Staffel (4th squadron) of JG 77 which he led in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Setz claimed three more victories before he was killed in action on his 274th combat mission in a mid-air collision with a Supermarine Spitfire on 13 March 1943.

He was the son of an Oberförster (head of a forest range) and joined the military service of the Luftwaffe as a Fahnenjunker (cadet) on 6 April 1936.

[Note 1] From April 1939 onwards he was posted to a Jagdfliegerschule (fighter pilot training school) as an instructor.

[1] World War II in Europe began on Friday 1 September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland.

82 Squadron Bristol Blenheim bomber, was shot down south of Stavanger over Norway's west coast on 27 August 1940.

Gruppe, plus the Stab (headquarters unit), of JG 77 supported the German advance as part of Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South).

[6] That evening, the pilots and ground crews were briefed of the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, which opened the Eastern Front.

[7] In late June or early July, Setz succeeded Hauptmann Walter Jänisch as Staffelkapitän of 4.

[1][4] There, he claimed his first aerial victory on the Eastern Front, his fourth in total, on a Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber escort mission to Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Gruppe flew thirteen combat missions providing fighter protection for the bridges over the Dniester near Yampol.

On the twelfth mission, which started at 18:18 from Bălți, Setz himself was shot down in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 E (Werknummer 1384—factory number), resulting in a forced landing.

Gruppe began relocating back to the Eastern Front, at first to Proskuriv where it stayed for a few days,[15] and then to Sarabuz on the Crimea, arriving on 17 March 1942.

[17] Setz claimed three Yakovlev Yak-7 fighters on 21 April over Prymorskyi against the Crimean Front taking his total to 60 aerial victories.

[20] He was shot down by pilots from the 9 IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment—Istrebitelny Aviatsionny Polk) of the ChF (Soviet Black Sea Fleet—Chernomorskiy Flot).

Gruppe moved to an airfield named Fernheim, located on the Sea of Azov, approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) west-northwest of Kirovske.

[25] Following his return to the front, JG 77 was assigned to the newly created Army Group B in support of Fall Blau (Case Blue), the Wehrmacht's 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia.

Staffel flew a fighter escort mission for a flight of Heinkel He 111 bombers attacking Soviet positions north of Voronezh.

On 12 November he was appointed the new Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe (1st group) of Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG 27—27th Fighter Wing), to replace Hauptmann Gerhard Homuth who had to resign the command because of illness.

This unit had formerly led the assault in North Africa but after being shattered in the recent battles around El Alamein had been pulled back for rest and rebuild.

Now fighting a completely different type of air-war, versus the combat box-formations of bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) VIII Bomber Command, Setz had the entire group conduct training flights and reported operational readiness on 20 February 1943.

[40] On this 274th combat mission, he claimed two escorting Supermarine Spitfires from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) No.

His Bf 109 G-4 (Werknummer 14 862—factory number) crashed at Yzengremer, 11 km (6.8 mi) east of Le Tréport.