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(Page 111) Trial and Error (June–July 1944)

General Staff papers from 9 June 1944 include the following report from Oberst Eckard Christian: ‘A Gruppe of KG 200 (Oberst Heigl) has 10 officers and 29 men ready for operations in a Totaleinsatz. In addition 200 men of the airborne troops and paratroops are available for a special operation.’ Apparently the smaller group was dinstinct from what became Kdo. Schäfer so may well hav been the pilots of Kdo. Lange. A day later, Gen. Koller advised Christian that the order had been given for Heigl to make preparations but that a decision on the operation itself had been reserved but from the information given, it is impossible to be sure which of Heigl’s forces was being discussed. On 18 June, a message for Christian advised that the question of a Totaleinsatz with the Fw 190 was undecided as the Reichsmarschall had yet to speak to the Führer on the matter

Sources: RL 2-I/72: Lageorientierungen und Einsatzplanungen.- Besprechungs-, Tages-, Vortrags- und Aktennotizen (Fragmente) Bd. 3 (Juni–Juli 1944)

RL 2-I/79: Lageorientierungen und Einsatzplanungen.- Tagesverlauf, Besprechungsnotizen, Bd. 1 (März-Juni 1944)

RL 2-I/80: Lageorientierungen und Einsatzplanungen.- Tagesverlauf, Besprechungsnotizen, Bd. 2 (Juni–Nov. 1944)

(Page 121) Training in Italy (5 October–18 November 1944)

On 12 November, Einhorn had one Fw 190 damaged through human error, it was not on operations.

Source: RL 2-III/857: Materialverluste.- Flugzeuge.- Einsatz alle Fronten.- Listen, Bd. 15, Schlachtverbände, Nr. 1–52 (1941–1945)

(Page 123) FIGARO (16 November–17 December 1944)

On 2 December, two Einhorn Fw 190s were damaged owing to human error while on an operation. This was the night of the attack on Forlì.

Source:RL 2-III/872: Materialverluste.- Flugzeuge.- Einsatz alle Fronten.- Listen, Bd. 30, Sonstige fliegenden Einheiten (1941–1945)

(Page 126) 11./KG 200 (November 1944–February 1945)

A General Staff paper from 1 August 1944 states that: ‘We are concentrating I./SG 5 in Southern Finland so that it is ready for deployment over the Karelian isthmus or in support of Lfl. 1 in the Gulf of Finland’.

Source: RL 2-I/67: Lageorientierungen und Einsatzplanungen.- Besprechungs-, Tages-, Vortrags- und Aktennotizen (Fragmente), Bd. 5 (c. 1944)

On 2 August Luftflotte 5 notified General Kurt Uebe at Luftflotte 1 that I./SG 5 was being transferred to ‘the South Finnish area’, proposing Utti as a suitable destination.

Source: HW 5/549: Government Code & Cipher School German section: reports of German army and air force high grade machine decrypts (3 August 1944)

On its final operations in Finland, I./SG 5 suffered the following aircraft casualties:

25 August: 1 missing; 1 destroyed (not by enemy action)

27 August: 3 damaged (not by enemy action)

28 August: 1 destroyed by AA fire

Its losses and damage for the remainder of 1944 involved neither operational flying nor enemy action but were all attributed to human error:

21 September: 1 damaged

7 November: 1 destroyed

14 November: 1 destroyed

12 December: 1 damaged

15 December: 1 damaged

31 December: 3 damaged

The new III./KG 200 had an Fw 190 damaged owing to human error on 13 January 1945. It was not on operations.

Source: RL 2-III/857: Materialverluste.- Flugzeuge.- Einsatz alle Fronten.- Listen, Bd. 15, Schlachtverbände, Nr. 1–52 (1941–1945)

(Page 128) Remagen and Bad Kreuznach (8–23 March 1945)

Correction: Rather than Remagen, the Staffel’s target on 19 March was a bridge over the River Nahe at Bad Münster am Stein, west of the Rhine, close to Bad Kreuznach. Four Fw 190s were in the air from 1842-1930 and bad visibility made it hard to spot the target and their four SC 500 Trialen bombs landed near the bridge but apparently without damaging it; the unit suffered no casulaties.

Source: Bundesarchiv RL 2-II/842: Morgen-, Abendmeldungen, Nachträge, Nachträge zu Schadensmeldungen (Lw. FüSt. Ic Meldewesen). Bd 7: West (März 1945)

(Page 131) III./KG 200 (February–May 1945)

A clue to the Staffel's arrival for operations in the West can be found in a II. Jagddkorps memo of 4 February about the new positions planned for seven visual beacons. The last of the addressees is 'NSG 20 for 11./KG 200', the first and only mention of it that I have found on this file.

Source: Bundesarchiv RL 8/100: Generalkommando II. Jagdkorps, Anlagen zum Kriegstagebuch (Jan.–Feb. 1945)

Regarding the abortive proposal of 20 March for III./KG 200 to be based at Steenwijk in the Netherlands, this airfield was being evacuated on the morning of 4 April 1945.

Source: Bletchley Park Archive BLEPK 0362.6: PEARL/ZIP/GAT German Air Traffic Reports Nos. 391–464 (28 Feb–12 May 1945)

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