Luftwaffe anti sea mine sweeping aircraft North West Europe WW2

[Kirmington]

Thank you again everyone. Can anyone tell me the number of planes actually deployed in this kind of work in North West Europe and over what periods?

[Larry deZeng]

Of the 6 Staffeln, all or part of 4 were generally deployed in the West, North Sea and Baltic with the number summing to something like 40 to 50 Mausi Ju's, not all of which were serviceable at any given time. The remainder were in the Med, Adriatic, Aegean, Danube and Black Sea. It was a relatively small force, and the policy of dividing the Staffeln into Teilkommandos of 2 to 4 aircraft and dispatching them to meet temporary needs due to tactical requirements, makes an exact accounting of the number in each location at a given moment in time exceedingly difficult. You can do some estimating yourself by going to this link which gives the strength of each MS-Staffel from March 1942 to December 1944: http://www.ww2.dk/oob/bestand/see/bsee.htm .

Here are the KStNs - if you can locate these at BA-MA Freiburg, the third one will give you the aircraft and personnel strength allowance for each Staffel. I'm guessing it was perhaps around 12.

1499 (L) Ergänzungs- Minensuchstaffel (Reserve Training Minesweeping Staffel).
5175 (L) Stab einer Minensuchstaffel (Staff of a Minesweeping Staffel).
5176 (L) Minensuchstaffel (Minesweeping Staffel).

L.

[Kirmington]

Thanks Larry. I really appreciate yours and everyone else's help. M