Einsatzkommando KG 51: 24–31 August1944
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24 August 1944
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Early on 24 August, Einsatzkommando KG 51 reported to IX. Fliegerkorps that it had four pilots (all operational) and four Me 262s, all but one serviceable, and listing them by Werk Nummer. In another report that evening their tactical codes were given too:
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DL
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130182
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GL
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170002
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IL
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170004
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HL
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170016
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A report sent by IX. Fl.Kps. at 15.30 hrs. was addressed to Einsatzgruppe Schenck at Juvincourt in France. A certain flexibility over the names of ad hoc units seems to have been quite common in the Luftwaffe.
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25 August 1944
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Today's strength return was again 4 Me 262 (their sub-type now given as A-1), one of them unserviceable. One of the pilots was unavailable for operations as well.
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26 August 1944
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Between 09.34 and 09.42 hrs., three of the Einsatzkommando's aircraft took off from Juvincourt to attack troop concentrations on the left bank of the Seine in the loop of the river northeast of Bonnières-sur-Seine. On the map this seems a clearly defined target but instead the Messerschmitts attacked a wood southeast of Bonnières, dropping their three AB 500 canisters of SD 10 fragmentation bombs from a horizontal approach at 3–4000 metres' altitude.
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By 15.30 hrs. only two Me 262s were still serviceable but the Kommando had gained a fifth pilot.
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28 August 1944
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During the evening, the Einsatzkommando's Ofw. Hieronymus Lauer was shot down near Brussels by USAAF P-47s.
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Note: Lauer was some way from both the Kommando's base and its present area of operations when his aircraft crashed.
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The Kommodore of KG 51 told IX. Fliegerkorps' Operations Officer that five more aircraft and crews should be available by 1 September but that it had not been decided whether to concentrate efforts on one Staffel or bring the whole of the I. Gruppe to a uniform state of training. The Einsatzkdo. had only received "emergency training" since it had the best pilots but this would not suffice for average personnel and so the Gruppe as a whole was not expected to be ready before 1 October. The Geschwader also proposed that a motorised Field Workshop Detachment should be permanently allocated to the Einsatzkdo. for mobile operations in West.
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The Fliegerkorps' advice to Luftflotte 3 was that the promised men and machines should go to Schenck's Kommando so that testing of the Me 262 at the front should not be interrupted by shortages of either. After that however, the Korps thought that I./KG 51 ought to be brought to a uniform state of training and then be made fully operational. The Luftflotte was asked to inform KG 51 of its decision.
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The Operations Officer signalled Major Schenk:
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1)
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That with immediate effect, the Einsatzkommando was again operationally subordinated to the Fliegerkorps.
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2)
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That he should report restored operational readiness right away; and
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3)
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notify the actual depths of penetration of flights during the last days of the unit's subordination to Luftflotte 3.
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Luftgau Belgium/North France reported to the Chief Quartermaster that it had 230 tonnes of J2 fuel (for jet aircraft) in stock and that 2 tonnes had been consumed since the previous day.
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That evening Luftflotte 3 ordered that all flying units and the entire ground organisation including Flak employed on airfields southwest of the line Dunkirk – Charleville were to be transferred to the northeast and their former bases destroyed.
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At 21.00 hrs. the Operations Officer gave Schenck's unit its targets for the next day: Coulommiers (east of Paris) and the area southwest as far as Rozoy (map reference 04 East/2943).
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Note: probably Rozay-en-Brie was intended but Rozoy-le-Vieil south of Fontainebleau is another possiblity. The reference given does not seem to use the Luftwaffe fighter grid system.
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continued on next page…
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