Lw-emblem Stab./K.Gr. z.b.V. 9

[Larry deZeng]

KGr. z.b.V. 9
[extract]
Mediterranean and North Africa. (Dec 40 - Jun 41)
Dec 40: KGr. z.b.V. 9 was reassigned to X. Fliegerkorps and ordered to Reggio di Calabria in South Italy, arriving there by 10 January 1941. Several days later, on l2 January, two Ju 52s were destroyed on the ground at Catania/Sicily during a British raid launched from Malta. Moderate losses continued over the next several months, with the first of these occurring on 28 January when a Ju 52 crashed on Rhodes in the eastern Aegean killing Maj. Helmut Frohne, one of the Staffelkapitäne, and three others. Accidents were recorded at Trapani and Palermo/Sicily on 3 and 9 February, respectively, and on 17 February Ju 52 (4V + EH) from 1. Staffel crashed in the Straits of Messina and its crew of 4 listed as missing. Two months later, on 20 April, two Ju 52s out of a formation of 5 were shot down into the sea off Benghazi/Libya by a section of Fairey Fulmars from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Formidable killing all 10 aboard. The Gruppe did not take part in the campaign in Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete, and in the latter part of May it returned to Germany to rest, refit and prepare for operations in the East.

It was the first Luftwaffe transport unit to fly to Rhodes and that flight also cost it a Staffelkapitän. This is the Gruppe's only connection to Rhodes that might justify the use of an emblem with a motif that memorializes the island.

Larry