" ..With its skull and crossbones emblem Kampfgeschwader 54, the Totenkopfgeschwader, was one of the few Luftwaffe bomber/combat units to fly from the first to the final days of WWII, and has long warranted a detailed history. With its origins in KG 254, KG 54 made a modest entry into the war, with just a single Gruppe engaged in September 1939 in Poland. In April 1940, its second Gruppe, formed during the Phoney War, took part in the fighting in Scandinavia. Then, the following month, the Geschwader was increased to three Gruppen and launched in the Westfeldzug: the campaign in the West. With its third Gruppe disbanded after suffering heavy losses throughout the May/June engagements, KG 54 fought in the Battle of Britain, continuing its missions over England during the Night Blitz.
In June 1941, the two Gruppen were deployed in the USSR during ‘Barbarossa’, completing large numbers of missions but suffering such heavy losses that they were recalled to the Reich at the end of the year. However, the military situation had become such that the Totenkopf was forced to disperse its forces, with I./KG 54 moving to the Mediterranean and II./KG 54 returning to the USSR (with a brief period in France). During the aerial assault against Malta, I./KG 54 operated in concert with K.Gr. 806, subsequently renamed III./KG 54. These two Gruppen supported Rommel's Afrika Korps before being joined in 1943 in Sicily by II./KG 54, the Gruppe taking part in the final battles over Africa (Tunisia) which is where this new Volume II picks up the story..
Now at full strength, KG 54 fought the Allied landings in Sicily before being withdrawn to mainland Italy. The Totenkopf left the Mediterranean for good at the end of 1943, returning to the West. It was then deployed again over England as part of the bloody and futile operation ‘Steinbock’. Casualties were so high that II./KG 54 was disbanded in April 1944. Two months later, the Geschwader - once again reduced to two Gruppen - faced the Allied landings in Normandy on missions that were just as costly in terms of men and equipment. Fighting tooth and nail, KG 54 returned to the Reich where, in September 1944, it became a fighter unit equipped with the famous Me 262 jet. However, the aircraft still suffered from serious ‘teething problems’, and KG (J) 54 - despite having been reinforced by a second Gruppe - was hardly able to stand out against the vastly superior Allied air forces, and was decimated. On 8 May 1945, the surviving personnel of the skull and crossbones Geschwader surrendered, their numbers then being mainly dispersed in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Volume II contains 392 pages, over 650 photos, 17 colour profiles and period documents. Volume I has been available since October 2024..."
Below; from volume II, a 6./KG 54 Ju 88 in Italy
Hello Peter, many of us are no doubt eagerly awaiting Vol II of your KG 54 book. Can I please ask you a couple of questions for my blog report?
Below; from volume II, a 6./KG 54 Ju 88 in Italy
Hello Peter, many of us are no doubt eagerly awaiting Vol II of your KG 54 book. Can I please ask you a couple of questions for my blog report?
How long did you spend researching KG 54 and how much time did you spend writing these two huge volumes?
Hello Neil,
It’s not easy to say exactly how much time I’ve spent researching KG 54. It all started for me in the mid-1980s with my research on Luftwaffe operations during the Westfeldzug. Through this, I made a lot of contacts with pilots and crew members of the Lehrgeschwader. Some of them had extensive documentation and had also been active in Belgium in 1944. It didn’t take much encouragement from them for me to start writing the history of their Geschwader. That KG 6 would follow was only natural.
Once I had finished working on KG 6, I looked for a new subject. During my research on the Westfeldzug, I had already made quite a few contacts with crew members and pilots of KG 54. I also had extensive communication with Sigmund Radtke from the Traditionsverband KG 54. However, most of my contacts had only been active during the western campaign or had been shot down over England as early as 1940-41. A few went on to have rather impressive careers. So, I already had a decent amount of documentation on KG 54.
By coincidence, the archive of Sigmund Radtke, the author of the book on KG 54, had been passed on to my good friend Ulf Balke. Part of it had already been given to Morten Jessen, but both Ulf and Morten were willing to make the archive available to me. That’s when I discovered that Radtke had far more information than he had used in his book. In addition, I found a lot of supplementary material in the Bundesarchiv.
I got even luckier—through my contacts at the AMC, I was able to access their archive as well. They turned out to have a large collection of photographs, some interesting logbooks, and, most importantly, the diary of Hauptmann von Brunn. He had been very active in the final years of the war, and his notes proved to be of great value for that period.
How long I spent researching/writing is hard to say. A large part of it was done in the 1980-90s (mainly focusing on 1940-41), and after that, I worked on it in small steps until I finally decided to tackle the chronicle in earnest, which led me to resume intensive research. That was during the peak of the COVID period. Writing itself took about 3 to 4 years, partly alongside the research. I did this partly in my free time while I was still working, and then for about a year and a half as a retiree—spending a considerable number of days working on it full-time.
Peter, there were plenty of great images in volume I and I've already been fortunate enough to have seen some of the highlights from volume II. Do you have any particular favourites?
Which photos interest or appeal to me the most? Most readers will undoubtedly be very interested in the photos of the Me 262. There are so many photos that I find fascinating, but the ones I have the strongest emotional connection with are the photos that started it all. For example, during my research on the Westfeldzug, I came across a couple of photos in an infantryman’s album showing the crashed Heinkel 111 of Hauptmann Willers in Scheldewindeke. Through Sigmund Radtke, I got in touch with Willers himself. He was very eager to visit his crash site again. That was a truly special experience, and his information proved very valuable for the chronicle.
Even more significant was a photo of a He 111 that had crashed in Oudekapelle—also a KG 54 aircraft. I had no idea who the crew could be, but one of the infantrymen had taken a clear photo of the pilot. I sent the photo to Sigmund Radtke, and he immediately recognized him as the future Ritterkreuzträger Ernst Petzold. I was able to get in touch with him, sent him the photos, and he turned out to be very interested. He immediately invited me over, and through him, I gained an incredibly interesting insight into his long career within the Geschwader. So, if you ask me which photos appeal to me the most, then yes—it would have to be the photos of Willers and Petzold.
Peter, thank you for helping to put together a nice presentation for the Luftwaffe blog and thank you for allowing me to to translate some extracts of your KG 54 history into English (coming soon)
No problem! Many thanks for the publicity! I know Lela Presse appreciate it. Can I conclude by saying that I’m very lucky that Michel at LeLa Presse took the risk of publishing two such voluminous books. Cheers!
Below; ground crew pose for a souvenir snapshot in front of "B3+AP" flown by Staffelführer of 6./KG 54 Oblt. Karl-Egon Hellwig. Hellwig and his crew were shot down over Kent on the evening of 21 January 1944, crashing at Sellindge (between Ashford and Folkestone). Hellwig was killed.
Oblt. Eberhard von Brunn, attached to the Stab./KG 54 noted in his diary;
"..In the late evening of 21 January, the crews received their instructions on the the airfield where I. Gruppe was also located. We learnt that the attack we had been planning would be aimed against London, which few had anticipated. We had assumed that this operation ('Steinbock') would concentrate on ports, airfields, certain industrial installations or even Allied troop concentrations and supply depots in order to disrupt the invasion preparations. None of us were happy about the situation... We were were loaded with a thousand-kilo container and another of 500 kg and took off from Marx at 6.33pm in the dark. Given the weight of the ordnance, I could only with difficulty maintain 330 km/h and the climb performance of the Ju 88 was just as abysmal. Of the fast bomber designed as such in 1940, there was nothing left. We flew alone over Deventer and Ijmuiden (on the coast of the Netherlands) to within twenty-five kilometres of central London. We then turned towards the city and dropped our cargo. In the sky, but also on the ground, the target was well marked by light or incendiary bombs. We attacked horizontally. The defences were terrible. Over London, we were greeted by searchlights and flak. But the enemy appeared to have been caught by surprise because no night fighters intervened. During subsequent operations, the defences strengthened. One weapon surprised us. We called it 'Fliegerschreck' - airman's terror. It consisted of rockets fired in salvoes. We could see fifty rockets going off below us (later there would be more) and a few seconds later, the same number of explosions in the sky at around five thousand metres. After three seconds, a large cloud of dark smoke rose from some two hundred points. We assumed that the rockets were dispersing highly explosive projectiles. Hence this cloud of smoke. We also thought that some of the shells were coming down by parachute. During our four subsequent missions over London, no one could tell us anything about this weapon..."
These 'anti-aircraft rockets' were undoubtedly the so-called 'Z' rocket batteries. The first were equipped with a single launcher, the Projector, 3-inch Mark 1. As this equipment did not give complete satisfaction, it was improved, with rockets subsequently being launched in large numbers in powerful salvos. The Projector, 3-inch, No 2, Mk 1 was a double launcher, while the N°4 Mk 1 and Mk 2 could fire thirty-six rockets simultaneously. On this first ‘Steinbock’ mission, London's defences were limited. Despite this, one of the KG 54 Ju 88s 'B3+AP' flown by the crew of Oblt. Karl-Egon Hellwig (the Stafü of 6./KG 54, below) was shot down by F/Lt John Hall and F/O ‘Jock’ Cairns flying a 488 Sqd Mosquito for their first victory..
(blogger note; the grave of the 30-year old Karl-Egon Hellwig who was from Hamburg can be visited in Hawkinge cemetery. His crew Uffz. Johann Jehle, Uffz. Walter Flossmann and Fw. Roland Kühnert bailed out and were taken captive)
