Gefechtsverband Helbig/Hallensleben/Kowalewski

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Jaap Woortman

For my research on Me 262 operations over the Netherlands during 1944/45 I am looking for information about Gefechtsverband Helbig/Hallensleben/Kowalewski. This unit was controling several NSGs and the Me 262s of KG 51.
The information of Holm, Balke, Brütting and Peter C. Smith is known.
Are there studies known about this unit?

Jaap Woortman
Secr. Study Group Airwar 1939-1945.

I hope you didn't expect a simple answer!

None of these was really a unit, just a Geschwader HQ that was adapted to co-ordinate a number of different units:

GV Helbig (first version): controlled the bombers of Luftflotte 2 in the first half of 1944 (Helbig was LG 1's Kommodore). Operations agaisnt the Anzio beach head etc.

September 1944: most bomber Gruppen in the West taken out of the line. Stab formations put to alternative use, so...

Second version of GV Helbig: 7 September "Stab LG 1 is placed under Luftflotte 3 command with immediate effect and will operate the following units as "Gefechtsverband Helbig":

(a) III./KG 51
(b) NSG 2
(c) Ops. Detachment I./KG 51 (until the arrival of an Me 262 Gruppe)
(d) Remaining units of Einsatzgruppe KG 101 (Mistel Staffel)

(Source: National Archives AIR20/7704: No. VII/89 "War Diary of Luftflotte 3 (Western Front) September 1944")

(Ultra HP 602): According Luftflotte 3 evening 18th [September], Stab KG 6 to replace Stab LG 1 in control of Battle Unit. Thus in certain arrangements (comment: of which no details) for conduct of ops by Luftflotte 3, Battle Unit Hogeback (comment: Kommodore KG 6) to replace Battle Unit Helbig.

20 September (Ultra HP 1250): According to Luftwaffenkommando West on 20th, Geschwaderstab KG 2 instead of ditto KG 6 employed as substitute for Geschwaderstab LG 1 to lead this Battle Unit. Battle Unit Hallensleben therefore to be substituted for Battle Unit Hogeback.

Daily report 20 September 1944: Stab KG 2 to take over with immediate effect from Gefechtsverband Helbig. [To be known as] Gefechtsverband Hallensleben. (AIR20/7704: No. VII/89 "War Diary of Luftflotte 3 (Western Front) September 1944")

16 October: Kommodore [sic] of NSG 1, Bönninghardt, ordered to report to Gefechtsverband Hallensleben. (National Archives AIR40/2687).

18 November (Ultra HP 7352): From 18th Battle Unit Hallensleben subordinated for ops directly to Luftwaffenkommando West, not to Fliegerdivision 3 (comment: as intended on 14th in HP 6781).

It was around this time that III.KG 51 was renamed NSG 20. NSG 1 was transferring in from East Prussia bit by bit. NSG 2 gained a new 2. Staffel at some point (the "old" one had since become 3./NSG 9 in Italy)

III./KG 3 seems to have dropped out of the picture when it was incorporated into KG 53 for air-launch operations at the end of October. KG 53 is then mentioned separately from Hallensleben in Ultra messages.

NSG 20 took KG 200's Sonderverband Einhorn (about 5 Fw 190s) under its wing in late December 1944 after the unit returned from Italy.

NSG 20 left Hallensleben during January 1945 when it completed its transfer from Bonn-Hangelar to Twente-Enschede.

Gefechtsverband Hallensleben disbanded on 15 March 1945 and its units were subordinated to 15. Fliegerdivision — Luftwaffe Führungsstab papers for March 1945, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Federal Republic of Germany. RL2 III/68.

GV Kowalewski: ad hoc formation set up in March 1945 to co-ordinate attacks on the Remagen bridgehead. Seems to have included KG 76 Ar 234s, KG 51 Me 262s and the Fw 190 F-8s of 11./KG 200 (previously with NSG 20 in Holland). Only in existence for a couple of weeks?

GV Helbig (Mark Three!): established on 5 March 1945 to co-ordinate missiosn against the Oder bridges. Included Stab LG 1(as HQ), II./KG 200, Versuchskommando KG 200, II./LG 1 and III./KG 53.

Three more that you didn't ask about but they did operate over Holland in late September 1944 under 3. Jagddivision:

“Gefechtsverband JG 4” (Stab/JG 4, I./JG 3, III./JG 300, II./JG 77, III./JG 53)
“Gefechtsverband Spaete” (III./JG 11 and IV./JG 54, Jabo missions)
"Gefechtsverband JG 11" (Stab/JG 11, II./JG 27, I./JG 76)

These crop in Ultra but I don't know if their compositions were fixed or variable, nor how long they lasted.