The cousins Peterburs

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hello to all!
About the same topic: distant relatives in different Air Forces, there was a Lt. Nowotny, an ace with 325th Fighter Group ( the same unit of Art Fiedler ) who could be a distant relative of Walter Nowotny ( well known ace of the Luftwaffe ). French ace, but Brazilian born, Pierre Clostermann also seems to have flown in the area where his distant cousin Klostermann ( from JG 300 if my memory do not fail me )...

Adriano

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Adriano Baumgartner

Hello to all!
About the same topic: distant relatives in different Air Forces, there was a Lt. Nowotny, an ace with 325th Fighter Group ( the same unit of Art Fiedler ) who could be a distant relative of Walter Nowotny ( well known ace of the Luftwaffe ). French ace, but Brazilian born, Pierre Clostermann also seems to have flown in the area where his distant cousin Klostermann ( from JG 300 if my memory do not fail me )...

Adriano
Nowotny is almost such a popular name like Smith, so I would not make such a guess. Clostermann was a son of French Embassy's employee, so I would be rather cautious in calling him Brasilian born, as this may suggest he had some family ties to the country.
But indeed there were more such weird links, one of Polish pilots was reputedly a close relative of Albert Kesselring, that is a big wig!

Originally Posted by Horst Kube

Hi Franek, I suppose we all would like to hear more about that topic and I am not sure, moderators and/or public like to shut off public.

Horst
I am afraid that this makes unnecessary chaos in the thread, and as a German you should appreciate this view.
Anyway, I can assure you that all the information that I gather, are intended to be published or at least preserved and accessible to other researchers.
That said, do you know if Walter Schuck flew a defence mission in Hamburg area in the evening of 9 April 1945?
Cheers

[Chris Goss]

Joe: You appear to have overlooked my posting of 9 Sep which gives more info on Heinrich

[Pawel Burchard]

...appears in NVM Lfd. Nr. 125 as FF Ofw. Hans Peterburs (53565/51) Bf 110 D-3 (4267)

regards,
Pawel

[Joe Peterburs]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

Joe: You appear to have overlooked my posting of 9 Sep which gives more info on Heinrich

Chris Goss

Thank ou for the information on Heinz. I am so intent on finding info that I failed to respond. I have a excerpts from a newspaper/magazine ? article that appeared several years ago concerning the excavation and burial of Heinz remains. Unfortunately my knowlege of German is limited, but I was able to jet the jist of the article. I am attaching it in two sections.

JoeAttachment 1448

Attachment 1449

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hello Franek!
I did not know that NOWOTNY was a very common name ( did heard about some variations such as Nowotni, Novotny as a commom name around the Czech and Austrian border ), this is why I used "could be" a distant relative...On my case, there were some Baumgartner(s) in the Whermacht and flying with the Luftwaffe, however for lack of information, I do not know if they came from the same branch of the family in Switzerland...
You are quite right: Pierre Clostermann was the son of an Ambassy Member, however he IS born at Curitiba, Brazil - and as far as I do know - did have double nationality! He even started to fly on the Airclub of that town, flying Buckers and other airplanes as well as acting as a reporter. Before his death, he was honored by the Brazilian Air Force with the Santos Dumont Medal. I do not know how far distant was his cousin, this one that flew with JG 300 and was killed the same day Pierre flew an offensive patrol on the same area...( do not remember by heart, sorry ).
Please excuse me any mispelling information ( I am writing from memory not checking the books and magazines ).
Yours friend and sincerely

Adriano

[Evgeny Velichko]

Joe - I am in active research of Hans Peterburs's shot down on 24 june 1941, have a trace to VVS docs... I hope soon we will have a picture of this combat as full as possible.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

Ofw Heinrich Peterburs, born 18 Mar 16 in Boernig, was killed 5 Apr 45 in Tottelstedt. He was awarded the Ehrenpokal 30 Nov 42 as a Feldwebel. I have not found him as yet as to his unit-not JG 26 and I cannot see him listed in JG 2

If that's Töttelstädt (just west of Erfurt) then it would be in JG 2's "territory" at that period, I think.

[Joe Peterburs]

This is all the information I have on Heinz. The information was received from a Luftwaffe polot researcher some years ago as well as a magazine artical that described the finding of he and his aircraft.

Heinrich “Heinz” Peterburs was a fighter pilot with about 300 missions and 22 unconfirmed aerial victories. “Heinz” was flying his Bf 109 G-6 and was engaged in a “dogfight” with American Fighter Planes near the small city of Töttelstedt north west of Erfurt on either the 7th or 8th of April 1945. Eyewitnesses of the “dogfight” tell how “Heinz’s” 109 had a large part of its wing ripped off and crashed into the earth at a steep angle. The inhabitants of the village found the canopy from the German fighter on the east side of the village. This meant that the pilot tried to bail out but due to the low altitude he was unable to escape from his aircraft and smashed into the ground.

A German salvaging group who researched such fates of war located the remains of “Heinz” and his 109 on the 30th of August 2003. During the excavation every small piece of dirt which was taken from the salvage site had to be examined thoroughly. Soon the first human remains were found and thereby it was concluded that the pilot was still in the machine. From the rubble it was concluded that the plane was a Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 and gradually indications were found about the pilot. A ring, “wings”, an Iron Cross 1st class and something that was very important was found, the Identification disk. All the remains of the pilot were put into a coffin and placed in the mortuary of the town for keeping. From the information that was found on the identity disk the WAST (German war archives ) determined that the remains were Oberfeldwebel Heinrich Peterburs (born 18th of march 1916). On the 22nd of November 2003 Heinz was buried, with military honours, at the War Memorial at Hoetzelioda, Germany.

[Red Baroness]

Good morning, Joe - good to "see" you on here again.

Have you checked with the archives at Freiberg? If not, I can send you the information to do so.

Also, just for quick information and nothing too in-depth, you can try http://users.accesscomm.ca/magnusfamily/ww2ger.htm for the standard info.

A quick use of the CTRL-F feature and typing in your last name comes up with

PeterbursHansLuftwaffe18SKG210 & 10, SG4; KIA 11/Jan/1944

The 18 naturally being the kills - but only for Hans, and not for Heinrich.

I understand the difficulty all too well researching family members; my maiden name was as popular as "Smith" back then.