Division), at the Malmsheim Airfield. Meimberg flew his last combat mission on 17 April 1945, strafing US vehicles travelling on the Autobahn near Nürnberg. During this attack, his Bf 109 G-14/AS was hit in the engine by anti-aircraft artillery. He was forced to bail out and landed safely in a field where he was picked up by a SS-unit and taken back to his unit at Rißtissen, located approximately southwest of Ulm. On 22 April, Meimberg moved II. Gruppe to an makeshift airfield near Waal. Aerial operation had practically came to a stop as US forces had started crossing the Danube the following day. Meimberg dismissed his soldiers and disbanded II. Gruppe in the early morning on 27 April. Later life Following World War II, Meimberg worked at the Nordhorn based textile company Rawe. There he gained knowledge of yarn production. In the summer of 1946, Meimberg and his wife bought two sheep. The sheep's wool was hand spun locally, inspiring Meimberg to think about automating the spinning process. Over the next months, he began experimenting and building a crude prototype for continuous yarn production, powered by a sewing machine motor, which he completed in 1948. Meimberg, presented his prototype to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in Munich and the Deutsche Spinnereimaschinenbau AG Ingolstadt, the German spinning machine factory in Ingolstadt, owned by the Schubert & Salzer GmbH. In 1970, Meimberg founded the travel agency "Meimberg" in Münster. For his achievements as an inventor, Meimberg was awarded the Rudolf-Diesel-Medaille in 2001. Summary of career Aerial victory claims According to Obermaier, Meimberg was credited with 53 victories claimed in over 250 combat missions, all of which over the Western Front. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 45 aerial victory claims, plus further 14 unconfirmed claims. All of these claims were achieved over the Western Allies, including four four-engined bomber. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = Planquadrat), for example "PQ 15 West TR-9". The Luftwaffe grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size. Awards Iron Cross (1939) 2nd