Kampfegruppe 806 (KGr 806) Ident Codes M7. by M A Kinnear.

Formed September 1939, originally as a coastal bomber reconnaissance unit which was absorbed into the Luftflotte as an orthodox bomber group, still retaining its nucleus of naval officers. Based at Nantes with detachments at Caen. Originally equipped with Heinkel He111, it was equipped with Ju88A-1 before and during the Battle of Britain. KGr 806 also saw operational service on the Eastern Front and Mediterranean.

Colonel Helmuth Bruckmann: Born Hamburg in 1914, Helmuth graduated from school in Emden in 1934, enlisting into the German Navy the same year and commencing flying training in 1936, he was promoted to Oberleutnant in 1939 and was made Commanding Officer of a coastal reconnaissance squadron, aircraft carrier group and subsequently Director of a pilot training school. Early in WWII he became deputy Squadron Leader in a bomber wing, regularly flying He111 and Junkers 88 bomber aircraft. Whilst flying Ju88 A-1, werk no 4068 (the subject of this aerofile) of coastal bomber wing KG 806 on a raid to Liverpool 8th October 1940 he and his two man crew were intercepted and shot down by Hurricanes of 312 Squadron operating out of Speke (now Liverpool International) Airport. Helmuth crash landed his badly damaged aircraft onto a bank of the River Mersey at Bromborourgh on the Wirral peninsula. During the engagement one of his crew was killed and the other injured. After 36 missions Helmuth Bruckmanns war was over. Promotion to Captain followed in 1942, and he was repatriated in 1944. He joined the Luftwaffe general staff and was promoted to major in 1945. On leaving the air force Helmuth studied languages and literature at university from 1946-1958 and became director of the Goethe Institute in Munich. He rejoined the Luftwaffe and became a Lt Colonel in 1959 in the Ministry of Defence, Bonn. After a period as Commander of a cadet training wing in the Luftwaffe Officers Training School in Munich, he was promoted to full Colonel in 1961 and transferred to the German Embassy in Washington D.C. USA as air attache. After an additional assignment as the German Military representative with the NATO committee, he returned to Germany as head of the Military Studies Group in the German Ministry of Defence. He retired in 1973 and today lives in his native Germany.

Open edition print.

Image size 16.5 inches x 11.5 inches (42cm x 30cm)