This article uses material from the “Gertrud Barkhorn” article on the World Witches Series at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Gertrud Barkhorn is one of the main characters of the Strike Witches anime and light novels.
Gertrud is a veteran witch of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, originating from Karlsland and attached with the Karlsland Air Force. Some call her by the pet name of Trudy. Behind Hartmann, she is Karlsland Airforce's (and, therefore humanity's) 2nd greatest ace. Her familiar is the German Shorthair Pointer.
In the AWA fics, Gertrud is a student at the AWA Academy and is part of Class 3.
In the XP4 fics, Gertrud debuted in the XP4 Heroes Coalition - Strike Witches.
Appearance[]
She has a reddish brown hair tied in two small braids. She wears a dark green uniform jacket over a white shirt and black boots. Like most Strike Witches, she wears no pants.
Personality[]
A calm, cool and collected realist, Gertrud always tries to conduct herself in a rational manner. But since deep down she is a hot-blooded person, there are also times when her emotions get too worked up and she loses sight of her surroundings. She believes that a military member should abide by discipline and rules, but still doesn't seem to try to impose that much on anyone other than Flying Officer Hartmann.
She has a tendency to be too hard on herself as well as on others. Also, she always complains when someone is late and just loves rules and regulations. She's the kind of person who never lets her guard down. However to her friends Minna and Erica, whom she has known for a long time, she's slightly more open and friendly although she often yells at Erica for lacking discipline.
Gertrud has a serious siscon side, with a weakness for not only "little sisters" but also "little sister-like characters". The target of her affections are those who resembles her own little sister, Chris, in looks (like Sergeant Miyafuji) and those who she concludes that were "certainly raised by a gentle elder sister" (like Flying Officer Litvyak). Those like Pilot Officer Lucchini or Flying Officer Juutilainen are excluded.
Gertrud's cooking specialty is the Eisbein. She usually is not particular about taste, but that changes when she is cooking for her little sister. Also, she is bad at handling complex machines, with her driving skill being especially dangerous. Out of prudence, she often has Flying Officer Hartmann take the wheels when going out.
XP4 Fanfics[]
Gertrud is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of Team Idolo as it's second-in-command. She also attends the Vanguard Academy as a student.
XP4 Heroes Coalition - Strike Witches[]
In Chapter 3, Gertrud, alongside her fellow witches of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, happily reunited with Yoshika Miyafuji and later had a conversation with her alongside Rex Salazar and Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith. Suddenly, everyone heard an alarm which signals a Neuroi attack, they quickly sprung into action.
In Chapter 4, Gertrud, alongside her fellow witches of 501st Joint Fighter Wing, took part of taking on a Neuroi and they managed to destroy it, they then later witnessed Rex Salazar and Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith taking down another Neuroi, much to their awe.
In Chapter 5, Gertrud, alongside her fellow witches of 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Rex Salazar and Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith, are seen having a conversation inside the dining area of the main base when Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke entered the room and told them that a ship filled with wounded crew members arrived at the docks. Upon arriving at the docks, she is greeted by the sight of a large number of wounded crew members, much to her horror. She then noticed Malvina Rasputin's arrival and later witnessed Malvina using her Gift to heal every wounded crew members in a vast scale, she then discovered that Malvina is a Blessed.
In Chapter 6, Gertrud, alongside her fellow witches of 501st Joint Fighter Wing, Rex Salazar and Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith, are seen at the docks of the main base of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing where Malvina Rasputin shared to them about her past. After Double D offered Malvina membership for the Heroes Coalitions to which she accepted, Alla Yuliya made her presence and tried to take her back home but Malvina refused due to her desires to become a better to which Alla cried in tears of joy and decided to follow her mistress. They were later shock when Alla presented to Malvina the latter's gigantous share of wealth.
In Chapter 7, Gertrud took part in fighting off the Emotionless in a nearby town when the aforementioned creatures made their attack on the area and later then witnessed the arrival of the remaining members of the New Age Avengers.
In Chapter 8, Gertrud, alongside everyone, witnessed the arrival of the Emotionless-Neuroi and after recovering from the shock, she, alongside her fellow witches of 501st Joint Fighter Wing, met up with Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke in the hangar and after getting themselves into their Strikers, they flew towards the ginormous enemy and witnessed Perrine H. Clostermann going off plan and found herself getting swatted by the Emotionless-Dragon whom landed safely on a boat. After disposing the arms of the Emotionless-Neuroi, they witnessed Marcus "The Kane" McGee destroying it with his Gasoline Drill Gazer, much to their awe.
In Chapter 9, Gertrud, alongside everyone, witnessed Malvin Rasputin rejecting Eddy Skipper McGee with the latter falling into the water upon running off. She is present when Eddward "Double D, Edd" Marion Smith, Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke, Mio Sakamoto and Perrine H. Clostermann made their presence and announced the successful alliance between the Heroes Coalitions & the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, and later witnessed Marcus "The Kane" McGee saving Eddy from drowning.
XP4 Heroes Coalition - Neo-City Diaries[]
In Chapter 32, Gertrud is mentioned to have officially joined the Heroes Coalitions.
In Chapter 34, Gertrud, alongside Alla Yuliya, Malvina Rasputin, Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke and Perrine H. Clostermann, are seen having a conversation at the frontyard of the Training Camp when they Marcus "The Kane" McGee shouting, much to their surprise and confusion.
In Chapter 40, Gertrud is seen inside the lounge area of the Training Camp before making her leave.
In Chapter 45, Gertrud is present inside the auditorium of the Training Camp where he is announced to be a member of Team Idolo.
In Chapter 54, Gertrud took part in doing voluntary work in a charity center called The Shelter.
In Chapter 60, Gertrud is seen inside the AniManga Cafe where he witnessed Adagio Dazzle's performance on stage and gave her an applause and afterwards, he witnessed everyone stopping Eddy Skipper McGee from pouncing on Adagio.
XP4 Heroes Coalition - Haunting Grounds[]
In the Epilogue, Gertrud, alongside the rest of Team Idolo, are mentioned as a whole group by Louie Lovenhope.
Abilities[]
Gertrud's inherent magic is called Superhuman Strength which is classified in telekinesis-lineage, it far exceeds the Body Strengthening - one of the basic abilities of a Witch - in capacity and sustainability. This kind of ability circulates the magic power inside the body and expenditure is low since there is no external diffusion, making possible to employ it for long periods of time. Because of that, Gertrud can hold heavy armaments that normal Witches cannot and, from the fact she can carry even more ammunition than others, this can be described as an ability suited for a drawn-out combats. It also allows her to tear off iron chains and lift up steel frames of a few tons for a short time.
Gertrud can perform for a long time in combat with heavy armaments thanks to the special qualities of her inherent magic and is a capable flying corps' combat leader. Still, she is also skilled in the drafting operation plans, arranging of equipment and human resources and desk work about thing such as management of supplies, making her a good fighter-wing's adjunct. Within the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, she is the archivist in charge.
Gertrud's Fw 109D-6 is a prototype model that exchanged the FW 190's standard air-cooled engine to a liquid-cooled one. This liquid-cooled engine variation of the Fw 190 would later be adopted as the Fw 190D-9. Also, as a peculiarity, her Fw 109D-6 has something like a radiator attached to its lower parts. Around the time the Fw 109D-6 was still undergoing testing, she also had a Bf 109G-6 prepared as a spare unit.
Gertrud once performed a practical test on a Me 262 V1 - a new model of Jet Striker developed in Neue Karlsland. However, a defect in the machine caused her to suffer from heavy magic power consumption and made her crash.
In regards to her weaponry, Gertrud's MG151/20 can fire a high-powered Minengeschoß. However, since this is a very unique shell, the supplies didn't make it in time and she is never seen using it on the Anime. The MK108 and the BK-5 were exclusively used when she was testing the Jet Striker.
Trivia[]
- Gertrud is based on Gerhard Barkhorn, the #2 ranked flying ace of World War II.
- Gertrud often compares Yoshika Miyafuji to her younger sister, Chris.
- Gertrud is called "Trude" by everyone around her.
- Her name is officially spelled "Gertrud", but her name is sometimes spelled "Gertrude".
- In the XP4 fics, Gertrud is in a in a relationship with Andres "Singko" Alvarez.
Gallery[]
