5./Minensuchgruppe 1 Help Please

[Tim O.]

Hi Guys

From checking the threads I know several of you have documents to men who flew with Minensuchgruppe 1. I have recently joined the distinguished group of collectors with documents to this unit. 'My' man is Oberfeldwebel Werner Petersen and to be frank his awards confuse me!

Werner Petersen flew with 2./KGr 126 in the Battle of Britain and 5./KG 53 over Russia. By the time he transferred to Minensuchgruppe 1 in July 1943 he had already been awarded the Bomber Clasp in Gold, the Ehrenpokal and DKiG. Here is where the mystery begins:

Several photos of Petersen from 1941-43 show him without any aircrew award badge (I believe he was an air gunner) although all his other awards are evident. I have all his award certificates but not one for an aircrew award. I have his Soldbuch but there is no entry for an aircrew award. This is odd as surely he should have got at least the unqualified air gunner award badge.

As expected for this unit, in January 1944 he was awarded the Kriegsmarine Minesweeper War Badge.

While serving with the bomber arm he undertook 258 Feindfluge. Another oddity is that in November 1944 he was awarded the Bomber Clasp in Gold with 200 Pendant but by then he had undertaken another 190 sorties with the Minensuchguppe but these do not seem to have counted as Feindfluge. Is this normal?

He flew until March 1945, completing 258 sorties with bombers and a further 199 sorties with the Minensuchgruppe. I have his Flugbush, which details all his flights with these units.

Can anyone explain why he did not receive an aircrew award badge or credit for his flights with the Minensuchgruppe?

Here are some of the documents, which provide evidence of this odd situation.

[Tim O.]

More Soldbuch entries and the Minesweeper document:

[Tim O.]

Here is the document for the Bomber Clasp with 200 Pendant - note the date. Also a photo (presumably from 2 years before celebrating mission 200 in front of a Heinkel 11 of KG 53). All very odd I feel!

[Tim O.]

Caption on the reverse of the photo above, celebrating 200 missions....

Any thoughts or guidance on the award status of this man would be welcome.

[Tim O.]

I assume sorties with the Minensuchgruppe did not qualify as Feindfluge because the aircraft operated only over 'friendly' waters. My understanding is the electric coil carried by these aircraft prevented the use of compasses and other navigational equipment so they did not lose sight of land when operating. Flying at 15 metres these aircraft were on occasion destroyed by exploding mines so the task was not without risk!

I still do not understand the absence of an aircrew qualification badge in the case of this man.... Any bright ideas?

Thanks for any help.

[Tim O.]

Well this thread has not generated much interest but just for the record, I have been going through Petersen's Flugbuch and it looks like the Minensuchgruppe crews were only credited with a 'Feindflug' when they detonated a mine. For Petersen this means he was credited for 12 Feindflüge after 199 Minensuch flights. This comes from the official record signed off by his Staffelführer in the Flugbuch.

[Thomas H]

Hi Tim,

Great group you have there

I can not answer your questions, but read the same question about a missing FF-Abzeichen in a Soldbuch in the following thread this morning.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...88#post5615088

Kind regards, Thomas

[Tim O.]

Thanks Thomas. The mystery of this man is it seems no aircrew badge was awarded rather than simply not recorded. With pilots we have seen qualified civilian pilots with high decorations but, never having got their Luftwaffe pilot's licence, they were not awarded the Luftwaffe pilot badge. I cannot see the same happening for a gunner, as even unqualified gunners qualified for the unqualified gunner badge!

All a mystery for now unless he did get the unqualified gunner badge after 1943 (the date of the photos showing awards) and it was not recorded and he did not get a certificate (or it is the only certificate he had that got lost - I have all the others).