Combat Squadron 76

Combat Squadron 76
Squadron badge
active	May 1, 1939 to May 8, 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 Wiener Neustadt I. Group Wiener Neustadt II. Group Brno III. Group catfish
equipment	Dornier Do 17 , Junkers Ju 88 , Arado Ar 234
Second World War	Raid on Poland Western campaign Air battle for England German-Soviet war Theater of war Mediterranean area Allied invasion of Italy Capricorn company
Squadron commodors
First commodore	Colonel Paul Schultheiss

The Kampfgeschwader 76 was an association of the Luftwaffe in World War II .

Lineup

The squadron was created on May 1, 1939 from the renamed Kampfgeschwader 155. This was set up on April 1, 1935 at the Giebelstadt , Ansbach and Schwäbisch Hall locations . After Austria was annexed to the German Empire, it was assigned the Wiener Neustadt and Wels airfields . Group II later moved to Brno in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . A fourth (supplementary) group was formed in March 1941. The squadron was initially equipped with the Dornier Do 17 , later with the Junkers Ju 88 and the Arado Ar 234 . The squadron identification was F1. A first II./KG 76 with Ju 87B existed until June 1940. This group became III./StG 77 with Ju 87B and the identifier F1 in June 1940. The previous II./KG 76 was replaced by a new II./KG 76.

history

On the invasion of Poland , the squadron participated in the context of air fleet 4 part of the front in the southern sector.

At the beginning of the western campaign , the squadron fought French airfields in the area around Laon and French army units on the Maas and Maginot lines . Later it supported the army on the advance towards the Atlantic coast.

Dornier Do 17 des KG 76 over France

After the end of the western campaign, the squadron took part in the Battle of Britain , with staff and III. Group were mainly in Cormeilles , the other groups among others in Beaumont-le-Roger . In lossy day attacks and from September 15, 1940 mainly in night attacks, it took part in the bombings from London to Hull , Glasgow and Belfast . It remained stationed in the west until June 7, 1941.

Before the attack on the Soviet Union , the squadron was assigned the airfields in Gerdauen , Jürgenfelde and Schippenbeil in East Prussia . There it was subordinate to Luftflotte 1 and fought in the northern section of the Eastern Front until September 27, 1941. Then it moved to the central section to take part in the Battle of Moscow .

In the first half of 1942, the squadron moved in groups back home to convert to the Junkers Ju 88. From May it was again completely assembled in the southern section of the Eastern Front and supported all major combat operations of the Army. So it took part in the recapture of the Kerch peninsula and the conquest of the Sevastopol fortress . After the start of the German summer offensive , it moved in the direction of Voronezh and then moved further south into the Donbogen . From there it flew air strikes on Stalingrad and shipping on the Volga . The squadron then moved from September 11 to October 6 in the northern section of the eastern front in the area of Lake Ladoga . From there it went back to Armavir on the edge of the Caucasus .

Junkers Ju 88 of Kampfgeschwader 76 over Crete

From November 15, 1942, the entire squadron moved to Greece at the Athens-Tatoi , Iraklion and Tymbakion airfields. From there it supported the German-Italian troops in the area around the Libyan Tobruk and Benghazi . Meanwhile, the IV (supplementary) group took part in the occupation of Vichy France .

At the beginning of 1943 the staff moved the I and II Groups to Catania in Italy. From there they intervened in the fighting in Tunisia and Algeria . From May 16, the entire squadron was in Foggia and Grosseto and intervened in the fighting in Sicily and Salerno . Following the general withdrawal, from September 1943 it relocated to northern Italian and southern French airfields such as Istres and Saint-Martin-de-Crau .

From the beginning of 1944 to February 1944 I./KG 76 took part in the Steinbock company . She then moved to the Hörsching airfield near Linz together with the rest of the squadron . There it retrained to the Arado Ar 234 from March 6th. Overall, the squadron took over 132 Ar 234s from June 7, 1944, making it the only squadron that flew with this aircraft type.

In the first half of 1945 the squadron mainly flew missions on the Western Front before surrendering on May 8, 1945.

Commanders

Squadron commodors

Rank	Surname	time
Colonel	Paul Schultheiss	May 1, 1939 to November 15, 1939
Colonel	Stefan Fröhlich	November 17, 1939 to February 26, 1941
Colonel	Ernst Bormann	February 26, 1941 to January 7, 1943
major	Wilhelm von Friedburg	January 1943
Lieutenant colonel	Rudolf Hallensleben	January 1943 to May 31, 1944
Colonel	Walter Storp	June 1, 1944 to September 30, 1944
Lieutenant colonel	Robert Kowalewski	November 1944 to May 8, 1945

Group commanders

I. group

• Colonel Stefan Fröhlich, May 1, 1939 to November 14, 1939
• Major Ludwig Schulz, November 1939 to June 2, 1940
• Captain Lindeiner, June 1940 to?
• Captain Robert von Sichart, 1941 to June 23, 1941
• Captain Hanns Heise , February 1942 to September 3, 1942

II group

• Major Walter Hill, February 1, 1940 to May 25, 1940
• Major Friedrich Möricke, July 9, 1940 to August 24, 1940
• Major Walter Storp, August 31, 1940 to March 31, 1941
• Captain Volprecht Riedesel Freiherr zu Eisenbach, April 1941 to January 31, 1943
• Major Siegfried Geisler, 1944 to March 30, 1945

III. group

• Lieutenant Colonel Werner Zech , May 1, 1939 to August 1939
• Major Hans Hofmann, August 26, 1939 to February 25, 1940
• Major Franz Reuss , February 26, 1940 to October 15, 1940
• Major Franz von Benda, October 16, 1940 to April 1942
• Captain Heinrich Schweikhardt,? until January 9, 1943
• Captain Anton Stadler, January 1943 to April 29, 1943
• Major Hans-Georg Bätcher, December 6, 1944 to May 1945

IV. Group

• Captain Gerhard Kröchel, July 18, 1940 to March 1942
• Captain Hanns Heise, March 1942 to May 8, 1943
• Major Günter Beyer, May 9, 1943 to May 1944
• Major Karl-Hermann Millahn, June 24, 1944 to December 31, 1944

Known squadron members

• 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

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).

Web links

Commons : Kampfgeschwader 76  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Wolfgang Dierich, p. 132.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Dierich, p. 133.
3. ↑ Wolfgang Dierich, p. 134.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Dierich, p. 135.
5. ↑ Ulf Balke, p. 390.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Dierich, p. 136.