KG200, Facts & Fiction

German Luftwaffe 1935-1945.
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panzermahn
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KG200, Facts & Fiction

Post by panzermahn »

Hello all,

Image

I have been looking for books and articles on KG200 and I couldn't believed that there so few books written about KG 200. The only book written about KG 200 was by one P.W. Stahl who was a detachment commander in this unit. And it is said that the KG200's commander, Werner Baumbach didn't even mentioned about KG200 in his memoirs. So I hoped this topic would be made sticky and hopefully other folks would add more information on this topic

Okay here are some little snippets I got from other books on KG200

1. KG 200 was a secret Luftwaffe unit formed to carry out insertion of agents in enemy territory, enemy aircraft evaluation, evaluating experimental German aircraft technology

2. KG 200 pilots in fact flown numerous Allied aircrafts from British Spitfires, 4 engine American Flying Fortresses, Russian P-2 etc

3. KG 200 had its genesis from the Geschwader Rowehl formed by Theodore Rowehl, who flew Lufthansa civilian aircrafts taking aerial photographs in Poland and Russia in the 1930s.

4. Perry Biddiscombe wrote that for Unternehmen Karneval (the assassination on the Mayor of Aachen, Franz Oppenhoff), a B-17 Flying fortress (was it Phyllies Marie?) were flown by KG 200 and dropped 3 Nazi agents near Aachen

5. KG 200 aircrafts was used to dropped German saboteurs and agents into Russia in the SD-led Unternehmen Zeppelin but a lot of the agents and crews were captured/killed because they were betrayed by high-placed Soviet agents in the German command

6. KG 200 aircrafts were also used to send supplies to trapped German groups such as fictional KG Scherhorn in Byelorussia as well as German fortresses in the West (Dunkirk, Metz, Brest) and in the East (Breslau)

7. KG 200 also held under its command the Sonderkommando 'Elbe' and Leonidas', German kamikaze squadrons

8. KG 200 was nominally under Luftwaffe command but its operations were decided by the RSHA and SD/Ausland section headed by Walter Schellenberg, and later by Otto Skorzeny, King of German commando operations


Please add more if anyone knew more.

Also, I wonder if the Bundesarchiv Koblenz/Freiburg kept the archives of KG200 (command roster/ OoBs, equipment lists, aircrafts lists, operational reports, flight logs etc)

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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

Post by PA. Dutchman »

Here are a few links that cover the subject of the KG200

http://www.kg200.org/historyac1.html

(This link has a number of actual photos of the B-17s used by Germany during the war.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LR ... tress.html

(This link names a number of the B-17s captured and used by Germany)

(http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/foreign.html

(This link has links to many of the captured Allied Fighters and Bombers flown by Germany during WWII)

http://www.2worldwar2.com/kg200.htm

Allied bombers in Luftwaffe service

During the war, the Luftwaffe downed many allied bombers over German held territory. Others landed because of technical problems. Some of these bombers remained flyable. Initially these captured bombers, such as American B-17s and B-24s and Russian Pe-2s and Tupolevs and other aircraft, were flown by the Luftwaffe for studying their capabilities for intelligence and technological analysis. These test-flown bombers were given Luftwaffe markings, like the one in the picture above.
Later, KG 200 began to use these captured long range bombers for its top secret missions. With the increasing air superiority of allied air forces, the German retreats, and the increasing use of RADAR and RADAR-equipped night fighters, it became ever harder for the German bombers to fly deep into allied airspace. Flying long-ranged captured allied bombers instead of the smaller and shorter range German bombers was a perfect solution for the Luftwaffe. These bombers could fly further and could fly over the most protected allied targets, day and night, without being even shot at, as they looked and sounded exactly like allied bombers. It was the perfect equivalent of the stealth bomber. The captured allied bombers used by KG 200 were not given German markings and remained with their original allied colors and markings for complete day or night deception of allied pilots and anti-aircraft gunners which saw them. They could fly anywhere, day or night, make aerial photos, drop agents, bomb targets, track allied bomber formations and constantly report their exact position and altitude without being intercepted by their fighter escorts, etc, etc, and so they did.
Bomber-size missiles
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

Post by PA. Dutchman »

Flown by 2nd Lt. William E. Roach of 358th Squadron/355th Fighter Group/8th Air Force. Roach was on his third mission on November 7, 1943 while escorting B-17's of the 8th Airforce's 1st and 3rd Air Divisions. Becoming disoriented in poor weather, with fuel running low and after watching the squadron leader crash land, Roach began looking for an suitable airfield for an emergency landing. Lt. Roach spotted a field and landed, followed a vehicle to a parking place and shut down. Only then did Roach realize the people surrounding the plane were Germans! Lt. Roach spent the remainder of the war at Stalag Luft I and had provided the Luftwaffe with it's first intact P-47F-2-RA (42-22490).
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

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B-17F-27-BO "Wulf Hound"

First Fortress captured by Germans was B-17F-27-BO "Wulf Hound" (41-24585) from 360BS 303BG "Hell's Angels". Damaged by German fighters during bombing run 12th of December 1942 and heavily damaged during return flight by Bf 110 from NJG 1. Pilot of B-17 Lieutenant Flickinger was forced to landing on Leeuwarden airfield in Netherland. Plane was repaired and two days later (after adding German national insignia) with cover of two Bf 110 flew to Rechlin. Aircraft was tested and later had tournee in Germany and France in different fighter units. Pilots could recognize strong and weak points of Flying Fortress and could better fought with them. Plane was exhibited at Lärz airfield in 12th of June 1943 during exhibition of captured Allied planes. Together with B-17F other planes such as B-24, P-47D, P-51, P-38, Avro Lancaster, DH Mosquito, Typhoon and Spitfire were shown. "Wulf Hound" come back to Rechlin in July 1943 and was used in trials with DFS 230 glider. German engineers still examined technical data and engineering. Plane was transferred to KG 200 in September 1943 and coded A3+AE. Below you may see some photos made between June and September 1943 during trials in Rechlin.
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

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Supermarine Spitfire in Germna Luftwaffe Nazi markings

During the war it was inevitable that Allied aircraft would fall into the hands of the Luftwaffe or its allies due to accidents , pilot error, or from careful reconstructions of crashed aircraft.
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

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Captured Douglas DC-2,

NA+LA, used by the German General Christiansen as his personal Transport in 1940. This DC-2 was at Schiphol, Amstrerdam airport, previously flying with KLM with the civil codes PH-AKT.
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

Post by redcoat »

Of the 6 B-17's known to have been used by KG 200, one crashed into a hill in fog("Wulf Hound") , one was shot down by a RAF Mosquito night fighter while on a supply drop to Brest in late 44, and two were shot down in error by German flak guns.
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Re: KG200, Facts & Fiction

Post by Simon_G »

During the War up until 1944 at least one Fw200B aicraft converted to Fw200K standard was operated by Kommando Rowehl 1.(F)/Ob.d.L (Luftflotte 2) - predecessor to KG200 on special communication flights to Harbin in Manchukuo (Manchuria)

When the OSS parachuted the Operation Flamingo team into Harbin (Operation Cardinal to Mukden) to liberate Allied prisoners of War they received accounts of sightings of this Fw200 seen at Harbin.

What is known about this aircraft is that it may have been one of three Fw200K aircraft. One we do know of was W.Nr.200 0001 the first Fw200 B1 or the V4 prototype, with military markings BS+AF.

This aircraft met with a mishap at Jever on 23 November 1939 when two port engines failed in a take-off run, however the aircraft was repaired and then converted with two extra fuel tanks to provide a range of 5,000nm using the civil registration D-ACWG.

Possibly two sister Fw200K aircraft are also identified using the civil registrations D-AIIN and D-ANVI.

D-ACWG and masqueraded as a Deutsch Luft Hansa (DLH) aircraft “Holstein” and on missions to Japan it was flown by pilot ObLt Wolfgang Nebel and navigator RLM Flug Kapitan Vogel.
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