Zerst.St. KuFlGr 106 & KG 6

[Chris Goss]

Thanks to Matti, I am trying to sort out the timelines and pilots of these units. It would appear that the first four C-6s arrived around 10 June 42 and were assigned to 106. By 20 Aug 42, the unit was referr
ed to as III./KG 40 Zerst.St/106. At the end of August, 106 became II./KG 6 and then we see the mention of Zerst.St/KG 6. However, Hptm Carlhanns Weymar killed 22 July 1942 is referred as being a member of both Zerst.St./KG 6 and 13./KG 40! Probable pilots I have found were:
Hptm Carlhanns Weymar Z./KG 6 & 13./KG 40
Lt Karl Stoeffler Z./KG 6 and Stab III./KG 40
Lt Dieter Meister Z./106
Hptm Hans-William Reicke Z./106
Lt Willi Deuper Z./KG 6
Lt Heinz Olbrecht Z./KG 6
Oblt Adolf Runge Z./106
Hptm Georg Esch
Lt Kurt Necesany
Lt Wolfgang Graf von Hoensbroech


Any guidance welcome!

[ju55dk]

On the deathcard Hptm Carlhanns Weymar is mentioned as member of 13/KG 40 Kommandiert zum Zerstörerkommando/KG 6.
Junker

[Larry deZeng]

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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[Seaplanes]

Going through some old material, I came up with the following that may be of interest:

BA-MA ref. RM35 II/133
15 June 1942:
K.Fl.Gr. 106 based at Dinard with all Staffeln. No mention of a Zerstörer-Staffel here.

01 August 1942 :
On this date The K.Fl.Gr. 106 was at Chateaudun while the Zerst.Staffel K.Fl.Gr. 106 was under formation at Bordeaux-Merignac. The same was the case on 15 August 1942 and 25 August 1942.

10 September 1942:
13./K.G.40 (ex. Zerst.Staffel K.Fl.Gr. 106) at Lorient.
K.Fl.Gr. 106 was by then redesignated II./K.G.6 at Chateaudun but under transfer to Beauvais.


BA-MA ref. RL 2 III/720 Einstazbereitschafr der fliegenden Verbände
Stand 20 August 1942:
Die von Luftflotte 3 auf dem Kommandowege aufgestellte Zerestörerstaffel bei der K.Fl.Gr. 106, ist als 13. Staffel der neu aufzustellenden V./K.G.40 etstisiert worden. Die 14. and 15. Staffel werden beschleunight aufgestellt.

When a unit was formed "auf dem Kommandowege" it ment it was locally and temporarirly formed. If such a unit was later "etatisiert", it ment that it was formally accepted into the Luftwaffe main organisation.

[Chris Goss]

Thanks all; this makes more interesting reading:


KTB OKM


23 Jun 42
The Luftwaffe has promised to assign 4 twin-engine Ju 88 fighter planes to the Bay of Biscay. Thus the grave menace to arriving and departing submarines from the air may be counteracted to some extent at least.

26 Jun 43
The Commander in Chief, Luftwaffe has ordered the first 4 Ju 88 C planes coming off the assembly line to be allocated to the Luftflotte 3 in Bordeaux without crews. The Luftflotte 3 is to employ these planes exclusively for the protection of damaged submarines arriving from the Atlantic and for the escort of blockade-runners.

The Fliegerfuehrer Atlantik reports that 5 Ju 88s have been transferred to Bordeaux for missions with the Commanding Admiral, Submarines. The corresponding directive of the Air Force General Staff mentioned only 4 planes.

2 Jul 42
KTB-F.d.U.-B.d.U.
In order to provide reinforcements against the increasingly strong British air protection in the Bay of Biscay I had a conference on 2.7. in the Luftwaffe High Command Operational HQ and with Goering. I reported the enemy's position in the air in the Biscay area; that having attained complete protection from bombing in port and built U-boat facilities, he has transferred his attacks to the waters off the coast and therefore made the surface passage of U-boats by day and night a risky proceeding as English a/c are equipped with D/F apparatus.
The U-boat Arm has suffered considerably from losses and damage in the Biscay area - as much as the enemy himself. British a/c meet absolutely no opposition in the Biscay area, reinforcements are urgently needed.
The Chief of General Staff has approved the dispatch of more Junkers 88's. As a result of this conference 24 more Junkers 88's have been designated to the Fliegerfuehrer Atlantik for the war in the Biscay area.

12 Aug 42
Group West reports that on 10 Aug. there were repeated and partly successful air attacks on in and outbound submarines, and the first blockade-runner to depart was located, attacked, and shadowed by British reconnaissance planes, and was thus forced to turn back. The forces of Fliegerfuehrer Atlantik are at present so weak that the operations scheduled at short intervals in September are jeopardized. The blockade-runners can leave for their vital missions only when the available reconnaissance forces have been increased, and new forces have been brought up to protect the ships and to fight enemy planes. Group West considers the allocation of one complete group of FW 200s and one of Ju 88s (the latter as auxiliary long-range fighters) as an indispensable minimum.

13 Aug 42
As a matter of fact the Naval Liaison Officer to the Luftwaffe Operations Staff has reported that the Luftwaffe Operations Staff has in the meantime complied with the request of the Chief, Naval Staff to the Fuehrer and has ordered that the forces of Fliegerfuehrer Atlantik be brought up to a full-strength Ju 88 fighter group for patrol of the Bay of Biscay.


Interesting that first C-6 losses were Wk Nrs 360015, 360017, 360018, 360020, 360022, 360025 while 360023 was involved in an accident with IV./KG 40 the following year. 360013 was with II./KG 51.360019 was lost with V./KG 40 24 Jul 43

[Chris Goss]

I think a great friend in Germany might have helped solve this. In a document dated 1 Aug 42, it details the ORBAT for Luftflotte 3. Under Stab./KG 6 based at Rennes, it lists K.Fl.Gr 106 at Chateaudun and Zerst.St K.Fl.Gr 106 at Merignac. No other elements of KG 6 are listed and 106 becomes II./KG 6 at the end of August 42 so I believe it is reasonable to assume that Zerst.St 106 and Zerst.St./KG 6 are the same?

[Seaplanes]

Dear Chris,
It was originally intended to make the Zerstörerstaffel of Fliegerführer Atlantik a part of a future III./K.G.6 as mentioned in the Einstazbereitschaft der fliegenden Verbände Stand 10 August 1942. However, in the meantime Fliegerführer Atlantic had assigned the Zerstörerstaffel a part of K.Fl.Gr. 106. The 12th and last Ju 88C-6 was allocated to this unit on 15 July 1942.
In the Order of Battle of Lfl.3 of 1 August 1942, is is clearly mentioned as Zerst.Staffel/K.Fl.Gr. 106. Sometime between 10 and 20 August 1942 it was decided to form a new Gruppe for U-Boot protection as the V./K.G.40, leaving III./K.G.6 out in the blue. In the Einstazbereitschaft der fliegenden Verbände Stand 20 August 1942, it is said that the Zerst.Staffel/K.Fl.Gr. 106 was redesignated 13./K.G.40. Nothing is mentioned of a Zerst.Staffel/K.G.6.

Please do not make something that is relatively straight forward in to a
complicated matter. Luftwaffe unit histories are generally complicated enough.

Unfortunately, I am not able to upload copies of the original documents from Freiburg.

Best regards
Björn Hafsten (Seaplanes)

[Chris Goss]

Thanks Seaplanes. I feel that at last rather than complicating the matter that we have bottomed out the genesis of this unit and I believe that clerks annotating contrary documents documents Zerst.St./KG 6 have been presumptuous!