News from Greece

[byron-]

Aviation activities October 1944

[Dénes Bernád]

Very good documents on a little studied "secondary" area of operations. Thanks for sharing!

[Aviator]

Hello Byron,

In one of your posted documents i read about a He111 destroyed at Kalamata.That means that this aircraft was stationed there but to my knowledge there was no airfield there.Do you have some more info concerning this?

Thx

Aviator

[byron-]

Hello Aviator,

As far as i know, there was an airfield in Messini by Nea Kalamata named Flugplatz-Kdo. B10/1 until 09.12.1943. At that date it was abandoned and destroied.
Kdr. was Hptm. Heinrich Struck, in the last month (Nov.43) Hptm. Krieger

At 11.04.44 it was taken partly in use again, named E 254/III.

[byron-]

Lw-activity 01.10.44-07.10.44

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Byron -

Not E(v) 254/III, which was never in Greece:

Fliegerhorstkommandantur E(v) 254/III
Formed c. 1 April 1944 at Bobruisk in Belorussia (Belarus) by renumbered Fl.H.Kdtr. E 10/I.
21 May 44: Bobruisk - Fl.H.Kdtr. E(v) 254/III reported its personnel strength this date as 23 officers, 376 NCOs and men, and 291 Hiwi auxiliary volunteers.
Jun – Jul 44: suffered very heavy losses at Bobruisk during the Soviet Belorussian offensive that began on 22 June.
Dec 44: Nowy Targ area in the Beskids about 67 km south of Kraków.
1 Jan 45: reportedly under Koflug 5/III (Erfurt) but no location given.
Jan 45: withdrew into Slovakia and by February was located in or around Nitra/72 km ENE of Bratislava.
April 45: Nitra area.
FpN: (L 38327)
Kommandant:
Maj. Jakob Ahrweiler (1 Apr 44 - 30 Nov 44?) 5/44
Obstlt. Günther Staroste (1 Dec 44 - 8 May 45?)

I think you meant:


Kalamaki (e. Kalamáki, Kalamákion) – S Greece (airfield 9 km S of Athens)
Classification, Description and Remarks: Attacked on 15 and 17 November 1943 (by B-25 Mitchells); 6 December (by 56 B-17s);14 December (by B-17s); 15 September 1944 (by B-17s); 24 September (by B-24s).
Station Units: Fl.H.Kdtr. (trop.) E 17/VI; Fl.H.Kdtr. E(v) 204/XVII.
Air Units:



Kalamáta (GR) (Nea-Kalamata/SW Peloponnesus)
See: Fl.H.Kdtr. E 13/I (See); Fl.Pl.Kdo. B 10/I. Following the re-organization of April 1944, Nea-Kalamata was downgraded to a Seestützpunkt of Fl.Pl.Kdo. D 53/IV (Milos).

Larry

[byron-]

hello Larry

thanks for the correction, mea culpa
i don`t know where i found 254/III for that airfield

that`s what i have about Kalamata

Fp.Nr. 00 689 (12.41-10.42) Fl.H.Kdtr. E 13/I (See) Seefl.Kdtr. Kalamata
11.04.42 in Piräus eingetroffen, 30.04.42 nach Kalamata verlegt
Kdr., 15.06.42-21.09.42 Major Karl Simon
21.09.42-21.10.42 Major Heinrich Bindseil
21.10.42-06.43 Major Karl Simon



FP.Nr. 38 327 (ab 10.42-09.43) Flugplatz-Kdo. B 10/I Nea Kalamata / Messini
04.43-05.43 in Nea Kalamata
07.43-09.43 in Messiniab 09.12.43 Sprengungen zur Zerstörung des Flugpl. Messini
ab 11.04.44 neuorganisiert in Seestützpunkt

Kdr., ab 14.02.42 Hptm. Heinrich Struck und Standort-Kdt. Nea Kalamata
09.43 Hptm. Krieger

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks, Byron! There is some useful information there. The Kommandanten are from the Michael Holm site? He got his information from the Christian Zweng book Stellenbesetzung der deutschen Luftwaffe, Band 1, Biblio Verlag, 1999.

Larry

[byron-]

Larry,

it`s a long time ago, i think these infos came from the wardiaries of Hgr.E, Befehlshaber Griechenland and the book of Gianfranco Mattiello "Die Fliegerhorstkommandanturen und Flugplätze der deutschen Luftwaffe 1935-1945".
Zweng has a few Kdr. names from the greek area and only from the larger airfields.
There is in general an emptiness regarding the infos about the "Stellenbesetzung" of the airfields, at least those in occupied Greece.

Any new info is wellcome

[Larry deZeng]

Interesting. I have been able to find a lot of them in the Luftwaffenpersonalamt officer assignments orders. Mattiello is good for the Fliegerhorste, but he provides no names, of course. The ULTRA signals intelligence from the Balkans area is full of names, too. And, as you pointed out, the microfilmed German military records (Heeresgruppe E, etc.) has some names. One has to pick them out here and there as one finds them - it's like a never-ending treasure hunt!

Larry