Ju 86 Bomber Units September 1939

[Chris Goss]

It is believed that a very small number of Ju 86s were operational over Poland in the bomber role. One source says with III./KG 1 but this was not formed until December 1939. Can anyone confirm any of this?

[Mikael Olrog]

There were no operational Ju 86 over Poland. If I remember correctly there was a training staffel/gruppe of KG 1 that still had the Ju 86 but they flew no missions.

[Chris Goss]

Mikael-thanks this accords with a photo I have which shows V4+DW

[Nick Beale]

There are KTBs of elements of KG 1 on the German Docs in Russia site covering the Polish campaign: Akten 560, 561 & 562. There might be some clues there.

[Merlin]

The I./KG 152 operated a mixture of Ju 86G and He 111H during summer 1939. The unit was subordinated to KG 1 as IV.Gruppe and therefore flew with the unit code "V4". A few missions were flown by the unit during the PC, but only with the Heinkel.

On 18.09.39 the Gruppe became absorbed by KG 1 as II./KG 1.

[Franek Grabowski]

Despite numerous accounts there is no evidence of Ju 86s being operational in Poland. There are some intriguing accounts, however, including a one of a well known modeller. They mentioned eg. old type of gunner gondola. I wonder if those aircraft actually were He 111E which saw some use in Poland.

[Chris Goss]

Thanks Gerhard. This helps explain why some of II./KG 1's aircraft carried IV Gruppe codes