Barth was born 23 January 1916 in Augsburg, Bavaria and joined the military service in 1936. He was trained as a pilot before World War II and been a member of Kampfgeschwader 255 "Edelweiß", which was renamed Kampfgeschwader 51 on 1 May 1939. When II. Gruppe was formed on 1 April 1940, Barth joined the 4. Staffel holding the rank of Leutnant. He flew his first combat missions in the Battle of France, bombing airfields and shipping off Dunkirk for which he was awarded the Iron Cross2nd Class on 17 July 1940. KG 51 was then relocated to airfields at Étampes-Mondésir and later to Paris-Orly in France. In the Battle of Britain he bombed British ports and London, Coventry and Portsmouth. Barth was promoted to Oberleutnant and following Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, flew in the southern sector of the Eastern Front. He bombed airfields, railway stations as well as tank and troop concentrations in the Proskurov, Lvov, Rostov and Taganrog areas. He was wounded in action on 25 June 1941 when his Junkers Ju 88 A-5 was hit by anti-aircraft fire in the vicinity of Darachow. Barth was appointed Gruppenkommandeur on 1 February 1944 of the IV./KG 51, which was based at Hildesheim at the time. Here he was responsible for the tactical training of replacement crews. Initially they flew the Messerschmitt Me 410, then the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and lastly the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first operational jet fighter-bomber. He was promoted to Major on 1 May 1944. The Gruppe was renamed to IV./Ergänzungskampfgeschwader 1. Barth stayed in this position until 31 March 1945 before being appointed Geschwaderkommodore of KG 51 on 19 April 1945. He led the Geschwader in Upper Bavaria until it was disbanded at the end of the war.
F-84 Thunderstreak incident
Barth, commander of Jagdbombergeschwader 32, was initially removed of his command by the Minister of Defence, Franz-Josef Strauß for the 1961 F-84 Thunderstreak incident. He was later, after a number of investigations and complaints, reinstated. On 14 September 1961, two F-84F Thunderstreak of 32 Fighter Bomber Wing crossed into East German airspace due to a navigational error, eventually landing at Berlin Tegel Airport, evading a large number of Soviet fighter planes. The event came at a historically difficult time during the Cold War, one month after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Barth took his case to the Wehrdienstsenat des Bundesdisziplinarhofs, the highest court of German troops, to have him cleared of the charges brought against him. The court in Munich processed Barth's complaint on 20 December. The court invited as witnesses the generals Josef Kammhuber, Martin Harlinghausen, Werner Panitzki and Werner Streib as well as the lieutenant colonelsWalter Krupinski and Walter Grasemann. However, the Federal Minister of Defence made it known through his Secretary of State, Volkmar Hopf, before the court, that the Minister sees himself unable to give the witness the testimony rights. Nevertheless, Strauß' conduct in dismissing Barth was found to be at fault, and the latter was reinstated in his position. Strauß however ignored this decision until Hellmuth Heye, Ombudsman for the Military, forced him to accept it.
