Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

Discussions on all (non-biographical) aspects of the Luftwaffe air units and general discussions on the Luftwaffe.
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T. A. Gardner
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Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

#1

Post by T. A. Gardner » 02 Mar 2006, 19:18

Anyone either have or know a source that gives the TO&E for Luftwaffe squadron and group manpower and equipment? I am interested in what support these units had on the ground.

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Helvik
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#2

Post by Helvik » 03 Mar 2006, 00:27

Try here for general information:

Jagdwaffe Structure


Larry D.
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Re: Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

#3

Post by Larry D. » 03 Mar 2006, 02:36

T. A. Gardner wrote:Anyone either have or know a source that gives the TO&E for Luftwaffe squadron and group manpower and equipment? I am interested in what support these units had on the ground.
The Luftwaffe air unit KStN and KAN tables themselves did not for the most part survive the war. A.I.12 (Post-Hostilities)/British Air Ministry Directoriate of Intelligence put a list of the thousands of titles together after the war, but these wouldn't be of much help to you. However, some long-ignored microfilms in the Captured German and Japanese Air Technical Documents collection in possession of the Smithsonian NASM in WashDC may contain some of them. This material is only just now being catalogued by German interns and volunteers, so I can't say specifically which KStN tables are present in the collection.

--Larry

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Christoph Awender
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#4

Post by Christoph Awender » 03 Mar 2006, 03:31

Hello

I have one of a Jagdstaffel on my site
http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/kstn/jagdstaffel15.htm

\Christoph

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T. A. Gardner
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Thanks

#5

Post by T. A. Gardner » 03 Mar 2006, 04:14

Thank you helvic but I was looking for the ground support elements not the aircraft ones. Christoph, thank you very much. If yours is accurate then it tells me that the individual squadrons only had ground support for routine maintenance and supply. They lacked the ability to perform heavy duty repairs and overhaul of aircraft if I read things right.
The Werkstat 'abteilung' (I use the later loosely) appears to have only one workshop vehicle and a handful of trucks for spares. The small amount of manpower overseen by a single Beamter tends to confirm this conclusion as well. There just are not enough skilled maintenance men to do more than basic "check the tires and change the oil" type maintenance.
So, my next question is: At what level in the orgainzation do these maintenance assets exist?

The reason for my interest is to compare Luftwaffe unit maintenance to RAF and USAAF maintenance orgainzations. So far just my cursory review shows the Luftwaffe is very ill-equipped at the squadron and group level compared to the other two organizations. The USAAF includes a fairly large and well equipped maintenance section in their squadrons complete with mobile machine shop, insturment shop, cranes etc. Hence my interest in where these things exist, if they do, in the Luftwaffe when it is not operating out of a well equipped airfield like in Russia or North Africa.

Next up will be to try and see what effect this has on readiness, operation levels and, non-combat loss rates.

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#6

Post by Larry D. » 03 Mar 2006, 15:22

Mr. Gardner -

This is an enormous and complex subject area that most Luftwaffe researchers are completely oblivious to because of its general lack of interest. They say the organizational history of aircraft maintenance in the Luftwaffe is not “sexy”.

Here is an overview of the structure:

Flughafenbetriebskompanien (Airfield Servicing Companies)
7 or 8 per Geschwader until Jan 43, then 3 or 4 per Geschwader. These were the servicing and repair companies that traveled with the Gruppen from base-to-base and took care of the aircraft. They did all repairs that normally took not more that 48 hours. There were around 350 of them at peak, including an additional independent series of these for specialized tasks. After Jan 43, 54 of them were reorganized as Flughafen-Betr.Kp. (Qu) and no longer traveled with a specific unit, but rather were stationary at key designated airfields. These were numbered 101. through 154. In Feb 45, these were renamed Flugzeug-Wartungskompanie (mot.).

Feldwerftverbände (Field Workshop Units)
There were 9 of these (numbered 10, 20, etc. thru 90) with each having 3 to 5 leichte or schwere Abteilungen of 300 to 400 personnel. These were assigned at the Fliegerkorps level and did aircraft repairs that normally took 3 to 10 days to complete. Some of the Abteilungen specialized in fuselages and some in engines. There was an additional independent series of these called Feldwerft-Abt.d.Lw., Feldwerft-Abt.d.Lw. z.b.V., schwere Feldwerft-Abt.d.Lw., etc.

Werftabteilungen (Workshop Detachments)
KStN 1345 (L) with an allowance of 17 officers and Beamte, 165 NCOs and men plus 75 civilians. These came into existence in 1944 by reorganizing and making independent the Fliegerhorstwerften that were previously a component of the Fliegerhorstkommandanturen. Their task was the repair of damaged aircraft with a probable repair or modification time of between 3 and 10 days. There were more than 500 of these. There was an additional independent series of these called Werftkommando d.Lw., Werftkompanie d.Lw., Werftzug d.Lw., etc.

Other Types of Aircraft Repair and Maintenance Units:
Fliegerwerkstatt-Kp.,
Fliegerwerkstatt-Zug,
Flugzeug-Funkwart-Kp.,
Sonderwerkstatt,
Lufttorpedozug,
Luftminenzug,
Lufttorpedo-Betriebs-Kp.,
Instandsetzungs-Werkstatt für Flugzeug Bodengerät,
Waffen-Instandsetzungstrupp,
Motor-Instandsetzungs-Zug,
Bodengeräte-Instandsetzungstrupp,
Flieger-Bodengerätetrupp,
Fl.Wintersondergeräte-Zug,
etc., etc.

Aircraft that could not be repaired in the field by Luftwaffe personnel and required depot-level maintenance were sent to a Frontreparaturbetrieb (GL) (Front Repair Workshop) organized and staffed by civilian engineers and craftsmen provided by the aircraft manufacturers and contractors, i.e., Junkers, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Daimler-Benz, Siebel, Ago, Espenlaub, etc. At peak, these numbered around 100 and ranged from a couple of hundred employees all the way up to a couple of thousand.

After the war, the A.I.12/Air Ministry sent intelligence “parties” into the Reich to investigate every aspect of the Luftwaffe by interviewing hundreds of former Luftwaffe officers and exploiting what documents could be found. Throughout the fall of 1945, all of 1946 and much of 1947, A.I.12 issued hundreds of studies on every imaginable aspect of the Luftwaffe and range from a modest 30 to 35 pages all the way up to multi-part studies of 450 pages per part. Here’s an example of one:

A.I.12/USAFE/M.24. Air Ministry/USAFE. Intelligence Party (OKL). Intelligence Report No. 24, 5 September 1945. Aircraft Maintenance and Repair Units. There are a good 25 to 30 of these studies just on the repair and maintenance of aircraft in the Luftwaffe. Each is highly detailed and complete with charts and tables.

Most of the A.I.12 studies are available at the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama, and complete runs are available at both the U.S. National Archives in WashDC and the U.K. National Archives on London.

Note: you will not find the detailed information you seek in books or on the internet.

--Larry

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SES
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#7

Post by SES » 04 Mar 2006, 11:39

Hi Larry,
Another one of your posts which I have saved for posterity. No operation can be conducted without command, control, communications and logistics. So to the serious researcher all of these topics ought to be equally sexy - but I know what you mean.
bregds
SES

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#8

Post by Larry D. » 04 Mar 2006, 14:35

Right on the mark, SES. Like you, I sure wish more researchers would broaden their interests to include the command, control, communications and logistics aspects of the Luftwaffe. Personally, I've always found all of it quite interesting, and I know you have, too. :D

Best,

--Larry

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#9

Post by SES » 04 Mar 2006, 15:54

Well Larry,
We have an unfair advantages compared to some other researchers - we have been there and done it, and suffered if these issues were not properly addressed.
bregds
SES

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Re: Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

#10

Post by mikeshilton » 26 Aug 2009, 18:55

Hello Larry, I am interested in looking through the A.I 12 USAFE/Air Ministry files that you mention and was wondering if you or any one else had actually accessed them at the National Archives at Kew in London. I phoned their collections department today, but they weren't sure if they had them, or where they might be, the class lists don't have much detail in the description, apparently they use what is on the cover of the original document as the title, so a file could come across with the Title "Luftwaffe" and could contain a large amount of documents, but all that would be in their class listing is "LUFTWAFFE". If any one could give me the "AIR" file reference, I would be very grateful.

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Re: Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

#11

Post by Larry D. » 26 Aug 2009, 19:49

Hopefully, one of your own people will chime in and give you some guidance, Mike. I'm afraid I'm a colonial residing on the other side of the pond, hence no experience with the PRO, now known as the [British] National Archives.

Sorry, and I wish you good fortune with your searches.

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Re: Luftwaffe squadron and group organization

#12

Post by mikeshilton » 26 Aug 2009, 21:15

Hello Larry, thanks for the fast reply, I've put a post on the "12 O'clock High Luftwaffe Forum", hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction, Regards, Mike.

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