German bombers Heinkel He 111H of Luftwaffe’s II./Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG26) "Löwengeschwader" taxiing for a mission, perhaps against Malta, on Comiso Airfield, Sicily, 1941 or 1942. On the right an Italian bomber Cant-Z-1007bis is landing while in background is visible a staff car Fiat 1500. The II./KG 26 was relocated to Sicily in January 1941 as part of Fliegerkorps X (German Tenth Air Corps) and flew many missions over Malta, losing its first aircraft on 8 February 1941, and over the Mediterranean against the British fleet. During the Balkans Campaign the unit moved to Foggia and conducted raids against Yugoslavia as part of VIII Fliegerkorps. Afterwards, from 1943, other KG26’s Gruppen was employed in Italy. Victor Sierra

German bombers in Sicily

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


Geschwader Bongart’s Re.2002

This wreck of a Luftwaffe’s G.55, photographed on a Northern Italy airport, perhaps Turin-Aeritalia, note two G.12s destroyed on background, is very interesting because show one of the two “Centauro”, the Sottoserie 0, military code MM91068, completed but not yet delivered to Regia Aeronautica (the other was the MM91069) at the date of Armistice and afterwards commandeered by Germans. The Luftwaffe was interested to new Italian Series 5 fighter which was evaluated in February 1943 by a German commission. In particular the German commission was very impressed by the G.55 and was planned a possible production in Germany of the “Centauro” considered a good candidate for the new DB603 engine. During Spring 1943 the G.55 was tested at Rechlin, in Germany, and the Luftwaffe purchased three G.55s Sottoserie 0 (MM91064, MM91065, MM91066) for evaluations and experiments giving in change three DB603 engines and original machinery for the setup of other production lines of the DB605/RA1050 RC58 I. Two Luftwaffe G.55's remained in Turin, at the Fiat-Aeritalia plants, where they were used by German and Italian engineers to study the planned modifications and the possible optimizations to the production process. Later the two planes were converted to Serie I, with 20 mm cannon in the wings, and delivered to the Repubblica Sociale Italiana’s Air Force. The third “Centauro” was transferred in Germany, to Rechlin for tests. The DB603 engines were used to build the G.56 prototype. After the Italian Armistice, in October 1943  Kurt Tank, who previously personally tested a G55 in Rechlin, was in Turin to discuss about the G.55 production. But finally the G.55 program was abandoned by the Luftwaffe because the war’s events and the difficult of the Italian fighter’s production: an early production G.55 required about 15,000 man hours, was evaluated the possibility of reduce the work to 9,000 man hours while a Bf.109 were assembled in only 5,000 man hours. Victor Sierra