BOXART STORY

#8203

Hot wasp summer

Zerstörergeschwader 1, known as Wespen

(wasps) or Wespengeschwader due to the

painting on the bows of its Messerschmitt

Bf 110s, derived its origins from the pre-war

JG 132 “Richthofen”. The Richthofen tradition was maintained by the unit, although

its designation was gradually changed to

ZG 141, ZG 1 and later to SKG 210.

ZG 1 was re-established in Lechfeld in January 1942. At that time, Stab, I. and II./SKG

210 specialized in the deployment of Bf 110s

as fighter-bombers. At the same time, the

newly established III./ZG 1 was armed with

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E.

The entire Geschwader moved to Belgorod,

Russia at the end of May 1942 as part of VIII.

Fliegerkorps, commanded by Gen. Feldm.

Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, a cousin

of the well-known Manfred. ZG 1 was not

involved in the fighting in the Crimea, but

was deployed in the direction of Taganrog,

Rostov and Krasnodar. The main task of

its airmen was to support ground troops.

It attacked supply columns, bridges, flak

and field artillery positions and attacked infantry groups and armoured vehicles at the

front. In doing so, Bf 110 crews used powerful nose armament and bombs, most often of 250 and 50 kg caliber. The preferred

method of bombing was the steep descent,

which the crews called Sturzflug (dive flight). The 110s came to be known as "flying

artillery". Between June and August 1942,

the worst enemy of the ZG 1 pilots was the

Soviet anti-aircraft defences. During this

30

INFO Eduard

period, I./ZG 1 lost 19 machines to their guns

and II./ZG 1 lost as many as 52. Many of the

damaged aircraft managed to return over

their own territory with one engine.

In aerial combat, the Bf 110 pilots tried to

take advantage of the high speed and strong

armament in the nose. But sometimes

Bf 110 crews also used the so-called defensive ring, which they had already used in the

Battle of Britain. However, there were also

losses in combat with Soviet airmen. And

one Bf 110 was even shot down by a tank.

The combat deployment of the Wasps was

extremely intense on some days. An example is August 25, 1942, during which I./ZG 1

was deployed in the Kotluban area. From

quarter to four in the morning until six

thirty in the evening (German time), Bf 110

crews carried out 25 missions with a total

of 134 deployed aircraft. They dropped 79.6

tons of bombs on enemy positions and destroyed one tank, four guns (three others

were disabled), three tractors and sixteen

trucks, and damaged dozen of others. They

also destroyed four towed vehicles and two

sleds. A train was hit as well, and bombs

severed the tracks in six places. One Bf 110

was shot down by flak, its crew being killed.

A boxart created years ago by our late friend Martin Novotný shows a crew from

6./ZG 1 in combat with Polikarpov I-16. During June 1942 this Staffel lost two commanders. First it was Hptm. Götz Baumann,

who was wounded in a combat flight on

9 June. His successor, Oblt. Albert Heilma-

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Martin Novotný

yer was shot down by flak just two days

later. The new commander was Oblt. Egon

Albrecht (25 v., KC), a German born in

Brazil.

However, ZG 1 did not fight only the Red

Army. Surprisingly, its jealous rival was von

Richthofen, the commander of VIII. Fliegerkorps. His HQ often found itself in a situation of a dynamic battlefield where it did not

have the information to deploy units effectively. But the improvising ZG 1 was able to

support very effectively the ground troops.

The officers of ZG 1 also tried to get the

command to scientifically prepare a solution for calibrating compasses in areas

with large quantities of iron ore. Due to this

anomaly, navigation errors and aircraft losses were occurring. The unwillingness of

the command to address this problem led

Kommodore Diesing to contact scientific

services by himself and resolve the problem at the unit level.

Von Richthofen decided to disband the two

Gruppen of ZG 1 in June 1942, but the ZG 1

command discreetly contacted Göring, who

wanted to maintain Richthofen Geschwader

unit's tradition. An exasperated Wolfram

von Richthofen began to complicate the logistics and delivery of new equipment to ZG

1, but at the end of June he was transferred

to command Luftflotte 4 and the situation

gradually calmed down. This problem is

discussed in detail by John J. Vasco in the

second volume of Ian Allan Publishing's

Zerstörer.

February 2023