5.(H)/13
5.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 13
Code: (4E + )
Formation and Training. (Jan 39 - Aug 39)
Formed early 1939 at Göppingen (new) with Heinkel He 45s and He 46s.[1]
Polish Campaign. (Sep 1939)
8.39: at Göppingen until receipt of general mobilization orders 25-26 August and then deployed to a field airstrip at Juliusburg-South, 8 km NNW of Oels in Silesia, with 12 He 45s and He 46s.
9.39: under Koluft AOK 8 and assigned to support XIII. Armeekorps from the border area to Lódź, the heavy fighting along the Bzura River (9-10 September) and eventually to Warsaw.
10.39: returned to Germany on conclusion of the campaign and began converting to the Henschel Hs 126. Staffel locations in Germany to May 1940 are not known. One often reliable source states that the Staffel moved to a fieldstrip near Wiltingen/10 km south of Trier in March and was there for the start of the attack on 10 May.
Campaign West - Attack on France and the Low Countries. (May 40 - 1941)
10.5.40: Trier area in the Eifel under Koluft AOK 16 with Hs 126s for the attack on Belgium and France this date assigned to support XIII. Armeekorps from the Trier area across Luxembourg and South Belgium to Verdun, and then into the Champagne region of eastern France.
21.5.40: Hs 126 shot down over Malmedy/SE Belgium.
10.6.40: Hs 126 shot down over Rethel/NE of Reims.
24.6.40: Hs 126 shot down in the Beaumont-Montieux area.
7.8.40: Hs 126B damaged in accident at Fp.Lessay on the Normandy coast opposite the Channel Islands, 15%.
8.40: the Staffel may have moved to Brussels-Evere in August, but this has not been confirmed.
3.1.41: Hs 126B damaged taxiing at Brussels-Evere, 50%. Shortly after this, the Staffel is believed to have transferred to Romania with station initially at Caracal in South Romania.
Balkan Campaign. (Apr 41 - May 41)
5.4.41: South Bulgaria under Koluft AOK 12 for the attack on Greece that began the following day, and assigned to support XXX. Armeekorps across the border into the Kavaka - Xanthi - Komotini area of eastern Greece, west to Salonika (taken 9 April), and then the invasion and capture of the larger islands in the eastern Aegean off the coast of Turkey.
11.5.41: Staffel at Salonika.
South Russia. (Jun 41 - Jan 42)
22.6.41: at Belceşti/45 km WNW of Iaşi in eastern Romania under Koluft AOK 11/Army Group South for the attack on the Soviet Union this date, and assigned to support XXX. Armeekorps across the Prut (Pruth), through Bessarabia and South Ukraine to Perekop at the neck of the Crimean Peninsula and then into Crimea (October - November 1941).
18.7.41: Staffel now at Zgurita in Bessarabia (Moldavia) under Koluft AOK 11.
1.10.41: operating from Kanly Alga, just north of the Crimean Peninsula, under Koluft AOK 11.
3.10.41: Hs 126 B-l shot up by a Russian fighter near Melitopol, 25%, 1 KIA and 1 WIA.
20.10.41: still in support of XXX. Armeekorps/AOK 11 for the attack into Crimea and the capture of most of the peninsula.
18.11.41: at Fp. Alushta/Crimea.
26.11.41: Hs 126 B-1, while on a recce sortie over a pair of Russian destroyers off Kamary/Crimea, was attacked by an enemy fighter and slightly damaged, 10%, Staka Hptm. Riedlinger (observer) KIA. Other records give 25 November as the date of this incident. Kamary is near Balaklava.
4.1.42: Hs 126 shot up over Feodosiya/SE Crimea, 15%, Oblt. Günther Kühlenpampf KIA. Soviet forces from North Caucasia staged amphibious landings at Feodosiya on 30 December.
1.42: the Staffel continued operations in Crimea under Koluft AOK 11 until the end of January 1942.
2.42 – 3.42: probably returned to Germany without aircraft to rest and refit, and while there the decision was made to disband 5.(H)/13.
On or about 19.4.42 at least some of the Staffel’s personnel were used to form Stabskompanie/NAGr. 13.
FpN:5.(H)/13 (L 38682).
Staffelkapitän:
Hptm. Falk ( ? - ? ) 9/39
Hptm. Gert Riedlinger ( ? - 26 Nov 41)
Hptm. Herbert Pinnow ( ? - 19 Dec 41) 9/39?
© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress). (1st Draft 2021)
References
- ↑ J.-P.Défieux - Répertoire des Unités Aériennes de la Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Reconnaissance Aéronavale (Nanterre, privately published, n.d. (c 1988-90?); K.Ries - Luftwaffen Story 1935-1939; Tessin, Georg, Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939: Altes Heer, Freiwilligenverbände, Reichswehr, Heer, Luftwaffe, Landespolizei; G.Tessin - Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945, 16+ Bde., Teil 14: Die Luftstreitkräfte (Osnabrück, 1980); W.Dierich - Die Verbände der Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Gliederungen und Kurzchroniken – Eine Dokumentation; N.Kannapin - Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939-1945; U.Balke - Der Luftkrieg in Europa: Die Operativen Einsätze des Kampfgeschwader 2 im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Teil I, p.398; C.Shores/B.Cull/N.Malizia - Air War For Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete 1940-41, p.180; PRO London: DEFE 3 ULTRA signals (May 1941); AFHRA Maxwell decimal Karlsruhe Collection KC-Kl13.309-3/ v.1; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-312 rolls 386-409); (T-405 roll 49/140); PRO London: AIR 40/1965, 1975; BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); BA-MA Freiburg: Flugzeug-Bereitstellungen (Aircraft Availability Status Reports – FzB) in: M.Holm-website (ww2.dk).