Nahaufklarungsgruppe 5 & 11 questions

[Ben McKinnon]

I am attempting to research an Airgunner who's documents I have tried to make some sense of.
He was awarded all 3 grades of Aufklarer badges the bronze was to him on Jan 43, but no unit is shown next to his name but has Nahaufklarungsgruppe 5 at the bottom right below the signature, could this be a late issue of this document ?, his other two documents are to nahaufklarung staffel 1/11 his first being dated 7 May 43, before this unit was formed ?, could this be a a late award also ?. The strange thing is that if he served as his bronze award states with nahaufklarungsgruppe 5, there does not appear to be a record of them ever joining nahaufklarungsgruppe 11, so am quite confused, lastly the photos which accompanied this group seem to have FW 189 aircraft only, having looked at some photos of nahaufklarungsgruppe 11 in Italy I have only seen me109 and me110 aircraft only, does anyone know any differently ?. The Airgunner was Uffz Hans Kipka he was also awarded the IC 1 & 2nd class, survived the war and died in 1989. If anyone could help or have any ideas I would be very grateful, or any further information on Hans.

[Merlin]

Hans Kipka was a member of 1.(H)/11, which was equipped with the Fw 189 and subordinated to Stab/NAGr 5 from Mai 1942 until May 1943 in Central Russia.

[Ben McKinnon]

Thank you Gerhard, those flyers certainly moved around different groups.
Kind regards
Ben

[Ben McKinnon]

Originally Posted by Merlin

Hans Kipka was a member of 1.(H)/11, which was equipped with the Fw 189 and subordinated to Stab/NAGr 5 from Mai 1942 until May 1943 in Central Russia.

Thank you Gerhard, this unit still did not join Nahaufklarungsgruppe 1/11, however unusually I did find that the stab/NAG 11 operated a single FW 189 throughout 1943 in Italy, do you have any further mention of Hans Kipka ?