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Kampfgeschwader 200

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Kampfgeschwader 200
Active1934–1945
CountryNazi Germany Nazi Germany
BranchLuftwaffe
TypeSpecial operations
RoleReconnaissance, Test-flights, Special missions
SizeAir Force Wing
Commanders
Notable
commanders		Werner Baumbach
Insignia
Identification
symbol		Geschwaderkennung
of A3
Aircraft flown
BomberDornier Do 335, Arado Ar 232, Heinkel He 111, Heinkel He 177, Junkers Ju 290, Junkers Ju 390, Junkers Ju 188, Heinkel He 115, Dornier Do 24, Dornier Do 18, Arado Ar 196, Siebel Si 204, Arado Ar 240
captured aircraft: B-17, B-24, SM.75, LeO H-246, Short Stirling, P-38 Lightning, de Havilland Mosquito, Bristol Beaufighter[1]
Fightercaptured:Supermarine Spitfire[2]

Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200) (Battle Wing 200) was a Luftwaffe unit during World War II. The unit was the Luftwaffe's special operations wing that carried out long-distance reconnaissance flights, tested new aircraft designs, and operated captured aircraft.

History

The unit's history began in 1934, when the Luftwaffe, impressed with Colonel Theodor Rowehl's aerial reconnaissance missions over Poland, formed a special squadron under Rowehl's lead that was attached to the Abwehr, Germany's military intelligence department. As the Abwehr started to lose the Führer's goodwill during the war, a new reconnaissance unit, the 2nd Test Formation, was formed in 1942 under the command of Werner Baumbach. This unit was combined with 1st Test Formation in March 1944 to form KG 200 on 20 February 1944.

On 11 November 1944 Baumbach became Geschwaderkommodore, all aerial special-ops missions were carried out by KG 200 under Baumbach's command.[3]

A captured B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the USAAF-named "Wulf Hound", USAAF s/n 41-24585, of KG 200

Organization

KG 200, unusual for a Geschwader-designated Luftwaffe unit, only consisted of 2 operational Gruppen; several others were planned but did not become operational before the end of the war.

I./KG 200 operated a total of three of four Heinkel He 115s and were responsible for dropping Abwehr agents behind enemy lines. The largest number of agents dropped was in July 1944, when a total of 260 men and women were dropped, mainly using automatic parachutes. It operated under direct command of the Sicherheitsdienst. I./KG 200 was divided into three squadrons ("Staffeln"): 1st Staffel operated in long-range missions ("Ferneinsätze") while 2nd Staffel flew missions in nearer short-range areas ("Naheinsätze").The 3rd Staffel consisted of Navy pilots ("Seeflieger") with one He 115, located in Rissala, Finland.

II./KG 200 was in charge of all other missions, including electronic warfare, long-range reconnaissance, delivery flights and special cargo missions to Japanese-held Northern China. II./KG 200 had one Staffel for commando raids, the 3rd Staffel. They were located and trained in Dedelstorf, Germany.

  • Luftwaffe special forces parachute trained commandos of II./KG 200 were an arm of the Fallschirmjäger parachute forces and were listed on II./KG 200's ORBAT as the 3rd Staffel. In September 1944, this Staffel was no longer under the command of KG 200, but under the Army Paratrooper's command as Bataillon Schäfer.

III./KG 200 was to have fitted Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighters with torpedoes but was never inaugurated.

IV./KG 200 was used for pilot training and for flights on a long-range units using operational Junkers Ju 90 and Ju 290 and planned Ju 390 and Me 264 planes. Had it become operational, this squadron would have been responsible for reconnaissance flights and delivery of agents and bombs to the United States.

V./KG 200 aka 5th squadron (also known as Leonidas Squadron) was recruited for planned test flights and suicide and near-suicide manned missions using the piloted V-1 flying bomb and various partly-expendable rocket interceptor designs.

Missions

The unit carried out a wide variety of missions:

Long-range reconnaissance

Before the beginning of the war, aerial reconnaissance was usually carried out by civilian Lufthansa planes equipped with cameras. This practice was continued throughout the war as long as civilian airlines remained operational; later on, recon missions were most often carried out by Junkers Ju 86s flying at very high altitudes or by flying boats. Due to the lack of German aircraft with sufficient range, some recon missions used captured American B-17s or B-24s and Soviet Tu-2s. For the most part, these machines were used for re-supply roles (dropping in supplies to German forces operating behind Soviet lines), or transporting important personnel.[4]

The Mistel program

Beginning in 1942, to compensate for its lack of heavy bombers, the Luftwaffe started to experiment with packing some of its war-weary Junkers Ju 88 bombers with enormous shaped-charge warheads and guiding them to their targets with a fighter airplane mounted on the back of the unmanned bomber. Although not as effective as the Luftwaffe planners had hoped, the Mistel program continued to be developed thorough 1944 but flew few effective operations.[5] The unit was originally intended to attack naval installations at Gibraltar, Leningrad or Scapa Flow in Scotland, but the invasion of Normandy diverted effort to anti-invasion operations. On the night of 24 June 1944, Mistels of Kampfgeschwader 101 [6] were dispatched against targets in the English Channel. Although one of the Ju 88s had to be jettisoned prematurely, the remaining four pilots had successful launches and sank several block ships. The feasibility of the Scapa Flow attack remained, and in August 1944 Mistel forces were concentrated at Grove in Schleswig-Holstein. On 11 November 1944 RAF Lancasters attacked the German battleship Tirpitz and caused her to capsize. With Tirpitz out of commission there was no requirement for capital ships to be held in the Atlantic theatre, and soon those with the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow were on their way to the Pacific war, leaving the Mistels no worthwhile targets in Scapa Flow.

All Mistels were placed under the command of KG 200 and Oberst (Colonel) Joachim Helbig. By late 1944 emphasis was placed on an all-out attack on Soviet armaments and power plants but by March 1945 the bases had been over-run by the Soviet advance. KG 200 was ordered to concentrate Mistel operations against the bridges over the Oder and Neisse rivers. On 27 April 7 Mistel aircraft under Leutnant Dittmann of II./KG 200, escorted by Fw 190s, were launched against crossings at Küstrin, but only two Mistels got to the target to launch, results were inconclusive and the bridges remained intact.[7] By April all available Mistel units had been expended and aircrew dispersed to nearby fighter units.[8]

Suicide and near-suicide missions

In the last months of the war, a small number of high-ranking German officers pressed for a suicide fighter program as a last-ditch effort to stop Allied bombing runs over the Reich. This program, known as Selbstopfer ("self sacrifice"), was intended to use the Fieseler Fi 103 Re Reichenberg IV (Selbstopfer), a manned version of the V1 pulsejet cruise missile, to attack enemy bombers and ground targets. Several test flights were carried out by Leonidas Squadron KG 200, and mass production of the converted pulsejet-propelled missiles had begun, but the program was stopped due to intervention from Baumbach who felt that these missions would be a waste of valuable pilots.

As part of the Aktion 24 operations, Dornier Do 24 flying boats were modified and loaded with explosives, with the intention that they would be landed on the Vistula River and exploded against river bridges used by Soviet forces. Experienced pilots were to be used to fly the aircraft to a point upstream where it would be left to a "suicide pilot" to ensure a collision with the bridge and ignite the explosives. The assumption that Soviet forces would not react and the ability of the aircrew to return to German-held territory after delivery made the concept highly dubious. The modified aircraft were destroyed on the ground during air raids.[9]

Phantom anecdote

On a February 1945 741st BS mission against Vienna, "Before reaching the target, a 'phantom' B-24 joined our formation.…The P-51s [of the Tuskegee Airmen] came in and over the radio…the German phantom pilot said he was from the 55th Wing and got lost. But the 55th Wing wasn't flying that day and the plane had no tail markings. The fighter pilot squadron leader gave him some bursts from his guns and warned the phantom to turn back. He added, 'You will be escorted.' The German pilot replied that he could make it alone. The P-51 pilot said: 'You are going to be escorted whether you want it or not. You're going to have two men on your tail all the way back and don't try to land in Yugoslavia.'…The phantom left with his escort and we heard nothing further from the event."[10][11]

Erling Kindem

Special missions

The unit also carried out a variety of special missions, like parachuting spies behind enemy lines, operating radar-jamming aircraft, carrying out long-range transport flights to Japan, clandestine bombing missions and infiltrating American bomber formations with captured aircraft in an attempt to spread confusion. However, most of the information concerning these missions comes from a single POW and is doubted by several aviation history researchers. On 1 December 1943 a B-17 was sighted with the letters "D" above another identification letter "B". It also had a square marking, that of the 303rd Bomb Group. This was the identity of B-17F-111-BO 42-30604 Badger Beauty V. This machine was captured but it was never repaired or used by the Luftwaffe. When re-captured the B-17 was preserved in Boeing's museum. On the same day, a lone B-24 joined a bomber formation from the 44th Bomb Group. It was reported to have been a machine carrying the markings of a 392nd Bomb Group aircraft. However this unit did not become operational until 9 December.[12]

During one of those missions, on 27 June 1944, a B-17 of KG 200, with Luftwaffe Geschwaderkennung code A3+FB, landed in Manises airport (Valencia) and was interned by the Spanish government.[13]

KG200 in the Middle East

Beginning in early 1944 (perhaps as early as November 1943) the short-lived Operations Dora & Bunny-Hop took place in the Gulf of Sirte, Libya with secret bases inland at Al Mukaram and Wadi Tamet, as well as at Shott al Jerid behind the Mareth Line. These used a (long range) Messerschmidt Bf-108, two Heinkel He-111s, a Dornier Do 288 and a captured B-17, which despite being badly damaged during a raid on Al Mukaram by a Sudan Defence Force detachment managed to return to Athens for repair. As well as local intelligence and meteorological work their aim was to ferry agents via French West Africa to Cairo, Freetown & Durban.[14][15]

On the night of 27 November 1944, KG 200 pilots Braun and Pohl flew a Junkers Ju 290 transport from Vienna to a position just south of Mosul, Iraq, where they successfully air-dropped five Iraqi parachutists in the bright moonlight. The Luftwaffe crew flew back to the island of Rhodes, still under German occupation. After some engineering problems, they successfully evacuated some thirty casualties from Rhodes, reaching Vienna two nights later.[16]

Commanding officers

Geschwaderkommodore

  • Oberst Heinz Heigl, February 1944 – November 1944
  • Oberstleutnant Werner Baumbach, 15 November 1944 – 6 March 1945
  • Major Adolf von Hernier, 6 March 1945 – 25 April 1945

Gruppenkommandeure

I. Gruppe/KG 200

  • Major Adolf Koch, March 1944 –

II. Gruppe/KG 200

III. Gruppe/KG 200

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Gilman & Clive (1978), p.314.
  2. ^ Gilman & Clive (1978), p.314.
  3. ^ Thomas 2003, p. 128.
  4. ^ Thomas 2003, p.153-154
  5. ^ KG 200 history at "2 World War 2" site
  6. ^ The Last Year of the Luftwaffe, Alfred Price, 1991, ISBN 1854091891, page 60
  7. ^ Price, 1991, page 161
  8. ^ Thomas 2003, p. 156 - 161.
  9. ^ Thomas 2003, pp. 86 - 88.
  10. ^ Ambrose, p. 215
  11. ^ Graff, Hugh R. "455th Bomb Group: Flight of the Vulgar Vultures 1943-1945" (html—Smithsonian listing). pp. 141–2. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) (cited by Ambrose's Wild Blue p. 215)
  12. ^ Thomas 2003, p. 53.
  13. ^ Thomas 2003, p. 135.
  14. ^ Kelly 2002, p. 242-9.
  15. ^ The KG200.org site mentions "bases .. in the Algerian (sic) desert" - this appears to be an error - Kelly seems to make clear that KG 200 only operated in the Libyan desert.
  16. ^ Stahl, P. KG 200 The True Story London Book Club edition 1981 pp78-88

References

  • Gilman J.D. & Clive J. (1978). KG 200. London: Pan Books Ltd. p. 315. ISBN 0-85177-819-4.
  • Ambrose, Stephen (2001). The Wild Blue. Simon and Schuster. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |9780743217521url= ignored (help)
  • Geoffrey J Thomas, Barry Ketley: KG 200: The Luftwaffe's Most Secret Unit, Hikoki Publications, 2003, ISBN 1-902109-33-3.
  • Peter Wilhelm Stahl: KG 200: The true story, Jane's, 1981, ISBN 0-531-03729-0. German original: Geheimgeschwader KG 200: D. Wahrheit nach uber 30 Jahren, Motorbuch-Verlag, 1977, ISBN 3-87943-543-X (later edition co-authored by Manfred Jäger). P.W. Stahl had served in the KG 200 unit.
  • Saul Kelly: The Hunt for Zerzura, John Murray, 2002, ISBN 0-7195-6162 0. Includes much information on the LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) and its 'foundation' before WW2. A small well referenced section refers to KG 200.
  • Kelly refers to (a) K. Jozsef: A Homok Atyja, Magyar Repulestortereti Tarasag, Budapest 1995 (in Hungarian), and (see also above) (b) P W Stahl: KG 200: Gehaimaesch wuden(?) Motorbuch-Verlag, 1992 (in German)
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