The Real Kampfgeschwader 200

A Brief History

Kampfgeschwader 200 was a secret fighting force of World War 2, so secret that individual units within it were unknown to each other; so mysterious that even today, most diaries and documents dealing with it are, according to both Allied and German authorities, either "missing" or "destroyed". Yet it presented the Allies with one of the most dangerous threats of the entire war, and the unraveling of it's intricate web of operations became top priority.

Despite the disappearance of official KG200 records, some documents, orders, records of prisoner-of-war interrogations, and intelligence reports confirming the existence and operations of the unit were found. Former members of KG200 were traced, though the pictures each could, or would reveal was always limited, for personnel were deliberately kept in the dark as to the activities of their comrades. And most, even after all these years were still unwilling to talk... an attitude less surprising when one takes into account the fact that their former commanding officer, Oberstleutnant Werner Baumbach (the Luftwaffe's greatest and most decorated bomber pilot), failed to mention a single word about KG200 in the autobiography he published after the war!

Werner Baumbach
Oberstleutnant Werner Baumbach (left wearing his Knights Cross with oak -leaf clusters) served with KG 30 and became one of the prime exponents of the Junkers 88 in the dive bombing role. He fought with distinction during the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, on the Eastern Front and in the hard-fought actions carrying supplies to the USSR round the north of Norway. He was Geschwader Kommodore (commander) of the elite Kampfgeschwader 200 from October 44 to March 45 being promoted to oberst and becoming "General of the Bombers" - the highest post in German bomber Command. After the war he resumed his flying career in Argentina where he died on 20th October 1953, aged 36, while test flying of all things, an Avro Lancaster recently delivered to the Argentine Air Force.

KG200 (Battle Wing 200) was officially formed by order of the Luftwaffe high command (OKL) on 20 February 1944. The first components of the new unit came from the amalgamation of the 1st and 2nd Test Formations (both composed of many squadrons) of the Abwehr 5th Branch (air intelligence) which already had many captured Allied aircraft. By early July 44, the unit already had over 100 trained crews and was operating 32 different German and Allied aircraft types.

This large fleet of aircraft included Ar-232s, B-17s, B-24s, Bv-138s, Bv-222s, Ju-52s, Ju-88s, Ju-188s, Ju-352s, Ju-290s, Ju390s, He-111s, He-177s, Pe-2s (Soviet), and Sb-2s (Soviet) to name a few... These aircraft used operationally on all fronts carrying out a great variety of missions ranging from reconnaissance, to cargo transport, to the covert ferrying of agents in and out of enemy territory, to bombing and missile attacks! Many a German agent was dropped in Allied territory by this unit, what better disguise than a B-17? These aircraft were also used to shadow 8th Air Force bomber formations sending out a constant stream of radio updates of the air battle with up to the minute altitude and heading of the big bomber boxes; and this, without fear of attack from Allied fighters. Some of these aircraft were re-designated so as to not attract attention, for example, the B-17s in Luftwaffe service were referred to as the Dernier 200.

KG200 was a huge organization operating over the entire European Theater of Operations. With bases from the shores of the Baltic to the Algerian desert to the coast of France and back to deep inside the Soviet Union, KG200 was like a gigantic octopus veiled in a shroud of secrecy we will probably never totally uncover. Some documents have yet to be declassified! But some pieces are slowly coming together and a bigger picture is starting to form on this extraordinary unit.

Aircraft of KG200
Use the buttons below to see the many actual pictures and drawings of KG200 aircraft. In some cases you will also find information on actual missions flown by the unit with those aircraft types.
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