During his career was credited with 64 aerial victories, four of them, after he lost his arm in an airfight,[1] all on the Eastern Front.

Petermann was born on 26 May 1916 in Weipert, at the time part of the district of Kaaden in the Sudetenland, present-day Vejprty in the Czech Republic.

[2] On 6 June 1943, Petermann was wounded in aerial combat with Yakovlev Yak-1 fighters near Petrovskaya located approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Slavyansk-on-Kuban.

He made an emergency landing of his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-4 (Werknummer 19527—factory number) near Krasny Oktyabr located 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Slavyansk-on-Kuban at 18:00.

[3] On 1 October 1943, Petermann became a victim of friendly fire when his Bf 109 G-6 (Werknummer 15851) was shot down by German anti-aircraft artillery resulting in an emergency landing at Nove Zaporizhzhya at 12:15.

He succeeded Leutnant Karl Gratz who had temporarily led the Staffel after its former commander, Oberleutnant Friedrich Obleser, had been wounded on 30 December 1944.

Gruppe of JG 52 at the time headed by Hauptmann Wilhelm Batz and based at Kraków.