In June Freytag was deployed to the Eastern Front with JG 77 for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Freytag passed five victories becoming a flying ace and by 3 June 1942 he had claimed 50 enemy aircraft destroyed.

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

On 31 October—considered by the British to be the final day of the Battle of Britain—on patrol west of Lister, Norway, at 16:00 CET, he shot down a RAF Coastal Command Lockheed Hudson, T9377 from No.

A. Wallace and H. Dean were killed in action, buried at Sola Church and commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial.

This day he downed a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 in the morning during a combat air patrol to support German forces in the Battle of Rostov.

The Staffel engaged three Yak-1s from the 247 IAP this day, piloted by Major Mikhail Fedoseyev, the unit commander, Stepan Karnach, Vasiliy Shevchuk and Viktor Golovko.

[9] II./JG 77 also took a heavy toll of Soviet air forces in the Siege of Odessa, before Freytag's group was withdrawn to Kherson.

In December the Red Army made an amphibious assault on the eastern end of the region to disrupt the Siege of Sevastopol and re-establish airbases there.

[22] On 7 March 1943 Freytag was appointed temporary Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of II./JG 77 based at La Fauconnerie, Tunisia.

On this sortie, Freytag claimed his 86th and 87th victories, after Müncheberg ordered them to attack some low-flying United States Army Air Force (USAAF) P-39 Airacobras.

[27] On 4 April JG 77 engaged in a day of heavy air combat with the new commanding officer Johannes Steinhoff and lost three pilots.

Allied forces achieved air supremacy by 13 July and all except II./Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing) had been driven to the northeastern coast.

[32] By the time JG 77 departed Sicily, it had claimed 27 Allied aircraft in combat from 10 to 31 July 1943 but lost 51 Bf 109s and 12 pilots killed.

Freytag was wounded by an Allied air attack on the group's airfield at Siena, Italy on 29 January 1944.

[38] According to Obermaier, he claimed his 100th aerial victory in December 1944 which would make him the 96th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark.

[42] On 16 December the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) initiated Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), a land offensive through the Ardennes.

[43] In the afternoon, III./JG 77 were engaged by P-47s over Bad Münstereifel and lost 10 Bf 109s destroyed and three damaged along with two pilots killed and six wounded.

[43] In large-scale air fighting, Major Johannes Wiese, Geschwaderkommodore of JG 77 was wounded in combat with Spitfires.

16 Bf 109s were shot down and 10 pilots killed, including experienced leader Lothar Baumann (2./JG 77).

On Christmas Day 1944, the Eighth Air Force sent 2,034 heavy bombers and 818 fighters to attack airfields and communication centres in the largest single-attack of the war.

[47] Freytag participated and led JG 77 in Operation Bodenplatte, the failed attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.

[47] This airbase hosted RAF Hawker Typhoon wings that had dogged German forces from Normandy to Germany.

145 Wing RAF was missed completely and considering the large number of targets the destruction was light; just 12 Spitfires were destroyed.

[51] On 15 January 1945, Freytag relinquished command of JG 77 to Major Erich Leie who had already officially been appointed Geschwaderkommodore on 29 December 1944.

[54] On 7 March 1945, Leie was killed in action when he collided with a crashing Russian Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter which he had just shot down.

One of his brothers was killed in 1944 on the Eastern Front, his sister and the rest of his family disappeared in the sinking of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff.

Assigned to the 5th Foreign Infantry Regiment after his basic training at Sidi Bel Abbès, Legionnaire Siegfried served and fought with distinction for 18 years with the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion; the former Free French Demi-Brigade, in the Indochina War, the Algerian War and Djibouti.

Promoted to Sergent in 1962, he asked to be demoted to the rank of Caporal Chef and served in the 1st Foreign Regiment from 1965 to 1970, the year in which he retired from active duty.

He was interred in the Carré militaire of the Institution des invalides de la Légion étrangère in Puyloubier.