Fliegerführer Krim
Fliegerführer Krim
(FpN: none found)
also as: Luftwaffenstab Krim
Fliegerführer:
General d.Flieger Konrad Zander (15 Oct 42 - 15 Mar 43)
Oberst Dr. Ernst Bormann (1 Feb 43 - 30 Jun 43)
Formation and History. (Aug 42 - Jun 43)
Formed o/a 15 August 1942 (ex-Fliegerführer Süd?) or new on 15 October 1942 at Kerch/Crimea and assigned responsibility for air operations there after the front had moved forward into North Caucasia. KStN 320 (L) was assigned to Luftwaffenstab Krim (Fliegerführer Krim), giving it a special table of organization and equipment. Up to the date of his appointment, Konrad Zander had been General der Flieger z.V. des Luftflottenkommando 4, which suggests the line of authority and origin of Fliegerführer Krim. The location of the Stab is not known with certainty, but is believed to have been at Kerch and then possibly at Simferopol. By spring 1943, German forces had been pushed back into the narrow confines of the Kuban bridgehead across from Kerch/Crimea and Stab/I. Fliegerkorps had arrived in Crimea to take charge of air operations. Fliegerführer Krim, now redundant, was disbanded o/a 30 June 1943.
During its existence, Fliegerführer Krim exercised authority over Küstenfliegerstaffel Krim, a coastal patrol squadron of somewhat unclear lineage. This Staffel’s losses from August 1942 to September 1943 were charged to Fliegerführer Krim. Also see Einsatzstab Krim des I. Fliegerkorps (sometimes incorrectly called Fliegerführer Krim).[1]
© H.L. deZeng IV, 2023
References
- ↑ K.Mehner/R.Teuber-Die deutsche Luftwaffe 1939-1945: Führung und Truppe (Norderstedt: 1993); BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-501 German rear area records for Crimea); J.S.Hayward-Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Defeat in the East 1942-1943 (Lawrence (KS): Univ. Press of Kansas, 1998) (Strangely, Hayward has extensive coverage of Fliegerführer Süd’s operations from Crimea but not a word on Fliegerführer Krim).