Transferring to a different airfield

[wiltaz]

I've been doing some reading on JG54. Now most sources when listing the TO&E of a squadron only list the aircraft and pilots as if that's all that made up the squadron. But from research I know that ground personnel make up a large part of any squadron and this includes large vehicles like trucks.

Most writers when discussing squadrons moving from 1 airfield to another act like it was a simple excercise of flying the aircraft and landing at the new location. They usually disregard the support that I know isn't hanging on the wings. :) Now my question is was how were the details of the move handled?

The ground support personnel I'm assuming moved by truck. But does half the group leave ahead of the aircraft to service them on arrival, or do they see the aircraft off and then have the long drive to catch up? Does personnel at the new airfield handle servicing until the ground element of a squadron arrive? Were transport aircraft used to ferry the support personnel along with the fighters, the trucks with heavy equipment arriving later?

[phylo_roadking]

Hopefully someone will chime in with the correct information LOL but in the meantime I remember something from my reading on the BoB a long time ago. The Luftwaffe had teams that would fly to identified areas behind the front lines by Ju52 and make grass landings with some fuel tankage, basic spares kits and tools and fitters to carry out "battlefield" maintenance. It was one of the skills they developed to keep shorter-range aircraft that needed to operate up with the front line, like Stukas, in the air. Everything else would follow on by heavy transport, because heavy spares would include for example flaps, wing sections, whole undercarriage sections, crated engines etc.This is going back twenty years now, but I think I remember those foward operating units could have a grass strip 'field operational for accepting combat aircraft in four hours.

Going from established airfield to established airfield would be different I assume. Airfields would have their own indigenous support staff, but a limited number of a squadron's dedicated personnel would fly ahead, anything up to a week, and have things ready for the arriving aircraft. You thus have a station command hierarchy and a squadron hierarchy, one responsible for infrastructure, one for operations. It was certainly like that in the RAF, and I can't see why it would be any different in the LW.

[Carl Schwamberger]

My father was ground crew, a ordinance officer, for a medium bomber squadron/group in the USAAF 1942 - 45.

For the move from the US to Britian most of the ground element went first with the aircraft arriving after the airbase was well established. His group subsequently moved to France & then Belgium. In those two cases part of the groups ground element moved first, then the remainder after the aircraft moved. If I recall correctly his description, the Wing which his Group was part of provided some asistance in supporting the aircraft while the ground element was split.

Usually the USAAF only flew each day part of the three or four squadrons that made up a group. The others did maintiance and rested the aircrew. Sending all the groups squadrons aloft on the same day in a maximum effort was difficult to sustain and done only when essential. Moving bases and missions were coordinated so that squadron ground crew not relocating supported any aircraft of the group necessary.

From the few bits I've read of other airforces it was similar. However differences in quantity of mechanics, tools, and vehicals may have made it more diffficult for some. In some cases it might make sense to organized some extra ground elements to stand up new bases while the aircraft flew uniterrupted from their old. This may have been practiced in the Pacific by the USAAF. but the items I read were not clear on this.

[Blackie]

In my research I have discovered one cardinal rule, THERE IS NO CARDINAL RULE! Things were done to meet the situation at hand. In the spring of 1940 when the German forces were raceing across Europe, technical support moved by whatever means necessary to keep up with the rapid advance. Usually, the aircraft found them on some field or over run airdrome. Transport was made by whatever means available and necessary. If time was not essential, a Geschwader may be in a stand down status while the planes, personnel and equipment is moved. They may have moved by truck, train, plane.... whatever. IF they were moving to a BASE with support for their specific aircraft they COULD rely on limited support.
In one incident I know of, Stuka's and Bf-109's left Tunis with Junkers transports loaded with fuel, oil, ammo and spares and all landed in the desert, where they set up an advanced base. They did fine until an advance quard of US tanks found them. It was nasty after that!

[phylo_roadking]

The British also got to be past masters of this in the Desert, keeping the shorter-range Hurribombers of the Desert Air Force up close to the front. They survived in tents and holes in the ground for weeks sometimes months, planning their own missions and gathering their own targetting intel on sorties when not tasked to anything else.