Help with researching KG53

[F10_Chainsaw]

Hi guys! F.N.G here so bear with me

Im intressted in researching KG53 during invasion of france and battle of britain and its battles over russia, but I dont really know where to start, wich sources are obvius, books to get etc.
I have "Kampfgeschwader Legion condor" by Kiehl but its in german so its slow reading and seems to be aimed mostly at I gruppe and my main intresst is in II gruppe (although whole KG53 is intressting)

Ive done a quick search for KG53 here on the forums but nothing really useful shows up exept downed planes so I hope you guys can help me starting of in right direction!

Cheers Thomas

[Doug Stankey]

I am obliged to point out that there is a mini-history of this unit in our book "Bomber Units of the Luftwaffe, A Reference Source" by H.L. deZeng and D.Stankey, published by Midland Publishing (Ian Allan). This is not a full blown history, but it is an overview of formation, equipment, operations and commanders. The KG 53 history covers 15.25 pages including photos. For a detailed review see:
http://sonic.net/~bstone/archives/080330.shtml.

Apart from the Kiehl book, there are no other published histories, only incidental references to it scattered over about 4 dozen books.
It is available just about everywhere. Try the public library first.
I hope this helps.

DGS

[F10_Chainsaw]

Thank you wery much sir, just bought it from amazon.co.uk.
Noticed there was a vol2, what does that cover or is it just more units in that one?

/Thomas

[F10_Chainsaw]

On another note, is there anything to gather from any archives? like combat reports etc ?

/Thomas

[Doug Stankey]

Volume 1 has mini-histories for KGs 1 through 60. Volume 2 covers KG 66 and up plus all the other units such as the Kampfgruppen, Erganzungs units, Lehr units, KG (J) units. It also contains an extensive bibliography, the Indices for placenames and for personnel.

In regards to archival materials, the other thing that could be useful to you is the loss records. We reviewed those for clues where more general sources were too thin. Apart from that we have been through everything, as a review of the bibliography will show.

We hope that you will enjoy our book. Next year there will be a corresponding book in two volumes covering ground attack units.

LdZ
DGS

[F10_Chainsaw]

thanks for the input.

Where do you get hold of the loss records for certain periods?

next ive been thinking about is that there must be some unit war diary that was kept just like the infantry divisions did in WH. shouldnt it be located somewhere?

/Thomas

[Doug Stankey]

For the period of the air attacks against Britain, your best bet for finding loss data is to obtain or borrow copies of:

Ramsey, Winston (Ed.). The Blitz, Then And Now; Vol.1, 2 and 3 (London: Battle of Britain Prints International, Ltd., 1988).

These are expensive but very good and contain detailed loss info. For KG 53, it would be good for the period July 1940 to May 1941. Beyond that, the only resort is to get the microfilms of the actual loss reports from the Bundesarchiv in Freiburg:

BA-MA Freiburg RL 2 III Gen.Qu. (6.Abt.) Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle und Verluste ... (LRs – Loss Reports).

These are expensive and somewhat hard to read. They are also incomplete. Beyond that there are only incidental references scattered over many books

[F10_Chainsaw]

OK thanks, just ordered all three, totaled 148GBP, totally acceptable amount of cash I hope :P

well I will start with these and see what they result in, my first aim is the battle for France and then battle for britain. The eastern front can wait a bit.

But in other words, after these books all I have to resort to is to get the 5KG53 book by Kiehl translated for me. A bit sad that there is no more real info out there on this unit.

/Thomas

[Doug Stankey]

After you have recovered from the impact of those Blitz books, I might also suggest possibly getting "Battle of France , Then and Now" by Peter Cornwell. Its about the air war aspects of the fall of France and the Low countries in 1940 and has extensive loss and operations data. It should be comparable in intensity to the magnificent Blitz volumes, but I haven't received my copy yet.

In regards to a general lack of info (in any language) pertaining to bomber units, yes, that's only too true, which is why we wrote our bomber units book first. Of the major unit types, it was by far the most neglected. Even fighter units, which are grossly over represented in the literature are only systematically covered in the Prien (et al) Jagdverband series. There is a crying need for something in English comparable to our bomber unit volumes covering this topic. However, it is unlikely to happen anytime soon. I expect we will review this possibility in 5 years or so. Besides the immediate book projects, our energies are going into developing officer career histories for all those who held command or staff positions.

Enjoy the Blitz books. They are excellent.

[Boris Ciglic]

You can find a full history of 15.(Kroat.)/KG 53 in the book "Dornier Do 17: The Yugoslav Story". See details at

http://www.airserbia.com/jeroplan/