
Ju52 Unitskinpack of KGrzbV700 Stalingrad Winter 1942-43


A semihistorical skinpack containing 16 fully marked Ju52 of the Stab and all four squadrons based as well as possible on historical photographs.

This skinpack is compatible with all game versions.               



WWII luftwaffe transport units organisation:


Pre 1st of may 1943 there were KGzbV - Kampfgeschwader zur besonderen Verwendung (meaning combat wing for special purpose) and KGrzbV - Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung (meaning combat group
for special pruposes). A KGzbV was a wing consisting of a Geschwaderstab (wing staff) and several groups. Each of the groups consisted of a Gruppenstab (group staff) and four operational 
staffeln (squadrons). A KGrzbV didn't belong to a wing and therefore consisted of its staff and the four squadrons. The nominated aircraft strength of a Ju52 transport group was 53 aircraft.
5 of them served with the group staff (staff flight) and 12 each with the four squadrons.
Additionally there were a lot more of smaller transport units which served with (and belonged to) organisations like the various Luftflotte, Fliegerkorps, Fliegerfhrer etc.
I. e. the most of the Fliegerkorps had their own Transportstaffel ?./Fliegerkorps, a single Ju52 squadron but with a nominated strength of 16 aircraft. These smaller units were tasked with
supplying/supporting 
the organisation they belonged to. There were exceptions when there was a lack of available transport aircraft, i. e. Transportstaffel II./Fliegerkorps served with the regular KGzbVs and KGrzbVs 
in the MTO from late 1942 onwards, when the Afrikakorps/Panzerarmee Afrika required lots of supplies on their retreat to/in Tunisia.

Except the Poland campaign in 1939 and until early 1940, when there were real KGzbV2 and KGzbV172 additonally - each with several Ju52 groups - there was only KGzbV1 acting as a full wing with four groups.
From KGzbV172 just I./KGzbV172 remained, therefore sometimes called KGrzbV172, until 1st of may 1943. KGzbV2 was reduced to it's wing staff and controlled some KGrzbVs during large scale operations i. e.
the crete invasion. A KGrzbV3 - wing staff only - existed formally too and was controlling some KGrzbVs equally to KGrzbV2.
             
The KGzbVs and KGrzbVs were reorganized on 1st of may 1943, resulting in the creation of 5 Transportgeschwader (TG meaning transport wing). The KGzbVs were simply renamed to TGs (i. e. KGzbV1 was simply renamed
to TG1) but the KGrzbVs lost their independence and were made parts (groups) of a newly formed TG (i. e. TG3 was newly formed by renaming KGrzbV9 to I./TG3, KGrzbV50 to II./TG3, KGrzbV102 to
III./TG3 and I./KGzbV172 - the last remaining group of it's wing - to IV./TG3). Additionally there were a handful remaining TGrs meaning Transportgroups, the equivalent of the former KGrzbVs.
In january of 1944 a further reorganisation was made by removing all staff aircraft from the TGs (wings) and peplacing them with lighter aircraft types. From then on each TG was consisting of only
three operational squadrons with 16 aircraft each.
 

General Paintschemes: 

All the Ju52 front line units served with the standard rlm 70/71/65 splinter camo (pattern A and B, mirrored ones and lots of irregular patterns too). Like all luftwaffe transport units they never adopted a tropical paintscheme. The handful
of known tropical camos were experimental and limited to some few individuals. During the snow period washable white winter paint was applied over the standard camo, mostly covering the camo completely but
sometimes creating individual winter patterns as well. 
Ju52 with dark green or sometimes blackened undersurfaces are well known throughout the whole war, they usually were drawn from school or training units. These units were constantly thinned out from personell and aircraft 
to replace losses of frontine units. Theatre markings like white (MTO) or yellow (northern and eastern front) were introduced around june 1941.  
The very most Ju52 serving in the MTO had yellow engine undercowlings.


Tactical tail markings:

As there were permanent losses within the transport units there was a permanent requirement of replacement aircraft and crews. These were constantly drawn from the various school- and training units but as well by
shifting aircraft from one unit to the other. Additionally there were temporarely units formed when there was a urgent need of more transport capacity. The aircraft to form these were drawn from the same sources.
There in fact was a permanent switching of aircraft amongst the transport units. 
All these aircraft were fitted with their own factory or unitcodes, school- or training unit markings or and emblems, or such of their former or disbanded units.  
Instead of permanently overpainting and recoding replacement aircraft, which was a time consuming task especially during periods of constant losses, the tactical tailcodes were introduced in late 1941 on the eastern front.
The first unit using them was a temporarely unit called 'Einsatzgruppe Kupschuss' which painted the three digit code i. e. K2E in large characters on the vertical tail rudder. K was the unitletter and stood
for the first letter of the unit commander's last name which was Kupschuss. The number 2 stood for the 2.Staffel and the E was the individual aircraft letter. 
The system was adopted rapidly especially by all units serving in the MTO and prooved an easy way to identify the true unit an aircraft actually served with. Even aircraft with their assigned unitcodes received their
matching tailcodes. So if you see a pic showing a transport aircraft
with such an tailcode it doesn't matter which fuselage codes are painted on. The tactical tailcode alone is surely identifying the unit the aircraft belonged to. There were some exceptions
when i. e. letter H was used by two different units at the same time or a replacement rudder was fitted, but these exceptions were very rare. The tailcodes were most important during the period from late 1942 to spring 1943 and found their way
bak to the eastern front when units moved from the MTO to this theatre. After the reorganisation of the transport units on 1st of may 1943 the tactical tailcodes slowly lost their importance but were anyway
used for long by many units, additionally to their fuselage codes.
Due to the excellent research of Rudolf Hecke the very most of the tactical tailcodes and the units their were assigned to are known today.

An example: 1Z+KQ with tactical tailcode D4Q in april 1943 - both unitcodes and tactical tailcodes are identyfing the same unit. 16./KGzbV1 was part of IV./KGzbV1 which was assigned the tailcode letter D.
16.Staffel was the fourth squadron within IV.group and therefore the tailcode number was a 4. Finally the tailcode letter K was used for the individual aircraft letter.
1Z+KQ with tactical tailcode N3A would identify the actual unit as 3rd squadron of I./KGzbV172 and the aircraft was flown by the staffelleader (A). The fuselage codes just representing the unit
the aircraft once came from.

Tail rudder markings like triangles or discs were of different meanings. They were used as unit markings (i. e. triangles of KGrzbV102 or KGrzbV105) or to designate (glider) towing hook fitted   
aircraft (i. e. discs of I./LLG1) or staffel markings (i. e. discs/rectangles KGrzbV50 and KGrzbV900). 

                 
      

The unit:
                  
KGrzbV700 (Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung 700 = combat group for special purpose 700) consisted of four staffeln (squadrons) and a staff flight (stab).
Each staffel had a strength of 12 a/c, the staff usually had 5 a/c. The unit received it's extraordinary unitcodes 7V+?A-B-C-D-E in november 1942, 
before this date the aircraft served with their factory codes or codes of units they were drawn from.
  
The unit used a very special code system by displaying their squadronletters (A to E) in the squadroncolour as the third digit (instead of the fourth) of the fuselage code. The individual aircraft letters 
were all painted in white as the last letter of the code. I. e 7V+BA wasn't a stab aircraft but the squadronleader's of 1.Staffel. The unit code 7V was outlined white.
A white number 7 for '700' was painted on top of the tail rudder.        

The round emblem of KGrzbV700 showed a stork carrying a mailbag, flying from sunny weather to a cloud with raindrops, all on blue background outlined red. The emblem probably originated
from servive at the Demyansk airlift.     

For additional squadron identification the unit used engine stripes in squadroncolour, a feature known from many transport units of the luftwaffe.  
               

I tried to skin all known paintscheme variations like different camo patterns, light blue and dark undersurfaces etc. I found no evidence for the use of snow camo during the period december 1942-january 1943
but anyway i created two such skins as a i can't deny this possibility completely. Pics of the two months service period mentioned are understandably very rare.  

 
History:

KGrzbV700 was formed when there was a need for more transport units towards the end of 1941. The unit moved to the northern sector of the eastern front where it saw service at the Demyansk pocket operations.
In summer 1942 it transferred to the southern sector of the eastern front to support the drive to Stalingrad. KGrzbV700 served at Stalingrad until the surrender of 6th army and - like all transport units there - suffered
a lot of losses. During november 1942 it was drawn back to Germany for a short rest and refreshment and the new unitcodes were assigned. KGrzbV700 returned to Stalingrad and served there through december and
january - the hardest months of the airlift. Temporary disbanded in february it returned to Germany and switched from the Ju52 to the LeO 451.
In may 1943 the unit became IV./TG4.   


Note: Due to the given facts the historical correct use of my skins is limited to the period december 1942 - january 1943. The extraordinary and colourful code/marking system and heavy involvement in
the Stalingrad airlift made my decision to go for a skinpack here.       


Credits/Sources:

Foo'bar, Imme and millekmh for using their templates or parts of them


Transporter Vol.1 and 2 by Martin Pegg (classic publications)
'Transporter wer kennt sie schon'... by Karl Kssler
Die deutschen Transportflieger im Zweiten Weltkrieg by Fritz Morzik
Luftbrcke Stalingrad by Franz Kurowski
Stalingrad - the Air Battle by Christer Bergstrm
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor
jet&prop aviation magazine - Rudolf Hecke, Karl Kssler
luftwaffe im focus magazine
Batailles ariennes Stalingrad editions
Luftwaffe Experten Message Board - 'ebay listings', esp. Peter Evans, Gran Larsson, Chris Simmonds  
Luftarchiv.de


Most of all a very lot of thanks to Gerhard Stemmer (researcher and book author, co-author of Jochen Prien)
for his most valuable detailed informations which aren't available in any books.


As always the skins are free for noncommercial use only. Any reupload requires my permission.
Hope you enjoy these works and your feedback is much appreciated!

ATB
Cheruskerarmin


www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com

mailto  cheruskerarmin@freenet.de
