Sonder Transport Gruppe zbV BRONKOW

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Does anyone has got any details about this unit? Did it really exist?
Dod it operate italian P.108 aircaft?

Thank you in advance

Gianandrea

[Larry deZeng]

Unofficial, informal name for a Transport unit originating from or based at this airfield at one time or another:

Calau-Bronkow (GER) (31 km WSW of Cottbus in Brandenburg)
General: airfield in Brandenburg 28 km WSW of Cottbus and 2.5 km E of the village of Bronkow. A Landeplatz in 1938 that was upgraded to an Einsatzhafen in 1939. Grass surface.
School Units: Arbeitsplatz for Schule/FAR 82 (Cottbus) (1939-41);
Station Units: Fl.H.Kdtr. A(o) 101/I.

Its official name was Transportfliegerstaffel 5, which flew from late 1943 to 10 September 1944 when it was renamed 14./TG 4. It had 10 P.108s and several Ju 90s and Ju 252s.

L.

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Thank you for the quick answer.

Gianandrea

[RT]

A Pi108 G6+FY was reported at Sedes in Autumn 1944

Remi

[Brian]

Hi guys

Out of curiosity, what happened to the ten P.108s?

Cheers
Brian

[Andy Mitchell]

To supplement Larry's airfield information, Ries and Dierich in "Fliegerhorste und Einsatzhäfen der Luftwaffe" have the following co-ordinates for the airfield - 51.40.25 N - 13.57.40 E

[Gianandrea Bussi]

The question posed by Brian is really interesting: did Allied troops find any P.108 in Germany? Any info about crashed Lw P-108?

Many thanks

Gianandrea

[Larry deZeng]

14./TG 4 reported two P.108s lost to enemy effect (shot down or destroyed on the ground) during October 1944 and another was lost in a non-combat accident or crash during November 1944. The Staffel still had 7 P.108s on hand on 31 December 1944. The Staffel was disbanded in February 1945 due to the lack of fuel available to the Luftwaffe. All indications are that the 7 remaining P.108s were flown to an Abstellplatz and parked. What happened to them after that is anyone's guess. There should be some good Italian books on this aircraft that could answer this question.

L.

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Larry, thanks for the additional informations.

I've made a quick search. The only italian book with details about the P.108C operational record is, AFAIK, the volume number 9 in the serie "Dimensione Cielo" (printed in 1976).
Then, Hans Werner Neulen published a very good article about Transportfliegerstaffel 5 in "Avions" 164 (7-8/2008).

These two sources report only two losses: G6+FY (former J4+AH "GENERAL") destroyed at Salonicco on 6 october 1944 during an air raid and J4+EH crashed on 5 april 1944 in bad weather near Obereisendorf (13 killed) during a flight from Muehldorf to Zilistea (Rumania).

"Dimensione Cielo" adds a P.108 "probably" s/d by the flak near Athens but this info is not present in the Neulen study.

These two sources give different versions about the final aircraft fate: according to the old italian book, in may 1945, after the end of the war, at least 4 P.108 and 2 Ju.90 were set on fire by german personnel in an airport near Neufahen (?) north of Muenchen; according to Neulen, most of the aircraft that served in the 14./TG 4 were parked at Neufahrn, near Freising (north of Muenchen: so, the same place), most of them being destroyed by allied aircraft before the end of the war.

I wonder if any other loss occured or if anyone has got details of the losses mentioned by Larry. Then, do any AI.2 (g) report (or similar document) mention any P.108 in Germany?

Thanks in advance

Gianandrea

[Larry deZeng]

Good digging, Gianandrea. I did not know about either of those sources. Avions has published some good research articles over the years, but it has always been expensive and hard to obtain here on the western side of the Atlantic.

Neufahrn sits on the edge of a thickly wooded area 10.5 km SSW of Freising. It was not an airfield, but rather pasture land or meadow where aircraft were parked and out of service in the final months of the war. The Luftwaffe began doing that with multi-engine planes in September 1944 when the fuel situation became critical. Many of these so-called Abstellplätze would never have been found by the Allies, but the Luftwaffe made the mistake of mentioning them in their coded radio signals and these were decrypted in the U.K. as part of the ULTRA traffic. After several months of hesitation, the USAAF and RAF fighter units began strafing these parking areas, some of which contained over 100 aircraft. The destruction was massive.

L.