Luftwaffe Gruppen

[mikeshilton]

How many personnel were employed in a typical staff flight of a fighter Gruppe,how many Officers and OR's,and what were their roles within the flight ?

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, Mike

Well, the strength of a Stab of a Luftwaffe Jagdgruppe were 4 aircraft and 4 pilots, also known as the Sollstärke or I guess in english established strength.

Looking at the strength returns from the fighter unit, the number of aircraft allocated to the Stab of a Gruppe or a Geschwader could be anything from 0 to more than double the established strength in very special cases.

I find it very hard to say that the Stab flight consisted of this and that officer, because I know how many different constellations occured during the course of the war. We have for example unit leaders being courtmartialled for leading their unit in the air when they should according to higher headquarters have been doing so from the ground, and vice versa....

But if we were to make a generalization, I would say that usually, the Gruppenkommandeur or Gescwaderkommodore were operative pilots and would lead the Stab flight if they were in the air. Frequently the TO, the Ia and the Adjutant were also pilots and would be in the Stab flight when airborne.

But - and very important - it was very common that also experienced and very good pilots were the wingmen of the Stab officers, even if they held lower ranks. These experienced (very often with the rank of Feldwebel) pilots more or less formed the backbone of many of the best units in the Jagdwaffe in my opinion.

So one can maybe say that in a well functioning unit the Stab flight consisted of two officers and two combat experienced pilots of non-officer ranks, as a kind of rule of thumb.

But there would be all variants! Sometimes the only aircraft allocated to the Stab would be the mount of the Gruppenkommandeur or Geschwaderkommodore, and they would use a wingman from one of the Gruppen when in the air.

It also seems to have been usual that the Stab flight positions were filled by a rotation amongst pilots from the Gruppe or Gruppen the unit controlled.


Regards,
Andreas