Junkers W 34, Störkampfstaffeln, Nachtschlachtgruppen

[knusel]

Good evening Gentlemen,

were combat missions in the Junkers W 34 ever documented to have been flown ?
e.g. by the Störkampfstaffeln or Nachtschlachtgruppen ?
e.g. by Josef Flögel, Franz-Karl Theyerl or Rupert Frost ?

Cheers,

Michael

[VtwinVince]

That's a good question, let me check my files concerning those individuals.

[VtwinVince]

I only have an excerpt from the April, 1945 Voelkischer Beobachter stating that at the time of Floegel's RK award he had completed 625 Feindfluege, but no mention on what types.

[knusel]

Good evening Vince,

"Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries" lists him with 633 missions.
It would be intrigueing to find out how many missions the Nachtschlacht pilot flew in their different aircraft, because of the rarity of many of the used types.

Cheers,

Michael

[Nick Beale]

Probably the best way to approach this is through the Bundesarchiv’s downloadable files showing the strength and equipment of the Nachtschlacht units concerned. This should tell you how many W 34s they had and whether they were classed as operational or liaison machines.

[VtwinVince]

Interesting topic, particularly the Bienenstock missions with the Buecker.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by VtwinVince

Interesting topic, particularly the Bienenstock missions with the Buecker.

There's this book but it may be difficult to get hold of.

[VtwinVince]

Thanks Nick, looks like a worthwhile read. I corresponded with some survivors of this unit BITD, along with some of the Elbe participants.

[knusel]

Good evening,

I'm also interested in Nachschlacht top ace Ludwig Bellof and checked the Nachtschlachtgruppe 3 file in the Bundesarchiv website recommended above. It's a vivid description of the mission profile of that unit but it contains only little info about the aircraft types used, and no strength figures.

According to www.ww2.dk:

• Behelfskampfstaffel Luftflotte 1 used Ar 66 and Go 145
• after renaming Störkampfgruppe Luftflotte 1 used Ar 66, Go 145, He 45, He 46 and W.34
• after another renaming Nachtschlachtgruppe 3 used Ar 66, Fw 58, He 46 and Go 145

According to www.secretprojects.co.uk the He 45 was used from autum 42, the Ar 66 from Feb43 and the Go 145 from Oct43. The W.34 was used in 1944.
A singular Fw 58 was used in NSGr3, while 25% of its equipment consisted of He 46's initially, being used up until Dec43.

To me it seems as if Ludwig Bellof flew the He 45 first, then the Ar 66 and then the Go 145. What do you think ?


Michael

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by knusel

Good evening,

I'm also interested in Nachschlacht top ace Ludwig Bellof and checked the Nachtschlachtgruppe 3 file in the Bundesarchiv website recommended above. It's a vivid description of the mission profile of that unit but it contains only little info about the aircraft types used, and no strength figures.

Michael

Aircraft and crew strength figures for Luftwaffe units have all been digitised by the Bundesarchiv except for about three months in the summer and autumn of 1944. You will find them in the files running consecutively from RL 2-III/700 to RL 2-III/735. These diagrams use coloured squares to denote a unit's operational aircraft and diamonds for liaison aircraft.

Likewise digitised are the reports of numbers and types (and sub-types) of aircraft on strength with each unit from March 1942 through to December 1944. These are in files RL 2-III/874 consecutively through to RL 2-III/884.

Material losses of the Nachtschlacht units 1941–1945 are in file RL 2-III/858, also digitised. These give the cause of each reported loss and usually the aircraft type if the unit operated a mixture of aircraft.

I think that from those you should be able to satisfy your curiosity about what types were operated by the units in question and when.