Peter Werfft
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| Peter Werfft | |
|---|---|
| 8 October 1904 – 23 July 1970 | |
 Peter Werfft |
|
| Place of birth | Wien, Austria |
| Place of death | Wien, Austria |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Service/branch | Luftwaffe |
| Years of service | 1940 or earlier - 1945 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | JG 27 |
| Commands held | III./JG 27 |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
| Other work | chemist |
Dr. Peter Werfft-Wessely (born October 8, 1904; died July 23, 1970), an Austrian chemist, was a Luftwaffe fighter ace in World War II, and a chemical industry entrepreneur after the war.
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[edit] Luftwaffe Ace in World War II
Werfft's war record is not easily traced because most of the records of his Luftwaffe fighter unit, Jagdgeschwader 27, were destroyed or lost at the end of World War II. As a private flying with fighter Group I/JG 27 he participated in the Battle of Britain; the two air victories which he scored against British Hurricane fighters on September 27, 1940[1] probably are among his first ones.
Werfft's rise through the ranks was rapid; still a Leutnant (Lieutenant) in early 1944, he already was a Hauptmann (Captain) by October 1944. Probably as a result of his participation in Unternehmen Bodenplatte, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz on January 28, 1945. At the end of WW II he ranked a Major, was fighter group commander of III/JG 27, flew a Me 109 G-6 plane ("Yellow One") with the green fuselage band signifying dedication to Reich strategic airspace defence, and had a total of 26 air kills on record.
On or about May 3, 1945 he disbanded his fighter group in the Austrian Alps near Saalbach, together with the acting unit commander Cpt. Emil Clade, and eventually became a U.S. prisoner of war.
[edit] Pharmaceutical Entrepreneur
Returning to Austria after his release from captivity, Werfft established InterChemie GmbH, a Vienna-based pharmaceutical and chemical limited liability enterprise, in 1948. Among the first commercial activities of the fledgling trading company in this difficult post-war period was the Austrian sales representation for certain American Cyanamid products. By 1961 the company had been restructured into a successor company, Werfft-Chemie GmbH. In the years following the founder's death in 1970 Werfft-Chemie continued, initially as a family-run business, but met with increasing economical difficulties. It was taken over by the Austrian Sanochemia Pharmazeutika Group in 1983, and was subsequently converted to a purely veterinary medicine company. The legacy of Werfft-Chemie survives under the name Alvetra u. Werfft AG, a Sanochemia company with subsidiaries in several central and eastern European countries.
[edit] Private Life
In 1940, Peter Werfft married Helen(a) Skinner (1906-1982), of British nobility but born in Scheibbs, a town in Lower Austria. Immediately before that, her former marriage to a prince from the Windisch-Graetz line of Austrian nobility, with whom she had two children, had been annulled.
[edit] Awards
- German Cross in Gold (23 July 1944)
- Iron Cross 2. and 1. class
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (28 January 1945)
[edit] References
- Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945. Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas, 2000. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
- 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.
