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Re: 4th Staffel Aufklarungsgruppe 21
This is all I have for this time frame.
4.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 21
10.5.40: probably deployed at Pirmasens - instead of advancing into France with the opening of the offensive on this date, the Staffel supported a holding action along the Maginot Line in Saarland until 14 June, when XXIV. AK and the other elements of 1st Army broke through south of Saarbrücken to encircle French forces in Alsace. The first loss was incurred on 26 May when a Hs 126 was shot up and damaged near A1bert/NE of Amiens. It was not until 15 June that another Hs 126 was reported lost near Troyes followed by another the next day, both crews being wounded.
6.40: after the armistice on 22 June, the Staffel carried out routine training and several Hs 126Bs were damaged in accidents or by autumn storms at Cherbourg-Theville on 31 October and at Le Havre-Octeville on 14 November. It has not been possible to track the Staffel’s movements between November 1940 and May 1941, but there is some reason to believe that it returned to Germany.
[Sources: J.-P.Défieux - Répertoire des Unités Aériennes de la Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Reconnaissance Aéronavale (Nanterre, privately published, n.d. (c 1988-90?); K.Ries - Luftwaffen Story 1935-1939; Tessin, Georg, Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939: Altes Heer, Freiwilligenverbände, Reichswehr, Heer, Luftwaffe, Landespolizei; G.Tessin - Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945, 16+ Bde., Teil 14: Die Luftstreitkräfte (Osnabrück, 1980); W.Dierich - Die Verbände der Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Gliederungen und Kurzchroniken – Eine Dokumentation; N.Kannapin - Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939-1945; U.Balke - Der Luftkrieg in Europa: Die Operativen Einsätze des Kampfgeschwader 2 im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Teil I; AFHRA Maxwell decimal Karlsruhe Collection KC-Kl13.309-3/ v.1; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-312 – several references in the 18. Armee records); BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs).
Nothing found in ULTRA HW5 concerning this Staffel.
L.
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