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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbas. Our guest this week is retired

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US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs.
He is a combat pilot who served in

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World War Two, Korea, and
Vietnam. In the final weeks of World

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War Two, Peterburgs shot down one
of the most prolific German aces of the

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war, but that very same day
he was shot down as well, and

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then became a prisoner of war.
In all, Colonel Peterburgs spent more than

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thirty six years in uniform in service
to our country. Today we will examine

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his service in World War II.
Next week we explore his time in Korea

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and Vietnam, and Colonel Peterburgs began
his time with us by discussing his roots

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in the Upper Midwest. I was
born in the Saint Paul, Minnesota,

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on the twenty fifth of November nineteen
twenty four, and when I was about

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five years old, we moved from
Minnesota to Wisconsin in the Milwaukee area.

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Basically my childhood and my grammar school
there. Years was spent there. When

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I graduated from the eighth grade,
I entered the Salvatorian Seminary in Saint Naisy

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in Wisconsin to become a Catholic priest, and I was there for a couple

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of years before World War two start. It was a Sunday and I was

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coming home, I mean it was
after a Mass and breakfast, and I

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was going to the gym to shoot
the pool down in the basement. And

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there I was going down the steps
and we had speakers throughout the gym,

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and an announcement came over the loudspeakers
saying that Pearl Harbor has been bombed.

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And at that time I knew I'd
be leaving the joining trying to get into

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the Navy aviation program. Why in
the Navy, because they took you at

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seventeen, the Air Force was eighteen. So anyway, I was not accepted

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because I had some eye problems,
so that I waited the until I turned

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eighteen, which was only about four
months later, and I took the competitive

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exam for aviation cadet program in the
Army Air Corps and I was accepted,

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and on the thirtieth of November nineteen
forty two, I was swarned as an

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aviation cadet and started on a life
of aviation. Where did you train,

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and how easily did it come to
you? Well, it came fairly easy,

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but actually I had a lot of
minutia ground schools and stuff like that

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before I really started a flying trading. But it was about three months three

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four months after I elisted and I
started by flying trading. I started at

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Douglas, Georgia flying PT seventies Steerman's
biplane cloth and open cockpit, and I

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soloed in six hours, which was
pretty good. And then I really took

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the fly and I loved I had
one of the best I think one of

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the best instructors of the were on, the real old guy about forty I

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was eighteen, and he taught me
tremendous about that things that probably saved my

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life several times in my future and
combat. So how soon did you had

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overseas? From Primary? I went
to AIX and fluid another aircraft BT thirteen

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and then advance at Napier Field Dufa
in Alabama. I was an advance and

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we blew the T six Texan and
I graduated there on the fifteenth of April

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of nineteen forty four and was checked
out P forties and P forties for a

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while, and then in October of
nineteen forty four, I received ors to

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go to England and I went to
we landed. We traveled by boat ill

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de Frosts, in fact a luxury
later that was transferred to have preferred it

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into a troop ship, and there
were I think thousands of us that we

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were packed really, but we didn't
have to go with the convoy because it

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could out out run the sub.
So anyway, I landed in Scotland and

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I think it's about the fifth or
six o'clock of November nineteen forty four,

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and then was chipped down to Kingscliff
near Peterborough, which is about ninety miles

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north of London, to the twentieth
Fighter Group fifty fifth Fighter Squadron flying P

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fifty one. So I've never seen
a P fifty one before, so I

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checked out the P fifty one B
and then flew C Milele and D Midl

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got about a little over fifteen hours
of five time, and then started flying

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combat. Flew my first combat mission
on the twelfth and December of nineteen forty

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four. How much of an upgrade
was that P fifty one, Well,

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it was considerably, you know,
more advanced than the P forty of course

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more horsepower, more moverability, real
faster clives and a lot of a mother

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thing. But the basic aircraft of
flying it was very similar. Had the

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torque that the the Pea party in
and uh, all you know all the

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characteristics of a signal engine or inline
engine and that's sort of so it came

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easy for me. I had no
problem with it. And it was exciting

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and exhilarating. This got out of
my first mission and started flying. That

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was well, that's what I was
there for. Tell me about that first

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mission and how it compared to what
you expect. Well, it was.

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It was fairly uh what we call
a milk run. We were escorting several

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hundred bombers to targets and I think
it was in the cloned area and uh

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we had a lot of some heavy
flag but no enemy action and there nothing

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you know, significant, It was
one of the board in't significant. I

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flew forty nine missions and uh there
were quite a few really exciting ones.

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And how did you deal with the
flack? The flat was was lethal to

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the bombers, but we were maneuvering
around and you know, we knew where

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the batteries were. We could see
where the batteries are fine, But the

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hardest part was seeing the bombers.
They had to be straight level and zill

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maneuver if they understand their formations,
and uh, you know, flack buddies

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being blown up, and it's see
aircraft going down and parachutes in the air

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and that sort of stuff. And
then uh, actually the you know,

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to get tribute to the the barber
crews. Uh, they were the bravest

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of the brave in the air.
They I never saw them the turf of

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a target. They would be always
on even when we were hit pipe fighters,

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they'd keeped their formations and onto the
target. And I remember that I

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was seeing them. I just was
hoping I could sustain that sort of bravery

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in byfly. Now on these flights, were you in communication with the bombers,

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how did the no well, the
echelon, you know of chain of

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command, the group commanders. You'd
like our group, the twentieth Fighter Group,

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we had three squadrons. We'd put
up three squadron you would have a

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group leader that led all three squadrons. Then you'd have squadron leaders, which

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would be about twelve forty sixteen eighteen
aircraft and that would be a squadron leader,

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and then you had the flights,
and then each flight was four aircraft,

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and then you would have a flight
leader for that and the group in

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the Sometimes the squadron commanders depending upon
the missions, would be in contact with

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the bombers. But in the control
authority, you know, all we were

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We just flew the mission and did
our job there. But if there was

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any coordination or anything that would come
down from the fight and you were talking

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about, you know, missions where
there are two thousand bombers and a thousand

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fighters in the air all at the
same time and escorse and then being hit

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by two three hundred enemy fighters and
it was just mayhem. It's just confusion

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all over the place. But it
was exhilarating. I had a couple of

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really it's a neat instances, neat
occasions when I was met enemy fighters and

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really exhilarating experience. Now, I
was nineteen when I arrived SAT to fly,

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and I turned twenty in late November, and so I was twenty years

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old, and you know, twenty
year old kid with a two thousand horsepower

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engined and six fifty camelberbersikas, three
in each week and you know, and

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you you know, you know you're
the best, and so you don't I

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anyway, he didn't, don't worry
about it was almost the other guy that's

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going to get it with b.
That's retired US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs,

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a veteran of World War Two,
Korea and Vietnam. In our next

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segment, well here, Colonel Peterburgs
describe how he shot down one of the

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greatest German aces of World War Two
and how he was shot down and taken

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prisoner on the very same day.
But right after the break, he tells

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us all about his first mission in
late nineteen forty four, as he took

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the skies as a P fifty one
pilot escorting bomber groups through intense fire from

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the ground and the air. That's
next, I'm Greg Corumbus and this is

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Veterans Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service.
This sixty Seconds of Service is presented by

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T Mobile. T Mobile offers exclusive
discounts for veteran and military families and are

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proud supporters of the National Defense Network. Visit t mobile dot com to learn

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more about how they support our military
community. The Green Bay Wisconsinnarios about to

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get its own veterans village to help
local veterans get back on their feet.

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The project has been in the works
for two years, and it's expected to

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get the go ahead this week.
The Brown County Board will vote to approve

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the land for the homes Wednesday night. The idea came to Gail Nor,

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a US Navy veteran herself, after
she visited the Veteran Tiny Home Village in

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Racine. Nor worked at the Brown
County Veteran Services Office for six years and

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would get calls from veterans every day
who were about to lose their homes or

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couldn't find an affordable place to live. She said. With a degree in

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substance abuse counseling and having also worked
as a councilor in a veterans shelter,

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she understood the struggles veterans face.
For more great veteran stories, just go

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to National Defense Network dot com.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas.

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Our guest in this edition is retired
US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterburgs.

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In just a few minutes, we'll
hear all about is very eventful. Forty

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ninth and final mission. But first
Colonel Peterburgs tells us what it was like

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to fly into combat for the very
first time. Well, it was a

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large mission. It was I think
it was something like fifteen hundred bobbers and

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about nine hundred fighters and we were
going to put targets in the Magnaburg Berlin

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area. And we were right about
the Magnaburg area. Will we were hit

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by first a couple hundred one on
nines and the German tactics when the the

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one O Nines and they came in
from altitude. The one nines would come

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in and hit and run and you
know, do whatever they could and their

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their past to get a bomber,
and then uh, they keep going and

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then they had this would draw our
fighters to chase them, and then uh,

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they had the one the one nineties. Uh, after the first attack

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by the one O nines, the
one nineties would come down and then chew

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up the bombers. That was their
concept. But our group in particular,

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there's no chasing, you know,
now there through there none. You stay

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with the bombers and you protect the
bombers. And that's what we did.

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And it was just we I mean
we were getting lots of losses. We

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could see the bombers and the wings
floating down and the parachutes to the air,

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and I was more concerned about hitting
something in the air some to breathe

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in another fire. Anyway, the
way things happened, I came, I

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saw one one ninety, and we
come and head on and I could see

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his twenty millimeters cannon blinking around his
nose, and my fifty were going there

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and I got saw a few hits
on his wing, and then we passed

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about fifty feet apart. I went
under him. He went over me and

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my flight leader. He was chasing
the one ninety, but he couldn't fire

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at him because I was coming to
He could have hit me. So as

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soon as I passed under him.
He's active, and so he got so

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and that was and that's one of
the one of the missions, the first

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mission that I really saw how bad
the bombers were taking it and came to

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the conclusion that they were there previous
to the Brave. Now, did you

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develop a certain strategy when you did
engage with the enemy or was it mainly

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reacting so the trading trading treaty,
you just reacted to the fifty one part

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of your body you think about the
aircraft and two that you know. And

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the thing about the aircraft was,
of course the large part of the of

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the major part was a pilot.
You know, a good pilot, experienced

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pilot in a less capable aircraft could
out do an unexperienced pilot in a advance.

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More so it was the pilot.
The trading we got, our training

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was superior than the Romans was at
the stage of the war that I was

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in, because there were different stages. Of course, I came in late,

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although becoming in late and reduced the
casualties of the thirteen guys I came

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over with we had all were casualties
except one, and there were three of

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us that were POW's shot down at
POWs and then the other nine were KIA.

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So even at that stage of the
war, so it was it was

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still battle, but no comparison to
what the losses were at the beginning of

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the war. Our entrance at the
war, the bombers were being slaughtered mainly

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because they didn't get they didn't have
any aircraft that could bring them to the

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target, escorting to the target,
and that and then the German bollots.

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They were really experienced of all these
years of actual warfare starting with Spain even

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you know, all right, well, let's you mentioned that you were a

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prisoner of war, so let's move
to that forty ninth mission. We're talking

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April tenth, nineteen forty five,
which is obviously not that far before the

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end of the right. You obviously
didn't know that then, So explain what

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was happening that day and what happened
Well, I like to lead up to

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that that I flew on the thirty
first of March, the thirty thirty first

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of March, per second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth,

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ninth, and tenth of April every
day and had I was in missions

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that were engaged by one of my
cousins in the Luftwaffe. At least four

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of the missions we were in the
same air space at the same time.

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And then come ten April and we
were on our heavy force of about twelve

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hundred bombers were bombing was scheduled the
bomb Magdeburg, Botchdam, Berlin, uh

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and Oranienburg, and we all were
one big group until we got just outside

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of Magdeburg, and then the bombers
split off to their particular targets. Our

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particular target, the one is you
that we were escorting. The first division

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of the UH of the bombs bombers
was four hundred, four hundred and fifty

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bombers that we had some nice two
hundred some odd fighters Escortium and our group

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had I think it was about seventy
of our fighters were Escortium. So uh,

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everything was normal, you know,
flak and stuff like that, until

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we got to the target and the
release were almost simultaneously releasing their load.

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And then I saw a and I
was flying the high cover about five thousand

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feet above the barbers, and I
saw a gaggle of I mean two six

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two's turbojets. I hit the formation, I latched on eyeballs onto one two

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sixty two, and it just blew
up the seventeen and it was coming in

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after another one. And I,
of course, as soon as I saw

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him, I rolled over and started
down at him with thotals wide open,

204
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and I came into his six o'clock
position, and just as he blew up

205
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his second B seventeen and I got
some hits in his left wing, I

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saw some fire smoke, and he
rolled over and started down to the deck.

207
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Well, I followed him and U
and he disappeared into some clouds.

208
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Well I wasn't going to follow him
into the clouds and h So I've broke

209
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:06.920
off the chase. And as looked
over and I saw this airfield just loaded

210
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with aircraft, and I thought,
well, what's better than that? So

211
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I just went in the model of
the fire pilot is you know, one

212
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pass hall ass when you straight into
air deromel. I made about probably four

213
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:30.720
too many. I made about five
passes and I blew up four the first

214
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:36.480
four passes, I blew up four
fighters on the ground and then started a

215
00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.240
hangar on fire. And that's coming
around for my last pass, and I

216
00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:45.640
latched on to a f W two
hundred, which is a Condor big four

217
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:53.240
engine part of Hitler's fleet of you
know, transport type of aircraft. As

218
00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:57.279
I was coming in at I felt
the thud. Then that just as I

219
00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:02.599
blew them as start my pull up, and I felt another thun and I

220
00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:07.160
saw some oil coming over my windscreen. And so I made it up to

221
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ten thousand feet and I called the
group commander and I said, you know,

222
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I was hit And I didn't know
whether I was going to go east

223
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or west. I was making it
by mine, and I explained a situation,

224
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told them where the airpeel was.
Then the group went after it,

225
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and they eventually destroyed fifty some odd
aircraft and had airdrome. But anyway,

226
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I decided to go west. We
were breathed ahead of time that the Allied

227
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forces were be fighting in Magdeburg,
and it was about ninety miles from where

228
00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:48.119
I was, just outside of Berlin, and so I decided to head towards

229
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Magdeburg. Well, I got within
probably thirty forty miles, and I was

230
00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:56.039
down to one thousand feet and I
knew I wasn't going to make it,

231
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so I was getting ready to bail
out and unhooked. And then as just

232
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as I unhooked, I looked over
at three o'clock position in the one ninety

233
00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.960
was coming after me. So I
was able to turn into him. My

234
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aircraft was burning on the right side. I was able to turn into him

235
00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:19.119
as he fired and he missed.
And by that time I was down to

236
00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:23.519
five hundred feet, and I said
I could tooad to bail out. I'd

237
00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:30.240
better bully this thing in look the
places, and I'm thinking of course,

238
00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.799
this is all milliseconds going on in
your mind, you know, and all

239
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:40.279
your treating and everything you know guiding
you. And I said, hell,

240
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:42.920
I'm going to kill myself. I
unstrapped. I was going to bail out

241
00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:48.119
and found a feat so unstrapped and
I don't have time to strap up again

242
00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:52.559
and do atlantic. So I had
to go over the side. I could

243
00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:56.079
go on to the right side because
it's burning, and that's side. Just

244
00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:00.599
go because it'll the chork will throw
you away from the air aircraft. So

245
00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:04.039
I go on on the left side
and I hit the tail with my knee

246
00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:11.039
and I have about three about three
three fifty feet what I bailed out,

247
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hit my knee and then pull the
rip cord to shoot open. I s

248
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fog once it hit the ground hard. So that was it. And I

249
00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:26.880
get up and I said, I
got to find out what. As I

250
00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:33.680
get up and I look around,
it as just as farm land, you

251
00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:40.920
know, nothing no buildings, nothing, no trees, nothing. There's a

252
00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:48.039
group of civilians, about fifteen civilians
coming after me, and oh they're about

253
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:51.480
twenty yards away. And I hear
a noise behind me, and I look

254
00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:56.720
around and as most prophty sounded in
a motorcycle and he pulls up alongside me

255
00:23:57.039 --> 00:24:02.200
and he pulls out a fire just
a couple of shots in the air and

256
00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:07.119
holds the civilians off. He says
I'm his prisoner, and that was it.

257
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And then some muckymucks from the town, the burgermister, the chief of

258
00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.799
police and stuff. They come out
and they've talked to the sergeant and want

259
00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.440
they want to question me, to
target me. So they bring me to

260
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:29.240
town some kind of official buildings and
I'm in the They're they're getting really ticked

261
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.680
off at me. The chief of
police wants to shoot me around the spot,

262
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:40.200
and there's all arguing going on between
the lost office sargeant and the crowds

263
00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:45.319
gathering outside, you know, ready
to do me in. So he says,

264
00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:48.440
let's go then, So he takes
me in, puts me onto the

265
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.640
motorcycle and we go and bird there
was a big u bas at berg.

266
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So we go there and I put
in a local lock up and I'm questioned

267
00:25:00.119 --> 00:25:06.880
for some gestop will come in and
they questioned me for about four five hours.

268
00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:11.960
Nothing yellow physical or they just intense
catch questioning. And then I'm there

269
00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:19.799
for two couple of nights and each
night the RIF is bombing airs. I'm

270
00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:26.119
in this bomb shelter for the old
the stuf. It looked very good for

271
00:25:26.279 --> 00:25:30.640
me. That's retired US Air Force
Colonel Joe Peterburgs, a veteran of World

272
00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:36.359
War two, Korea and Vietnam.
In the next segment, we'll hear Colonel

273
00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:40.960
Peterburgs talk about being sent to a
German prison camp and how he ended up

274
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:47.440
fighting alongside the Russians before the war
was over and decades later a very unlikely

275
00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:53.680
but amazing reunion. That's next.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.

276
00:25:56.200 --> 00:26:00.119
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbas our guest this edition is retired

277
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:04.839
US Air Force Colonel Joe Peterbergs.
We now conclude the World War II portion

278
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:11.200
of his story with a fascinating account
of how Peterburgs went from German prisoner of

279
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:17.559
war to fighting alongside the Russians before
the war ended and much later a very

280
00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:23.799
unlikely reunion. Anyway, the next
day they shoot me off to Stolling eleven,

281
00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:29.960
which was a British pow cab.
It was on our trade ride.

282
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I think from burg and I get
there in the most ninety nine percent of

283
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:44.759
the Brits had left, you know. They were evacue in front of the

284
00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:48.400
Alone trush to give a further into
Germany. But there's still about one hundred

285
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:53.000
hobbies there and they were scheduled for
the next morning to start to march back

286
00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:57.519
toward Berlin. So they put me
in with that group, and so we're

287
00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:06.920
on the march. It was just
pandemonium. It was Bearmark armies going east

288
00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:14.720
and retreating, and then others going
west trying to reinforce the Western Front,

289
00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:22.279
and motorcycles going up, and then
thousands of refugees going east and west depending

290
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:29.799
upon their nationalities and stuff, and
the motorcycles going up and down the road

291
00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:33.720
trying to get some kind of order. And then the top of all off,

292
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:37.839
we get strafed a couple of times
by firefighters. Of course they don't

293
00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:44.200
know they see the arby vehicles there
and stuff. But anyway, family made

294
00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:48.200
it to Stall like three to look
in Baldy and there I'm there for about

295
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:59.240
probably five six days and security was
completely relax, you know, and I

296
00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:04.440
just paidas clean one under the fence
at night and started towards Berlin and he

297
00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:10.319
got about five six miles away from
the camp and I hear this rumbling and

298
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:15.599
I was walking along a ditch and
hear this rumbling. I see it.

299
00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:19.920
I see it's a Russian tank,
and go out and wave down in some

300
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:26.000
way. I can't have a dull
idea. We communicated, but this Russian

301
00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:30.240
lieutenant and I were able to communicate, and he tells you to hop on,

302
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:34.880
and so he was. They were
going to Wittenberg. Their target was

303
00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:41.119
Wittenberg on the ELB, and so
I hopped on the tanks with them,

304
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:48.480
and it fought with them until through
Jitterbug and then up through to Wittenberg on

305
00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.839
the ELP. Did you still have
your uniform on or did you just say

306
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:56.039
American? American? Well, I
could speak a little German. I know

307
00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:00.240
he could speak some German, so
that that helped a little bit. And

308
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.480
I'm sure that he probably do some
English and uh. And then of course

309
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:08.200
the old side language almost comes to
the handy too, And it was obvious

310
00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:15.640
I was an American, so based
by flight shooting stuff. Yeah, what

311
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:21.000
was it like, essentially serving with
a different countries? Millitary, Well,

312
00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:22.359
it was just we were just a
bunch of guys. You know, going

313
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.960
around zone, fight down the line, and they were a wild bunch.

314
00:29:27.880 --> 00:29:34.200
I went on several patrols with them, and the one, the sergeant that

315
00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:38.960
was in charge of the patrol,
he we get into this really nice complex,

316
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:49.119
apart complex, and it was building
a square and then in inside of

317
00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:53.119
that square was sort of a green
area, you know, park, and

318
00:29:53.440 --> 00:29:59.880
uh so we go in and uh
oh, he's really getting pissed off,

319
00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:03.000
you know. We go up and
then we get into one of the rooms

320
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:07.359
and he says it get out,
tells the rest of us to just get

321
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.319
out. And how he goes into
the center of the room with his purple

322
00:30:10.359 --> 00:30:15.960
gun, stands there laughing and shooting
and destroying everything in the apartment. And

323
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:19.759
I'm thinking, well, what have
I gotting myself into now? But anyway,

324
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:25.160
we get to Windenberg on the Alb
and then I get the American patrol

325
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:30.039
comes across the Elb to meet with
the Russian American patrolled. The It was

326
00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:34.279
a little reluctance from the Russians to
release me, and you know, Potstam

327
00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:37.839
was going on at the time,
and intensions were getting high, and I

328
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:42.480
don't know if it was you know, anyway, this is this is the

329
00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:48.119
American sergeant had saw me in the
background. This could tell I was an

330
00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:52.000
American but by flight suits, and
there was some discussion going on between he

331
00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:56.720
and the lieutenant. Anyway, they
released me to him, and then I

332
00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:00.759
went on some patrols with them and
before where we got back to their headquarters

333
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:06.119
at Holly, and then I spent
the day or two with them, and

334
00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:14.200
I took off and said, I'm
going to see you. And I was

335
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:21.000
walking towards the west, and after
several miles I've come across the seat forty

336
00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:26.359
seven parked in the field picking up
a bunch of political prisoners, you know.

337
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:30.000
They were striped and emaciated, and
they said, where you go and

338
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:34.599
these to Paris. It's better than
that, you know. So I hop

339
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:37.799
a ride with them and get back
to Paris. And then I get stopped,

340
00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:41.359
I get stabbed, and the laoist
and know all that sort of stuff

341
00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:47.759
I could do you to form and
I'm under control. So my wandering days

342
00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:51.160
are over well, Colonel. Unfortunately
we're almost out of time, but we

343
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:56.519
have to conclude with the aftermath of
the story we talked about on your forty

344
00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:00.839
ninth mission, where you were you
had shot down on a German fighter and

345
00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:07.319
then you had to bail out,
interrogated, sent to a prison camp,

346
00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:12.759
and eventually spending time with the Russians. Many decades later, you find out

347
00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:17.400
that there was somebody who was studying
what happened that day, and somehow you

348
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:22.200
and the other pilot, the German
pilot got reunited decades later explained how that

349
00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:29.920
happened. Yeah, Well, there
was a German youth of about thirteen years

350
00:32:29.960 --> 00:32:35.000
old, a Verder Dietrich, who
was hiding in the ditch watching the air

351
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:39.279
battle go on over Berg, Germany, in the bag the Berg area,

352
00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:49.000
and and he saw this P fifty
one pilot being at low altitude and being

353
00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:52.759
hit by this FW one to ninety
being attacked by the one ninety. He

354
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:59.839
saw the one ninety miss and he
saw this pilot bail out and was picked.

355
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:04.119
And he was a part of the
crowd that was hanging around, you

356
00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:09.480
know, the house after the war. Berg is in East Germany, and

357
00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:16.359
of course until the wall came down
and they joined the West, you know,

358
00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:21.680
they could do anything as far as
World War two, it's concerned the

359
00:33:21.799 --> 00:33:30.839
Germans. And then after reunifications,
the television stations in that area decided to

360
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:38.319
start doing specials on recovery of World
War two aircraft, and so Werler goes

361
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:44.960
to the station and he said,
hey, I saw this aircraft bail out

362
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.160
and I know exactly where it is
and all that sort of stuff. And

363
00:33:47.240 --> 00:33:51.400
they said, okay, we'll make
a special. So they went and got

364
00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:54.519
their big backos and their big magnets
and stuff like that. They found the

365
00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:01.519
aircraft that they excavated it, and
it was deep, it was about ten

366
00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:12.199
feet and anyway they excavated it.
And then he says he's going to find

367
00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:16.400
the pilot of that aircraft. So
it takes some a little over a year

368
00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:22.760
to find out or get the lead
to me, and I get a letter

369
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:30.199
out of the blue in nineteen ninety
seven, I think it was he started

370
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:34.920
that. This project was about nineteen
ninety six when he recovered it. Late

371
00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:38.159
ninety ninety five, early nineteen ninety
six when they recovered the aircraft. So

372
00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:43.239
he had the whole year trying to
find it, a lot of false leads

373
00:34:44.239 --> 00:34:50.199
and then he finally got one that
was a good lead, and he got

374
00:34:50.280 --> 00:34:53.159
my name, and so he wrote
me this letter and he explains everything,

375
00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:57.719
and I said, well, yeah, that's where I landed. That's what

376
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:01.679
happened. You know, sounds I
can buy aircraft, and it was me

377
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:08.440
and so uh and he we don't. He doesn't have a computer, so

378
00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:12.960
it's held snail mail. So it's
you know, ten days to get another

379
00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:15.960
there, ten days to get the
back. So this is going on for

380
00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:19.920
a month or so. And and
then I get a call from Germany.

381
00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:22.199
It's the producer of the TV station. They say, we want to make

382
00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:30.719
a follow on documentary about, you
know, recovering the the PI pilot and

383
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.840
that sort of stuff. Well,
my wife had had a stroke and I

384
00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:37.000
wasn't about to leave. They wanted
me to come to Germany, so they

385
00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:39.840
said, okay, if we come
over there, I said yeah, So

386
00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:45.679
they came over. So they get
over there, and of course, uh

387
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:52.480
Burner thinks that I'm part of the
Magdeburg raid. And he has no idea

388
00:35:52.719 --> 00:35:57.440
about you know, oriany and Burg
and shooting its yet down and stuff like

389
00:35:57.559 --> 00:36:04.239
that. And so I the story
of what happened to me, and he

390
00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:07.480
said, what do you When they
lived, they spent about four or five

391
00:36:07.559 --> 00:36:10.079
days in the Colorado Springs. I
was living in Colorado Springs at the time.

392
00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:14.719
And he said, when he left, he said I'm going to find

393
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:20.000
that jetpot and so he goes back. And then about a month later I

394
00:36:20.119 --> 00:36:22.159
get a letter from him and said, eureka, I found him as Walter

395
00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:28.480
Shook two hundred and six confirmed aerial
victories, one of the top German Asius

396
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:35.679
nights cross with Palms and H.
I said, oh, yeah, I

397
00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:38.079
really did. I thought, well, maybe fifty to fifty of the fog

398
00:36:38.199 --> 00:36:43.199
of war and all that sort of
stuff. It's just so I looked at

399
00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:46.599
that at that and that went out
for and then I got a leather letter.

400
00:36:47.039 --> 00:36:52.119
No, I got an email because
he had computer from a a gentleman

401
00:36:52.320 --> 00:37:00.199
from Iranianberg who was studying that particular
raid and he was looking for anybody that

402
00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:02.480
was on that raid. And I
answered, I said, yeah, I

403
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:07.679
was on that raid. And so
then the association and all this sort of

404
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:12.519
came came about and UH and then
that went on for a couple of years,

405
00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:15.800
and then in two thousand, I
think it was two thousand and two,

406
00:37:15.960 --> 00:37:22.960
Christer Bergs from a prolific writer of
UH the air war in Europe,

407
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:28.960
the World War Two. He wrote
me and he said that he had just

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00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:35.719
said that he was doing the Walter's
uh Walter Shuk's biography. And then he

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00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:42.679
said that I under said that he
wrote down a sort of after action report

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00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:46.079
of what happened on your mission.
He said, I said, yeah,

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00:37:46.119 --> 00:37:49.119
I said, he said, what
you buy, said it to me as

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00:37:49.239 --> 00:37:52.039
I I emailed it to him,
and then about three days later I get

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00:37:52.119 --> 00:37:54.960
a he says, one hundred percent
super of your shot. You had,

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00:37:55.039 --> 00:37:59.119
the one that shut down Walter Shuck. I said, how can you be

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00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:04.559
one hundred percent sure? Everything he's
He said, everything in your stories matched

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00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:07.800
to the second you know everything that
happened. I said, well, still

417
00:38:08.159 --> 00:38:12.320
you know? He said, yes
it is. He says, because Walter

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00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:20.400
shook as the only the Germans that
shot down to B seventeens in a row

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00:38:20.639 --> 00:38:27.400
on the same mission at Orienburgh,
and that you saw both of those Achilles.

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00:38:27.480 --> 00:38:30.920
He says, in fact, he
shot down four during that time because

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00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:35.480
he had shot down to be seventeens
in another box before he went over to

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00:38:35.599 --> 00:38:42.280
your box. So so, and
then Walter in his books he devotes the

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00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:45.840
chapter to me shooting him down,
and he knows I've shot him down,

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00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:51.519
and I know I shot him down, and that's all that counts so that's

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00:38:52.280 --> 00:38:59.360
that's it. And then we then
in two thousand and five at Vista,

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00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:08.880
California, Walter had a buddy,
Kurt Schultchi, who migrated to the US

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00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:17.360
and the fifties, and he was
visiting him as well as a Canadian artist

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00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:24.079
had drawn a depiction of be shooting
down Walter and there's big siding plan.

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00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:28.800
They wanted me to go, Well, I have just lost my wife.

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00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:36.719
I really wasn't capable of doing anything. And my granddaughter Sabritish, she kind

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00:39:36.760 --> 00:39:43.599
of she talked anyway, she talked
me into coming out and I finally agreed

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00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:46.880
and I came out there and we
met at Pistol, California, with Walter

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00:39:47.079 --> 00:39:54.039
on the first time in person on
the eighteenth of May of two thousand and

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00:39:54.199 --> 00:40:00.920
five, and he became close friends
from that day on and we spent until

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00:40:00.039 --> 00:40:07.480
his passing in twenty fifteen. We
spent many, many happy hours of discusing

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00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:14.519
and he became part of my family, and my great granddaughter's little tots at

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00:40:14.559 --> 00:40:17.960
the time called him Papa Walter.
What does it mean to you? I'm

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00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:22.440
sure you're glad that you know he
survived now since he became good friends,

439
00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:27.079
but how proud are you about the
fact that you forced down one of the

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00:40:27.159 --> 00:40:32.280
best German It was both Walter and
I who we had explained it this way,

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00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:37.719
he said, Walter hit his job. His job was to protect his

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00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:43.800
homeland from the bombers. Now I
understand that at my job was to protect

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00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:49.679
the bombers from him. And we
both did our jobs and that was it.

444
00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:53.000
You know, there was no animosity
between the pilots and this stuff.

445
00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:57.239
He was he had a job to
do and I had a job to do.

446
00:40:58.039 --> 00:41:02.519
And just like I got a an
email one time is said, a

447
00:41:02.599 --> 00:41:07.840
guy was wondering about kills. How
do you know you killed the pilot and

448
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.199
stuff? How do you count the
kills and stuff? I said, you

449
00:41:12.280 --> 00:41:16.360
don't count. A kill doesn't mean
you killed the pilot. A kill means

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00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:22.039
you destroyed another aircraft. That's the
kill. Is the aircraft, not the

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00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:29.719
pilot, because there would be that
very many because the many many of them

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00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:34.280
that were shot down that were killed, the pilot survived by bailing out and

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00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:38.719
surviving. That's retired US Air Force
Colonel Joe Peterbers, a veteran of World

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00:41:38.760 --> 00:41:45.760
War Two, Korea and Vietnam.
In our next edition, Colonel Peterburgs shares

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00:41:45.800 --> 00:41:51.800
his stories of service from Korea and
Vietnam as part of a military career spanning

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00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:58.159
more than thirty six years. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.

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00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:10.519
Hi, this is Greg Corumbus and
thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a

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00:42:10.639 --> 00:42:17.199
presentation of the American Veterans Center.
For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter

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00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:22.000
dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on

460
00:42:22.119 --> 00:42:29.400
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461
00:42:29.639 --> 00:42:34.320
full oral histories and special features,
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462
00:42:34.440 --> 00:42:38.880
Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your
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463
00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:42.719
please join us next time for Veterans
Chronicles