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Horst Petzschler participated in combat actions in the defense of the Reich in the West and on the Eastern Front. He had also been active in a number of training units. On February 15 1945 he arrived in Danzig to report to 10./JG 51 where he was assigned a Bf 109 G-10 and designated a leader of a Staffel. On 27 April he claimed his 26th and final Abschuss of the war by downing a Pe-2 north of the town of Pillau in East Prussia. On 4 May, his Staffelkapitän, Oberleutnant Anton Lindner, ordered his 15 pilots to fly the remaining aircraft out of the Kurland Pocket to Denmark and its capital Copenhagen for surrender and handover of personnel and equipment to British forces. In Horst Petzschler's own words: "My goal was to fly to Copenhagen where JG 51's headquarters was already located. During the take-off from a primitive airfield east of Danzig, my drop tank broke and leaked gasoline for the rest of the trip. About 5-10 minutes from Copenhagen, the gasoline was almost gone, and with the water in between I decided to try to land in Sweden. I managed to locate the Bulltofta field outside Malmö on my last drops of gasoline. I made a glide landing with the engine stopped. I was surprisingly well received, not even your anti-aircraft fire fired on me. I now understood that World War II was over for me." A Swedish officer jumped onto the wing of Petzschler's Bf 109. The hood was opened, and the officer formally informed Petzschler that he was now in Sweden, and that the war was over for him. Furthermore, he would be interned in Sweden, and as a German soldier he would be treated according to the Geneva Convention. Horst then handed over his pistol, a Belgian Browning 7.65, and was strictly instructed not to try to sabotage his plane. Petzschler was then taken to the Swedish F-10 fighter-wings officers' mess. There they were served a smorgasbord of the finest kind. He could hardly believe his eyes. During the last few months, the diet of he and his comrades in the Luftwaffe had consisted mainly of horse meat, vodka and slibovitz (plum brandy) - all of which were in abundance. He was now completely overwhelmed by the sight of this, for him, an abundance of food. However, he had had more than enough horse meat lately to feel any great longing for meat. Now that the war was over, he thought it was only a matter of time before he would be released and allowed to return h Petzschler: "I was treated well, first by F 10's staff and later during the internment itself. The big surprise came much later when the Swedish "communist government" wanted to please "comrade Stalin" and decided to hand over about 2500 German soldiers and 344 Balts to Soviet captivity for three and a half years of slave labor in labor camps. However, we understood that the Swedish people, including the military, supported us during this time and had wanted us to go home. We were treated well in the various internment camps in Sweden. Later I was handed over by the Swedish state police to the Soviet ships that had come to pick us up. I was taken aboard the ship on January 22, 1946. I can well remember thinking that day, I have lost hope for humanity. I was released after three and a half years and when I returned to Berlin on September 22, 1949, I was practically a walking skeleton, but I lived and I promised myself to tell about what I had experienced, especially to the young rising generation. Despite my experiences, I feel a deep gratitude to the Swedish people, and especially to the man who received me at Bulltofta on May 4, 1945, Lt. Sven Forssén from the F 10 Wing. When my eldest son was born in Berlin in 1951, Sven Forssén became his godfather. My son was named Sven". During the last week I have been workig on my upcoming Profile Book No 15. The books is by
now ready to be shipped to the printer this Monday 25 August,
first for a test print to assure highest quality then for the
limited print-run of only 200 numbered copies. |
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