Rudolf Schoenert (27 July 1911 – 30 November 1985) was the seventh highest scoring night fighter flying ace in the German Luftwaffe during World War II.

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.

He was credited with his first aerial victory on the night of 8/9 July 1941 when he claimed an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber shot down at 02:51 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of Vlieland.

Schoenert brought to the Gruppe his modified Do 217 fighter which was inspected by Oberfeldwebel Paul Mahle, an armorer attached to II.

[8] In his autobiography, fellow night fighter pilot Wilhelm Johnen recalls an evening at Parchim airfield where Schoenert opened a window, gazed at the sunset and described how as a young sailor he had had friends of varied nationalities, 'Britishers, Norwegians, Danes and Germans' and that in the future 'the iron carapace in which the nations shroud themselves, the outward symbols of which are emblems and threats, must be swept away, for the more the modern world uses science, the bloodier will the battles become ... this bloody murder must come to an end'.

[9] On 5 August 1943, Schoenert was appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I. Gruppe of Nachtjagdgeschwader 100 (NJG 100—100th Night Fighter Wing), replacing Hauptmann Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein who was transferred.

[13] Also present at the ceremony were Anton Hafner, Otto Kittel, Günther Schack, Emil Lang, Alfred Grislawski, Erich Rudorffer, Martin Möbus, Hans-Karl Stepp, Wilhelm Herget, Günther Radusch, Otto Pollmann and Fritz Breithaupt, who all received the Oak Leaves on this date.

[6] During a sortie east of the Elbe on 27 April 1945, an electrical fault rendered Schonert's radar unserviceable and his Junkers Ju 88G was shot down by a Royal Air Force (RAF) de Havilland Mosquito.

[16] Obermaier lists Schoenert with 65 aerial victories claimed in 376 combat missions, including 35 Soviet aircraft on the Eastern Front.