Chris,
I've been pawing around trying to find something more on this, but the below is all that I have. If you and Sonke Neitzel couldn't get to the bottom of it and definitively so, then the rest of us don't have much of a chance either!
L. deZ.
V./KG 40
Formation and Origin. (Jun 42 - Sep 42)
Formed on or about 6 August 1942 at Bordeaux-Merignac in SW France. The orgins of the Gruppe are both interesting, unclear and unresolved. On 10 Jun 42 four Ju 88C-6 twin-engined heavy fighters were sent to Bordeaux-Merignac for attachment to III./KG 40, followed by 5 more at the end of Jun. They flew their first mission on 24 Jun when fighter cover was provided for U-Boat U-753. The date of appointment for the (Gruppe’s?) first Kommandeur has been given as 1 Jul 42, although this needs to be confirmed. On 15 Jul the detachment may have shot down a RAF Wellington, although the first known claim filed by the detachment was for two Wellingtons reported shot down over the Bay of Biscay on 20 Jul 42. During Jun and Jul the detachment seems to have been informally referred to as
Zerstörerkommando/KG 6 or
Zerstörerstaffel/Kampfgruppe 106. The first definite mention of a
V. Gruppe being set up dates from 6 Aug when orders were cut in Berlin assigning personnel to
13.Staffel and 14.Staffel/KG 40 at Bordeaux-Merignac. The two Staffeln were declared operational there under those designations on 20 Aug 42, and on 30 Aug 19 crews who had just completed their operational training on Ju 88s were assembled and ordered to report to KG 40 at Bordeaux for the formation of a heavy fighter Gruppe. A few weeks later, on 12 Sep,
15.Staffel came into existence and the Gruppenstab followed at about the same time.
15.Staffel was formed at Bretigny using crews from
IV./KG 6 as cadre. It therefore seems that the date of the Gruppe’s formation is either 1 Jul 42 or on or about 6 Aug 42. (Tessin; Dierich; Kannapin; Neitzel:143-45; Goss-Biscay:10-11; ADI(K) 313/43; OIC/SI 304; Balke-KG 2:139).
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