The cousins Peterburs

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

I have been exchanging information with Joe Peterburs concerning his cousin Hans, whose career with 9./ZG76 is of particular interest to the EOE Working Group due to the fact that he is reported to have scored several victories with that unit during the Battle of Britain (our research period ends 31.12.40). What Joe has is not a Flugbuch but primarily a Wehrpasa, which does have some useful information, but none of the purported victories claimed by Hans during the latter part of 1940 are documented. This also confirms that contrary to his Obermaier RKT biography, Hans did not serve with 6./ZG1 during the spring of 1940, prior to the time it was renamed III./ZG76 in July, 1940, at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. Hans was assigned to 9./Lehrgeschwader Greifswald - 9.(K)/LG1 from June 15, 1937 to March 3, 1940. He was then re-assigned to the 2./ZerstSchule Schleissheim from April 1, 1940, until August 13, 1940, apparently doing conversion training to the Bf110. Hans is purported to have scored two estimated (sometimes referred to as "turks') victories prior to mid-August, 1940, but it turns out that this would have been impossible, according to his Wehrpasa, as he didn't join a front line unit (9./ZG76) until August 16, 1940. The Wehrpasa also provides a list of his awards and medals, and the dates of his promotions, which include the following:
1.10.36 zum Gefreiter
1.11.37 zum Obergefreiter
8.12.37 zum Uffz. - Anwaerter (candidate for Uffz)
1.7.39 zum Uffz.
1.9.40 zum Feldwebel

He would have later been promoted to Ofw, but this is beyond the period of the EOE research.

Joe also provided one page from a Flugbuch, but it turns out that his was probably pre-war, during a training period, and wasn't the FB of Peterburs, but someone named Wolff, with whom Peterburs flew three flights. It remains unclear to me whether Peterburs' FB has survived.

According to Joe Peterburs, prior to 2002 he had a lot more information, including photos of Hans Peterburs with his aircraft, but these were all lost in a computer crash. What he has left is now are scans of the Wehrpass, the RKT bio info and the single page from the Wolff FB. Inserted inside the Wehrpass is a brief summary of Hans' actions in Russia from July to Sept. 1941, although beyond the scope of the EOE Project.

So, it is still not known what victories Peterburs claimed during 1940, but it is obvious that all must have been with 9./ZG76 on or after August 16th. Thus, unfortunately, what we hoped would be an opportunity to fill in some missing blanks in the victory claims record of II./ZG1 and III./ZG76 has failed. If anyone, including Horst Kube, can help us locate the FB of Hans Peterburs, if it still exists, or can provide any date confirmations on his 1940 victory claims/awards, I would appreciate hearing from you. The FB seems to be the key to this, if it can be located.

My thanks to Joe Peterburs for providing copies of his documents, and Robert Szoltyk for analyzing and translating the material.

I hope that this is of interest to some of you.

Regards,