War Hero - Werner Baumbach was a bomber pilot in the German Luftwaffe during World War II, fighting with distinction during the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, the Eastern Front and carrying supplies to the the north of Norway. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, roughly equivalent to three United States Medals of Honor, for the destruction of over 300,000 gross register tons (GRT) of allied shipping. Baumbach was the son of a Hugo Dommasch. He developed a love of flying as a young boy and was a member of gliders club in his teens. He joined the Luftwaffe at age 19 in 1936 and received his bomber training at the 2nd Air Warfare School at Gatow, near Berlin. He was one of the first pilots to fly the Junkers Ju 88 bomber and flew various bombing missions with Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30). On April 19, 1940 he and his crew bombed the French cruiser Émile Bertin, severely damaging the ship. For this action, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class. In 1942, Baumbach was assigned duty working on new bomber designs and helped design the composite bomber system "Mistel", a bomber drone that was attached by struts to a fighter. Once the fighter reached its intended target, it released the unmanned drone, designed as a JU 88 loaded with explosives, and it fell to its target. In March of 1944, Baumbach was placed in command of the newly formed Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200)in charge of all Luftwaffe special missions. KG 200 was made up of Luftwaffe men, but it was under the auspices of the SS and took its orders from Reichsfuehrer SS, Heinrich Himmler. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant on November 15, 1944 and was tasked with leading the affairs of the General der Kampfflieger. While with KG 200, he worked on plans to fly leading Nazi's or other German personnel out of Germany to other locations using whatever aircraft available, to include captured American B-17's and other Allied aircraft. The unit also used these aircraft to drop German agents behind enemy lines. Baumbach was reportedly captured in Flensburg, where he was awaiting orders to fly a group of top Nazis out of Germany. After the war, Baumbach wrote his memoirs, entitled "Broken Swastika", or "The Life and Death of the Luftwaffe"(German title was "Zu spät: Aufstieg und Untergang der Deutschen Luftwaffe"). He published those memoirs in 1949. The book is still highly regarded in military historical circles but original copies are now impossible to find though new printings are readily available. What is particularly interesting in his book, is he clearly showed he was a National Socialist (Nazi), and probably still was when he died (though in the last few months in the war he was not quite so ready to sacrifice the lives of the German soldiers in a cause he saw as lost. It is interesting to note that Baumbach did not discuss in the book his time as commander of KG 200, the secret bomber unit he commanded. At the end of the war, Baumbach spent approximately three years as a prisoner of war with two of those years in England. During his incarceration, he testified against the SS in the Nuremburg Trials. After he was released, he moved to Argentina where he worked as a test pilot in the Argentinian Air Force. On October 20, 1953, while flying a recently purchased WWII British "Lancaster" bomber, the plane exploded in the air shortly after take-off, in LaPlata, Province of Buenos Aries, Argentina. There were no survivors (others who died were Karl Henrici and Iván Viol). Baumbach's remains were first interred at a cemetery in Bueno Aires. The famous Luftwaffe fighter commander, General Adolf Galland served as a pallbearer at his funeral in Argentina. Reportedly, he was disinterred and taken to Germany and interred in a cemetery in his hometown of Cloppenburg. A street there bears his name, Werner-Baumbach Strasse. Oberst Werner Baumbach earned the following awards/decorations during his Luftwaffe military service prior to and during, World War II:
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
Knight's Cross awarded May 8, 1940
Oak Leaves awarded July 7, 1941 (20th recipient)
Swords awarded August 17, 1942 (16th recipient)
- Narvik Shield
- Luftwaffe Front Flying Clasp (Bomber)Gold with 200 Pennant
in Silver (March 22 1941)
in Gold (1942)
- Pilot/Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds (July 14, 1941)
- Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (Silver Honor Goblet)
- 1939 Iron Cross 2nd Class (September 28, 1939)
- 1939 Iron Cross 1st Class (May 4, 1940)