Peter Werfft

Dr. chem. Peter Werfft
File:Peter Werfft.jpg Peter Werfft
Born	(1904-10-08)8 October 1904 Wien, Austria
Died	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 Battle of Britain Unternehmen Bodenplatte
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Other work	chemist

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 (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). 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

As a Gefreiter flying with I/JG 27 Werfft participated in the Battle of Britain; the two air victories which he scored against RAF Hurricane fighters on 27 September 1940 [1] were probably 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.

Werfft claimed 11 more heavies in 1944, he was a Hauptmann (Captain) by October 1944. He was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 28 January 1945.

At the end of World War II he was a Major and gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 27, flying a Messerschmitt 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.

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 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 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 survives under the name Alvetra u. Werfft AG, a Sanochemia company with subsidiaries in several central and eastern European countries.

Awards

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd and 1st class
• Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (15 July 1944)
• German Cross in Gold on 23 July 1944 as Leutnant in the III./Jagdgeschwader 27
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 28 January 1945 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the III./Jagdgeschwader 27