Active 1941–44 Branch Luftwaffe Size Air Force Wing | Country Nazi Germany Type Bomber wing | |
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Role Specialist wing, anti-shipping | ||
Kampfgeschwader 100 (KG 100) was a Luftwaffe medium and heavy bomber wing of World War II, and the first military aviation unit to use an unpowered precision-guided munition in combat to sink a warship on September 9, 1943 with the destruction of the Italian battleship Roma, in the first successful use of the Fritz X armor-piercing, gravity PGM ordnance.
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Service history
KG 100 was formed on 29 November 1941 in Chartres by augmenting Kampfgruppe 100, initially by adding a second Gruppe, later expanding further to a total of four Gruppen.
I./KG 100 was sent to the southern sector of the Eastern Front in 1942 and also operated the southern Eastern Front in 1943. After a switch between I./KG 100 and I./KG 4, the “new” I./KG 100 served on the Channel Front again, flying missions against England in 1943 and 1944 before it was removed from the Geschwader end of May 1944 and became III./KG 1.
In December 1941, III./KG 26 became II./KG 100, and served in the middle sector of the Eastern Front in early 1942 and moved to Greece at the end of April 1942 until April 1943.
III./KG 100 was formed in September 1942 from the former Aufklärungsgruppe (See) 126 . It served in Greece in 1942 and early 1943. After the original II. Gruppe and III. Gruppe had left Greece, they were reformed from scratch in Germany. Eventually they were moved back to the Mediterranean theater of operations in July 1943. In 1944, both groups remained in the Mediterranean until September 1944.
The unit was disbanded on 20 August 1944, after having specialized on guided anti-ship weapons, which included the aforementioned Fritz-X MCLOS-guided PGM ordnance and the similarly controlled Henschel Hs 293 powered guided missile.