Dietrich Peltz - the missing (post-war) years

[Simon Trew]

P1+AB indicates the Gruppe Stab of I/KG 60? 'A' as the commander's aircraft??

[Simon Trew]

Ed - I take your point. But I do wonder if Peltz was of greater interest to the authorities than your AT chap? The western Allies spent months looking for him in 1946-7 (there is a reference in the correspondence to a fairly thorough search of the British, US and French zones). I'm just a bit surprised that when eventually he did turn up, he wasn't obliged - regardless of his shyness - to sit down and explain his decision-making. I can easily enough understand why he wouldn't say much to historians. But he seems to have been out of hiding early enough still to draw at least a little attention from the authorities. And I imagine a refusal to cooperate would have been a slightly trickier sell?

[Del Davis]

Jerry Crandall brought Peltz to the US in the mid-1990s. He, along with a couple of others, spoke at the IPMS National Convention in Omaha. He was there with 2 other officers and their wives. He met privately with those of us in the Luftwaffe Circle. I don't remember any reticence on his part to answering questions. One of us asked him why he didn't cancel Bodenplatte when it was obvious it wouldn't succeed. His answer was that it never occurred to him. If Judy Crandall reads this comment perhaps she can comment further

[VtwinVince]

Peltz as a potential 'war criminal'? Who's next?

[Simon Trew]

Del - thanks very much; that puts Peltz in a slightly different light. I'd be delighted to learn more from Judy if she remembers him talking about operations against the UK in 1943-4.

VtwinVince - also thanks. I don't have any opinion on Peltz as a 'war criminal', which is why I didn't use the phrase. I'm merely observing that the Allies were interested in finding him in 1946-7 (one reason they mention in the correspondence is that they were worried that the Russians might use him for their own purposes), and that it would hardly have been surprising if he was a person of interest when he emerged from hiding / captivity. My basic point is - lots of interrogation reports of some Luftwaffe personnel, but no interrogation report of Peltz. Just intriguing that somebody who had an important job left so little recorded information about how he did it and what he thought.

[Larry deZeng]

Bombphoon wrote in part:

I take it he escaped war crimes trials then?

The very best place to ask a question of Peltz being wanted for war crimes is on the website linked below. David Thompson, an attorney, and many of the other regulars have access to the CROWCASS lists and the Allied CI War Room London files, the U.N. War Crimes library and the CIC Fort Holabird archives (transferred to Fort Meade after 1973), and would know if PELTZ, Dietrich Georg Magnus, (DOB: 09.06.14 in Gera-Reuss/Thüringen) was ever sought for war crimes.

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewforum.php?f=6

IMHO, this is highly unlikely.

L. deZ.

[edwest2]

A possible avenue for further research may be a search for the various interrogation centers set up right after the war (Dustbin and others). There may be lists of who was held where. On the other hand, a few people were held by the Americans for their "intelligence value" and when the French, for example, inquired about them, they received no reply. The final days of Prag-Rusin are still quite obscure. There are reports of Me 262s being sent in to help quell a 'spontaneous' uprising as SS troops evacuated.

[Simon Trew]

Thanks Ed, IIRC some of the early (April 1946) papers in the file confirm the impression of great confusion around Prague in early May 1945 and suggest that Peltz disappeared at that time. Again, IIRC, the impetus for the search came from US A-2 personnel, and although I guess in the prevailing chaos of 1945-6 it would have been possible to miss Peltz if he was in captivity (especially if he was using another identity), I tend to believe (as the correspondence suggests) he was indeed missing. 'The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force', of course, contains a photo of Peltz (p.372 in the edition I'm looking at) with a caption that ends: "Fate Unknown; possibly in Russian hands." The foreword to that study was written in 1947 even if the text wasn't published until the following year. So it appears that into 1947 or even 1948 the Western Allies still didn't know where he was.

[edwest2]

Simon,

I have an account written by an American scientist who was allowed access to POW camps and refugee camps in order to locate certain people. The British had T-Force which ranged far and wide looking for various persons and facilities. They carried Black Books containing photos and names of those being sought. I have an original, very limited distribution publication produced by the American Counter-Intelligence Corps which gives a brief account of the handing over of a man wanted by T-Force, showing a level of cooperation with the CIC and the British which I did not know had existed.

[Bombphoon]

Originally Posted by VtwinVince

Peltz as a potential 'war criminal'? Who's next?

Why not? One of the charges Goering was indicted with at Nuremberg on 15 March 1946 was for his directions to bomb Birmingham and Coventry in November 1940.