Dr. Peter Werfft-Wessely (Wien, 8 October 1904 – 23 July 1970), an Austrian chemist, was a Luftwaffe fighter ace in World War II, and a chemical industry entrepreneur after the war. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Luftwaffe ace in World War II

Werfft was born on 8 October 1904 in Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary. As a Gefreiter flying with I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG 27—27th Fighter Wing), Werfft participated in the Battle of Britain; the two air victories which he scored against RAF Hawker Hurricane fighters on 27 September 1940 was his first. Werrft served with JG 27 in North Africa during 1941–42, claiming five kills over the Desert Air Force. Werfft was commissioned as a Leutnant (Lieutenant) in late 1942. Service over Greece and the Balkans followed in 1943, where he claimed the destruction of a P-38 Lightning and three USAAF heavy bombers. On 2 April 1944, III. Gruppe of JG 27 relocated from Wien-Seyring near Vienna to Wolkersdorf. That day, the Gruppe engaged in combat with bombers of United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Fifteenth Air Force. In this encounter, Werfft claimed two Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers near Wolfsberg. On 19 May, Werfft was shot down in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 441090—factory number) on a transfer flight to Gardelegen. Wounded in the encounter, Werfft surrendered command of 9. Staffel to Oberleutnant Kurt Heidenreich. Following a period of convalescence, he return to 9. Staffel in October 1944. In December 1944, Werfft was appointed Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of III. Gruppe of JG 27. At the end of World War II he was a Major and gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 27, flying a Bf 109 G-6 fighter ("Yellow One") with a green fuselage band signifying dedication to Reich strategic airspace defence; he also had a total of 26 air kills. Werfft claimed 11 more heavies in 1944, he was a Hauptmann (Captain) by October 1944. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) on 28 January 1945, the last pilot of JG 27 to receive this distinction. On 3 May 1945 he disbanded his III./JG 27 in the Austrian Alps near Saalbach, together with the acting unit commander Hauptmann Emil Clade, eventually becoming a prisoner of war of the United States.

Pharmaceutical entrepreneur

Returning to Austria in 1948, after his release from captivity, Werfft established InterChemie GmbH, a Vienna-based pharmaceutical and chemical limited liability enterprise. 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 firm 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 economic 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 survived until January 2020 under the name Alvetra u. Werfft AG, a Sanochemia Group company with subsidiaries in several central and eastern European countries; its business assets were acquired by Inovet, another European veterinary company.

Summary of career

Aerial victory claims

According to Obermaier, Werfft was credited with 26 enemy aircraft shot down, all of which on the Western Front, including five in North Africa. This figure includes 14 four-engined bombers. Mathews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces: Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for nineteen aerial victory claims, plus seven further unconfirmed claims. All of his aerial victories were claimed on the Western Front and included nine four-engined bombers.

Awards

Citations