Info on Several Units

[Frank Schneider]

Hi all,

last week my dad and I got a letter from the WASt in Berlin, with info about (grand-)dad. Would like some more info on the Units if you have. There are several:

- Aufklärungsstaffel 1 (H)/23 - where and when and what. Don't know anything about this

- Grenadier Ersatzbataillon 118 - Kaiserslautern, ......

- Grenadier-Regiment 670, part of the 371. Infanterie-Division; got info on the Division via Feldgrau.com, but nothing on the Regiment

- Last but certainly not the least! - Kampfgruppe Karst; read on the web that this was a get-together of SS, Heer and Police, to keep open the valeys from the Balkan into Austria, to get the German troops out of there, so they could surrender to the Western Akkies instead of the Russians.

Any info in these would be highly appreciated by me and my dad.

Kind regards,
Frank.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Frank, a quich Google brought this up on the 371 Inf Div:

http://www.371id.de/haupt.htm

and here for Grenadier Ersatzbataillon 118

http://www.weisse-kaserne.de/historientext2.html

You might find it of interest?

Aufklärungsstaffel 1 (H)/23 I think you will find is a Luftwaffe unit? I am sure Larry and Simon will be able to tell you much more.

Cheers, Ade.

[Larry deZeng]

Frank - since you didn't specify the date(s) your grandpa was with 1.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 23, I will have to give you the whole thing:

1.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 23
Code: (6K + )

also as: 1.(H)/23 (Pz)



Formation and Training. (Nov 38 - Aug 39)
Formed 1 November 1938 at Eschwege/40 km SE of Kassel (new) with Henschel Hs 126s.

West. (Sep 39 - May 40)
1.9.39: ordered from Eschwege to Pferdsfeld/12 km NE of Kirn in the Rheinpfalz with 12 Hs 126s on receipt of the 26 August general mobilization order, and assigned to support Generalkommando (General Headquarters) Saarpfalz.
11.10.39: Hs 126 shot up and damaged by French fighters west of Zweibrücken, Oblt. Fritz Möller WIA.
23.10.39: Hs 126 B-1 hit by French AA-fire SW of Zweibrücken, 1 WIA.
11.39 – 4.40: Staffel activity and location not known, but probably remained in the same general area engaged in training and reduced operations due to the poor flying weather during the winter months.

West - Attack on France and the Low Countries. (May 40 - c.Oct 40)
10.5.40: Aachen area under Koluft AOK 6 for the campaign in the West commencing this date, and assigned to support XXVII. Armeekorps along the line of advance Aachen area - Liège - Namur - Lille - Dunkirk area.
12.5.40: Hs 126 shot down by a Hurricane over Liège, 100%.
15.5.40: Hs 126 shot down by a French fighter over Namur, 100%.
16.5.40: Hs 126 shot down by AA-fire over Namur, 100%.
5.6.40: Hs 126 shot down over Caceles, 100%.
22.6.40: after the armistice was signed on this date, the Staffel did not remain in France for long before it was ordered to the Vienna area to begin training with the 9. Panzer-Division.

Balkan Campaign. (Apr 41 - May 41)
7.11.40: a Hs 126 crew member was accidentally thrown from the plane and injured at Maria-Ellend, a small village just east of Vienna-Schwechat.
2.41: transferred with 9th Panzer Division to Romania at the end of February, and then to Bulgaria in March.
6.4.41: Bulgaria under Koluft AOK 12 for the attack on Yugoslavia and Greece this date, and assigned to support 9th Panzer Division along a line of advance from the Kr.Palanka area on the Bulgarian-Macedonian border - Skopje - Bitola - across the Yugoslav-Greek border - Larisa - Volos.
6.4.41: Hs 126 (6K+EH) failed to return from a recce mission over the Kr.Palanka area/ENE of Skopje, 100%, Hptm. Hans Hoffmann + 1 MIA.
19.4.41: Hs 126 (6K+AH) shot down by Hurricanes in the Lamia area, 100%.
5.41: transferred from northeastern Greece to Silesia on conclusion of the campaign, and then to southeastern Poland in June.

South Russia. (Jun 41 - Sep 42)
22.6.41: SE Poland under Koluft Panzergruppe 1/Army Group South for the attack on the Soviet Union this date assigned to support 9th Panzer Division along a line of attack Tomaszow/SE Poland (28 June) - Tarnopol - Belaya Tserkov/Ukraine (16 July) - Kirovograd (9 August) - Krivoy Rog - Zaporozhye - Dnepropetrovsk (25 August and the encirclement battle around Kiev (September).
10.41: reassigned from 9th Panzer Div. to XIV. Armeekorps (mot)/1st Panzer Army, and advanced southeast for the attack on Rostov (November-December) and the assumption of winter positions along the Mius River in the vicinity of Taganrog (January - May 1942).
6.41 – 1.42: aside from the Carl-Hans Hermann history of the 9th Pz.Div., there are no loss report entries for the Staffel during this period or other resources available to determine its location and activities.
7.2.42: Hs 126 crash landed at Karakubstroi airfield (Crimea?), 30%.
1.3.42: Staffel reported 5 x Hs 126 B-1 on strength.
17.3.42: Hs 126 (6K+AH) shot down near Golobovka (Go1ubovka/60 km NE of Dnepropetrovsk?), 100%, Hptm. Ihno Kaster + 1 KIA.
4.42: assigned to Nahaufklärungsgruppe 1 on or about 19 April 1942.
31.5.42: Stalino area under NAGr. 1.
7.42: transferred from South Russia to the Reich in summer 1942 for conversion to the Fw. 189 and then renamed 1./NAGr. 13 in September or October 1942. One postwar source states that the conversion took place at Fp. St.-Brieuc in Brittany/France, but this cannot be confirmed. By 1 September this conversion was well underway, but the Staffel still had its Henschels. On this date it reported 2 x Fw 189 A-2, 8 x Fw 189 A-3 and 7 x Hs 126 B-1 on strength. The Henschels were turned in before the end of the month.

FpN: 1.(H)/23 (L 16202).

Staffelkapitän:
Maj. Franz Nistler ( ? - ? ) 1938-39
Maj. Heinz Heinsius ( ? - ? ) 9/39
Hptm. Ihno Köster (?) ( ? - 17 Mar 42)


© by Henry L. deZeng IV (Work in Progress).
(1st Draft 2007)


Sources:
J.-P.Défieux - Répertoire des Unités Aériennes de la Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Reconnaissance Aéronavale (Nanterre, privately published, n.d. (c 1988-90?); K.Ries - Luftwaffen Story 1935-1939; Tessin, Georg, Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939: Altes Heer, Freiwilligenverbände, Reichswehr, Heer, Luftwaffe, Landespolizei; G.Tessin - Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945, 16+ Bde., Teil 14: Die Luftstreitkräfte (Osnabrück, 1980); W.Dierich - Die Verbände der Luftwaffe 1935-1945: Gliederungen und Kurzchroniken – Eine Dokumentation; N.Kannapin - Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht 1939-1945; U.Balke - Der Luftkrieg in Europa: Die Operativen Einsätze des Kampfgeschwader 2 im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Teil I, p.397; C-H.Hermann - Die 9. Panzerdivision 1939-1945: Bewaffnung – Einsätze – Männer (Friedberg: Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, n.d. (c. 1982)); C.Shores et al - Air War For Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete 1940-41, p.180; AFHRA Maxwell decimal Karlsruhe Collection KC-Kl13.309-3/ v.1; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-312 roll 160/897, roll 568 frames 314-19 “Genst.d.Heeres/Org.Abt.(II) Nr.1483/42g.Kdos., 19.4.1942” order setting up the Nahaufklärungsgruppen); (T-314 roll 485); BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); BA-MA Freiburg: Flugzeug-Bereitstellungen (Aircraft Availability Status Reports – FzB) in: M.Holm-website (ww2.dk).

If you have any information regarding his service with 1.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 23, I would appreciate knowing about it.

--Larry

[Frank Schneider]

Ade, most people on this Forum are , but there are some people on this forum that are downright ..... And you are one of them! Thanks for this quick response, really do appreciate this.

Frank.

Hi Frank, a quich Google brought this up on the 371 Inf Div:

http://www.371id.de/haupt.htm

and here for Grenadier Ersatzbataillon 118

http://www.weisse-kaserne.de/historientext2.html

You might find it of interest?

Aufklärungsstaffel 1 (H)/23 I think you will find is a Luftwaffe unit? I am sure Larry and Simon will be able to tell you much more.

Cheers, Ade.

[Frank Schneider]

Larry,

- where do you have this info ready at such a short notice! Amazing what you have here. My granddad was there in the early days, later transferred to the Heer.

The data regarding his deployment is very scarce, probably a lot got lost during bombings and the ground battles (their house was right in the Siegfried Line).

Thanks for all this input.

Frank.