Luftwaffe Officer Career database now available

[byron-]

Hi Nick,

mostly but not always, for ex. Sprung, Dung, are masculins.

[Larry deZeng]

Originally Posted by AndreasB

I am afraid I have to disagree with Larry here. Kampfgruppen never had standard KSTNs as far as I am aware, and I would like to see one if I am wrong. They were always ad-hoc, and based on whatever was available/needed. Furthermore, there were units with normal names that had special KSTNs (e.g. 90. leichte Afrika-Division, originally Division z.b.V. Afrika). On the other hand, my understanding, weak as it is, is that the transport units had a standard KSTN, even though they were called z.b.V.?

If you however look e.g. on WW2daybyday (Christoph Awender's site), you find a lot of z.b.V. in the KSTNs. For example in a Zugtrupp (platoon command section) there was a NCO (Uffz) z.b.V. That just means he was available as a floating resource to the platoon commander, but there was nothing special about him, other than that he did not have a permanent job allocated to him. So if e.g. a section commander became a casualty, the Uffz. z.b.V. could take over the section. Or if a special mission was necessary with some volunteers, the Uffz. z.b.V. could lead this.

All the best

Andreas

Hi Andreas,

Kampfgeschwader, Kampfgruppen and all their components had standarized KStNs. See below.

1161 (L) Stab eines Kampfgeschwaders (HQ and Staff of a Bomber Geschwader)
1 Oct 38: 6 officers, 2 officials and 8 enlisted
c 1943: 4 officers and 23 enlisted
1162 (L) Stab einer Kampfgruppe (HQ and Staff of a Bomber Gruppe)
1 Nov 38: 7 officers, 2 officials and 30 enlisted; 5 aircraft
c 1943: 7 officers, 5 officials and 213 enlisted; 4 aircraft
1162c (L) Stab einer Kampfgruppe (LT) (HQ and Staff of a Bomber Gruppe (Aerial Torpedo))
1163 (L) Kampfstaffel (Bomber Staffel)
1 Nov 38: 16 officers and 60 enlisted; 14 aircraft (incl. 2 transports)
c 1943: 14 officers and 117 enlisted; 12 aircraft
1163c (L) Kampfstaffel (LT) (Bomber Staffel (Aerial Torpedo))
1164 (L) Stabsstaffel eines Kampfgeschwaders (HQ Staffel of a Bomber Geschwader)
1 Oct 38: 17 officers and 102 enlisted; 15 aircraft
1171 (L) Stab eines Fernkampfgeschwaders (HQ and Staff of a Long-Range Bomber
Geschwader
1172 (L) Stab einer Fernkampfgruppe (HQ and Staff of a Long-Range Bomber Gruppe)
1173 (L) Fernkampfstaffel (Long-Range Bomber Staffel)
1174 (L) Stabskompanie einer Fernkampfgruppe (HQ Company of a Long-Range Bomber
Gruppe
1220 (L) Eisenbahn-Bekämpfungsstaffel (v) (Railway Attack Staffel (transferable))
1462 (L) Stab d. IV. Gruppe eines Kampfgeschwaders (HQ and Staff of a IV Gruppe of a
Bomber Geschwader)
1463 (L) Kampfstaffel d. IV. Gruppe eines Kampfgeschwaders (Bomber Staffel of the IV Gruppe
of a Bomber Geschwader)
1472 (L) Stab d. IV. Gruppe einer Fernkampfgruppe (HQ and Staff of the IV Gruppe of a
Long-Range Bomber Gruppe)
1473 (L) Fernkampfstaffel d. IV. Gruppe eines Fernkampfgeschwaders (Long-Range Bomber
Staffel of the IV Gruppe of a Long-Range Bomber Geschwader)
1474 (L) Stabskompanie d. IV. Gruppe eines Fernkampfgeschwaders (HQ Company of the IV
Gruppe of a Long-Range Bomber Geschwader)
3383 (L) Luftnachrichten-Kompanie (Mot) eines Kampfgeschwaders (Air Force Signals
Company (Motorized) of a Bomber Geschwader)
1 Oct 43: 6 officers and 324 enlisted; 80 motor vehicles


Larry

[AndreasB]

Hi Larry

Sorry, I was thinking of the Heer.

All the best

Andreas

[Larry deZeng]

The above continued for Andreas. Below are the KStNs for transport units. These did not exist until the 1 May 1943 reorganization. There were none for the Kampfgruppe z.b.V. units, at least none that have been found of that anyone knows about. The Kampfgruppe z.b.V. units used the standard one for a Kampfgruppe [1162 (L), etc.] with extensive alterations, hence the "z.b.V." designations.

1177 (L) Transportstaffel eines Fliegerkorps (Mot.) (Air Transport Staffel of a Fliegerkorps (Motorized))
1177b (L) Transportstaffel (Für Sondereinsatz) (Mot.) (Air Transport Staffel (For Special Operations) (Motorized)
1178 (L) Transportstaffel eines Fallschirmkorps (Air Transport Staffel of a Paratroop Corps)
1180 (L) Transportstaffel des Chef des Nachschubwesens (Air Transport Staffel of the Director of Supply
1181 (L) Stab eines Transportfliegergeschwaders (Mot) (Staff of an Air Transport Geschwader (Motorized))
1945 allowance: 6 officers, 44 NCOs and men, 1 liaison aircraft
1182 (L) Stab einer Transportfliegergruppe (Mot) (Staff of an Air Transport Gruppe (Motorized))
1945 allowance: 7 officers, 60 NCOs and men, 1 liaison aircraft (prior to 24 Feb 44 had 5 transport aircraft instead of the liaison aircraft)
1182a (L) Stab einer Transportfliegergruppe (Schl) (Staff of an Air Transport Gruppe (Towing))
1183 (L) Transportfliegerstaffel (Mot) (Air Transport Staffel (Motorized)
1945 allowance: 6 officers, 121 NCOs and men, 16 transport aircraft (prior to 24 Feb 44 had 12 transport aircraft)
1183a (L) Transportfliegerstaffel (Schl) (Air Transport Staffel (Towing)
1202 (L) Stab einer Transportfliegergruppe (Me 323) (Mot) (Staff of an Air Transport Gruppe (Me 323) (Motorized))
1203 (L) Transportfliegerstaffel (Me 323) (Mot) (Air Transport Staffel (Me 323) (Motorized))
1945 allowance: 3 officers, 218 NCOs and men, 12 Me 323 transports
1204 (L) Stabsstaffel einer Transportfliegergruppe (Me 323) (Mot) (Stabsstaffel of an Air Transport Gruppe (Me 323) (Motorized))
(KStN unknown) Transportfliegerstaffel (Ju 352) (Air Transport Staffel (Ju 352)
1945 allowance: 7 officers, 116 NCOs and men, 12 Ju 352 transports
5112 (L) Stab einer Luftverkehrsgruppe (Staff of an Air Service Gruppe)
5113 (L) Luftverkehrsstaffel (Air Service Staffel)

Larry

[CJE]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

It would help if they could come to a historic agreement with their French neighbours as well. At the moment they even disagree over the gender of Sun, the Moon and the World.

How can we agree with people who claim that their cocks are singing "kikeriki", while we all know they sing "cocorico"?

[Larry deZeng]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

And here we enter the minefield that is German grammar … I fully expect to be corrected by our German colleagues but here's what I remember from school:

"zur" is a contraction of "zu der." "zu" takes the dative, so the "der" is feminine dative, not masculine nominative, and the presence of the definite article affects the declension of the ensuing adjective. So the phrase is either "zu besonderer Verwendung" or "zur besonderen Verwendung" but NOT "zur besonderer ..." or "zu besonderen …"

Had a couple of years of university German myself and lived in Germany for nearly 5 years. But that was 100 years ago so I've forgotten many of the intricate pecularities of German grammar with all the well-concealed boobytraps and landmines. If you remembered all the stuff you posted above without reference to a German grammar book or Google, then you deserve to be knighted by both QE and Angela Merkel!!

L.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

If you remembered all the stuff you posted above without reference to a German grammar book … then you deserve to be knighted by both QE and Angela Merkel!!

L.

Must confess that the German Grammar book is always to hand. If it's any comfort, a German friend of mine who's studied and worked over here for years says that these days her parents pick her up grammatical mistakes when she visits them.

P.S. I understand Frau Merkel quite well when she's on the news (often, these days) but some blasted commentator always cuts in and fades her voice down!

[CJE]

Tell her to change her jackets, she seems to be always bulging out of them.

[Nick Beale]

A bit more about Oberst Karl von Wechmar and his "very doubtful" service in KG 3 (source ULTRA CX/JQ/455). I'm guessing that I./KG 3 passing on information to KG 26 about his war flights implies that these had been carried out with the former.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Larry deZeng

Great contributions, Byron and Nick! That adds two more to the "pot": "for special use" and "on special assignment"!
L.

It gets better, see this ULTRA from November 1940 in which British Intelligence shows its understanding of the term "z.b.V."