Bergunskommando or Salvage Detachments

[Larry deZeng]

With these numbers, there should be at least some folders and files that survived the war:

Prior to the war there was very little central direction in the Luftwaffe for the recovery and salvaging of captured enemy aviation equipment; during the annexation of Czechoslovakia in Mar 1939 it was carried out by the various field commands more or less as each saw fit. It was not until the attack on Poland that a special field command was created for this purpose, but it was only in the spring of 1940 that the Luftwaffe finally set up a central authority (Luftwaffenbeute - LwB, which was formed on 24 April 1940) under the Generalluftzeugmeister/Air Ministry in Berlin to supervise and control the recovery and exploitation of captured aircraft and equipment. By the end of 1940 the organization had quickly grown from a few officers and clerks to 12 field salvage staffs (Luftzeugstab 1 - 6, and Luftzeugstab z.b.V. 11 - 16) with 7,900 German military personnel (including RAD detachments) and around 700 foreign workers. Nearly 99% of the officers and engineers belonging to the organization were old reserve and other inactive personnel called up for the duration of the war, and the majority of the EM were over 40. From May 1940 to December 1941, covering the campaigns in the West, the Balkans and the first six months in Russia, approximately 10,000 aircraft engines, 6,000 antiaircraft guns, and large quantities of ammunition and fuel were recovered and salvaged. From 1942 through 1944, the Bergungs- units of the Luftwaffe recovered and salvaged 66,474 aircraft fuselages, 89,388 aircraft engines, 9,504 antiaircraft guns, 9,806 aircraft and antiaircraft machine guns, 139,811 rifles and handguns, and tens of thousands of tons of ammunition, scrap metal and fuel.

[Source:
H.Boog - Die deutsche Luftwaffenführung 1935-1945: Führungsprobleme, Spitzengliederung, Generalstabsausbildung, p.254; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-321 roll 12/119-55).

[Broncazonk]

Awesome post above and what an excellent thread.

Bronc

[Henofred]

Thank you Larry, very interesting excerpt.

I note also that some MACR held at the NARA have copies of "Bergtrupps" reports. More I look for more I see that kind of documents in some of them.

I found also this. Here a link about the “Beutepark d. Lw. 5 Paris” (starting on page 20 - unfortunately in French) with several pictures. By clicking on the picture, you access to the Historical Society of Nanterre Bulletin (June 2004). http://histoire-nanterre.org/?p=560

Best regards,
Frederic