July 1940 - What really happened to II./KG 76 and I./StG 76 ?

[Peter Cornwell]

Doug,

I will be interested to learn what evidence exists to support your statement that ‘the greater part’ of III./StG77 was formed from I./StG76 with ‘a smaller part’ coming from II.(St.)/KG76. My question is prompted by an analysis of recorded personnel numbers of all casualties reported by III./StG77 throughout 1940 which reveals their origins to have been as follows:

Stab II.(St.)/KG76 (1 record), 4.(St.)/KG76 (4), 5.(St.)/KG76 (4), 6.(St.)/KG76 (1), 9./KG76 (1), 8./StG51 = 5./StG1 (1), 5./StG2 (1), 8./StG2 (1), and 5./StG77 (1).

Significantly no record of any personnel originating from I./StG76. So is it possible that some confusion has occurred between I./StG76 and II.(St.)/KG76 ? A similar analysis of all I./StG3 losses throughout 1940 confirms that all their casualties carried the same IDs as those of I./StG76 and no other unit is represented.

Major Walter SIGEL, Gruppenkommandeur of I./StG76, became Kommandeur of I./StG3 on re-designation of the unit – surely a simple transition ? And as previously mentioned, the Gruppenkommandeur of the newly-constituted III./StG77 was Hauptmann Helmut BODE.

Good luck with your book.