NAGr. 13

[CJE]

A couple of questions about this unit.

- What was its purpose? I mean: what had to do an observation squadron over the Bay of Biscay?

- According to R. Smith's book, NAGr. 13 was sent to Tunisia (Vol. 1 p. 269). However, there is no mention of this unit in Arthy/Jessen's book on the Fw 190 in North Africa.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[Larry deZeng]

The Germans knew the Allies would eventually invade France so they needed to have a tactical reconnaissance group there to support their ground forces.

NAGr. 13
................
France. (November 1942 - August 1944)
15 November 1942: transferred from Siverskaya to Avignon-West in south France with 1. and 2./NAGr.13 for assignment to 2. Fliegerdivision in response to the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria and the resulting German decision to occupy Vichy France. Stab and one of the Staffeln moved to Bizerte/Tunisia, arriving by 28 November. This movement was either never fully completed or it lasted for only a few days.
15 December 1942: ordered to St-Brieuc in Brittany after handing over all photo reconnaissance Fw 190s to II./JG 2 in Tunisia.
January – August 1943: as the only tactical reconnaissance group in France, remained at St-Brieuc until August, when it moved to Dinard/Brittany.
1 June 1943: Stab at St-Brieuc with 3 Fw 190 A-4 and 1 Fw 190 A-3/Ur on strength.
August 1943 – June 1944: Dinard - on standby with ground forces in France, trained and participated in maneuvers.
February 1944: the Stab began receiving a few Bf 109 G-6s to supplement its Fw 190s, but by November 1944 it was exclusively equipped with Fw 190s again.
1 June 1944: Stab at Dinard with 4 Bf 109 G-6s on strength.
c.7 June 1944: transferred from Dinard to Chartres a day or so after the Normandy (D-Day) invasion on 6 June, where it was located on 26 June under II. Fliegerkorps, and later under II. Jagdkorps. Flew daily missions over the Normandy invasion area in support of AOK 7, I. SS-Pz.Korps and other Heeresgruppe B ground forces engaged there. The stab lost 3 Bf 109 G-6s to the enemy during June, but none during July.
18 August 1944: moved to Creil approximately this date and then via Charleville and Belgium to Lachen-Speyerdorf/Germany at the beginning of September. The stab lost 3 Fw 190 F-8s to the enemy during August.
.................
[Sources: W.Dierich - Die Verbände der Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Gliederungen und Kurzchroniken – Eine Dokumentation; G.Tessin - Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945, Teil 14: Die Luftstreitkräfte (Osnabrück, 1980); N.Kannapin - Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939-1945, 3 Bde (I – III) (Osnabrück, 1980-82); NARA WashDC: RG 242 (Microcopy T-312 roll 568/314-19 document Genst.d.Heeres/Org.Abt.(II) Nr.1483/42g.Kdos., 19 Apr 1942 detailing the creation of the Nahaufklärungsgruppen; various T-312 rolls containing AOK 18 records for 1942); PRO London: AIR 40 Air Ministry intelligence reports and lists based on ULTRA, “Y” Service intercepts, captured documents and PoW interrogations; BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); BA-MA Freiburg: Signatur RL 40/Kart; M.Holm-website ww2.dk.]

L.

[Chris Goss]

Chris: Contact me if you want to know more as I did some research into the unit

[Nick Beale]

There's a bit about the 2. Staffel in my Operation Dragoon article. I never firmly established whether any of its Fw 190s reached Caselle, Italy after the Dragoon landings but it was intended to withdraw the unit there. It returned to action from Freiburg in early October 1944, flying Bf 109s.

The 3. Staffel blew up its last six Bf 109s at Cham on 24 April 1945.

[CJE]

Larry, Chris, Nick, thanks to you.

In Holm's Flugzeugbestand und Bewegungsmeldungen, 1. and 2./NAGr. 13 gave away 4 Fw 190 A-4s each to another unit (and not all of them - unless NAGr. 13 had only sent a small contingent to Tunisia) in December.
II./JG 2 received only 4 A-4s.

[gawebster]

From EBay, FW 190 A 2./NAGr 13, St. Brieuc Frühjahr /Sommer 1943.

Never seen interesting camo on nose.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by gawebster

From EBay, FW 190 A 2./NAGr 13, St. Brieuc Frühjahr /Sommer 1943.

Never seen interesting camo on nose.

There are quite a few pictures of 2./NAGr. 13 Fw 190s with that camouflage in fact, They were taken (apparently) at Cuers-Pierrefeu and show a Staffel line-up.

[Chris Goss]

The photos currently on sale on eBay came from the late Lt Johannes Settgast & were taken at St Brieuc in 1943. I have copies of all of them from him. The unit moved to Cuers in 1944