X. Air Corps

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The X. Fliegerkorps was a major unit of the Luftwaffe that was responsible for combat missions at sea during World War II .

Lineup

A simulation game conducted in May 1939 for an air war against England led to the formation of a general's staff in the summer of 1939. b. V. (for special use) in the air fleet 2 . This staff was initially only intended as a training staff for the planned sea combat squadrons of the air force and was also intended to examine the requirements of air warfare over sea by land-based air forces and their cooperation with the naval aviation units and the navy. As a result of the Second World War, which broke out in September 1939, the staff was converted into a command staff for operational units in air warfare over sea and on September 3, 1939 raised to the 10th Air Division. The X. Fliegerkorps was set up on October 2, 1939 when the 10th Fliegerdivision was renamed. The X. Fliegerkorps was a command staff to which, depending on its mission, groups and squadrons of fighters , fighter bombers , dive bombers , bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were subordinated. For its part, the X. Fliegerkorps was either directly subordinate to the Air Force High Command or to an air fleet.

North Sea and Norway use

The first operational area of ​​the X. Fliegerkorps was the North Sea in the winter of 1939/40 in the fight against the British Royal Navy and opposing merchant shipping, whereby a few dozen merchant ships were damaged or sunk. In the spring of 1940 the Luftwaffe placed all of the aviation units planned for the conquest of Norway ( Weser exercise ) under the command. From April 1940, the X. Air Corps was successfully deployed there in the conquest of the country and the fight against Allied sea operations.

This showed for the first time the superiority of air supremacy over sea supremacy. Put simply, the Air Force controlled the airspace over the Norwegian sea area through the X. Fliegerkorps, while the Royal Navy dominated the Norwegian sea. The ship losses caused by the German aircraft made it impossible for the Royal Navy to remain in Norwegian waters and so the German air supremacy in the Norwegian combat area made a major contribution to German success.

Battle of Britain

During the Battle of Britain, the X. Fliegerkorps was subordinate to Air Fleet 5 and was stationed with its flying formations in southern Norway and Denmark. Using their greatest range, the twin-engine Heinkel He 111 and Junkers Ju 88 fighter aircraft and the twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf 110 destroyer aircraft , but not the single-engine Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters , were able to reach the British island. In the early stages of the Battle of Britain in particular, attacks on northern England and Scotland were carried out by Air Fleet 5.

Use in the Mediterranean

At the turn of 1940/41 the X. Air Corps was relocated from Norway to Sicily to fight against British naval units and opposing merchant ships. For this purpose, a Stuka group of the Corps (II. Group / Stukageschwader 2) practiced the attack on aircraft carriers with the help of a floating dummy of an aircraft carrier. Already on January 10th and 11th 1941 a successful attack on the British convoy Excess , which drove supplies for the British Mediterranean island of Malta , and the aircraft carrier Illustrious , which was very badly damaged.

In mid-January 1941, the X. Fliegerkorps flew heavy air raids on the port city of La Valletta in Malta, which hit both the port and ships and forced the British fleet to retreat to Alexandria in Egypt , but also the dive bombers of the German Fliegerkorps suffered heavy losses the attacks. From January 29, 1941, bombers of the X. Air Corps repeatedly threw mines into the Suez Canal , thereby obstructing shipping traffic in the Canal. In February 1941 the Corps flew heavy air strikes on Malta to prevent British intervention against the transfer of the Africa Corps from Italy to Libya . From June 1941, the X. Air Corps was stationed in Greece , an operational area that remained relatively quiet for the next two years.

For the conquest of the Dodecanese Islands off the west coast of Turkey, after the capitulation of Italy ( fall axis ) on September 8, 1943, the X. Air Corps was reinforced by air force units from France , Germany and Russia , which achieved an air superiority over the British troops who occupied the Italian islands in the Aegean Sea, the Dodecanese, in September 1943. By the end of November 1943, the Wehrmacht had successfully conquered these islands and Samos . The battle for the Aegean Islands was the last major operation of the X. Air Corps.

On February 10, 1944, the staff of the X. Fliegerkorps was divided: part of it remained in Greece and was combined with the Feldluftgau Command XXIX to form the commanding general of the German Air Force in Greece , the remaining part was only transferred to Angers in western France and there united with the Fliegerführer Atlantik staff to form the X. Fliegerkorps. This moved to Germany in August 1944, where it was disbanded on September 5, 1944.

Subordinate associations

April 9, 1940
(Northern Germany)
Operation Weser Exercise
Staff, I., II. And III./Kampfgeschwader 4
staff, I., II. And III./Kampfgeschwader 26
staff, I., II. And
III./Kampfgeschwader 30 Kü.Fl.Gr. 506 with 1st and 2nd / Kü.Fl.Gr. 506, 1./Kü.Fl.Gr. 106
Air transport group land with Kgr. Z. b. V. 101, 102 , 103, 104, 105 , 106 , 107
Combat Squadron z. b. V. 1 with I., II., III. and IV./KG z. b. V. 1
Kampfgruppe 100
I./Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 		II./Jagdgeschwader 77
I./Zerstörergeschwader 76
1st (F) / 120
1st (F) / 122
Kgr. b. V. 108
Air Force News Department 40
Feldluftgau z. b. V. 200
Feldluftgau z. b. V. 300
I./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1
May 10, 1940
(Norway, Denmark)
II./Kampfgeschwader 26
I./Kampfgeschwader 40
II./Jagdgeschwader 77
2./Zerstörergeschwader 76
2. (H) / 10		 Kgr. Z. b. V. 108
Weather investigation chain X. FlK.
Courier
Squadron X. FlK Air Force Intelligence Division 40
August 13, 1940
(Norway, Denmark)
Battle of Britain
Staff, I. and III./Kampfgeschwader 26
Staff, I. and
III./Kampfgeschwader 30 I./Zerstörergeschwader 76
Staff, I. and II./Jagdgeschwader 77
Kü.Fl.Gr 506		 3. (F) /Ob.dL
1. (F) / 120
1. (F) / 121
Agr (F) / 22
Weather investigation chain X. FlK
Air Force Intelligence Department 40
June 22, 1941
(Greece, Libya)
Fliegerführer Afrika
III./Lehrgeschwader 1
I./Sturzkampfgeschwader 1
II./Sturzkampfgeschwader 2
III./Zerstörergeschwader 26
I./Jagdgeschwader 27
7./Jagdgeschwader 26
I./Nachtjagdgeschwader 3
2. (F) / 123
Liaison Squadron Fl.F. Afrika
Kurierstaffel Fl.F. Africa		 Staff, I. and II./Lehrgeschwader 1, II./Kampfgeschwader 26
Staff and I./Sturzkampfgeschwader 3
Kampfgeschwader z. b. V. 1 with I., II. And III./KG z. b. V. 1, Kgr. Z. b. V. 172
Reconnaissance Group 126
11./Lehrgeschwader 1
12./Lehrgeschwader 1
Air Force Intelligence Department 40
June 28, 1942
(Greece)
Staff, I. and II./Lehrgeschwader 1
Reconnaissance Group 126
II./Kampfgeschwader 100		 2. (F) / 123
Jagdkommando Kreta
Kurierstaffel X. FlK
Air Force News Department 40
November 10, 1943
(Greece, Albania, Croatia)
Staff, I. and II./Lehrgeschwader 1
I. I. Staff and III./Schlachtgeschwader 3
Staff, I. and II./Transportgeschwader 4
Night Reconnaissance Group 2
Sea Reconnaissance Group 126
II./Kampfgeschwader 51 		15./Kampfgeschwader 53
5./Kampfgeschwader 100
11./Zerstörergeschwader 26
2. (F) / 122
2. (F) / 123
2./SAGr. 125
1st sea transport relay
June 6, 1944
(France)
Staff, I., II., And III./Kampfgeschwader 40
long-range reconnaissance group 5		 Liaison Squadron
X. FlK Courier
Squadron X. FlK Air Force Intelligence Department 40

Commanding generals

literature

  • Rudi Schmidt: Attention - torpedoes go! Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, no year, ISBN 3-86070-802-3 .
  • Eisenbach, Hans Peter: Front operations of a Stuka pilot - Mediterranean and Eastern Front 1943/44 - Helios Verlag. The book shows the missions of I./StG 3 (Megara) in the Battle of the Aegean in 1943.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marine Review. Issue 6/1958, ES Mittler & Sohn, p. 301.
  2. ↑ Rudi Schmidt: Attention - Torpedoes go! Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, without a year. ISBN 3-86070-802-3 . P. 52.
  3. ^ Peter C. Smith: Stuka. The history of the Junkers Ju 87. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87943-291-0 . P. 64.
  4. ↑ J. Rohwer / G. Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching, without a year. ISBN 3-88199-009-7 . Pages 94-95.
  5. ↑ J. Rohwer, G. Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching, without a year. ISBN 3-88199-009-7 . Pp. 99 and 103.
  6. ^ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : Air War 1939–1945. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-01502-9 . P. 270.
  7. ↑ Peter Schenk: Battle for the Aegean. Verlag Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0699-8 , pp. 61-62.
  8. ^ Leo Niehorster : Scandinavian Campaign, German Airforce, Order of Battle X Air Corps April 9, 1940 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  9. ^ Leo Niehorster: Battle for France, German Order of Battle, 5th Air Force, X Air Corps May 10, 1940 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ Ulf Balke: The aerial warfare in Europe 1939-1941 . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-86047-591-6 , p. 408-413 (1057 pp.).
  11. ^ Leo Niehorster: German Air Force, Order of Battle, X Air Corps, June 22, 1941 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  12. ^ Leo Niehorster: German Air Force, Order of Battle, 2nd Air Fleet, X Air Corps June 28, 1942 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  13. ^ Leo Niehorster: German Air Force, Order of Battle, Air Force Command Southeast, X Air Corps, November 10, 1943 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  14. ↑ Leo Niehorster: German Air Force, Order of Battle, 3rd Air Fleet, X Air Corps, June 6, 1944 , accessed on May 6, 2015.
  15. ↑ Fiebig remained in Greece as the commander of the Air Force Command Southeast. Stefan Fröhlich led the corps in France.