Info. on Luftwaffe man sought

[RobertRAE]

Hi all!
I know it's a long shot, but anyone got any info. on this chap that I know very little about?
The reason I'm asking is because my father and I (I'm a 1st year Uni. student by the way) have the 'Flugbuch' or Flight Logbook belonging to one Hans Petersen. He spent most of his time with KG 4, flying bombers - the majority Heinkel 111's. He definitely survived the war because at the end is written in big letters 'Kriegsende'! He totalled up his flights at the end too, and seems to have flown over 500!
Can anyone help find out more about this interesting chap?
Thanks in advance!
Robert

[tenoriodj]

do you know his rank? Is there something written in front of his name like Lt. Oblt. Hptm. Uff. etc? If he was an officer theres a good chance of finding out

[RobertRAE]

Thanks for the quick reply!
From the small bits of info. I have, he appears to have been at most an Unteroffizier - so he wasn't an officer sadly!
I have a photo of him dated 1944, (that came with the Logbook) of his wedding day, and the insignia on his collar is of an Unteroffizier. Unfortuately and suprisingly though, he isn't wearing any medals/decorations - why would this be?? He would have had at least an Eastern Front medal, Pilots badge, etc. and maybe a class of the EK, considering the photo is dated on the back 1944 and he flew 500 or so flights by the end of the war.
Thanks again for any help here!
Robert

[Larry deZeng]

Robert -

Getting information on Luftwaffe enlisted personnel has become exceedingly difficult. Prior to 1988 or so you could have WASt in Berlin ( http://www.stolp.de/Kontakte/WAST-Berlin.htm ) run a check for you, but then a Privacy Act law was passed and they will no longer do this unless you can prove you are a family member. There are a few other hurdles you have to jump over, too.

There is a unit history for KG 4 (Gundelach, Karl. Kampfgeschwader General Wever 4 : Eine Geschichte aus Kriegstagebüchern, Dokumenten und Berichten 1939 1945. Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1978), but this has no index so you would have to scan your way through the entire book.

There also used to be a veterans association for KG 4, but it is now defunct because most of the former members are gone.

At the end of the war, the Luftwaffenpersonalamt left behind a very large number of Karteikarten (card indexes), including one on enlisted air crew. These indexes were in Allied custody in a captured documents library on Monck Street in London until 1948 and then turned over to the Air Ministry's Air Historical Branch. AHB is said to have returned all of this material to Germany in the 1960's and it was taken over by the Bundesarchiv-Zentralnachweissstelle in Kornelimünster bei Aachen. At the end of 2005, BA-ZNS closed and turned all of this material over to the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg. So a personnel data card on your man may be there.

--Larry

[Larry deZeng]

I found one tiny tidbit of information on Petersen:

On 11 October 1943, an Uffz. and Beobachter (observer) Hans Petersen was awarded the Ehrenpokal.

--Larry

[RobertRAE]

Hi Larry!
Thanks for all the info. - really great! Do you know how it would be possible to get hold of a copy of that book you mention?
Interesting also about a Ehrenpokal award to a Hans Petersen - I wonder if it's 'my' chap? I suppose there were a few Hans Petersen's in the Luftwaffe during the war, but the rank appears to tally, doesn't it!!
Thanks again!
Robert

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Larry!
Thanks for all the info. - really great! Do you know how it would be possible to get hold of a copy of that book you mention?
Interesting also about a Ehrenpokal award to a Hans Petersen - I wonder if it's 'my' chap? I suppose there were a few Hans Petersen's in the Luftwaffe during the war, but the rank appears to tally, doesn't it!!
Thanks again!
Robert

Back to you, Robert. You can shop for the book on any number of on-line new and used book dealers. Here are a couple that you can start with:

http://www.abebooks.com/
http://www.sfb.at/

If those don't yield results, go to your university library and tell reference that you want to obtain a book on interlibrary loan.

--Larry