Did JG 23 exists?

[Jaap Woortman]

Dear friends,

I have a problem.
According to Barry C.Rosch in Luftwaffe codes, markings & units 1939-1945 at page 204, there has been a JG 23. He says: III Gruppenstab formed from Stab I/KG 100 (5-44) [ post #31695]
III Gruppenstab later Stab II/JG 7(8-44)
7 formed (5-44)?
7 later 6/JG 7(8-44)?
With Bf 109.

But this was not mentioned in Kampfgeschwader 100"Wiking" of Ulf Balke. He has mentioned at page 190: Ende Mai wurde die I./KG 100 auf dem Flugplatz Fassberg in III./KG 1 umbenannt. And at page 315: Am 20.08.44 kam vom O.K.L. der erste Auflösungdbefehl für das KG 100 "Wiking".

According to Kannapin for FPnr. 31695:
(28.2.1941 - 29.7.1941) I./KG 4,
(8.9.1943 - 22.4.1944) 11.11.1943 I./KG 100,
(23.4.1944 - 24.11.1944) 10.6.1944 III./JG 23,
22.9.1944 II./JG 7,
(25.11.1944 - Kriegsende) 13.1.1945 IV./JG 301.

And Manfred Boehme in Jagdgeschwader 7, die Chronik eines Me 262-Geschwaders 1944/45 says at page 165: Völlig im Verzug war der Aufbau der II./JG 7. Aufgestellt auf dem Kommandoweg am 12. Januar 1945, wurde die Gruppe doch erst vier Wochen später, am 12. Februar 1945, etatisiert: "II./JG 7 (bisher IV./JG 54) ist durch den Gen. der Jagdflieger auf Me 262 umzurüsten."

And then, I am lost. Has there been a JG 23? Who can help?

Jaap

[RossGmann]

The following http://www.valorebooks.com/Search/ISBN/9780517570395 is a link to a book about JG23. I have no idea of the contents

Kind regards

Ross

[Jaap Woortman]

Ross,

I have seen that title: JG 23: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe - Donald L. Caldwell - Hardcover - 1st ed.
But I think that's a typo. IMHO it must be JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe.
I have a soft cover version with that title in house.

Jaap

[Larry deZeng]

No JG 23, but there was a JG 17.

[Jaap Woortman]

Larry,

Was that a re-numbered Italian unit?
Or was this a fancy number for hiding the whereabouts of a regular unit?

Jaap

[Larry deZeng]

Jaap - that was the planned 1944 designation for an Italian RSI Jagdgeschwader. I do not believe it was ever put in force, but the number does appear in the surviving planning documents as the Luftwaffe tried to set up the two additional Gruppen needed for a full Geschwader.

L.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Guys

From where did Barry get his information about III./JG 23? He can't just have plucked it from thin air...
Even if never formed there must have been some reason to include it in his book.

Cheers
Stig

[Larry deZeng]

From Jaap's first post, above:

...........11.11.1943 I./KG 100,
(23.4.1944 - 24.11.1944) 10.6.1944 III./JG 23,
22.9.1944 II./JG 7,...........

This is where Rosch got it from. Just as I did back in the 1980's, Rosch meticulously went through Kannapin extracting the units. What Rosch did not do that others have done was to go through every surviving Luftwaffe document to see if there was anything to corroborate the existence of obscure units that do not appear in other sources. Balke and Boehme probably did and came up empty-handed just as I did. Unless you or someone else can come up with a Luftwaffe planning document for a mysterious JG 23 that no one has ever heard of, then the assumption is that it was probably a typo by a clerk in the Luftwaffe's Organisations-Abt. or in the Heeres Feldpostmeister-Abt./OKH.

[Horst Weber]

Larry and Jaap !

On my believe, a JG 23 never existed, since the German terminology of naming new Geschwader doesn't fit. As you know, the naming of a Geschwader was (in the early years of the Luftwaffe) depended on the forming in the territoral boundaries of it's Luftflotte.

Each Luftflotte had a lot of 2-3 digit numbers to name the new formed Geschwader in its area of responsibility.

- Luftflotte 1 = Geschwader 1 - 25
- Luftflotte 2 = Geschwader 26 - 50
- Luftflotte 3 = Geschwader 51 - 75
- Luftflotte 4 = Geschwader 76 - 100

Well, Luftflotte 1 came up to JG 11. But there is no way to a JG 23.

It might be, that at the last years of WW II this system had been changed, but all the recent known flying Luftwaffe Geschwader fit into this system.

A JG 23 yells for further research or it is a typo-error.

All the best !

Horst Weber

[Jaap Woortman]

Maybe interesting to make a quote from “The first and the last” of Adolf Galland, published by Bantam in 1978.
At pag. 249 we see: “For the sake of re-establishing order within the fighter arm we introduced a complete regrouping.
The 3rd Air Fleet was changed by Göring into the Air Force Command, West.
It now comprised the replenished 2nd, 26th, 27th, and 53rd Fighter Wings.
The 5th, 54th, 51st, and 52nd Fighter Wings were fighting at the Eastern front.
The 3rd Wing was added to the 300th and 301st Wings for the defense of the Reich.
My main desire was to create a new reserve. For this purpose I brought the 1st, 16th, 11th, and 17th Fighter Wings up
to strength and reformed the 4th, 76th, and 7th Fighter Wings.”
See also a previous entry of Larry of November 1st.

Horst, also there have been made mistakes. See the renaming of the first Ju 88 unit KG 25 into KG 30.

Jaap