In July 1940 Rödel was moved to 4./JG 27 and eventually appointed Staffelkapitän (Squadron Leader) of the Staffel effective from 1 September 1940.

In October 1943, JG 27 moved to Nazi Germany for Defence of the Reich operations and in June 1944 led the wing in the Battle of Normandy.

Rödel then studied half a semester of theology before joining the military service of the Luftwaffe as a Fahnenjunker (cadet) on 1 April 1936.

In 1939, he flew his first combat missions with Jagdgruppe 88 (J/88—88th Fighter Group) of the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War.

The Luftwaffe began its air offensive against the United Kingdom in support of a planned invasion codenamed Operation Sea Lion.

[12] On 11 August JG 27 formed part of large-scale fighter sweeps over England as Albert Kesselring, commander-in-chief Luftflotte 2 (Air Fleet 2) sought to draw up No.

In a rare tactical mistake, RAF Fighter Command intercepted what it perceived to be an in-coming bomber formation in the early morning attack.

46 Squadron RAF lost three Hurricanes over Southend at the time of Rödel's claims—Sergeant G. H. Edgworthy, Pilot Officer H. Morgan-Gray and Sergeant E. Bloor were shot down by Bf 109s.

Captain George Mokkas, commanding 23 Mira engaged them but was shot down and killed by Rödel who mistook his Bloch MB.150 for a Hurricane.

Gruppe was moved to a makeshift airfield name Praszniki, located northeast of Suwałki close to the Curzon Line, on 18 June.

Here, the Gruppe was equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4 and prepared for combat in North Africa to support a German contingent, the Deutsche Afrika Korps under the command of Erwin Rommel.

274 Squadron RAF Beaufighter flown by Pilot Officer William G. Snow which crashed near Tobruk.

Lieutenant Horne, seconded from 260 Squadron, also picked up Major Meaker from 5 SAAF when hit by a Ju 87 gunner.

[53] Two days later Rödel claimed four Hurricanes from seven submitted by German pilots in combat over the El Alamein area.

Rödel and eight other Bf 109s from his Gruppe took off on a frei jagd (free hunt—or combat air patrol in modern parlance).

The Anglo-American Operation Torch, four days later, caught the Axis armies in a vice which eventually destroyed them in the Tunisian Campaign which brought the war in North Africa to an end on 13 May 1943.

The fighter group was based at San Pietro, 20 miles (32 kilometres) inland from the island's southern coast.

On 18 April 1943 less than a dozen of the group's Bf 109s formed an escort for 65 Junkers Ju 52 transports flying to Tunisia.

[70] From Lecce, ten days before Operation Husky and the invasion of Sicily, the group claimed six out of 24-strong formation of Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers—a rare success.

Rödel's men attacked and forced the American formation—in a rare instance of indiscipline—to jettison their bombs to gain speed and escape.

[85] Smoke and haze obscured Dessau and the Americans set course for Leipzig, the secondary target but only six B-17s dropped their bombs.

[85] The official victories granted to Rödel's command were Herausschüsse ("shooting-out"—damaging a bomber so severely it drops out of formation and because an easy target for final destruction).

Rödel was ordered to relocate to France immediately and he arrived at Champfleury, 60 miles (95 km) southeast of Paris late on 6 June.

In the battles that followed the units sustained 130 casualties, roughly two-thirds of them killed in action as the Germans retreated from France and across Belgium.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring tried to address the loss of experienced pilots by ordering the Geschwaderkommodore not to fly unless the size of the formation he was leading surpassed 45.

On 29 June 1944, in the middle of Operation Epsom and Martlet, Rödel led his command flight into battle over Évreux against P-47 fighter-bombers.

On 23 December the 94th Bomb Group B-17 Darling Dott, formerly Big Gas Bird, became the last of 550 heavy bombers to fall to his command.

British intelligence decrypted an Ultra message which suggested he suspected nearly 20 percent of pilots broke off their attacks on American bombers without good reason and jettisoned their drop tanks and returned to base prematurely.

Following various training courses in the United States, in 1958, he was assigned to the Air Defense Division at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Paris.

[100] Obermaier also lists him with 98 enemy aircraft shot down in 980 combat missions, of which one was claimed in the invasion of Poland, one on the Eastern Front and 52 in the Mediterranean theatre.