[Larry deZeng]

John -

Thanks for your thoughts on this. But we may be talking about two different animals here because Kommando Schenck had no presence in 1945, having been disbanded before that.

Einsatzkommando/KG 51
Also as: Einsatzkommando 51
Sonderkommando E-51
Kommando Schenck
Kommando Edelweiss


Formation. (Jun 44 - Jul 44)
Formed 2 June 1944 at Lechfeld from pilots belonging to 3.St./KG 51 who began retraining on the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet and then placed under the command of Maj. Wolfgang Schenck (RK, EL) as the first operational Me 262 fighter-bomber unit.

West - Fighter-Bomber Operations in France and Holland. (Jul 44 - Nov 44)
20-27 Jul 44: transferred from Lechfeld to Châteaudun in France; while there only 3 or 4 of the Me 262s were serviceable due to Allied fighter-bomber attacks on fuel and spare parts stocks.
12 Aug 44: transferred to Étampes and then to Creil on 15 Aug from where a few sorties were flown.
23 Aug 44: withdrew east to Juvincourt and while there received 5 replacement Me 262s from Lechfeld; on 28 Aug the Kdo. flew 4 missions with 7 Me 262s against Allied troop concentrations, hitting the targets with cluster bombs, and then struck other targets at Melun near Paris.
28 Aug 44: transferred to Chièvres/Belgium, then to Volkel/Holland on 30 Aug and on to Rheine in NW Germany on 4 Sep.
Sep - Oct 44: flew numerous fighter-bomber missions during Sep and Oct, hitting the key bridges at Nijmegen, forward Allied airfields at Eindhoven, Chièvres and Grave/S of Nijmegen, where 35 Spitfires were destroyed on the ground on 2 Oct, and assorted other targets in the area of 1st Canadian and 2d British Armies. Operations were intense as German air and ground forces attempted to destroy Allied airborne units dropped at Arnhem and Nijmegen on 17 Sep (Operation “Market Garden”). Losses during the period were moderate: on 8 and 9 Sep two Me 262s were shot down by AA fire over NE Belgium; Hptm. Hans-Christof Buttmann was shot down and killed by a flight of Spitfires over Nijmegen on 5 Oct; another was downed by a U.S. P-47 near Rheine on 6 Oct and several more were lost later in the month.
2 Nov 44: flew an attack on Allied airfields in Holland, this mission being the last recorded before it was incorporated back into I./KG 51 at Rheine and thereby lost its separate identity.


FpN: (same as for 3./KG 51)

Kommandeur:
Maj. Wolfgang Schenck (RK, EL) (c. 2 Jun 44 - c. 2 Nov 44)

Sources for KG 51

Archival and Unpublished:
BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Gen.Qu.(6.Abt.) Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle und Verluste…(LRs – Loss Reports).

Published:
[Balke – KG2]
[Brütting – BA]
[Carlsen – TS2]p.405, 422-23
[Dierich – KG51]
[Dierich – VdL]
[Foreman – Me 262 Combat Diary]p.32-60
[Jurleit – Strahljäger Me 262 im Einsatz]p.21-39, 153-55
[Kannapin – FPN]
[Mason – BovB]
[Ramsey – B-2]
[Ramsey – B-3]
[Shores – Fledgling Eagles]
[Shores – Yugo]
[Tessin – Tes]

Flugzeug 6/90: 51-52
Flugzeug 6/91: 51-55


© H.L. deZeng IV, 2003