Destroyer Squadron 26 "Horst Wessel"
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Destroyer Squadron 26 |
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|---|---|
| active | May 1, 1939 to March 22, 1944 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | air force |
| Branch of service | Air force |
| Type | Destroyer squadron |
| structure | Squadron staff and 4 groups |
| Installation site | Dortmund |
| Nickname | "Horst Wessel Squadron" |
| Patron saint | Horst Wessel |
| Aircraft type | Messerschmitt Bf 110 , Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Arado Ar 68 , Junkers Ju 88 , Messerschmitt Me 410 |
| Squadron commodors | |
| First commodore | Colonel Kurt Bertram von Döring |
| Last commodore | Lieutenant colonel Johann Kogler |
| insignia | |
| Sleeve stripes |
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The destroyer squadron 26 "Horst Wessel" (ZG 26) was a traditional squadron of the Luftwaffe during World War II . It emerged from the 1935 Jagdgeschwader 134 (JG 134), which in 1936 was nicknamed " Horst Wessel ". After his violent death on February 23, 1930, as a member of the SA , a paramilitary fighting organization of the NSDAP , he was transfigured by the National Socialists as a “ martyr of the movement ”.
history
- Jagdgeschwader 134 "Horst Wessel"
For Adolf Hitler's birthday on April 20, 1935, JG 134 was set up, the first aircraft equipment of which was handed over by SA Chief of Staff Viktor Lutze as a "military gift of the SA". The Jagdgeschwader 134 was given the nickname "Horst Wessel" on March 24, 1936. It was renamed "Destroyer Wing 142 Horst Wessel" on November 1, 1938.
- First line-up of ZG 26 ( squadron recognition U8)
On May 1, 1939, the squadron was given the final designation "Destroyer Squadron 26 Horst Wessel" (ZG 26 "Horst Wessel"). During the time of the attack on Poland , the entire unit was stationed in the west and served there for air defense, including over the German Bight . The squadron took part in the campaign against France in 1940, a larger part of which was in Rouen for a few weeks , and took part in the air raids on Great Britain in 1940/1941 . The staff was in 1940 in Lille-Nord for a long time . In 1941 missions took place in Russia and after 1941 partly in Italy and Africa . In April 1942, the crews of the squadron staff and the I and II groups, who were fit to fly at night, were retrained for night hunting and formed the core of the newly established Night Fighter Wing 4 (NJG 4). The remaining crews were transferred to destroyer squadrons 1 and 2. The destroyer squadron 26 was thus effectively dissolved, only the III. Gruppe continued to use the name ZG 26 in the Mediterranean region.
- Second list of ZG 26 (squadron recognition 3U)
To strengthen the defense of the Reich, a new destroyer squadron 26 was set up in Wunstorf and Bad Lippspringe in the summer of 1943 from the staff of ZG 2, III./ZG 26 and III./ZG 1 . In March 1944 the relocation to Königsberg in the Neumark took place . In June 1944, a fourth group equipped with Bf 110 and Ju 88C was set up, which then converted to the Me 410 in November 1944 . Towards the end of the war it was taken over by Jagdgeschwader 5 as its 2nd group.
- End as a fighter squadron 6
At the beginning of August 1944, the I. and II. Groups moved to Prowehren in East Prussia in the area of Air Fleet 6 . The squadron was equipped with Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and was given the name Jagdgeschwader 6 "Horst Wessel".
Commanders
Commodore
- Colonel Kurt Bertram von Döring, May 1, 1939
- Lieutenant Colonel Joachim-Friedrich Huth , December 14, 1939
- Colonel Johann Schalk, November 1, 1940
- Lieutenant Colonel Karl Boehm-Tettelbach, October 1943
- Lieutenant Colonel Johann Kogler, June 1944
Group commanders
I. group
- May 1, 1939 - Captain Karl Kaschka
- Jan. 27, 1940 - Captain Wilhelm Makrocki
- May 1941 - Captain Herbert Kaminski
- Late 1941 - Captain Wilhelm Spies
II group
- May 1, 1939 - Major Friedrich Vollbracht
- April 1940 - Captain Ralph von Rettberg
- Oct. 11, 1943 - Captain Eduard Tratt
III. group
- May 1, 1939 - Captain Johannes Schalk
- September 1, 1940 - Major Karl Kaschka
- Dec. 04, 1941 - Captain Thomas Steinberger
- December 25, 1941 - Captain Georg Christl
- July 12, 1943 - Major Fritz Schulze-Dickow
- February 11, 1944 - unknown
- June 2, 1944 - Captain Werner Thierfelder
- July 18, 1944 - unknown
IV. Group
- unknown
Known squadron members
- Werner Guth (1917-2005), was from 1961 to 1970 as colonel the first commodore of Lufttransportgeschwader 62 and from 1971 to 1977 commander of the air transport command
literature
- Wolfgang Dierich (Hrsg.): The associations of the air force. 1935-1945. Outlines and short chronicles. A documentation. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-87943-437-9 .
Web links
- The traditional Wehrmacht squadrons (PDF file; 25 kB), www.bundesarchiv.de, accessed on June 26, 2011
Individual evidence
- ^ Federal Archives Online ( Memento from April 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Jochen Prien, Gerhard Stemmer, Peter Rodeike, Winfried Bock: The fighter pilot's associations of the German Air Force 1934 to 1945. Volume 1: Pre-war period and deployment over Poland - 1934 to 1939. Struve's printing and publishing house, Eutin 2000, ISBN 3-923457-54- 5 , pp. 333 to 365.