Research Assistance please!

Hi Guys & Gals, can anyone supply any unit history & service details for the following Imperial German Air Units please??

Flieger Abteilung 305
(Flieger Heersgrüppe F)

Flieger Abteilung (A) 214

Bayern Flieger Abteilung (A) 286

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rick]

Stogiemann,

Briefly, FA 305 served in the Middle East (hence the "F") and FA 261 was not a Bavarian unit. Do you mean FA 291(A)b ?? R.

OK, I'm sorry it's Bayern Flieger Abteilung (A) 286

[snafu]

Fliegerabteilung 305 arrived in Palestine in March 1918 and was stationed at Dera’a, an important junction on the Hejaz Railway in modern Syria and also operated from Amman in modern Jordan. This allowed the squadron to operate against Arab Army forces along the railway and based in camps around Shobak and Tafileh in modern Jordan. Frequent reconnaissance flights were also made to the Azraq oasis which T E Lawrence frequently used as a base for operations.

A couple of extraordinary long range missions were also made to photograph and bomb the Arab/British base at the port of Aqaba on the Red Sea, a round trip of nearly 600kms over some very desolate country.

When the allied attack came in September 1918 all of the German squadrons in Palestine were in a very bad state through the gradual attrition of men and machines and inadequate replacements. The remains of the squadrons were pooled at Dera’a to try and secure the Turkish Army’s line of retreat across the River Jordan and towards Damascus. In all only 10 aircraft could be mustered and these were used to try and halt Arab forces attacking from Azraq.

Fliegerabteilung 305 continued to cover the east flank of the retreat through Syria and was based successively at Homs, Hama, Maareth en-Numan and Muslemije near Aleppo. It ended up with 2 aircraft in October 1918 based at Adana to guard against possible allied amphibious landings at Alexandretta and to carry out reconnaissance flights over Cyprus.

Most of the infromation comes from Brian Flanagan's Cross & Cockade articles on the Ottoman Air force.

Cheers

Dominic

[Rick]

FA 101Ab was renumbered FA 286(A)b on 8Dec16. Limiting their battle calendar to this date and beyond, this is what we have:

6Jul16 - 4Mar17 Schlacht an der Somme (battle on the Somme)
5Mar17 - 5Apr17 Kämpfe an der Aisne (fighting on the Aisne)
6Apr17 - 27May17 Doppelschlacht Aisne-Champagne (double battle of the Aisne and in the Champagne)
28May17 - 26May18 Stellungskämpfe bei Reims (trench fighting by Reims)
27May18 - 13Jun18 Schlacht bei Soissons und Reims (battle by Soissons and Reims)
14Jun18 - 14Jul18 Stellungskämpfe bei Reims (trench fighting by Reims)
15Jul18 - 17Jul18 Angriffsschlacht an der Marne und in der Champagne (offensive battle on the Marne and in the Champagne)
18Jul18 - 25Jul18 Abwehrschlacht zwischen Marne und Vesle (defensive battle between the Marne and the Vesle)
4Aug18 - 12Sep18 Stellungskämpfe bei Reims (trench fighting by Reims)
The rest is not available.

Source: Harald Potempa "Die Königlich-Bayerische Fliegertruppe 1914-1918".

Hope that helps (and apologies for any German mis-spellings, not my native tongue). R.

[Soderbaum]

Hello Stogieman

Some short notes on FAA 214:
The unit was formed 23 Oct 15 through FEA 1. It was reported fully operational on 15 Jan 16.
They were renamed from "Artillerie Flieger Abteilung 214 to Flieger Abteilung (A) 214 on 11 Jan 17...
They served until EOW on different parts on the Eastern fronts, despite that at least one source place them on Western front a short while in the summer of 1918 (however this is probably wrong information).
I have very few names of flyers serving within this unit, so if you only have a single name I will be very glad...

FAA 103b/FAA 286b
I have two different dates for formation of this unit, 20 Oct 15 and 10 Nov 15. But the later date is probably the date when the unit was reported fully operational...? It was formed through FEA 1b as Bavarian Artillerie Flieger Abteilung 101...
I have a report that they did have a total of 5 a/c on 5 Jul 16...
On 8 Dec 16 the unit was renamed to Bavarian Flieger Abteilung (A) 286..
They served within 2 Army (Somme) in the summer of 1916, until the "new" 1 Army was formed when they become a part of this new Army...
They seem to have followed the 1 Army nearly until EOW, except for a short possible break within 7 Army in the spring of 1917...
As this unit is Bavarian, it is quite possible to find rather much information in the archive in München...


Gunnar

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to my research into these units!!

[AOK4]

Originally Posted by Soderbaum

As this unit is Bavarian, it is quite possible to find rather much information in the archive in München...

Unfortunately, Goering took most of the war diaries and archive files from the flying units from the different archives. He planned to have written some history about the air war in WW1. All these files are now lost...

Jan