Ju52 Staffelskinpack of 1./KGrzbV 11,  Western Campaign - Netherlands May 1940
by cheruskerarmin

This is a semihistorical Ju52 squadronskinpack in the paintschemes of 1. Staffel KGrzbV 11
('Kampfgruppe zur besonderen Verwendung' 11, meaning about 'Combat/Battle Group for
special duties' 11) as they appeared in may 1940 during the western campaign in the Netherlands.
12 different fully marked skins and blanks/generics.  

The Ju52 (mainly the 3mg4e variant) were going through a process of altering paintscheme and markings in this period.
Inspite of the 1938 introduced official rlm 70/71/65 splinter camo scheme most original photographs are displaying dark undersurfaces.
The reason for this isn't clear. Some sources are assuming a camo for night missions but it is more likely it was a recognition for a/c
serving with flying schools or training units. Due to heavy losses in norway, netherlands, crete, tunisia and stalingrad the frontline transport units were constantly
refreshed with replacement a/c of school units.
Some a/c of the period still flew with remains of prewar colours like rlm 62/63. Markings were different in size and position.
All skins are based on thouroughly researched photographs and descriptions which was available to me, but complete aircraft views and well quality photographs 
are very rare. Therefore it is a 'most likely' skinpack. 
There were a lot of variants in paintscheme details. I tried
to include the most common of them.      
 
KGrzbV 11 was formed in February 1940 when renaming III./KGzbV2 with retaining the codes G6-?D-T-U-V-W for the staff flight and the four staffeln (squadrons): 
Each staffel consisted of 12 a/c, the staff flight four or five a/c.  
The staffelcolours were white-red-yellow-blue (these
were the colours of the individual a/c letter, usually the third digit in the code). The staff letter was D and the staff flight colour
green. I. e. the Ju52 'G6+FT' was the fifth a/c of 1.Staffel belonging to KGrzbV 11, G6+BD belonged to the the staff flight.
The badge used by KGrzbV 11 was the United Kingdom island strangled/packed by a human hand.

The unit (leader Oberstleutnant Gustav Wilke) was based at Lippstadt and served under the control of Stab/KGzbV 2 (like KGrzbV 9, 12, 17./KGzbV 5 and I./KGzbV 172 as well), which consisted in may 1940 of a staff only
(commanded by Oberst Conrad). It was brought up to full strength for it's first action in beginning of may 1940.

'Fall Gelb' (case yellow) - the invasion of the Netherlands started in the early morning of friday, 10th of may 1940. The dutch were alarmed by the norway invasion of april 1940 - and prepared. It should prove a black friday for the german transport units. 

Refering to the best and most detailed amongst differing available sources 'The Battle of France - then and now' by Peter D. Cornwell, KGrzbV 11 was tasked 
with landings of reinforcement troops (III. Bataillon Infantryregiment 47) at Valkenburg airfield (landing place I in the german plans). The airfield should be under control of paratroopers (6./FJR 2), who were dropped
before by I./KGzbV 172. All went well (one a/c was shot down by AA enroute to Valkenburg) so far but when the a/c of KGrzbV 11 landed with the first wave of troops at Valkenburg, they couldn't take off again to bring in the rest of reinforcements because of the soft ground. The main runway soon was blocked
by bogged down a/c. A staff a/c therefore had to land on the near beach of Katwijk. Some sources
say the well prepared Dutch had flooded and mined the airfield. Some hours later dutch artillery opened heavy fire on the caught transport planes and dutch Fokker CV biplanes made a bombing
raid on them. Both actions caused heavy losses amongst the trapped a/c of KGrzbV 11. The airfield was evacuated in the evening because of repeated dutch counterattacks.    
 

At the end of the day KGrzbV 11 had lost 48 a/c, one servicable out of five left is recorded for may 11th of 1940. 

The german transport units lost nearly 200 (varying numbers in differing sources) of about 430 transport planes on may 10th 1940. KGrzbV 11 and 12 were disbanded due to losses.             


The skins were made to look best in perfect mode.

THX a very lot to foo'bar and Imme, whose excellent templates were the base to work from.
As well as to FBS, whoose weathering brushes i used for making these skins.   

These skins are free for non-commercial use. Reupload only with my
permission. 
Enjoy  - and i would be very pleased to get a feedback from you!

cheruskerarmin@freenet.de

Sources:

Jet & Prop aviation magazine Rudolf Hecke and Karl Kssler
Luftarchiv.de forums
Luftwaffe-experten.org forums
Various Web sources about war in holland
The Battle of France - now and then (Peter D. Cornwell)
German airborne divisions - blitzkrieg (osprey)
Squadron Signal publications Ju52 in action
Transporter- wer kennt sie schon (Karl Kssler)
Transport units Volumes I and II (classic publications) 
Flugzeug Profile 24 (Alfred Krger)
Ju52 an allen Fronten im Einsatz (Manfred Griehl)       
Ju52 weltweit im Einsatz (Manfred Griehl)
Die Ju52 im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Motorbuch Jan P.)
Waffen Arsenal - Ju52
Luftwaffe at War-the Junkers Ju52 (Morten Jessen)
AirDoc - The Junkers Ju52
Junkers Ju52 (Heinz J. Nowarra)
and more... 


