Josef "Seppl" Veltjens was a German World War I fighter ace credited with 35 victories.
34 Facts About Josef Veltjens
1.
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Josef Veltjens was awarded Pour le Merite, the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, and the Iron Cross.
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Josef Veltjens was born in Geldern, Rhineland, Imperial Germany, the son of a factory manager.
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Josef Veltjens attended the Humanistic High School in Berlin, then the Technical University in Charlottenburg, where he read mechanical engineering.
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Josef Veltjens enlisted in the Kaiserin Augusta Guards Regiment Number 4 on 3 August 1914.
6.
On 2 December 1915, at Johannisthal near Berlin, Josef Veltjens first soloed in a plane.
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Josef Veltjens was posted as a member of Flieger Abteilung 23 on 10 May 1916, to fly reconnaissance missions.
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Josef Veltjens served there with another future ace, Rudolf Berthold.
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Josef Veltjens scored his first victory, over a SPAD, on 14 April 1917.
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Josef Veltjens first scored for them on 16 September 1917; he scored his ninth victory on 15 November to close out 1917.
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Josef Veltjens marked up his tenth kill on 18 February 1918.
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Josef Veltjens was then reassigned to Jasta 15 the following month.
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Josef Veltjens was appointed to replace an officer suspected of conspiring to have the wounded Berthold removed as JG II commander.
14.
May saw Josef Veltjens awarded the First Class Iron Cross, followed by the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern on 20 May, followed by the Pour le Merite on 16 August 1918.
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Josef Veltjens joined Freikorps Gerstenberg in the aftermath of Germany's defeat.
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Josef Veltjens was wounded three times while commanding an armoured car in a January 1919 assault on Spartakists in Bremen.
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Josef Veltjens followed this with a spell as a merchant sailor on his own sailing ship, the Merkur, a 100-ton vessel.
18.
Josef Veltjens supplied Mustafa Kemal Ataturk for the establishment of the Turkish Republic and Chiang Kai-shek for the unification of a nationalist China.
19.
Josef Veltjens joined both the Nazi Party and its Brownshirts in 1929, as one of the early adherents.
20.
Just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in March 1936, Colonel Josef Veltjens was contacted by Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera, Infante of Spain, who lived in Portugal at the time.
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Josef Veltjens asked Veltjens to assist with the supply of arms to the generals, who planned a coup d'etat against the newly elected leftist alliance.
22.
In late 1936, Josef Veltjens was instrumental in founding a shipping company of three vessels to supply munitions to the Nationalists.
23.
Josef Veltjens specialised in transporting high explosives, although he once shipped a brigade of 600 Irish Blueshirts to the war.
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Josef Veltjens was requested by the Soviets to supply the Spanish Republicans.
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Josef Veltjens later added a few more ships to his fleet, which sailed under the Panamanian flag to disguise German involvement.
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Josef Veltjens was paid by both sides in British pounds sterling.
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When Hitler later decided to support Franco, he did so in secrecy at first, but Josef Veltjens was allowed by Goring to continue his private dealings, mainly because of his possession of tungsten and molybdenum necessary for the prompt production of his orders.
28.
When Finland was about to be attacked by Soviet Union in November 1939, Josef Veltjens was approached by the Finns in the hope that he could help with the supply of arms, since Hitler had prohibited direct arms shipments from Germany in order to avoid provoking Soviet Union.
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However Josef Veltjens was able to ship some quantities of arms and ammunition from various countries at extremely short notice.
30.
Josef Veltjens later received a Finnish decoration, the Commander Cross First Class with Swords of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.
31.
Josef Veltjens was recalled into the Luftwaffe at the start of World War II.
32.
In 1943 during World War II, Josef Veltjens served as Goring's emissary to Benito Mussolini in Salo.
33.
Josef Veltjens was to negotiate the distribution of the Italian National Reserves of gold bullion that had been removed from Rome to Milan by the SS.
34.
Josef Veltjens was originally buried in Italy, but his body was later transferred home to Lubeck, Germany.