Kurt Welter (25 February 1916 – 7 March 1949) was a German Luftwaffe fighter ace and the most successful Jet Expert of World War II.

[2] However this score is a matter of controversy; research of Royal Air Force losses suggests Welter overclaimed Mosquito victories considerably.

In early 1945, Welter transferred to an experimental jet night fighter unit flying the Messerschmitt Me 262.

On 29 February, he was baptised into the Catholic Church with the full name of Kurt Johann Franz Ludwig Welter.

On 1 May 1930, Welter attended the private Rohloff merchant school (see August Rackow) in Cologne from which he graduated on 31 March 1931.

[5] On 1 April 1931, Welter started his merchant apprenticeship with the Cologne-based sales office of the Lausitzer Glaswerke AG, a manufacturer of glass.

[8] From December 1936 to September 1937, Welter served with Fliegerersatzabteilung 27 (27th Flier Replacement Unit) at Halberstadt where was promoted to Unteroffizier (subordinate officer or sergeant) on 1 April 1937.

[8] World War II in Europe had begun on Friday, 1 September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland.

At the time, Welter served with Flieger-Ausbildungsregiment 71 (71st Flight Training Regiment) which was based in Sorau, present-day Żary, and Guben, now the Cottbus-Drewitz Airport.

[10] On 19 March 1940, Welter was transferred to Flieger-Ausbildungs-Regiment 63 (63rd Flight Training Regiment) which was based in Marienbad, present-day Mariánské Lázně, as an instructor.

[12] For his service as a flight instructor, he was awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords (Kriegsverdienstkreuz zweiter Klasse mit Schwertern) on 23 March 1941.

[11] Following the 1939 aerial Battle of the Heligoland Bight, Royal Air Force (RAF) attacks 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.

Jagddivision (30th Fighter Division) submitted Welter for a preferential promotion to Leutnant (second lieutenant) on 7 January 1944.

[16] On the night of 25/26 August, Welter claimed his first de Havilland Mosquito twin-engine bomber shot down.

692 Squadron of that night shows that Mosquito serial MM140 on its mission to bomb Berlin came under attack by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 which hit the starboard wing, bursting the tire.

[21] Welter then claimed four RAF Avro Lancaster four-engine heavy bombers shot down on the night of 29/30 August 1944.

Staffel of JG 300 was established to counter intrusions by the RAF's fast Mosquito twin-engined bombers, flying specially optimized for speed Bf 109 G-6/AS fighters.

The Mosquito managed to fly back to Allied territory and made a forced landing near Brussels-Melsbroek Airfield, destroying the aircraft.

[24][25] On the night of 19 September 1944, according to Hinchliffe, Welter may have shot down Wing Commander Guy Gibson who was leading a 300-bomber attack on Mönchengladbach and Rheydt.

Welter submitted his victory claim north of Wittenberg in eastern Germany, some hundreds of miles away from the place Gibson's Mosquito was found.

Here he was given command of a special Kommando subordinate to II./NJG 11, set up on 11 November 1944 at Erprobungsstelle Rechlin's southern Lärz airbase (2 November 1944 – 28 January 1945), and dedicated to performing nocturnal interception with the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter of RAF Mosquitos attacking the Berlin area.

The Me 262 were not fitted with radar and used the aid of ground control and the searchlight defences, partially a Wilde Sau form of night combat.

Night Fighter System" does not mention Welter directly by name but rather refers to him as "Commander of the Me 262 Flight".

He then became managing director of Sanitätshaus Green, the medical supply store in Neustadt in Holstein which belonged to his father-in-law.

[12][46] Welter was killed on 7 March 1949 in Leck in Schleswig-Holstein waiting at a level crossing, when logs falling from an improperly loaded passing train crushed his car.

[16] According to US historian David T. Zabecki, Welter was credited with 63 aerial victories and with 26 claims flying the Me 262 is the world's highest scoring jet-ace.

This number of confirmed aerial victories were all claimed on the Western Front and includes 43 by night and two four-four engine bombers by day.

[111] Thus, there remains some controversy about the exact number of victories achieved while flying the Me 262, with only three of the Mosquito kills coinciding with RAF records; the rest might be overclaiming.