Seenot.Gr.80

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hi All

I took a closer look of what has been listed by various authors regarding Seenot units.
Seenotgruppe 80 was formed in October 1944 and consisted of ONE single staffel, the Seenotstaffel 80. This staffel was formed by re-naming Seenotstaffel 4 also in October 1944. Both units were disbanded in May 1945.

Some of these units were obviously equipped with protection. Me 410 not only equipped this unit, but Seenotgruppe/Seenotstaffel 60 as well. Another Seenotgruppe/Staffel that used Fw 190 for its protection was number 20. I must admit this was all new info to me, since locating Me 410/Fw 190 in such a places was not what first crossed my mind.

Can anyone enlighten me WHY Luftwaffe had such a, at least looking like it, top heavy and bureaucratic air-sea rescue organisation? Why re-name already working staffeln and on top creating a Gruppe on top of each? What was all this supposed to do? Did really these units become MORE effective due to all this?

I know that today, management just love to re-organise, shuffle around, split up working teams and create new ones etc, etc. This might of course fit some and not others and keep persons on their toes, but you also loose a lot of the team-spirit and comradship and, military, belonging to a unit (Esprit de Corp) on the way.

The longer the war lasted Luftwaffe bureaucrats seems to loose more and more touch with reallity and re-name units and shovel around persons who, I am sure in the end, had NO idea where they actually belonged, and to me this does not sound like a very good idea. A very good point is the creation of a fourth staffel in the Jagdwaffe. I am sure many individuals at the time was privately wondering what the h..l their Brass were doing....

I also notice that this was something that the Allies did not practice.
It also looks like the Allies had much less bureaucracy, at least their fighting edge. As soon as you get behind the front line I guess ALL sides are just as bureaucratic.

Cheers
Stig