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off from Anapa airfield early in the morning to
engage Soviet gunboats. He successfully sank
one and damaged another so severely that its
crew was forced to run it aground.
Later, at 17:40, he took off again, paired
with Uffz. Peter Düttmann. Their mission
was a free hunt along the Varenikovskaya-
Krymskaya-Slavyanskaya route. Shortly
after takeoff, they received a report of an
enemy formation near Varenikovskaya and
pursued it to Slavyanskaya. There, Petermann
observed thirteen Il-2s, escorted by ten Yak-
1s and LaGG-3s, attacking German positions.
He radioed the situation and engaged the
fighter escorts. During the ensuing aerial
combat near Petrovska, Petermann’s aircraft
was hit in the oil tank by a Yak-1 pilot.
Oil immediately began leaking and clogging
the front of Petermann’s cockpit canopy,
leaving him with visibility only through the side
windows. He attempted to climb, then reduced
engine power, switching the ignition on and off,
but within two to three minutes, the engine
failed entirely. At 18:00, he executed a belly
landing west of the village of Anastasievskaya,
about 10 to 15 km northeast of Krasny Oktyabr.
Before landing, he fired his cannons and
machine guns at the Soviet infantry positions
he was flying over. Once he touched down
smoothly, he abandoned the plane and sprinted
through a reedy area, zigzagging to avoid
machine gun and carbine fire.
After about eighty meters, Petermann
went to ground. Familiar with the area from
previous months, he knew approximately the
direction of the German lines and the location
of Temryuk. Uffz. Peter Düttmann covered
him from above, shielding him from Soviet
infantry while also avoiding any ambush by
enemy fighters. However, with only about
40 combat sorties to his credit, Düttmann
couldn’t precisely pinpoint Petermann’s
location upon his return to base at 18:10.
Surprisingly, about an hour later, another
German pilot, Otto Fönnekold, spotted the
HISTORY
The wreck of Petermann's Bf 109 G-4 WNr 19527 on Soviet territory on June 6, 1943. About an hour after the emergency landing, Petermann's colleague Fw. Otto Fönnekold
from 5./JG 52 attempted to destroy the aircraft. The emblem of JG 52 is painted on the front under the cockpit, and the 5./JG 52 insignia, featuring the devilish figure Rabbatz
with a bow and arrow, is visible on the side of the fuselage. Jochen Prien and co-authors express doubt in the publication JFV 12/II regarding this photo was taken on Soviet
territory. They believe this is a different aircraft photographed by German personnel during the spring of 1943. However, according to Viktor Petermann, he received this
photograph in the Soviet Union during one of his foreign work trips while living in East Germany. Photo: Archive of the Museum of the Air Battle over the Ore Mountains
An excerpt from a page of the Luftwaffe equipment loss overview, located in the Bundesarchiv under designation RL 2 III/1190. The document provides details about the loss
of Petermann's aircraft, including its production number. Photo: Bundesarchiv
In the Eduard kit, cat. no. 84203, Petermann's aircraft is depicted with
several changes compared to previous kits that featured the same
aircraft. The reconstruction now includes cannons in gondolas under
the wings. The new reconstruction discards the yellow band on the
fuselage and the factory letters on the underside of the wing.
These were derived from earlier information regarding this
aircraft's serial number.
INFO Eduard8
November 2024