Karl-Heinz Weber

On 13 August, Weber was then officially appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of the Staffel. The day before, he had been credited with his 100th aerial victory. He was the 49th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. On 28 May 1944, III. Gruppe (3rd group) of JG 51 received orders to transfer one Staffel to the west in Defence of the Reich. The Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) Hauptmann Diethelm von Eichel-Streiber selected Weber's 7. Staffel which was then subordinated to the II. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG 1—1st Fighter Wing).

On 5 June 1943, Weber temporarily was given command of 7. Staffel, replacing Hauptmann Herbert Wehnelt who had fallen ill. During the Battle of Kursk on 12 July, Weber and his wingman Unteroffizier Heinrich Dittlmann shot down Mladshiy Leytenant Nikolay Zhukov and Leytenant Nikolay Safonov from 32 GvIAP (Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment—Gvardeyskiy Istrebitelny Aviatsionny Polk).

During the Battle of Rzhev on 3 September 1942, Weber claimed a Petlyakov Pe-2 twin-engined dive bomber shot down in combat southwest of Sychyovka. Later that day, the airfield at Dugino came under Soviet bomber attack, during its defense, he was shot down and wounded in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2 (Werknummer 8240—factory number) northwest of Dugino. While Weber was recovering from his injuries, III. Gruppe was relocated to Jesau, near Königsberg in East Prussia for conversion to the Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-2 and A-3. On 19 November 1942, Soviet forces launched the Velikiye Luki offensive operation. During this operation, Weber claimed a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter east-southeast of Zubtsov on 15 January 1943.

In June 1941, JG 51 and the majority of the Luftwaffe were transferred to the Eastern Front in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. There, Weber claimed his first aerial victory on 24 June 1941 over a Tupolev SB-2 bomber.

Karl-Heinz Weber (30 January 1922 – 7 June 1944) was a Luftwaffe flying ace of World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Weber was credited with 136 aerial victories—that is, 136 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft. All his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front in over 500 combat missions.

Karl-Heinz Weber was born on 30 January 1922 in Heringsdorf in the province of Pomerania, a Free State of Prussia. A pre-war glider pilot, he volunteered for military service in the Luftwaffe in late 1939. Leutnant Weber was posted to 7. Staffel (7th squadron) of Jagdgeschwader 51 (JG 51—51st Fighter Wing) on 1 October 1940.