NSFK Losses ?

[Steve Coates]

Does anyone know the mechanism by which the NSFK reported its glider and aircraft losses ? Is there any surviving documentation ?

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Steve,

In all my years of trawling through the surviving Luftwaffe records, I have never seen any NSFK material or loss lists. This is no surprise as the NSFK was a Party formation. Accordingly, what documents exist may be part of the Party records which, I think, are in the Bundesarchiv repository at Koblenz.

L.

[Steve Coates]

Thanks. Pretty much what I suspected. There seem to be a few bits and pieces amongst the NS Record Group which I understand is held at the BA Berlin-Lichterfelde.

[Larry deZeng]

You are probably right about B-Lichterfelde. BA has been moving stuff around since 1991 and I haven't kept up with it.

Do you happen to know if the large collection of TR records captured by the Russians and held in the Moscow Special Archive was ever returned to Berlin, or whether permission was ever granted for BA to microfilm it? Both options were still under negotiation in 2003 or so when I lost track of it so I am in the dark regarding the ultimate outcome.

L.

[Steve Coates]

Larry - I've not heard anything. I caught up with Andrew Arthy on Saturday as he nears the end of his UK vacation and he mentioned that a number of captured WW1 KTBs had been made available online. I can't give you a link though but it might be a glimmer for us.

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I heard about the big Pub party you, Andrew, Martin P. and Paul Thompson were at this past weekend. They say the London breweries had to lay on a night shift to try and build back inventory after you 4 drank 'em dry.

L.

[Steve Coates]

Not at my age with my bladder !

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Steve,

Saw your posting and as vintage gliders are one of my interests (I have too many interests as you know), I made enquiries about registers of German glider pilot licenses and pre-war registrations.

During these searches I came across losses as recorded in the Flugzeugunfälle bei den Schulen und sonstige Verbände (RL 2 III/769-780). But... given the amount of gliders in wartime Germany these references IMHO are only a fragment of the accidents and losses among NSFK gliders: 301 accidents/losses for the time span between 12 September 1940 and 15 September 1944 can't be the whole story I guess.

Most rewarding in these records, were a few occasions where a bombed hangar was packed with gliders. One such disaster: on 13 March 1944 a hangar collapsed at Fl.Pl.Hornberg which destroyed 14 gliders (11 Grunau Baby's and 3 SG.38's) of the NSFK Gruppe 15.

All the best, Marcel

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Marcel,

I went through all of the Schulen losses on BA-MA microfiche about 24 years ago and don't recall the NSFK reports. But then it was a long time ago and perhaps I just didn't pay attention to them because they were not what I was looking for. However, I still wonder about these because the A/B Schulen also had gliders. With the exception of the Mar 44 NSFK Gruppe 15 incident that you mentioned, did the reports clearly identify the losses with specific NSFK formations?

Larry

[Steve Coates]

Marcel - Thanks for your response. I'd be interested in your answer to Larry's query as well as it's a long time since I worked through the Schulen Losses and I only did so with a narrow frame of reference. If there are some in there, then that is interesting but it's hard to believe this is all of them.

My query was one of those odd off the top of the head moments which occur from time to time. I am aware that NSFK aircraft are reported in the Flugzeugbestand listing but whereas there seem to be quite a number of fixed wing aircraft, there seem to be precious few gilders.

I'm still a long way from understanding this fully and hoped someone out there had a far better grasp.