Peter Kalden

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

Peter Kalden was a JG 51 ace. I have him listed as scoring 69 victories but found only 65 (last on 24 October 1944). He was captured on 11 March 1945 so may have scored 4 more in the 5 months between this date. If anyone has data about victories by this pilot after the above date, I'm interested.

I will also be interested to know if this man is still with us, and may be joined by mail or trough family.

Thanks in advance

Laurent

[Jochen Prien]

Dear Laurent,

Oblt. Peter Kalden stood at 64 claims at the end of 1944; he claimed three more in January 1945 - Nos. 65 to 67 - and two more in February 1945 - Nos. 68 and 69. The source is the Staffel-KTB of 10./JG 51, later to become 13./JG 51. I will try and see whether I can determine the exact dates of his last five claims.

Hope this helps and

kind regards

Jochen Prien

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Jochen,

I have in my own list 65 claims for Kalden up to 24/10/1944. But 6 of the 20 made in October 1944 have no Anerk Nr so one or several may have been rejected.

Another successfull pilot of the same Staffel was the Ofw Heinz Merquardt. For him, I have until 26/10/44 90 claims, 11 having no Anerk Nr. I know that he scored 23 victories in April-May 1945, but that still leaves at least eight not known between October 1944 and April 1945.

Do you know if the KTB for this Staffel has been kept for the month of October 1944 ?

[Leo Etgen]

Hello guys

Many thanks for the thread on JG 51 aces. Any new information about these guys is great as this is my favorite unit and I am always on the search for anything new about them. Laurent, I have compiled a total of 92 claims for Marquardt by 25 October 1945 from Tony Wood's lists. I must admit that I did not note how many included the Anerk Nr. Thus, I have a total of six victories that he claimed from that time until 14 April 1945 (possibly with 15./JG 51?) that are not listed. Perhaps we could compare lists? If you wish I could send you what I have via e-mail. According to the information on www.das-ritterkreuz.de Kalden died on 11 June 1996 at Friedrichsdorf. By the way, would anybody have any information on his fighter when he was wounded in aerial combat on 2 May 1944? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Horrido!

Leo

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Leo,

Good idea to consult the site on the Ritterkreuz bearers, it has effectively bio data for most of the big German aces.

I sent you a private post with my e-mail so we can exchange victory lists.

[Jochen Prien]

Dear Laurent, dear Leo,

I have found some more information that you were looking for concerning Oblt. Kalden and Obfw. Marquardt; the source is the Staffel KTB of 13./JG 51, although this is not an official document but a privately kept diary that was obviously compiled by some member of the ground staff, at least there is no name and no hint at the identity of the writer.

There it says that 13./JG 51 claimed a total of 81 Russian a/c shot down between Oct. 7th and 31st, 1944, 19 of them by Kalden ( 45. - 64.) and even 26 by Marquardt ( 63. - 89.). Few individual claims are listed however, there being eight by Marquardt and three by Kalden on Oct. 7th, at least one out of a total of 16 on that day by Marquardt on Oct. 13th, the same again n the 15th, when the Staffel claimed another eleven. On Oct. 22nd Marquardt reached his 82nd and Kalden his 63rd, whereas on the 24th Marquardt got at least another two and Kalden reached his 64th.

There were no claims in November and December so that at the end of 1944 Kalden stood at 64 and Marquardt at 89.

Kaldens claims until March 11th have been included in my former posting. Of Marquardt it is known that he reached his 100th on April 14th, shooting down two Jak 3 on this day, that he scored on the 16th, when his Schwarm claimed four Russian a/c shot down and another four Jak 3 on April 24th, 1945.

Since we're still a long way away from early 1945 with our JFV series it will take some time until we look into this again in detail. But I hope it will come.

Hope this helps.

Reagrds

Jochen Prien

[Jim P.]

Bf 109G-6, 140356, KALDEN, Ltn. Peter, 69, 11., JG 51, schwarze, 8 + +, , , 02-May-44, WIA due to Luftkampf., , Ostfront, Ring, JG 51 loss list, p.52, , Zadarow area, b, F

[Leo Etgen]

Hello guys

Many thanks to both Mr. Prien and Mr. Perry for their generous help (as usual) in advancing what I know of the Luftwaffe in general. I sometimes wonder what would I do without this forum. Many thanks to both.

Horrido!

Leo