanes in a single day.