Major Peter Mehrtens

[Leo Etgen]

Hi guys

I was able to come across a couple of photographs of him with his awards at http://issuu.com/mweekly/docs/milduraweeklyvol3.52 which is an online magazine. The article dealing with Mehrtens is on pages 12 and 48. The viewer in my opinion is rather user unfriendly so be prepared.

Horrido!

Leo

[Delmenhorst]

Normally people on this forum are quite friendly and goes a long way to help people with their questions. We quite often spend a lot of our free time helping people with information about their relatives etc.

Unfortunately sometimes not so friendly people comes up with phony questions and waste our time.

Peter Mehrtens never recieved the Ritterkreuz mit Schwerten und Eichenlaub. Only 160 members of the Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and SS was issued that medal. It is equvilant to the british Victoria Cross and every member is known.

There are no mention of Mehrtens being issued a medal by Hitler himself.

Lewis1 claims that Mehrtens was shot down over Scotland by American Thunderbolts in November 1944. No P-47 pilot made any claims over Scotland in November 1944.

The article in mweekly claims that Glasgow was attacked by Ju 88's in November 1944. I don't think so and I would like to see a statement.

Mehrtens (or more correctly Lewis1) claims that he was a member of Legion Condor. Quite strange since he is not listed as a member of that unit.

[lewis1]

I would like to apologise to Delmenhorst and any other members who thought that I was unfriendly or time wasting. I being a relation of Peter wanted to find some answers to all these missing pieces. I struggled on my own to gather much info, very frustrated, I turned to you people bieng so much more knowledgeable on the subject. I truly thank you all for the help that you have given me and once again apologise to you mainly on my naivity on the subject matter. My information is only based on what Peter has written or told me.

[Michael Louey]

Hi Delmenhorst,

I have refrained from responding up to now as I really have no more information to add other than what other researchers have supplied already. I am sure Lewis1 is sincere in what he is posting as it matches exactly the information published in a local Australian book called 'Fly' by Michael Veitch. This is collection of stories of Australian Air Arm veterans. At the time of the interview, Peter Mehrtens was quite old and frail, so everything Lewis1 has said matches up with this history. So it is a case of 'Don't shoot the messenger'.

Regards

Michael

[St3pto]

Peter was my Grandfather, and I have personally seen his medals which I have images off. For the last 40 or so years my sister and I where lead to beleive that Peter was a highly decorated Luftwaffe pilot, and he had the medals to back it up. After his passing last year, his true name has been know. We did not know of his alias Ernest Heinz Peter Alenxandra Mehrtens. I have been following this forum since I discovered it last week, and would like to back up Lewis1's claims that he has posted. Peter had written a book and self published this. All of the things that he claimed to have happened was stated in this book.... He was my Grandfather, was I meant to doubt him?

[Leo Etgen]

Hello St3pto

Thank you for your comments and welcome to TOCH. I agree with you and Michael in that all what I have been able to uncover on Mehrtens matches perfectly with what Lewis has posted here. Mehrtens wrote an autobiography and granted several interviews including those with Veitch where he described his wartime career as can be read in the online magazine. In the article there can be seen two photographs, one taken during the war and one later in life, where he appears with his awards, which certainly appear to be the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern (Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords). Unfortunately, there is no documentation that appears to collaborate this. As Hard Sarge has written, the award was very prestigious and only 160 individuals were awarded it, including only 42 that served in the Luftwaffe. The award was numbered and we have the records of all those who received it. Mehrtens does not appear on that list and therefore regrettably one must draw the conclusion that he did not receive this award. As for the accounts of his combat duty that is much more difficult to comment upon but I do agree with Delmenhorst that there is little to substantiate the claim of a bombing raid on Glasgow in daylight in November 1944. I believe it to be understandable that you want to uncover as much on your grandfather as is possible and have quite naturally relied upon what he wrote and stated but it appears that several parts of the account are difficult to reconcile with what is known from the records. If you have any other questions I am sure that others as well as myself will attempt to be as of much help as is possible.

Horrido!

Leo

[Douglas Jr.]

OK, I know it's Wikipedia, but this list is very complete concerning the individuals that won the Swords and Oakleaves fo the Knight's Cross:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ves_and_Swords

Unfortunately, there is no Mehrtens listed there.

Douglas.

[Delmenhorst]

Dear St3pto and lewis1
You can ask for his military records from Bundesarchiv in Freiburg if you are family. You can also ask WAST in Berlin if he was shot down in November 1944.

[thenelm]

If he was in Spain, wasn't there some type Spanish medal in gold? While occasionally an unknown German RK winner shows up, particularly amongst the transport and recon crews, certainly an Oak Leaves and Swords winner name would not have been 'misplaced' being as there were relatively few winners of those medals. As Leo said, a formal photo with decorations would definitely solve the mystery. Seeing as he was with the Transport guys and a Major, he may well have been an RK winner, but maybe the confusion comes from the different levels of the Eiserne Kreuz or even Deutsches Cross he may have won.

[P Cavanagh]

I have some a manuscript that my late husband was doing with Peter some 7 years ago. I could not find anyone to send them onto.