I/KG.z.b.V 2
I./KG z.b.V. 2
Formation and History. (Aug 39 - May 40)
Formed 26 August 1939 at Insterburg/East Prussia to provide airlift support for paratroops in the forthcoming attack on Poland. Instead, the Gruppe was used to transport personnel, fuel, munitions and supplies to forward airfields in South Poland. On 1 September it was based at Sorau/Silesia with 52 Ju 52 transports. On conclusion of the campaign in the latter part of September it returned to Germany where it was gradually disbanded and the aircraft and crews returned to the training schools. A small cadre from the Gruppenstab was apparently retained. The last three entries found for the Gruppe was a crash report for a Ju 52 assigned to it that struck the ground in heavy fog near Marnitz to the northwest of Berlin on 13 Jan 40 in which the transport was totaled and the crew of 4 killed; a Ju 52 that crashed near a firing range on 23 Feb 40 with 8 reported killed; and, a Ju 52 that crashed east of Fürstenwalde after taking off in which 2 were killed and 1 injured. On 8 May 40 the skeletal Gruppenstab was reactivated as KGr.z.b.V. 12. Unfortunately, little else is known. Another mystery concerns the sudden appearance around March 1942 of a 3. and 4. Staffel/KG z.b.V. 2. The first of these (FpN L 23579) was supposedly the former Sonderstaffel (G.S.) 22 and the latter (FpN L 24647) the former Sonderstaffel (G.S.) 4, both of which were equipped with Me 321 heavy cargo gliders towed by He 111s, Bf 110s and other aircraft. However, I./KG z.b.V. 2 did not exist at this point in time and no information about these two Staffeln has been found in any of the surviving documentation, so these were probably incorrect entries in the Feldpostübersicht. (See KGr.z.b.V. 2 for some additional information on the Me 321 issue).[1]
FpNs:Gruppenstab (L 37365)
Kommandeur:
Hptm. Hans-Eberhard, Freiherr von Hornstein (26 Aug 39 - 8 May 40)
© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress, 2022).
(1st Draft 2022)
References
- ↑ G.Tessin-Tes; U.Balke-KG 2/Teil 1:390; BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs).
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