Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

Hello friends,

I'm looking for the O de B of Küstenfliegergruppen operating in September 1939 over Polish coast. As far as I know following units were used in combat:
1.(M)/306 (He.60)

3.(M)/406 (He.59)

1.(M)/506 (He.60)
3.(M)/506 (He.59)

1.(M)/706 (He.60)
3.(M)/706 (He.59)
But first of all I'm not sure whether above list is correct (maybe I'm missing something?). Second of all I do not have numbers of available planes for every unit. Third of all some of them were moved during the campaign from West to East or from East to West. Sadly I do not know which ones were moved in which direction and on what date. And last but not least - I know that one He.114 was lost over Wielka Wieś but neither ww2.dk nor any paper sources gives any mention about using He.114 in Polish campaign, so I know that my list is not accurate! Hence if anyone can guide me to any source with reliable O de B of Küstenfliegergruppen I would be mostly grateful!


Best regards,
Andrzej

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

Do you have a date for this?

Thanks,

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

On 1. September 1939 the following seaplane units were subordinated to F.d.L. Ost:
Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 306 in Dievenow
1./306 with He 60 in Dievenow
2./306 with Do 18 in Dievenow

Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 706 in Kamp
2./606 with Do 18 in Kamp
1./706 with He 60 in Nest

Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 506 in Pillau
3./506 with He 59 in Pillau
1./506 with He 60 in Pillau
2./506 with Do 18 in Kamp
3./706 with He 59 in Dievenow

Bordfl.Staffel 5./196 with He 60 in Holtenau

To give a complete list of all units and their movements from September 1939 and on will be a task outside the scope of this forum.
As an example the situation on 3. September 1939 had changed as follows:
Seaplane units subordinated to F.d.L. Ost:
Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 506 Pillau
1./506 with He 60 in Pillau
3./506 with He 59 in Pillau
1./306 with He 60 in Dievenow
2./306 with Do 18 in Dievenow
3./706 with He 59 in Pillau
4./186 with Ju 87 in Lauenburg

Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 706 in Kamp
1./706 with He 60 in Nest
3./406 with He 59 in Dievenow

Bordfl.Staffel 5./196 with He 60 in Holtenau

Stab Kü.Fl.Gr. 306 had moved to Hörnum under F.d.L. West with the two Staffeln 2./506 and 2./606 both with Do 18.

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

He.114 from 1.(M)/506 (W.Nr. or code are not known) was lost on 11 IX. Both pilots (probably Lt. Kopitzki and Uff. Noack though I'm not sure of the spelling!) lost their lives. Also another He.114 (W.Nr. 2571) was lost while landing in Pillau on 17 IX while crew was rescued (though I do not have any details of the crew).


Seaplanes - thank you for your input!
I have never heard about combat use of Do.18 in Polish campaign. Do you know whether they were indeed used in combat?!
Do you know how many of the unusual planes such as He.114 in 1.(M)/506 or Ar.196 in 5/B.Fl.Gr. 196 were used during Polish campaign?!
By any chance do you know how many planes were used in typical Stabs unit - 3 maybe?!
Anyway - thanks once again for your help :)

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

To anderzej:
The two accidents you are looking for are:
11.09.39 1./706 He 114B W.Nr. 2543 100% at Putzig. Following a sortie against polish infantry at Grossendorf, the aircraft was hit in the control system by light ground-fire causing the pilot to loose control during landing at home base.
Lt.z.See Kapitzki (B) slightly injured
Uffz. Nowack (F) slightly injured

17.09.39 1./506 He 114B W.Nr. 2571 100% Pillau. The aircraft crashed during landing with tailwind having completed a flight from Putzig. No casualties.

Regarding the use of He 114 during the autumn and winter of 1939, such aircraft were issued as extra in certain Staffeln. I have no full inventory for the Polish campaign, but to give you an idea, the situation was a follown on 07.10.39:
1./306 at Norderney 10 He 60, 3 He 59 and 8 He 114.

1./506 at Dievenow 11 He 60, 10 He 114 4 He 111 (This Staffel was to be converted to He 111J as part of Gruppe 806.)

1./706 at Nest 10 He 60, 8 He 114 and 3 He 59.

Bordfl.Staffel 1./196 Wilhelmshaven 12 Ar 196 and 3 He 114

Bordfl.Staffel 5./196 Kiel-Holtenau 10 He 60 but received 3 He 114 shortly afterwards.

The Stabs-flights of The Gruppenstäbe varied considerably.
Stab Gruppe 106 had no aircraft at all.
Stab Gruppe 306 had 1 He 60 and 1 He 59.
Stab Gruppe 406 had no aircraft.
Stab Gruppe 506 had 1 Ju 52 and 3 He 59.
Stab Gruppe 706 had 1 Ju 52.

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

Dear seaplanes,

thank you for the corrections on He.114! I'm also surprised how many of these planes (almost 30!) were used in 1939 against Polish forces!

As for the 5/B.Fl.Gr. 196 - since it was based in Hortenau (which is around 600 km from Gdynia) I presume that this unit was only used in Western Baltic and was not directly involved in the combat.


Anyway below I'm enclosing all the informations about Kü.Fl.Gr. units which I was able to gather from various sources. Probably it has many mistakes but nevertheless I hope it will be useful for anyone :) If anyone (especially seaplanes :) ) notice any mistake or omission please let me know!
BTW is there any good source (apart of the BA/MA) describing combat use of hydroplanes in war against Poland?!

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

This will be extensively described in my 4th part of Luftwaffe over Poland 1939.
Regards,
Marius

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

Yes, but I'm looking for the sources which exists and not the ones which are going to be published.

Re: Baltic Küstenfliegergruppe in September 1939
 

And reliable, I assume.
There was a book on SND by Karl Born, but I do not know if it covers Polish Campaign.