Scapegoated for the loss of the German battleship Tirpitz, Ehrler was court-martialled, stripped of his command and sentenced to three years and two months Festungshaft [de] (honorable imprisonment).

[1] Ehrler's sentence was later commuted and his loss of rank rescinded, and in February 1945 he was transferred to Jagdgeschwader 7 (JG 7–7th Fighter Wing).

According to his fellow pilots, Ehrler thereafter flew in the increasingly desperate air battles without the purpose and dedication that had made him one of the Luftwaffe's most successful aces.

[2] On 4 April 1945, he claimed his last three victories by shooting down two Allied bombers and destroying a third by ramming with his damaged aircraft having run out of ammunition.

[2] Ehrler was born on 14 September 1917 in Oberbalbach, today part of Lauda-Königshofen, in the district of Tauberbischofsheim of the Grand Duchy of Baden.

[3] From 2 November 1936 to 15 August 1937, Ehrler served with the 3./Flakabteilung 88 (3rd company of the 88th anti-aircraft department) of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War.

[3] JG 77 supported X. Fliegerkorps (under Luftflotte 5) in operations against Britain from bases in Norway, often providing fighter cover for Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber attacks against British shipping.

Near Loukhi, they encountered six Hawker Hurricane fighters from the 17 GvSAP (Gvardeyskiy Smeshannyy Aviatsionnyy Polk—Guards Composite Aviation Regiment).

[12] That morning at 09:20, Ehrler, Feldwebel Rudolf Müller, Unteroffizier Hans Döbrich and another pilot each claimed a Hurricane fighter shot down.

At the time and in the same area of this encounter, Podpolkovnik (lieutenant colonel) Boris Safonov, commander 2 GvSAP of the Soviet Naval Aviation, was shot down in his P-40 and killed in action.

[16] On 19 September, on a mission to Murmashi, Ehrler claimed two Hurricanes destroyed, taking his total number of aerial victories to 60.

Gruppe provided fighter escort for Messerschmitt Bf 110s and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s attacking the Soviet airfield at Murmashi.

The position had to be backfilled following Major Günther Scholz's promotion to Geschwaderkommodore (Wing Commander) of JG 5 thus succeeding Oberstleutnant Gotthard Handrick.

That day, all three Staffeln took off at 11:40 and encountered a number of Yakovlev Yak-7 fighters from 122 IAD PVO (Istrebitel'naya Aviatsionnaya Diviziya Protivo-Vozdushnoi Oborony—Fighter Aviation Division of the Home Air Defense) south of Murmashi.

At 21:00, 19 Bf 109s under the leadership of Ehrler were scrambled from Svartnes to fend off approximately 80 Soviet aircraft attacking a German convoy.

[34] On 30 May 1944, Ehrler unintentionally made a crash landing in Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 411963—factory number) at Pechenga airfield and sustained minor injuries in the accident.

[37] On 9 November, Ehrler left his command post at Banak, heading to Bardufoss airfield to get firsthand information about organizational changes and training progress.

[38] On 12 November 1944 the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched Operation Catechism, the raid which sank the battleship Tirpitz.

Ehrler, who had gone to Bardufoss to assist with training a large influx of inexperienced pilots and helping veterans convert to the Fw 190, did not know the exact location of the battleship and had been told she was based near Tromsø.

[40] The command and control center at Bardufoss was informed shortly before 08:00 that three Lancasters had been sighted at 07:39 in the vicinity of Mosjøen heading east.

[48] After this unsuccessful action, Ehrler and Dörr faced a court martial hearing in Oslo on the grounds of not having understood the seriousness of the attack.

[49] Ehrler and Dörr were both made responsible for the loss and tried before the 2nd senate of the Reichskriegsgericht on 17, 18 and 20 December 1944 under the chair of Generalrichter Dr. Ernst Reuter.

The court believed that Ehrler abandoned his command post to claim his 200th aerial victory thus disobeying a direct order from the Reichsmarschall which demanded that such a mission should have been led from the ground.

While Dörr was acquitted from all charges, Ehrler was found guilty, relieved of command, demoted and sentenced to three years imprisonment for insubordination.

[54] On 12 January 1945 Terboven hand-delivered Schuck's affidavit in support of Ehrler to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe.

On 1 March 1945, Hitler officially pardoned Ehrler, the Führer HQ announced his return to front-line service, where he would have the chance to "rehabilitate himself.

According to both Boehme and Forsyth, the Luftwaffe combat report signed by Weissenberger and Schuck, a former JG 5 pilot, dates his death on 6 April.

[67] The authors Morgan and Weal concur with the events presented by Boehme, while Heaton, Mathews and Foreman are more in line with Forsyth, stating Ehrler was killed in action on 4 April 1945.

"[58][67] Schuck who followed the radio transmission exchange over the loudspeaker in the operations room recalls Ehrler's last words slightly differently.

"[72][73] On 11 December 2018, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published an article by the missing in action researcher Uwe Benkel.