Georg-Peter Eder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georg-Peter Eder
8 March 1921(1921-03-08) – 11 March 1986 (aged 65)

Georg-Peter Eder
Nickname Schorsch
Place of birth Oberdachstetten
Place of death Wiesbaden
Allegiance Flag of Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
Service/branch Luftwaffe
Years of service 1938-1944
Rank Major
Unit JG 51, JG 2, JG 1, JG 26, EKdo 262,
Kommando Nowotny, JG 7
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Georg-Peter Schorsch Eder (born 8 March 1921 in Oberdachstetten, died 11 March 1986 in Wiesbaden) was a German World War II fighter ace who served in the Luftwaffe from 1938 until the end of World War II in 1945. He flew 572 combat missions claiming 78 enemy aircraft shot down.

Contents

[edit] World War II

Georg-Peter Eder joined the Luftwaffe as Fahnenjunker at the age of 17 in 1938. In the beginning of April 1939 Eder enrolled in the aviation academy at Berlin-Gatow.

Georg-Peter Eder flew 572 combat missions of which 150 were with the Messerschmitt Me 262. On the Eastern Front he scored 10 victories and on the Western Front 68, of which no less than 36 were four-engined bombers. With the Me 262 he scored at least 12 victories, at least one sources indicate that this number could be as high or even higher than 24 kills [1]. He was the leading scorer against the four-engined bombers, and leading air ace against the USAAF, claiming some 56 US flown aircraft. Eder himself was shot down 17 times, bailing out 9 times. He was wounded 14 times.

[edit] Trivia

On 26 June 1943 USAAF fighter pilot Robert S. Johnson was one in a flight of sixteen P-47 Thunderbolts assigned to escort B-24 Liberator bombers to their target. The flight was bounced by approximately sixteen Focke-Wulf Fw 190's approaching the group from 5 o'clock high position. In the ensuring dog fight Johnson's P-47 was severely shot up. The only option left was to fly the Thunderbolt home. Somewhere over France another Fw 190 spotted Johnson and made a firing pass at him. The German pilot then realized Johnson's rather defenceless position and decided to pull in close. The German pilot escorted Johnson for almost 30 minutes until reaching the English Channel near Dieppe, France. It is believed that the German pilot was Georg-Peter Eder of JG 2 who was ferrying a JG 26 aircraft that day.

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ For a list of Luftwaffe jet aces see List of German World War II Jet aces
  • Aces of the Luftwaffe. Georg-Peter Eder. Retrieved on 26 March 2007.
  • Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, 2000. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
  • Johnson, Robert S. Thunderbolt!: An Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace. Honoribus Pr, 1997. ISBN 1885354053.
  • Patzwall, Klaus D. and Scherzer, Veit. Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 - 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, 2001. ISBN 3-931533-45-X.
Languages