Moderator: Tom Houlihan
. Anyway could a Luftwaffe's Major command a Heer's Flak Abteilung?Rudolf von Minden. Promoted to Oberst 1.10.1942. Spent the rest of the war in the Abt. Flak/Aviation Technical Equipment in HQ OKL. I don't know which Flak-Abt. he commanded during the Polish Campaign.
![:[]](./images/smilies/icon_study.gif "Study"){kind=icon}
Yes, Tom, the Wehrmacht made wide use of Verbindungsoffiziere whereby a Luftwaffe officer was attached as liaison to a Heeres- command and vice versa. So, theoretically, Luftwaffe Maj. Rudolf von Minden could have been attached to Heeres-Flak-Regimentsstab 11 or to any of its three Abteilungen.......could not an Army Flak officer be assigned an Air Force Flak HQ as liaison or something like that?
. Leo and the Shadow got their info from me and I mis-read the OB charts. After going back and re-checking the OBs I have for the 3rd Army, it seems the battalion should be the III/111, not the III/11. That might be the battalion everybody is looking for. Now I will have to tell Leo and the Shadow to change their info and on top of it all it's wrong in my book. I apologize to one and all.
. Also thanks to Lorenz for the additional info on the flak battalion. It's hard to find information on Luftwaffe units and any additional info is most welcome. Antiaircraft Artillery in the Polish Campaign The Experience of an Antiaircraft Battalion (Die Flakartillerie in Polenfeldzug, gemessen an dem Erfahrugen eine Flakabteilung, by Major V. Minden. Military Review, Sep 1940)During one gloomy, drizzling morning, when the clouds lay but six hundred feet above a small Polish city and no one had expected the approach of a hostile plane, the sound of an engine was suddenly heard and for a moment an airplane flew ghost-like along the lower edge of the clouds. Instantly the airplane alarm signal was sounded. In the fog the nationality of the plane could not be determined, but the shadowy outline well fixed in our memory, indicated it to be a single-seater pursuit PZL. The few seconds available were sufficient to enable two guns to get into action with the result that both guns fired a total of forty rounds before the plane disappeared from sight. A few seconds later we received one congratulatory message from the I Corps for bringing down the plane.
A Motorized Reconnaissance Detachment in the Polish Campaign.Other than exchange of artillery fire, 2 september was uneventful. Twice polish planes flew over the front and were fired upon by our antiaircraft guns. One was brought down at Neidenburg the other turned and flew back behind the hostile lines.
Photos and first-hand account do not concern the same plane, tigre.tigre wrote:Hello to all, diving and sailing on the web I found these interesting pictures regarding one polish plane shot down as told by the source at Ciechanow; may be the ones mentioned by Maj Rudolf v. Minden ( CO: III./Flak-Rgt. 111 in Poland 1939).
During one gloomy, drizzling morning, when the clouds lay but six hundred feet above a small Polish city and no one had expected the approach of a hostile plane, the sound of an engine was suddenly heard and for a moment an airplane flew ghost-like along the lower edge of the clouds. Instantly the airplane alarm signal was sounded. In the fog the nationality of the plane could not be determined, but the shadowy outline well fixed in our memory, indicated it to be a single-seater pursuit PZL. The few seconds available were sufficient to enable two guns to get into action with the result that both guns fired a total of forty rounds before the plane disappeared from sight. A few seconds later we received one congratulatory message from the I Corps for bringing down the plane.
The same P.11c from another angle - the size of massive damage is clearly seen (engine in a ditch beside the fuselage)About 8.30 am on September the 4th four P.11 (pilots: Lieutenant Kazimierz Woliński, sub-Lieutenant Jan Bury-Burzymski, Corporal Stanisław Brzeski, fourth unknown) of 152nd Fighter Sqn. took off to escort bombing mission of Karaś's [PZL P.23 light bomber/N] of 41st [Reconaissance/N] Sqn. The target of the mission were German troops near Ciechanów. Group of Karaś's consisted of 4 aircraft led by Captain Pilot Henryk Kołodziejczak. En route to target the formation didn't meet enemy fighters. The bombing attack wasn't effective - the bombing run hadn't been directly preceded by reconaissance flights and some bombs were dropped inaccurately. After the bombing 4 planes of 41st Sqn (including 2 damaged) returned to airfield at Zdunów. P.11s of 152nd Sqn. took course to airfiled at Szpondów. While returning to airfield fighters spotted German cavalry, which they strafed with machineguns. Over the frontline an observation baloon was spotted as well, and was attacked by pair sub-Lt. Bury-Burzyński and Corp. Brzeski. The baloon was defended by well camouflaged Flak artillery and both fighters were soon under heavy fire. Corporal Brzeski, who destroyed another observation baloon a day before, was hit in the fuel tank; sub-Lieutenant Bury-Burzyński courageously attacked the baloon and shot it down, witout any harm done to himself by AA fire. Corporal Brzeski had to conduct forced landing - his plane didn't caught fire but lack of fuel that leaked out of the tank made engine stop working. He chose the closest field to land on - just beside road near Baby [ca 4-6 km S of Ciechanów/N]. His plane was badly damaged - undercarriage was broken, engine was torn off of the chassis and fuselage stuck between road and field, crossing the ditch. The pilot suffered no harm during the crash - he rode back to his unit on bicycle taken from nearby village.
