continued…

III./KG 100

The III./KG 100 also played a part in the Luftwaffe’s counter-insurgency operations, Generaloberst Blaskowitz of Army Group G informing his subordinate commands on 17 June 1944 that:

If required,, III./KG 100 (St. Simon) can be contacted for air support for terrorist undertakings. I should however point out that clear targets must be available.

Army Group G’s and Fremde Heere West (military intelligence) situation reports for 28 June noted an action about 130 km north west of Toulouse, within easy range of Fliegerkorps X units flying from either there or Bordeaux:

In attacks by the Luftwaffe with bombs and gunfire against a bandit camp and groups of vehicles in the wooded district south of Casteljaloux [(20 km south of Marmande) 35 enemy dead, larger number wounded, 48 destroyed vehicles.

Unfortunately, neither the unit(s) nor aircraft type(s) involved were recorded. In what is perhpas the first recorded use of a guided bomb against a land target, a lone Do 217 dropped a one-tonne load on “gangs” east of Mont de Marsan on 5 July. Luftflotte 3 noted the expenditure of one PC 1400, alongside 25 Hs 293 and since the latter were employed in an anti-shipping mission off the invasion beaches, my reading is that the PC 1400 was used against the Maquis. It is known that a week later, on the 12th, four Do 217 each dropped a PC 1400 on Resistance targets west of Montauban.

Between 10.10 and 10.50 hrs.local time on the 15th, two Dornier 217s dropped 16 x SC 50 plus a tonne of incendiaries and shot-up five houses “occupied by terrorists”, north west of Tanus (a village 90 km north east of III./KG 100’s aerodrome at Blagnac). At least one building was wrecked by a direct hit and two more damaged, while secondary explosions were interpreted as a sign that ammunition was stored there. On the return flight, the nearby village of Les Fournials, also held by the Resistance, was shot up and a fire started.

Two days later, acting on information from the Sicherheitsdienst, three Do 217s took off in the early morning to attack a forest camp about 2 km SW of Lautignac (Haute-Garonne), alongside the junction of the present-day D83 and D73 roads. They dropped three ABB 250 incendiary canisters and shot up the target with their on-board armament. A forest fire and several explosions ensued, thought to be ammunition; a lorry and a car were seen on the western edge of the woods. The attack took place around 06.00 (local time), supposedly by “four Ju 88” and apparently provoked by a Bastille Day demonstration by the local Maquisards in the town of Rieumes. The bombing caused no casualties as the Résistants were not then in that part of the forest but the Germans followed up with ground troops that afternoon. The Maquis were warned and inflicted casualties on their pursuers but decided to withdraw before another air attack was mounted. In its evening report for 17 July, the Toulouse-based Hauptverbindungsstab 564 (local military command) recorded:

Operation against the forest of Rieumes (35 km SW Toulouse) aircraft also employed. Terrorist camp cleared. Captured: vehicles. Enemy losses: not established. Own casualties: none.

Also on the 17th, KG 100 responded to a four-day-old communication by asking permission for an Hs 293 test-drop after re-wiring two Do 217 M-11. This was in connection with an attack planned for 20 July on a “terrorist camp occupied by 600 to 800 men”. Fliegerkorps X committed five aircraft and at 06.45 hrs. (local time) on 20 July, in the mountains about 25 km north west of Carcassonne, members of the Montagne Noire Maquis were woken by what they thought were six Ju 88 and two “mouchards” (literally “tell-tales”, spotter aircraft) coming over at low altitude. Concentrating on a camp by Lac de la Galaube, their first bomb cut the telephone line and killed the Commandant, Henri Sévenet. According to the account of Resistance leader, Roger Mompezat:

… the projectiles are big torpedoes with fins, more than 300 kilos, opening up after being released, letting out numerous little bombs of only a few tens of kilos.

After dropping these apparent AB canisters, the bombers shot up the huts at point-blank range:

… the noise is horrific, the ground trembles, smokes and burns …

Machine guns sited for air defence claimed hits on two of the bombers, causing “fireworks” on one, which made off at reduced speed. The engines of the second faltered and it gave off thick smoke as it flew away. At 08.00 hrs. four more aircraft bombed and shot up another two encampments and again hits were claimed on one attacker. After 90 minutes Plo Del May was hit, destroying the camp and killing four men. The Germans followed up with an infantry assault backed by armour which forced the Résistants first to withdraw in good order and later to disperse. The battle was later described by Resistance leader Serge Ravanel as “our Vercors.” A possible victim of the defenders was Do 217 K-3 W.Nr. 4713 of 9./KG 100, piloted by Ofw. Schneckener, which was destroyed in a crash at Toulouse, one of two losses recorded by X. Fliegerkorps that day.

According to Army Group G, on 22 July four “bandit camps” 30–40 km south west of Carcassonne were destroyed by a battle group drawn from the city’s garrison together with a cyclist company of IV. Lw. Feldkorps. At the price of one man lightly wounded, they killed three people and arrested 20 civilians, but captured very little material. In this action they had the support of “four bomber aircraft”, which, since the target lay within 100 km of Toulouse-Blagnac, seem more likely to have come from III./KG 100 than Geschwader Bongart, then heavily engaged over Vercors. Luftflotte 3,s report of the day’s operations does not mention the Carcassonne action however.