Petzschler landed in Russia and pulled off the runway. The soil was soft where he pulled off the runway and his aircraft went over on its prop.  Horst was fined one months wages for this accident!

HORST PETZSCHLER
Print By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette 
Limited Edition Print
12" X 18"
Price: $60.00

Horst Petzschler
Focke Wulf FW-190A-4

Limited Edition prints are signed and numbered by the artist and signed by the aviator.  Also available in Open Edition prints which are signed by the artist for $25.00

Horst Petzschler was born on September 1, 1921 in Berlin Germany. As with many other young German boys and men he found himself fascinated with flight and the programs that the government was sponsoring with glider schools. One of his earlier first flights was in a Grunau-Baby II-a glider in 1937 and 1938 in Trebbin, which was 50km south of Berlin.

Horst joined the Luftwaffe in April 1941 at he age of nineteen. His enlistment was for twelve years. The war with Poland had started in September of 1939 and had spread through Europe raging for a year and a half with the German Army and Luftwaffe being recognized world wide for its dramatic success in combat tactics.

Basic training is how every enlisted man is introduced into the military. After finishing boot camp and receiving NCO training, in September 1941, Master Sergeant Petzschler reported to A/B-10 Pilot School in Grottkau/O/S. In May Horst was assigned to the JG 101 fighter school squadron located at Villacoublay, which is near Paris. After all, Germany owned France at this point in time.

In May 1943, Horst experienced combat for the first time while still in training school. By chance his fighter school squadron JG101 tangled with Colonel Robert Morgan flying the Memphis Belle and 200 other B-17’s over Guyancourt, north west of Paris. The incident was mostly a taunting harassment by the Luftwaffe flying students with their formation getting the opportunity to get close and actually observe the American formation and get a good look at the defensive guns of the Fortress. Horst would be attacking other formations of bombers like the ones he confronted with his Luftwaffe pilot trainees within the next two years. Horst finished his training in the Fw 190-A2 at Toulouse in southern France.

Horst was transferred to the Russia campaign in September 1943. The Russian assault was in full swing and all the German military was advancing onto its giant neighbor. Horst experienced advancing with the Army from airfield to airfield. Many of the airfields were very basic. Nothing more than flat farm fields cut up and sectioned off for runways and aircraft parking areas. In his first tour of duty in Russia he flew 126 fighter-bomber missions against Russian armor in support of the German troops.

The Russian army advanced spearheaded by tanks with Russian troops in tow. Defeating the tanks was essential. However Horst said that there would be thousands of Russian infantry. Many of Petzschler’s sorties were direct attacks onto the Russian armor and troops.  Horst attacked the Russian armor hitting the tanks with a 500-kilo bomb that would destroy or disable the tank and decimate any troops riding on the back of the tank and all that were close by.  Horst would drop antipersonnel 250-kilo bombs onto the hordes of advancing Russians troops. Horst described a mass of brown and white camouflaged figures moving over the snow like ants on the ground below. When his bombs landed among them they were large holes ripped in the moving mass exposing the brown earth with the snow around the edges was accentuated with the red of blood. Horst could see this when he was low over his targets. As ghastly sight he told me.

All German pilots knew the furious brutality of the Russian infantry towards the Germans especially the Luftwaffe pilots. The pilots would be brutally killed as soon as they were captured. Sometimes the pilots would be taken prisoner for interrogation and then tortured to death. During his first mission, Horst was shot down by Russian flak. He was still new to the fighting and got a little too close to the ground conflict. This was the worst thing that could happen to a beginner or even a veteran. Horst bailed out too closed to the lines of battle. The Germans and Russians were surging and withdrawing making an uneven battle line that changed constantly like the movement of a serpents back. Horst was able to watch the troops on both sides advancing and withdrawing back and forth before his eyes.

Upon landing and freeing himself from his parachute, Horst ran through the trees towards the German lines. The problem is that the lines were flexing back and forth and Horst found himself practically surrounded. Fortunately a Panzer tank crew saw him land and was close enough for a rescue. There were no Russian tanks in the immediate area, however there were many Russians with weapons that could disable their tank. Horst was petrified with fear when he saw the friendly tank appear. It could have been a Russia tank, which would have sealed his fate, but it was a German.

The tank crew threw open the doors on the top of the turret and motioned for Horst to come quickly. With machine gun and rifle fire all through the area Horst did not know or care if any of the shooting was directed towards him. He raced over the snow-covered frozen earth and leaped onto the side of the tank quickly disappearing into one of the open hatches. The warmth inside the tank was welcomed. The tank crew was from the 3^rd SS Panzer Division.

Horst was much relieved while the tank made a straight run back to its lines and deposited him as the tank crew returned to the battle. This would not be the only time Horst would be shot down by Russian flak. However it was the scariest. Horst made many ground attacks against the Russian hordes.  At times the Russians would have the advantage of tanks in their attacks on the German infantry. The Russians would attack in groups of 40 to 50 tanks against the besieged German troops who did not have enough anti tank guns to stop the Russian armor. Horst and his group was the only hope for their fellow ground troops below.

Many times Horst and his squadron attacked from 12,000 feet and dropped 250 and 500-kilo container bombs which were loaded with armor piercing ammunition. The altitude was high for ground attack because the Russians were always equipped with anti aircraft guns. Horst estimates that he destroyed at least twelve Russian tanks in all from high altitude down to low level attacks. It was impossible to attack ground units without getting low from time to time where you could better direct your efforts.

Horst and his fellow pilots would carpet bomb the enemy with devastating results on both the Russian armor and the enemy’s troops. The canister bombs would destroy the tanks with direct hits, or disable them with near misses knocking off the tracks of the tanks. However the bombs would rip holes in the ranks of the Russian infantry. Yet the waves of Russian infantry keep coming running over there own dead and wounded.

Horst primarily flew the Focke Wulf 190 A-2 and A-4. The camouflage of his Fw 190’s changed with the weather. In the spring and summer the Fw-190 had the standard black green and dark green splinter patterns on the top surfaces of the wing areas. The spine of the fuselage and the top of the cowling was also toped with the same green colors. The bottom and the sides of the Focke Wulf was a light sky blue that came up three quarters of the sides toward the top of the fuselage.

Along the light blue sides of the fighter the ground crews would spray patterns of dark grays and or light and dark greens to blend the top of the fuselage with the bottom of the aircraft. This gave the German aircraft the most unusual yet distinctively attractive camouflage of any of the warring nations.

During the winter the ground crews would spray the top of the Focke Wulf all white or mottle with a spray gun a white wash that was not completely covering of the original colors but allowed some of the bottom dark colors to slightly show through to create an illusion of looking down on a snowy area yet you can see some of the earth and grasses bleeding through the snow.

Germans were artist with their aircraft coloring. However sometimes when there was no time for art the ground crew would have to climb on top of the aircraft with white paint and brushes and slop on the paint as quickly as possible. After all, the lifespan of a German aircraft was at times only a day or two.

With his first tour in Russia over Horst had flown 126 sorties, which were mostly ground attack missions. This was grueling on Horst and gave him little time to pursue shooting down enemy aircraft, which is what every fighter pilot dreams of. In the first tour Horst was able to shoot down only three confirmed aerial victories. But the primary mission of his Staffel (squadron) was to bust the Russian tank. They called it “Tank Busting”. Many times Petzschler and his fellow pilots were they last and only hope for the German infantry below them in the snow and frozen earth. Most of his missions were Leningrad to Kiev, Russia.

Horst was then transferred or sold to the Soviet Union as slave labor by the Swiss government. Horst served four years as a slave laborer in Russia before being released. If he had landed into the hands of the Americans he would have been set free as soon as the war was over.

Horst Petzschler ended the war flying 297 combat missions and with 26 confirmed aerial victories. He was shot down 13 times. Eleven were crash landings and two were bailouts. Only once was Horst shot down by an enemy fighter, which was by a Mustang that jumped him from behind on May 28, 1944 near Magdeburg. The rest were due to close encounters with Russian flak.

Horst Petzschler was awarded the Iron Cross first and second-class along with the Golden Fighter Clasp as he passed 150 frontline sorties of which 126 were fighter-bomber missions in the FW-190-A-4 against the Russians.  He also received the Goblet of Honor for passing 250 missions.

Horst was recommended for the Knights Cross as the war came to an end but he never received the award.

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