Summer 1943: this photo shows seven officers of Stuka-Geschwader 2 "Immelmann" with about 7,000 dive bomber missions altogether, f. l. t. r.:
Egbert Jaeckel (KIA 17.07.1943),
Alwin Boerst (KIA 30.03.1944), 
Dr. jur. Ernst Kupfer (killed in flight accident on 06.11.1943), Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Walther Krauß (KIA 17.07.1943), Bernhard Wutka (KIA 08.07.1943) and 
Willi Hörner (KIA 21.07.1943)

7,000 Stuka missions

One of Luftwaffe’s Reggiane Re.2002s “Ariete” during a weapons test before the application of camouflage. After the Italian Armistice (8 September 1943) the Luftwaffe commandeered some 40 Regia Aeronautica’s Re.2002, while the Reichluftfahrtministerium (RLM) demanded to Officine Reggiane (Caproni Group) the completion of two former Italian batches, total 83 aircraft, and the preparation of a production of 500 airplanes. In effect the Luftwaffe was interested to the Re.2002 in a version with the German engine 1600 HP-BMW 801. Really, before the bombardments of 7 and 8 January 1944 which destroyed the Reggio Emilia’s factory, the Reggiane manufactured 14 Re.2002s and converted other aircraft’s, former Regia Aeronautica, to Luftwaffe’s requirements. In all, during 1944, the Reggiane produced for RLM 60 news Re.2002 Series 2, but only 25 was really delivered to Luftwaffe. The other was destroyed before the fall of the German forces in Italy, April 1945. The Luftwaffe employed the Re.2002s, all with the original Piaggio “Turbine” radial engine, in France for anti-partisan missions. Victor Sierra

Luftwaffe’s Re.2002

Reggiane Re.2002 of Luftwaffe’s Fliegerzielgeschwader 2 destroyed in France, on Haute-Vienne, on the Limousin Region, 1944. Named Geschwader Bongart by the name of its commander, Oberst Hermann-Josef Freiherr von dem Bongart, the FL/ZG2 was a specialized anti-partisan unit formed in April 1944 at Bourges and from May 1944 was employed in regions with heavy partisan activity like Lyon, Valence, Clermont-Ferrand, Avord and Bourges and disbanded in September 1944 after the move Northwards of France following the Allied landing on Southern France (August 1944). The Fliegerzielgeschwader 2 operated, from different airfields, a variety of aircrafts including the Re.2002s delivered directly by Reggiane or former Italian Air Force’s planes commandeered by Luftwaffe. The Italian plane was the most important aircraft of the FL/ZG2 with on June 1944 had a fleet of 35 Re.2002s. In the July the Geschwader, from various airfields, undertook 482 sorties against the Maquis, the French partisans, as well 45 on a day (11 July). During this month the Geschwader Bongart took part in a great operation against some 10,000 French partisans on the Vercors Plateau, South of Grenoble, surrounded and destroyed in a combined operation by air and land forces. On 21, during this operations, the Geschwader Bongart, 44 sorties in a day, provided cover for 22 gliders landed on the massif south of Grenoble. The Re.2002s, along with other Luftwaffe aircraft, dropped a total of 7.5 tons of bombs. The next day the Geschwader Bongart flew 68 sorties, 63 on 23 July, 20 on 24 July, 32 on 25 July, 18 on 26 July. In the same time many airports of the area used by Germans were bombed by Allies and some aircraft was destroyed. On the first days of August the Geschwader had still 32 fighter-bomber but only 14 serviceable. On 4 September 1944 the Geschwader Bongart was disbanded at Luxeil because, after the Allied landings in Southern France in August, the Geschwader could no longer operate due to the total Allied air superiority over all of France. 
After the disbandment of his unit in September 1944, Oberstleutnant Bongart – previously commander of IV./KG55 (10 June-1 September 1941), commander of III./KG.55, from 1943 on the staff of Luftflotte 3 as the Offizier für Sonderaufträge (special projects officer) – became Kommandant of Neumünster Airfield in Schleswig-Holstein. Bongart passed away on 21 December 1952. Victor Sierra
