Sturm joined 6. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 52 with the rank of Feldwebelin the summer of 1941. He claimed his first three aerial victories at the end of the year. He then transferred to a fighter school as instructor and returned to frontline service in November 1942. He was assigned to the Stab of II./JG 52. In the period up to 17 December 1942 he scored a further six victories. On 1 January 1943, he was promoted to Leutnant. He claimed his 20th aerial victory on 15 April 1943, adding five more on 20 April 1943, becaming an "ace-in-a-day" for the first time. He reached his 40th aerial victory on 30 June 1943 and shot down another 35 aircraft over the next five months, reaching a total of 75 on 30 November 1943. On 1 August 1943, Sturm was appointed acting Staffelkapitän of 4. Staffel of JG 52. He replaced LeutnantHelmut Lipfert in this capacity who was transferred to the 6. Staffel of JG 52. Sturm later officially became the Staffelkapitän of 4. Staffel on 1 September 1943. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 26 March 1944. He was the 66th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. A few weeks later on 16 April, he was wounded badly by bomb debris on Chersonese airfield in Crimea. In August 1944, he returned to JG 52 and took over command of 5. Staffel of JG 52, his score standing at 111. He replaced Otto Fönnekold, who was killed in action on 31 August. On 22 December 1944, he claimed his last two aerial victories. Taking off for another sortie from Csór that day, one of his aircraft's landing gear struts hit a truck, killing him in the accident.
Summary of career
Aerial victory claims
According to Spick, Sturm claimed 157 aerial victories in an unknown number of combat missions, all of them on the Eastern Front. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and state that he is attributed with 158 aerial victories, all of which claimed on the Eastern Front. The archives revealed records for 123 of these claims. However, there are 52 additional claims attributed to II. Gruppe of JG 52 in the timeframe November to December 1944 that have no names associated to them. The authors assume that many of these claims belong to Sturm. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 19424". 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.
