7.(H)/21
7.(H)/Aufk1.Gr. 21
Code: (P2 + )
Formation and Training. (Dec 40 - May 41)
Formed around December 1940 or January 1941, probably in North France, with Henschel Hs 126s, Fies1er Fi 156s and cadre personnel taken from 4.(H)/21. On 25 February 1941, 7.(H)/21 reported 50% damage to a Hs 126 B-1 at Vilseck, a small, unimproved field airstrip adjacent to the Grafenwöhr training and maneuver area to the northeast of Nürnberg. The Staffe1 was probably based there for a short time for work-up and practice flying in cooperation with ground units.[1]
North and Central Russia. (Jun 41 - c.Feb 42)
Training completed, 7.(H)/21 was transferred to the Tilsit area in East Prussia and assigned to Koluft AOK 18/Army Group North for the attack on the Soviet Union that commenced on 22 June 1941. In direct support of I. Armeekorps/18th Army, the Staffe1 advanced through Lithuania and Latvia and reached the Russian city of Pskov at the south end of Lake Peipus by 15 July without loss. Two days later, on 17 July, reconnaissance flights were flown in the Porkhov-Dno area in support of 4th Panzer Group operations. The Staffel’s whereabouts during August and most of September 1941 is uncertain, but it probably remained in the Lake Ilmen-Volkhov-Leningrad area until the third week in September when it was ordered south to Vitebsk to reinforce the attack toward Moscow on the central sector of the front under VIII. Fliegerkorps. A Fi 156 C-3 belonging to 7.(H)/21 was reported shot down at Yartsevo/NE of Smolensk on 30 September. Then on 23 October the Staffel’s Staffelkapitän (not identified) is known to have been ordered to report to Generaloberst von Richthofen, commanding general of VIII. Fliegerkorps, at Kuleshevka airfield/35 km N of Vyazma, this being the location of Stab/St.G.2 at the time. In January or early February 1942 the Staffel was officially disbanded and its flying personnel incorporated into the Stabsstaffe1 of St.G. 2, which was then based at Vyazma.
FpN:7.(H)/21 (L 44811).
Staffelkapitän:
Oblt. Arnulf Kriebel? (15 Jan 41 - 30 Nov 41)
Oblt./Hptm. Karl Arnold (15 Jan 42 - ? )
Also see:
HOMBERG, Karl, Oblt.
KREFT, Walter, Oblt.
© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress). (1st Draft 2021)
References
- ↑ W.Dierich - Die Verbände der Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Gliederungen und Kurzchroniken – Eine Dokumentation; N.Kannapin - Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939-1945; BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-312 roll 1573/013); PRO London: AIR 40/1975; PRO London: HW 5/31.