Wehrmacht emergency squadrons
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Sea emergency scales 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
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|---|---|
| Lineup | April 12, 1939 to August 1942 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Type | Squadron (air force) |
As a distress relay were squadrons of the Air Force of the Armed Forces called, with both land and seaplanes and flying boats were equipped. Probably the last deployment of a unit of the Air Force of the Third Reich was on June 18, 1945 by the Seotstaffel 81. Six weeks after the end of the war, it transported around 1,000 people, including 450 wounded, led by Hawker Typhoons of the 175th and 184th Squadron of the 2nd TAF / RAF from Schleswig / Jagel from Guldborg in Denmark to Schleswig .
history
There were a total of ten emergency squadrons, which were initially numbered 1 to 10. The first to be set up in April 1939 was the Sea Emergency Squadron 1 “Norderney”, the tenth and last was set up in Tromsø in August 1942 .
During a reorganization in August 1944, four squadrons were dissolved and the remaining six were given the two-digit numbers 50 (formerly 10), 51 (5), 60 (1), 70 (7), 80 (4) and 81 (2). The background was u. a. the combination of a sea emergency squadron and a sea emergency flotilla equipped with distress boats (or air traffic control vessels) to form sea distress groups, whereby the distress group, flotilla and sea squadron were each given the same number.
The children from Kamper See
In the last months of the war, sea emergency pilots were often deployed in the Baltic Sea region to help the German population flee the advancing Red Army (see also " Hannibal Company "). A Dornier Do 24 crashed into the lake on March 5, 1945 during a large-scale airlift of a dozen flying boats of the Seerotstaffel 81 from Kamper See west of Kolberg to Seefliegerhorst Bug ( Dranske ), the main base at the time . Around 80 people, mainly children, were killed in this accident. A total of 4,000 to 12,000 refugees were flown out in the first days of March, estimates fluctuate widely.
For decades after the war, Lake Kamper was in a restricted military area. After the withdrawal of the military, the idea arose to recover the aircraft wreck and the remains of the victims suspected on board. Divers have now found bullet points and shrapnel in the wreck that came from Soviet tanks, so that overloading is no longer the sole cause of the crash.
Relay list
| No. | Lineup | further bases | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (60) | August 1, 1939, Norderney , List | September 1940 to July 1944, Brest July 1944 to spring 1945, Pillau-Neutief |
next to Brest was a part in Hourtin |
| 2 (81) | August 26, 1939, Pillau-Neutief | June 1940 to December 1942, Cherbourg December 1942 to July 1944, Schellingwoude July 1944 to May 1945, Großenbrode |
From mid-1944, Bug was the main base of operations in Grossenbrode, while Kamp , Nest and Pillau were also used |
| 3 | June 1940, Boulogne | August 1944 moved to Germany and dissolved | until November 1940 Maritime Emergency Command 3 |
| 4 (80) | September 1940, Norderney | August 1944 to March 1945, Norderney March to May 1945, List |
until September 1940 Sea Emergency Command 1 -Norderney- |
| 5 (51) | June 1940, List | August 1941 to October 1944, Stavanger October 1944 to May 1945, Tromsø |
until November 1940 distress command 5 |
| 6th | March 1941, Syracuse / Augusta | August 1943 to October 1943, Portofino October 1943 to August 1944, Venice |
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| 7 (70) | March 1941, Kiel-Holtenau | March / April 1941, Schellingwoude and Varna April to July 1941, Saloniki-Mikra July 1941 to August 1944, Athens-Phaleron |
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| 8th | April 1941, Mamaia | August 1942 to March 1944, Sevastopol March 1944 to August 1944, Mamaia August / September 1944 Saloniki / Athens |
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| 9 (60) | April 1941, Kiel-Holtenau | August 1941 to September 1944, Libau | from September 1941 also Riga |
| 10 (50) | August 1942, Tromsø | until May 1945 |
Note: The changed squadron numbers introduced in mid-August 1944 in brackets.
gallery
He 59B-3 at sea emergency flight command 2 in list
Heinkel HE 59 of a sea emergency squadron 1940/41
Memorial stone in Schleswig
See also
- Air traffic control ship
- Arado Ar 66 , Ar 196 , Ar 199
- Blohm & Voss BV 138
- Breguet 521
- CRDA Cant Z.506
- Dornier Thu 18 , Thu 24
- Focke-Wulf Fw 58
- Heinkel He 59 , He 60 , He 114 , He 115
- Junkers W 34 , Ju 52 / 3m
- Clamp Kl 35
- Messerschmitt Me 410
literature
- Karl Born: Salvation Between the Fronts . ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn, ISBN 3-8132-0756-0
- Peter de Jong: Dornier Do 24 Units . Osprey Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4728-0570-6