Combat Squadron 2

Combat Squadron 2
Squadron badge
active	May 1, 1939 to November 26, 1944
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	air force
Branch of service	Air force
Type	Combat Squadron
structure	Squadron staff and 5 groups
Location	Sprottau staff I. Liegnitz group II. Liegnitz group III. Group Illesheim IV. Group Achmer V. Group Lechfeld
Nickname	Mallet Squadron
equipment	Dornier Do 17, Dornier Do 217, Junkers Ju 188, Messerschmitt Me 410
Second World War	Invasion of Poland Western campaign Air battle for England Balkan campaign German-Soviet war Allied invasion of Normandy
Squadron commodors
First commodore	Lieutenant General Johannes Fink

The Kampfgeschwader 2 was an association of the Luftwaffe in World War II . Because of its coat of arms, it was also called the wooden hammer squadron.

Lineup

The Kampfgeschwader (KG) was created on May 1, 1939 by renaming the KG 252, which already had two groups. The Heimathorste were for the Sprottau staff ( location ) and Liegnitz ( location ) for the I. and II . The III. The group was not set up until March 1, 1940 in Illesheim ( Lage ), the IV. (Supplementary) group in August 1940 in Achmer ( Lage ) and the V group in June 1943 in Lechfeld ( Lage ). At first the squadron was equipped with the Dornier Do 17Z , from May 1941 also with the Dornier Do 217 . At the beginning of 1944, Group II was equipped with the Junkers Ju 188 and Group V with the Messerschmitt Me 410 . From February to April 1944, the chain of bars and the I. Group also converted to Junkers Ju 188. The squadron identification was U5.

history

At the beginning of the attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, the squadron was subordinate to the Luftwaffe Training Division of Air Fleet 1 , which was supposed to support Army Group North. The staff was in Jesau ( location ), group I in Gerdauen ( location ) and group II in Schippenbeil ( location ). From here they flew missions for army support against localities, railway and troop targets and airfields. A total of six squadron members fell during the fighting and three fighter planes were lost.

After that, the squadron was relocated to the west, where there were no major missions until the start of the fighting - apart from reconnaissance flights. From May 10, 1940, the squadron took part in the western campaign. The staff and the III. Group were stationed in Biblis ( Lage ), while the 1st group was in Geinsheim ( Lage ) and the 2nd in Groß-Ostheim ( Lage ). As part of the II. Fliegerkorps of Air Fleet 3 , it supported armored armored units in the Belgian and northern French area in the advance towards the Channel coast . It later attacked airfields in the Paris area . From May 10, 1940 to June 19, 1940, 28 squadron members fell and 26 aircraft were destroyed.

After the end of the fighting on the mainland it remained subordinate to the II Air Corps and fought the enemy shipping traffic in the English Channel . With the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the squadron came under Air Fleet 2 . The air bases were Saint Léger ( location ) for the staff and the II., Merville ( location ) for the I. and Cambrai-Süd ( location ) for the III. Group. From here they first attacked English airfields and aircraft production facilities in accordance with the deployment plans at the time. This was followed by loss-making attacks on London , which were later only carried out at night. By the spring of 1941, 85 fighter planes of the squadron were lost and 156 squadron members were killed.

At the end of March 1941 the staff, the I. and III. Group of the squadron relocated to Luftflotte 4 and took part in the Balkan campaign as part of the 8th Air Corps . At the beginning, the staff and the two groups were stationed in Vienna-Zwölfaxing ( Lage ). From here they took part in the air strike on Belgrade on April 6 , in which at least 2,271 people were killed. In the further course of the campaign it supported the preceding army units and later the conquest of the island of Crete from the air. During the operation in the Balkans, 18 aircraft were destroyed and 37 squadron members were killed.

Group II was stationed in Achmer ( Lage ) from April 1941 and was the first to receive the new Dornier Do 217E bomber . Then she went west to Luftflotte 3 under the command of the IX. Fliegerkorps on the air base Evreux ( location ). From there, they attacked Allied ships in the North Sea and the English Channel. So on September 7, 1941, when the Marcrest at Lowestoft and the Trsat fish freighter at Kinnaird Head were sunk with bombs. On September 22nd she sank the Dutch Vechtstroom south of the Humber estuary and on September 26th the British Prince ( Lage ).

During the attack on the Soviet Union , the squadron with the staff, the I. and III. Group subordinated to the 8th Air Corps in Air Fleet 2. From the places Arys-Rostken ( Lage ) and Lyck ( Lage ), they fought in the central section of the Eastern Front. There they remained in service until September / November 1941 and took part in the air raids on Moscow . Then the staff, the I. and III. Group relocated to Germany to refresh and convert to the Dornier Do 217. By October 31, 61 squadron members had been killed and 29 aircraft were destroyed.

Group IV had stayed in the west, it was in Juvincourt ( Lage ) until the beginning of 1942 and was moved from there to Achmer ( Lage ).

From May 1942 the squadron flew from Soesterberg ( Lage ), Melun-Villaroche ( Lage ), Eindhoven ( Lage ) and Amsterdam-Schiphol ( Lage ) again attacks against the British island or the shipping traffic in the English Channel. In addition it was the IX. Air Corps subordinated to Luftflotte 3 in the west. The individual groups were meanwhile equipped with the Do 217E-2 and the Do 217E-4. The squadron stayed in this area until the end of 1944 and participated in the Steinbock company , among others . On November 26, 1944, the squadron was disbanded.

A total of 1,228 members of the squadron fell in the course of the war, 688 were considered missing, 656 were injured and 214 were taken prisoner. Furthermore, 769 fighter planes were lost, 895 were damaged, 158 of them more than 50%. These figures also include personnel and material losses that occurred during training or during transfer flights.

Commanders

Squadron commodors

Rank	Surname	time
Lieutenant General	Johannes Fink	May 1, 1939 to October 20, 1940
Major general	Herbert Rieckhoff	October 21, 1940 to October 12, 1941
Colonel	Karl Mehnert	October 13 to December 31, 1941
Colonel	Georg Pasewaldt	December 31, 1941 to April 30, 1942
Lieutenant colonel	Hans von Koppelow	May 20, 1942 to January 1943
major	Walter Bradel	January 23 to May 5, 1943 (fallen)
Lieutenant colonel	Karl Kessel	May 18, 1943 to February 1944
major	Hanns Horst Heise	February 25 to April 1944
major	Wilhelm Rath	April 12 to May 23, 1944
major	Franz Schönberger	May 23 to June 1944
Lieutenant colonel	Rudolf Hallensleben	June 17 to September 19, 1944

Group commanders

I. group

• Major Werner Krahl, May 1, 1939 to November 25, 1939
• Major Martin Gutzmann, November 26, 1939 to August 26, 1940
• Major Waldemar Lerche, August 27, 1940 to August 25, 1941
• Major Robert-Heinrich von Groddeck, August 26, 1941 to March 1942
• Captain Ketterer, March 1942 to June 15, 1942
• Major Karl Kessel , June 16, 1942 to May 5, 1943
• Major Franz Schönberger, May 6, 1943 to August 6, 1944
• Captain Philipp von Alemann, August 6, 1944 to October 3, 1944

II group

• Lieutenant Colonel Paul Weitkus , May 1, 1939 to December 15, 1940
• Major Kurt Rohde, December 16, 1940 to June 1941
• Major Johannes Huebner, June 1941 to November 30, 1941
• Major Walter Bradel, December 1, 1941 to January 22, 1943
• Major Heinz Engel, February 1, 1943 to June 25, 1944
• Captain Hermann Schröter, June 26, 1944 to October 3, 1944

III. group

• Major Werner Kreibe, March 1, 1940 to June 24, 1940
• Major Adolf Fuchs, June 25, 1940 to August 31, 1940
• Major Klaus Uebe , September 1, 1940 to March 20, 1941
• Major Friedrich Dreyer, March 21, 1941 to April 7, 1941
• Major Heinrich Eichhorn, April 12, 1941 to May 21, 1941
• Colonel Heinrich Conrady, June 9, 1941 to September 20, 1941
• Major Gerhard Klostermann, September 21, 1941 to February 15, 1942
• Oberleutnant Hans von Koppelow, February 16, 1942 to April 30, 1942
• Major Kurt Leythaeuser, May 1, 1942 to August 13, 1943
• Major Albert Schreiweis, August 14, 1943 to December 1, 1944

IV. Group

• Lieutenant Otto-Wolfgang Bechtle, August 17, 1940 to September 18, 1940
• First Lieutenant Karl Kessel , September 19, 1940 to March 21, 1941
• Major Johannes Huebner, March 22, 1941 to June 10, 1941
• Captain Martin Kästner, June 11, 1941 to June 27, 1942
• Captain Helmut Powolny, June 27, 1942 to January 31, 1943
• Major Gottfried Buchholz, February 1, 1943 to October 3, 1944

Known squadron members

• Walter Richard Gerlich (1908–1981) was a member of the German Bundestag for the CDU from 1963 to 1965
• Hanns Horst Heise (1913–1992), was from 1962 to 1968 as a stage manager for flight safety in the air force office in Cologne-Wahn and from October 1968 as brigadier general of the air force of the German armed forces , commander of the German air force command USA / Canada
• Karl Kessel (1912–1997), was from 1967 to 1970 as major general of the air force of the Bundeswehr commanding general of the 6th air force division
• Herbert Rieckhoff (1898–1948), was the author of the book Trumpf oder Bluff ?, 12 years with the German Air Force

literature

• Wolfgang Dierich: The air force associations 1935-1945 . Outlines and short chronicles one document. Ed .: Wolfgang Dierich. Verlag Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 1993, ISBN 3-925480-15-3 (703 pages).
• Ulf Balke: The Air War in Europe 1939–1941 . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-86047-591-6 (1057 pages).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich, pp. 100-102.
2. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 390.
3. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 300.
4. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 326.
5. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich, p. 100.
6. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 443.
7. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 464.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Wolfgang Dierich, p. 101.
9. ↑ Ulf Balke, pp. 489, 494.
10. ↑ Belgrade Historical Archive: Bombardovanje Beograda u drugom svetskom ratu. Belgrade 1975, pp. 1-5.
11. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 504.
12. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945, September 1941. Retrieved on March 5, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 517.
14. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich, p. 102.
15. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 524.

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