Beerenbrock, the son of a Russian mother, joined a flak artillery unit on 1 October 1938 and in 1939 was trained as a pilot. In March 1941, Beerenbrock was transferred to 12. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 51, a squadron of IV. Gruppe. At the time, IV. Gruppe of JG 51 was based in Le Touquet, France on the English Channel fighting the Royal Air Force. During this period, the Gruppe was being reequipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F series. Beerenbock's commanding officers were, MajorFriedrich Beckh as Gruppenkommandeur and the Staffelkapitän of 12. Staffel was Oberleutnant Karl-Gottfried Nordmann. On 16 April, the Gruppe moved to an airfield at Marquise.
IV. Gruppe of JG 51 was withdrawn from the Channel Front in early June 1941 and ordered to Mönchengladbach where the unit was equipped with a full complement of Bf 109 F-1 and F-2 aircraft. On 15 June, IV. Gruppe began transferring east and was located at the airfield Krzewicze, approximately west Brest-Litovsk on the western bank of the Bug River. On 22 June, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. JG 51, under the command of OberstleutnantWerner Mölders, was subordinated to II. Fliegerkorps, which as part of Luftflotte 2. JG 51 area of operation during Operation Barbarossa was over the right flank of Army Group Center in the combat area of the 2nd Panzer Group as well as the 4th Army. Beerenbrock claimed his first aerial victory on 24 June 1941 over a Tupolev SB-2 bomber.. He frequently flew as wingman of Nordmann and Heinrich Bär. Following his 42nd aerial victory, Beerenbrock was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 6 October 1941.
Eastern Front
On 30 July 1942, during the Battle of Rzhev, the Soviet Kalinin Front launched an attack against the 9th Army on the northern flank of the Rzhev salient. The Soviet29th and 30th Army breached the German front between the German 87th and 256th Division. The next day, III. and IV. Gruppe of JG 51 were sent to intercept strong forces of Ilyushin Il-2ground-attack aircraft attacking German ground forces. That day, Beerenbrock claimed his 93rd aerial victory over an Il-2 shot down northwest of Rzhev. On 1 August 1942, he became an "ace-in-a-day" claiming nine aerial victories on three combat missions, including his 100th overall. He was the 15th Luftwaffe pilot to achieve the century mark. At that point, he was the most successful fighter pilot of JG 51 and the first pilot of JG 51 to surpass Werner Mölders. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves on 3 August 1942. Beerenbrock and together with HauptmannAnton Hackl were presented the Oak Leaves by Adolf Hitler at the Führerhauptquartier at Rastenburg. In October 1942, Beerenbrock was appointed Staffelkapitän of 10. Staffel of JG 51. On 9 November, his Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2 suffered engine failure after being hit in the radiator approximately north of Velizh resulting in a forced landingbehind enemy lines. In consequence, he was taken prisoner of war. While imprisoned, he became a founding member of the Bund Deutscher Offiziere which later merged with the National Committee for a Free Germany.
Summary of career
Aerial victory claims
According to Spick, Beerenbrock claimed 117 aerial victories in over 500 combat missions, all but one on the Eastern Front. Matthews and Foreman, authors of Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims, researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 111 aerial victory claims, all of which claimed on the Eastern Front. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference, for example "PQ 56432". The Luftwaffe grid map covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about. These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.
