4.(H)/21

4.(H)/Aufk1.Gr. 21

Code: (P2 + )

Formation and Training. (Jan 39 - Aug 39)

Formed at the beginning of 1939 at Stargard/Pomerania (new) and equipped with Heinkel He 45s and He 46s. Remained at Stargard until the end of August.

Polish Campaign. (Sep 1939)

1.9.39: deployed forward from Stargard to Gross-Lassewitz in Si1esia with 12(6) aircraft for the attack on Poland in support of XI. Armeekorps/10th Army. The Staffe1 operated over the Wartheland, central Poland, the great encirclement battle between the Bzura and the Vistula and then the fighting around Warsaw.

West - Attack on France and the Low Countries. (May 40 - May 41)

10.39: following a brief rest and refit at Stargard after the end of the campaign in Poland, 4.(H)/21 transferred West to the Saarland in early October where it flew reconnaissance flights over and along the Maginot Line. At the end of 1939 it converted to the Henschel Hs 126, and was then assigned to support XXIV. Armeekorps/1st Army for the attack in the West, but other more reliable sources place it under XXVI. Armeekorps/AOK 18.

10.5.40: probably deployed at Pirmasens - instead of advancing into France with the opening of the offensive on this date, the Staffel supported a holding action along the Maginot Line in Saarland until 14 June, when XXIV. AK and the other elements of 1st Army broke through south of Saarbrücken to encircle French forces in Alsace. However, the foregoing information may be incorrect because a flight log gives the following bases for the Staffel: from 21.03.40 Borkenberge; from 13.05.40 Wissel; from 14.05.40 Gilze-Rijen; from 26.05.40 Auxi Le Chateau; from 04.04.40 Vaux les Amiens; from 13.06.40 Rocourt; from 16.06.40 Theil; from 19.06.40 Saint Imbert until 13.07.40. The first loss was incurred on 26 May when a Hs 126 was shot up and damaged near A1bert/NE of Amiens. It was not until 15 June that another Hs 126 was reported lost near Troyes followed by another the next day, both crews being wounded.

6.40: after the armistice on 22 June, the Staffel carried out routine training and several Hs 126Bs were damaged in accidents or by autumn storms at Cherbourg-Theville on 31 October and at Le Havre-Octeville on 14 November. It has not been possible to track the Staffel’s movements between November 1940 and May 1941, but there is some reason to believe that it returned to Germany.

North Russia. (Jun 41 - Jan 42)

22.6.41: for the attack on the Soviet Union this date, 4.(H)/21 had been transferred to East Prussia and assigned to Ko1uft AOK 18/Army Group North with orders to support the advance of XXVI. Armeekorps/18th Army through the Baltic States toward Leningrad. Two of the Staffel’s ground personnel were killed in a Russian air attack on the airfield at Memel (Klaipeda)/Latvia on 24 June, and a Hs 126 B-1 was reported as damaged in a crash landing near Siauliai (Schaulen)/Lithuania on 29 June.

7.41: by mid-July 4.(H)/21 was operating in Estonia, and on 25 September it was assigned to support XXXXII. AK for the amphibious assault on Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, two large islands off the Estonian coast. Operations for the Staffel concluded toward the end of October or beginning of November, and it was disbanded around January 1942.

FpN:4.(H)/21 (L 04132)

Staffelkapitän:

Oblt. (Marold? Harold?) Cucuel (?) (  ? -  ? ) 9/39

Hptm. Konrad Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband (1 Nov 39 - 14 Oct 40)

Hptm. Kurt Randel-Semper (acting?) (3 Jul 40 - 12 Sep 40)

Maj. Günther Heinze? (  ? -  ? ) 6/41, 7/41

Also see:

BECKER, Martin (“Tino”), Lt.d.R.

BEESTEN, Bernhard-Gotfried (Bernfried) von, Oblt.

BICKERT, Helmut, Hptm.

BONIN, Eckhardt? (Tesmar?) von, Oblt.

DORNSEIFER, Ernst, Hptm./Maj.

EDER, Wilhelm, Lt.

FUCHS, Ottfried, Lt./Oblt.

HEINZE, Johannes, Lt./Oblt.

HOMBERG, Karl, Lt./Obnlt.

KÖRNIG, Martin, Oblt./Hptm.

KRAUS, H., Oblt.

KRIEBEL, Dr. (med.) Arnulf Paul Woldemar?, Oblt.

PETERSEN , Jürgen, Lt.

ROSSUM, Ernst von, Oblt.

© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress). (1st Draft 2021)

References

Aufklärungsgruppe 21

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