Der Einsatz deutscher Sturzkampfgruppen gegen Polen,Frankreich und England 1939 und 1940

[Larry deZeng]

********BREAKING NEWS********

I just found a 1941 correction in the A.I.3.(b)/AirMin material. The correct coordinates for the REAL Barly are:

50 11 35 N 2 16 40 E
That's 920 meters SSE of Barly village center, and
6 km NW of Doullens town center.

The revised, corrected and subsequently amended entry also says the Germans made minor improvements to this LG at the beginning of 1942 and then obstructed it. In 1943, they handed it over to the local authorities for cultivation.

Hopefully, we now have a resolution, and for me, redemption!

L.

[INM@RLM]

Larry, A really brilliant find. BIG THANK YOU for digging this out - I lift my hat to you. You were always forgiven and you are definitely redeemed, and, YES, now we do definitely have a conclusive resolution.

Please now also forgive me in turn for pointing out that it is Barly, 80600, Somme - the one further west halfway between Arras and Abbeville - that is "6 km NW of Doullens town center", and not the Barly, 62810, Pas-de Calais that is further east, nearer to Arras and listed as the Barly airfield location in the current edition of your France Airfield list.

So the RAF realised there was a duplicate place name and that they had previously selected the wrong Barly as the site of the Lw Feldflugplatz. The ZG 26 bases for the BoB then were indeed all clustered together nearer the coast. You will I'm sure be updating the airfield listing. These are now an esential reference tool, and little by little will be brought closer to perfection.

In summary:
Barly, 62810, Pas-de Calais is the location currently shown in the airfield listing as 50 15 02 N – 02 32 49 E
Barly, 80600, Somme is what should now be substituted with 50 11 35 - N 02 16 40 E
The difference between the 32 and the 16 in the latitude means the first is about 18 miles further to the east.

Thank you VERY much for your help in resolving this little niggle.

[INM@RLM]

Also of possible interest:

Included in the Forward of this title is some general guidance on where to look in the BA-MA for material covering the St.G. & Sch.G./S.G.

This is given in two footnotes:

Zu den Sturzkampfgeschwadern bwz. Schlachtgeschwadern siehe den Bestand des Bundesarchivs RL 10/7. Bestand StG1 = RL 10/7.1; StG 3 / SchG 3 = RL 10/7.5; I./StG 76 = RL 10/7.9 sowie RL 2 III, RL 4, RL 19, RL 20, RL 22 und RL 24. (Footnote #2 - abbreviations are exactly as given in the original text)

Zur Aufstellung der Luftwaffenverbände siehe auch: Bundesarchiv Bestand u.a. RL-2-III-47 Band 2, RL-2-III-51 Band 6, RL-III-52 Band 7, RL-2-III-53 Band 8. (Footnote #4)

[Nick Beale]

Here's something relating to St.G 3 from the July 1940 ULTRA that I have, but it doesn't answer the airfield question!

[INM@RLM]

Many thanks for digging out that snippet, Nick.


It looks entirely consistent with what Larry has listed very nicely in his Airfields France for Boulogne-Le Portel:
"Boulogne – Le Portel (FR) (a.k.a. Boulogne-Alprech, Tegatte?) (50 41 45 N – 01 34 20 E)
General: landing ground on the Channel coast in NE France 4 km SW of Boulogne and 1.6 km S of Le Portel. History: Le Portel was a civil airport that began operations at the end of July 1939. After the Luftwaffe took it over in Jun 40, they used it as a Stuka field for staging attacks on Channel shipping and targets along England’s south coast that began in July 1940. Existing infrastructure was used and there was no new construction by the Luftwaffe. The airfield was largely abandoned after May 1941.

Surface and Dimensions: a firm and well-drained grass surface with two grass runways in operation, one 760 meters (830 yards) and the other 500 meters (550 yards) in length. Fuel and Ammunition: refueling points were on the W and S boundaries. Infrastructure: there was 1 small hangar with a paved apron on the N boundary. Personnel were generally billeted in the village of La Salle, less than 1 km E of the landing ground. The nearest rail connection was in Le Portel. Dispersal: the 2 dispersals, Northeast and Southeast, had a total of 3 covered and 4 open aircraft shelters. Defenses: protected by 8 heavy Flak and 15 light positions during 1940-41."


The only oddity is this is FK VIII (under Lfl 3 on 9-July-40) and I./St.G. 3 (part of FK VIII and as this fragment confirms redesignated from I./St.G. 76) setting up a forward operating airfield in the Luftflotte 2 area. An insight into the flexibility the Luftwaffe planned into their operations at this time.