Major Bigalke

[Karl]

Hello,

a friend of mine told me that his grandfather (from mother`s side) was an officer and pilot flying transport planes in the mediterranean area (Greece, Tunesia). He suffered of malaria and died some years after ww2.

Bigalke is not a quite common in Germany. I googled but only found an Uffz Leo Bigalke, 1.JG300, which is not the person I am looking for.

Can somebody help?

Karl

[Chris Goss]

There is no Bigalke listed in the 1945 Luftwafferangliste. A Sonderfuehrer Ulrich Bigalke was killed in action with 8/KG 51 12 Aug 40

[Larry deZeng]

In a data base of 30,000 Luftwaffe officers, we only have one by that name plus one similar:

BIGALKE, Lothar. (DOB: 08.04.98). (n.d.) Maj.d.R. (Ln.), MIA.
BIGALSKI, Franz. 01.07.44 promo to Maj.(d.R.). 01.45 Maj. in 4.(Fernspr.-u.Fernschr.Betr.-
Kp.)/Luftgau-Nachr.Abt. 3.

As you can see, both are officers of the Luftnachrichtentruppe so neither seems to match your Transportflieger scenario. The only fit might be that many (but not all) of the Ln.-Regimenter had a Flieger-Kp. and these included 3 to 7 Ju 52 transports outfitted with mobile signal equipment. The Chef of these Kompanien was almost always an Ln. officer who also was a fully qualified and licensed pilot. Since the Bigalke in question seems to have been in the Mediterranean, he most likely was with Flieger-Kp./Ln.-Rgt. 2 (Feldpostnummer L 31490) that was stationed in the Mediterranean from 8 December 1941 until it was disbanded in September 1944. The Kompanie had Ju 52, Fw 58, Fi 156, Fw 44, Ju 88 A-4, and probably a few others. But most of its assigned aircraft were Ju 52s. Between 20 May 1940 and the end of 1943 it reported a total of 12 Ju 52 losses, crashes and accidents. During 1942-43 it was based at Grottaglie, and from fall 1943 into 1944 at Bergamo.

HTH,

Larry & Doug

[Karl]

Hello together,

thanks for your efforts! I see this guy next monday and will ask him for the Christian name of his grandfather.

Karl

[Karl]

Hello,

the full name is Wolfang Karl Bigalke. My friend´s aunt has written to the WASt to get some more information. I hope this will not last too long.


Karl