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Georg-Peter "Schorsch" Eder was born on 8 March 1921 at Oberdachstetten. In October 1938 he joined the Luftwaffe. At the beginning of April 1939 he enrolled in the aviation academy at Berlin-Gatow. A year later he sat a pilot examination and was sent to aviation school at Werneuchen. He flew his first combat mission with 1./JG 51 on 1 September 1940. He flew with this unit throughout the Battle of Britain but did not gain a victory. In May 1941 he joined 4./JG 51 and with this unit shot down his first aircraft, a RAF Spitfire fighter, on 7 May. Eder marked his participation in the commencement of the campaign on the Eastern Front by destroying two Russian aircraft on 22 June 1941. On 24 July 1941, he was shot down and wounded. On 22 August, Eder collided with a Ju 52 transport aircraft on the ground at Ponjatowska in his Bf 109 F-2 (W.Nr. 9184). He suffered a fracture at the base of the skull and was forced into hospital. He had recorded 10 victories at this time. On recovery from his injuries, Eder was sent as a flight instructor to Jagdfliegerschule 2 based at Zerbst arriving there on 1 November 1941. Eder was transferred to 7./JG 2 based in France on 1 November 1942. With this unit he participated in the growing battle against the American four-engined heavy bombers. With Hauptmann Egon Mayer (102 victories, of which 25 were four-engined bombers, RK-S), also of III./JG 2, Eder developed the strategies to combat the formations of four-engined B-17s and B-24s. Particularly noteworthy was the development of the head-on attack in order to take advantage of the relatively weak defensive fire from that sector of the bombers. In February 1943 Eder was appointed Staffelkapitän of 12./JG 2. On 28 March he downed a B-17, however, was hit engine of his machine and he was wounded when his Bf 109 G-4 (W.Nr. 14 998) somersaulted upon landing at Beaumont. Eder continued to score steadily, destroying his 20th enemy aircraft on 29 May 1943. After shooting down a P-47 and a B-17 Herauschuss on 30 July his victory total reached 31 victories. On 5 September 1943, Eder was transferred as Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 2. He continued to fight against the formations of four-engined bombers and had continued success against these aircraft. On 5 November, Eder was again forced to bail out of his Bf 109 G-6 (W.Nr. 20 733) and was again injured.

In March 1944 Oberleutnant Eder was transferred to 6./JG 1. He baled out of his Fw 190 A-7 (W.Nr. 430 645) "Yellow 4" following aerial combat with an USAAF P-47 fighter near Göttingen on 19 April. On 8 May, he downed a B-24 but he was also hit and had to make an emergency landing in Fw 190 A-8 (WNr 170071) "Yellow 4" at Vechta. On 29 May, after shooting down a B-17, colided his Fw 190 A-8 (W.Nr. 730 386) "red 24" with Siebel during landing in Cottbus but Eder escaped unhurt. By the end of the month of May he had a total of 49 confirmed victories. As the Kommandeur of II./JG1 he fought in the aerial battles over Normandy after the Allied invasion. On 21 June 1944 he recorded his 50th victory and on 24 June received the Ritterkreuz. On 11 August 1944 Eder took command of 6./JG 26. In an attack on allied armour near Dreux on 17 August Eder shot down a Spitfire from very low altitude; it crashed between two M-4 Sherman tanks, destroying them both. Shortly after it he shot down a second Spitfire, which crashed on a third tank, setting it on fire. On 4 September Hauptmann Eder became Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 26, the day after the unit's previous Kommandeur Hauptmann Emil Lang (173 victories, RK-EL) was killed in action against USAAF Thunderbolts over St Trond, Belgium. In September Hauptmann Eder was transfered to Erprobungskommando 262 (later Kommando Nowotny) where he was appointed Staffelkapitän of 1./Kdo Nowotny.On 19 November, following redesignation of Kommando Nowotny to JG 7, he commanded 9./JG 7 flying the Me 262 jet fighter in combat with considerable success. During the Ardennes offensive, Eder was to prove his efficacy with the Me 262 in the ground-attack role claiming 40 P-47s destroyed on the ground. He was awarded the Eichenlaub (Nr 663) on the 25 November 1944 for 60 victories. On 22 January he was shot down near Parchim by USAAF P-51s and P-38s while preparing to land. He broke both his legs and spent the rest of the war in hospital at Wismar and, later, Bad Weissee where he was captured by US Army troops.
Altogether he flew 572 combat missions of which 150 were with the 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 24 victories (most of them couldn`t be officially confirmed). He was the leading scorer against the four-engined bombers, although Eder himself was shot down 17 times, baling out 9 times. He was wounded 14 times.
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/eder.html

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The fates of two young German fighter pilots, Eugen Wintergest and Herwig Zuzic are remarkably linked together. During the summer and early autumn of 1941, the former flew as wingman to the latter in the air war over southern Soviet Union, both belonging to 4./JG 77.

Zuzic was credited with 13 victories. Oberfeldwebel Wintergest had a remarkable feat: On 12 August 1941 he had attacked alone a formation of seven SB-3 bombers between Zebrikovo and Odessa, and he shot down all of them. At first this was not beleived by his superiors, so his commander Hauptmann Anton Mader took off to check it, and he found all seven bombers lying in a row. This was Wintergest's 8th to 14th victories. His last, and 20th, victory was achieved over a MiG-3 near Preobrashenko (while escorting He 111s attacking this target) at 17:20 hrs on 23 September 1941.

On 24 September 1941, they were literally linked together over Russian-held territory north of Perekop: The Bf 109 E-7 (W.Nr. 3632, "white 13 + - ") piloted by Oberfeldwebel Eugen Wintergest and the Bf 109 E-4 (W.Nr. 1459) piloted by Leutnant Herwig Zuzic collided in mid-air and had to force-land behind the Russian lines. 10 to 14 days later, Russian aircraft dropped leaflets on the base of II./JG 77. On these leaflets were the picture of Leutnant Zuzic and an appeal to his friends to fly their planes over to the Russian side and desert.

Some months later, both Zuzic and Wintergest were parachuted into Rumania by the Russians to act as spies. Both turned themselves over to German authorities and said that they had fooled the Russians that they had gone over to the Russian side. They were put back in service as fighter pilots, but not on the Eastern Front. In March 1943, Zuzic (promoted to Oberleutnant) was made leader of the new 8./JG 1 in the Home Defense, and Wintergest (promoted to Leutnant) was made leader of 9./JG 1.

On 27 July 1943, Oberleutnant Zuzic shot down a B-17 "Flying Fortress" - his 14th and last victory. On 19 August 1943, Zuzic collided with another Bf 109 G-6. This time, he had run out of luck and was killed. His death hit his friend Wintergest very hard. Wintergest told his friends: "We've lived through so much together, now I think we'll die together".

On 4 September 1943, Wintergest's 9./JG 1 got involved in a very difficult combat with "Spitfires" over Dunkirk. Against only one Spitfire shot down, six Bf 109s were lost - including "yellow 1", piloted by the Staffelkapitän Leutnant Eugen Wintergest. Wintergest tried to get out of his spinning Messerschmitt, but as he finally managed to get out, the altitude was too low so the parachute didn't open. Eugen Wintergest fell to a certain death.
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/zuzwin/zuzwin.htm

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