Born in Lippelsdorf, Lipfert joined the military service in 1937, at first serving with the 1st Panzer Division before he transferred to the Luftwaffe in 1941.
Lipfert was born on 6 August 1916 in Lippelsdorf, present-day a borough of Gräfenthal, at the time in Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, as part of the German Empire.
Lipfert, who held the rank of Unteroffizier (sergeant), participated in the Invasion of Poland and in the Battle of France as a member of the 1st Panzer Division.
[5] On 18 December 1942, on one of his first combat missions, Lipfert made a forced landing in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 (Werknummber 14154—factory number) due to engine failure.
[7] There, Lipfert claimed his first aerial victory over a Lavochkin La-5, a radial engined fighter aircraft, on the 30 January, near Malaya Balabinka, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of Rostov-on-Don.
There, the Luftwaffe Gruppen were subjected to near-constant Soviet bombing raids, and Lipfert's 6./JG 52, in particular, lost a number of aircraft.
[10] On 11 June 1944 he destroyed his first United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) four engined bomber, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress north-northwest of Tătăruși, his 127th aerial victory.
[15] He thus replaced Hauptmann Erich Hartmann who had briefly led the Gruppe after its former commander, Major Jürgen Harder, was transferred.
[17] At the time, the Gruppe was based in Veszprém and had been fighting in the siege of Budapest, where German forces had surrendered on 13 February.
The Gruppe then supported German forces in Operation Southwind, eliminating the Soviet bridgehead on the west bank of the river Hron, predominantly fighting over Esztergom.
[18] On 20 February, Lipfert was ordered to move the Gruppe to Piešťany, located approximately 75 kilometers (47 miles) northeast of Vienna, where they arrived the following day.
The following day, German forces attacked Soviet positions on both sides of Lake Balaton during Operation Spring Awakening.
[24] On 20 March, with Soviet forces advancing, ground combat shifted to the area north of Lake Velence and to Székesfehérvár.
[25] On 22 March, the airfield Veszprém was taken by Soviet forces and the Gruppe relocated to Pápa where they were joined by the Stab (headquarters unit) of Jagdgeschwader 76 (JG 76—76th Fighter Wing).
[27] Three days later, Lipfert claimed his 200th aerial victory in the vicinity of Hainburg an der Donau, west of Bratislava.
[28] He flew his last and 687th combat mission on 16 April, claiming a Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter shot down, taking his total to 203 aerial victories.
The presentation was made by Generalleutnant Paul Deichmann, commanding general of I. Fliegerkorps (1st Air Corps), on 17 April.
[34] The authors Daniel and Gabor Horvath compared Soviet enemy loss reports to Lipfert's claims over Hungary.
In the timeframe 17 October 1944 to 21 March 1945, Lipfert claimed 52 aerial victories, while the authors found 48 matching Soviet losses, a corroboration of 92%.