Kampfgeschwader 53 "Legion Condor"

Combat Squadron 53
active	May 1, 1939 to March 15, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	air force
Branch of service	Air force
Type	Combat Squadron
structure	Squadron staff and 4 groups
Location	Staff Ansbach I. Group Ansbach II. Group Schwäbisch Hall III. Group Giebelstadt IV. (Supplementary) Group Giebelstadt
equipment	Heinkel He 111
Second World War	Invasion of Poland Western campaign Air battle for England German-Soviet war
Squadron commodors
First commodore	Colonel Philipp Zoch

The Kampfgeschwader 53 Legion Condor was an association of the Luftwaffe of the German Wehrmacht during World War II . It was named after the Condor Legion , an association of the Wehrmacht that was used in the Spanish Civil War .

Lineup

The Kampfgeschwader 53 was formed on May 1st, 1939 from the 355th Combat Squadron, which was set up in Gaiblingen on April 1st, 1937. On May 1st, 1939 in Ansbach ( Lage ), the squadron staff and the I. Group of KG 355 became the staff and I. / KG 53 set up. The II. Group of KG 53 was formed on May 1, 1939 from II./KG 355 in Schwäbisch Hall ( Lage ). The III. Group of KG 53 was created on May 1, 1939 in Giebelstadt ( Lage ) from III./KG 355. In June 1940, the IV. (Supplementary) group was created in Giebelstadt. The squadron was equipped with the Heinkel He 111 throughout its existence . The squadron identification was A1.

history

The staff, the II. And III./Kampfgeschwader 53 were on September 1, 1939 under the command of the 6th Fliegerdivision of Luftflotte 3 in the west on the squares in Schwäbisch Hall and Giebelstadt. The I. Group was subordinate to the 1st Fliegerdivision of Air Fleet 1 in Märkisch-Friedland / Crössinsee ( Lage ) and took an active part in the attack on Poland .

During the campaign in the west , all three groups were under the command of the II. Fliegerkorps of Air Fleet 3. From the sites in Roth ( Lage ), Oedheim ( Lage ) and Frankfurt / Main ( Lage ) there were air raids on airfields to achieve air supremacy and tactical missions for army support.

In the ensuing Battle of Britain , the entire squadron remained with the II Air Corps, but now under the command of Air Fleet 2 . There it flew from bases in occupied France ( Lille-Nord or Lille-Mouvaux ( location ) and Vitry-en-Artois ( location )) air raids against England, especially night attacks on London , Coventry , Birmingham , Liverpool and the like. a.

Heinkel He 111 of Kampfgeschwader 53

In the German-Soviet war , the squadron with the staff, the I., II. And III. Group. The staff and the II. Group started from June 22, 1941 from Radom-Piastow ( location ), the I. group from Grojek ( location ) and the III. Group from Radzyn ( Lage ) to fine flights. For this purpose, they were subordinate to the 2nd Air Corps of Air Fleet 2 in the central section of the Eastern Front. In many tactical missions to achieve air supremacy and army support, it was often used at the focal points in the middle of the Eastern Front. On the night of July 21-22, 1941, a night raid on Moscow was carried out from Minsk-East Air Base ( Lage ), together with other squadrons . More attacks of this kind followed.

At the turn of the year 1941/42, the groups were on the Schatalowka-Ost air base ( Lage ) in the central section of the Eastern Front. Group I stayed briefly in Ansbach to refresh, but was again stationed in Riga on the Baltic Sea from January . From there, she also carried out sea target and anti-submarine missions over the Baltic Sea. The III. The group moved to Chartres ( Lage ) in France for a month from July 15th . There it briefly took part in day and night attacks on England. From August the entire squadron was deployed on the Eastern Front again. From November 1942, Group II moved to the southern section of the Eastern Front. There it took part in the supply of the Stalingrad boiler .

He 111 with Fi-103 flying bomb under the wing

At the beginning of 1943 the staff and the I. group were in Korowje-Selo ( location ) and the III. Group in Dno ( Lage ) in the northern section of the Eastern Front. The second group lay in Greifswald ( Lage ) to refresh themselves . From June 5-22, they took part in the air strikes on Gorky and Yaroslavl. In night raids, together with other combat squadrons, the "Molotov" armored car plant and the Yaroslavl synthetic rubber plant were to be attacked. 282 people were killed in Gorki, 527 injured and 52 buildings of the plant were destroyed. In Yaroslavl, over 120 people were killed, around 150 others injured and over 200 buildings (including some of the rubber works) completely destroyed. Subsequently, the staff and the I. to III. Group to the air base Olsufjewo ( Lage ) and took part in the battle for the Kursk Arch . All three groups were predominantly equipped with the Heinkel He 111H-16 and subordinated to the 1st Fliegerdivision of Air Fleet 6 .

In 1944 the entire squadron was in the southern section of the Eastern Front. On the night of June 22nd to 23rd, it attacked Poltava ( Lage ) airfield from Radom-Piastow ( Lage ), which was used by US aircraft as part of Operation Frantic . 43 American B-17 bombers were destroyed and another 26 damaged. In addition, an ammunition depot and 900,000 liters of aviation fuel were destroyed.

In August the entire squadron relocated to the Western Front . The ports of operation were Toul ( Lage ), Nancy ( Lage ) and Verdun ( Lage ). But by the end of August the squadron retrained for use with the V1 . These were suspended from the wing, between the fuselage and the engine, and faded out at a height of 500 m above the North Sea. It flew V1 attacks of this type on London from northern German air bases such as Ahlhorn ( Lage ), Bad Zwischenahn ( Lage ), Varrelbusch ( Lage ), Vechta ( Lage ), Eggebek ( Lage ), Leck ( Lage ) and Schleswig ( Lage )

The last attack on London took place on January 5, 1945. After that, the squadron remained in its northern German positions and from here intervened in the fighting in the east. The dissolution took place on March 15th.

Commanders

Squadron commodors

Rank	Surname	time
Colonel	Philipp Zoch	May 1, 1939 to July 31, 1939
Colonel	Erich Stahl	August 1, 1939 to December 1940
Colonel	Paul Weitkus	December 15, 1940 to October 31, 1942
Colonel	Karl-Eduard Wilke	November 1, 1942 to March 31, 1943
Lieutenant colonel	Fritz Pockrandt	April 14, 1943 to March 15, 1945

Group commanders

I. group

• Lieutenant Colonel Karl Mehnert, May 1, 1939 to May 10, 1940
• Lieutenant Colonel Erich Kaufmann, May 16, 1940 to December 1941
• Major Joachim Wienholtz, December 1941 to March 30, 1942
• Major Fritz Pockrandt, April 11, 1942 to April 13, 1943
• Major Karl Rauer, April 17, 1943 to September 1944
• Major Martin Vetter, October 15, 1944 to March 1945

II group

• Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Kohlbach , May 1, 1939 to July 1940
• Major Reinhold Tamm, July 23, 1940 to August 18, 1940
• Major Hans Steinweg, September 18, 1940 to July 1941
• Lieutenant Colonel Hans Bader, July 25, 1941 to May 1942
• Lieutenant Colonel Schulz-Müllensiefen, May 1942 to April 14, 1943
• Major Herbert Wittmann, May 25, 1943 to March 1945

III. group

• Major Friedrich Edler von Braun, May 1, 1939 to March 1940
• Major Willi Rohrbacher, March 1940 to February 1941
• Major Richard Fabian, February 1941 to April 1942
• Major Walter Brautkuhl, April 1942 to August 5, 1942
• Major Hans Waldforst, August 17, 1942 to September 13, 1942
• Major Hubert Mönch, October 21, 1943 to May 27, 1943
• Major Emil Allmendinger, June 24, 1943 to March 18, 1945

IV. Group

• Major Joachim Wienholtz, March 21, 1941 to December 3, 1941
• Major Karl-Andreas Zahn, December 4, 1941 to April 11, 1943
• Major Ludwig Grözinger, April 12, 1943 to August 20, 1944

Known squadron members

• Ernst Ebeling (1919–1991), was from 1972 to 1980 doctor general in the air force of the German armed forces

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).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Wolfgang Dierich, pp. 124–125.
2. ^ Bernhard R. Kroener : The German Reich and the Second World War , Volume 5/1, Ed .: Military History Research Office , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-421-06232-3 , pp. 718-719.
3. ↑ Leo Niehorster : Battle for France, German Order of Battle, 3rd Air Force, II Air Corps, May 10, 1940. November 4, 2010, accessed on January 8, 2017 (English). 
4. ↑ Ulf Balke: The aerial warfare in Europe 1939-1941 . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-86047-591-6 , p. 408 (1057 pp.).
5. ↑ Leo Niehorster: German Air Force, Order of Battle, 2nd Air Fleet, II Air Corps, June 22, 1941. October 1, 2010, accessed on January 8, 2017 (English). 
6. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45, Russia (incl. Ukraine, Belarus and Bessarabia) pp 413-415 , accessed on 14 March 2020.
7. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45, Russia (incl. Ukraine, Belarus and Bessarabia) S. 607 , accessed on 14 March 2020.
8. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45, Russia (incl. Ukraine, Belarus & Bessarabia) pp. 301-302 , accessed on March 14, 2020.
9. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45, Russia (incl. Ukraine, Belarus & Bessarabia) pp. 154-156 , accessed on March 14, 2020.
10. ↑ Horst Boog : The German Reich and the Second World War , The German Reich on the Defensive , Volume 7, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-421-05507-6 , p. 347.
11. ↑ AV Fedorčuk: Jaroslavl'. Istorija tvoego goroda , Akademija Razvitij, ISBN 5-7797-0630-1 , p. 79
12. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45, Russia (incl. Ukraine, Belarus and Bessarabia) pp 482-483 , accessed on 15 March 2020.
13. ^ Karl-Heinz Frieser , Klaus Schmider and Klaus Schönherr : The German Empire and the Second World War . Volume 8: “The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the Side Fronts.” Ed .: Military History Research Office, DVA 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , pp. 90-92.
14. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45, Poland pp. 42-43 , accessed on March 15, 2020.
15. ↑ Horst Boog : The German Empire and the Second World War . Volume 7. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt , Stuttgart 2001, p. 364.
16. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Air Force Airfields 1935-45, France (with Corsica and Channel Islands) S. 370 , accessed on 17 March 2020th
17. ↑ Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs , Detlef Vogel: Das Deutsche Reich and the Second World War, Volume 7 , dva, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-421-05507-6 , p. 392.
18. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich, p. 126.

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