Regierungsstaffel
Regierungsstaffel
Formation and History. (Apr 45 - May 45)
Ordered formed around 20 April 1945 from elements of 3./KG 200 and possibly from elements of the Grossraumtransportgruppe. In effect, the Staffel was a hastily assembled, ad hoc collection of a few long-range aircraft, including a Ju 290 and several BV 222 flying boats moored at Flensburg, under the command of Obstlt. Werner Baumbach that was to be used to fly Reichsminister Albert Speer and a few others to northern Norway and then on to Greenland around the date of surrender, 7 May 1945. There they were to camp out for three or four months until the chaos following the collapse of the Third Reich had passed, and then fly to England from Greenland and turn themselves in. The plan never materialized. On 29 April a Ju 52 and a Ju 352 belonging to the Staffel were shot down while en-route from Berlin to Salzburg. The next day, 30 April, the primary BV 222 was shot down by P-38 Lightnings and a replacement BV 222 ordered to Flensburg from Travemünde on 1 May never arrived. The Staffel’s sole Ju 290 was also lost around the same time when it was strafed on the ground at Travemünde by Allied aircraft, and with this the original scheme fell through. On 4 May 1945, new orders were issued to re-establish the Regierungsstaffel at Flensburg by assembling all remaining aircraft of IV./KG 200, and probably as well those of 2. and 3./KG 200, on airfields in Schleswig-Holstein (Flensburg, Schleswig, Grossenbrode, and others). The purpose of the Staffel this time was never made entirely clear, but it was probably intended to serve as a transport-liaison-courier unit for the so-called Dönitz regime that was set up at Flensburg after Hitler's suicide in Berlin. However, the war ended before the Staffel could be brought into service.[1]
FpN:(none assigned)
Staffelkapitän:
Obstlt. Werner Baumbach (RES) (20 Apr 45 - 8 May 45)
Also see:
SCHNEIDER, Hans, Maj.
© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress, 2022).
(1st Draft 2022)
References
- ↑ U.Saft-Das Bittere Ende der Luftwaffe: “Wilde Sau” – Sturmjäger – Rammjäger – Todesflieger – “Bienenstock”:124; A.Speer-Inside the Third Reich (NY: Macmillan, 1970):494; W.Green-Warplanes of the Third Reich:97; P.W.Stahl-KG 200 - the True Story:178; G.Gellermann-Moskau Ruft Heeresgruppe Mitte ....:202-04, 208, 214; Flugzeug magazine, Heft (issue) 1/1994.
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