Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

Does anyone have information about the missions to the by-past French ports and Channel Islands. How many French enclaves had airports for the planes?, Which Luftwaffe group did these missiions come from. How often? How bad were the losses? Any books on the subject?

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

Hi,
I seem to recall that TG 30 was involved in these operation, try a Google search on Luftwaffe "TG30".
bregds
SES

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

Suppy flights were mainly carried out by I/TG30 in addition elements of KG53 and KG55 were briefly involved. A lot of the missions appear as airdrops (Dunkirk, Cherbourg, Calais, La Rochelle, and also Aachen) while the Channel islands were supplied by airlandings and St. Nazaire had both drops and landings (according to POW reports).

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

The HW5 series Ultra files at the National Archives are full of information about these flights. There are also (in AIR40) several interrogation reports from crews of TG 30 shot down on these missions.

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

This is a truly ancient thread, but while researching something for work I found a small tidbit of info about this topic. Perhaps it is of interest to someone.

It's about the premiere of the movie "Kolberg" (Director: Veit Harlan) on 30 January 1945 in La Rochelle. According to Bundesarchiv file "Lesefilm P5/0728" the physical copy of this movie was delivered by TGr. 30, flying from Zellhausen, after 26 January. Sadly it's not mentioned by which type of aircraft or whether by air drop or via landing. Maybe this is of use for someone anyway.

Cheers,
Christian

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

“Kolberg” was flown in by He 111 but I can’t remember without looking it up whether it was a drop or a landing. The story came from a PoW whose crew had carried it.

Re: Luftwaffe missions to by-past bases in France 44/45
 

For those who can read French, there was a two-part article on TG 30 by Archambault & Roba in the magazines "Avions" No's 131 & 132.
Regards
Peter