Werner Baumbach
German bomber pilot
title: "Werner Baumbach" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1916-births", "1953-deaths", "german-prisoners-of-war-in-world-war-ii-held-by-the-united-kingdom", "german-test-pilots", "german-world-war-ii-bomber-pilots", "people-from-cloppenburg", "people-from-oldenburg-(state)", "recipients-of-the-knight's-cross-of-the-iron-cross-with-oak-leaves-and-swords", "victims-of-aviation-accidents-or-incidents-in-1953", "victims-of-aviation-accidents-or-incidents-in-argentina", "military-personnel-from-lower-saxony"] description: "German bomber pilot" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Baumbach" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary German bomber pilot ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox military person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Werner Baumbach |
| birth_date | |
| death_date | |
| image | Werner Baumbach.jpg |
| image_size | 200 |
| birth_place | Cloppenburg, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, German Empire |
| death_place | La Plata, Argentina |
| allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| branch | Luftwaffe |
| serviceyears | 1936–45 |
| rank | Oberst |
| commands | I./KG 30, KG 200 |
| battles | World War II |
| awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
| laterwork | Test pilot |
| :: |
|name=Werner Baumbach |birth_date= |death_date= |image=Werner Baumbach.jpg |image_size=200 |caption= |birth_place=Cloppenburg, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, German Empire |death_place=La Plata, Argentina |allegiance=Nazi Germany |branch=Luftwaffe |serviceyears=1936–45 |rank=Oberst |commands= I./KG 30, KG 200 |unit= |battles=World War II |awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |laterwork=Test pilot
Werner Baumbach (27 December 1916 – 20 October 1953) was a German bomber pilot during World War II. He commanded the secret bomber wing Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200) of the Luftwaffe, the air force of Nazi Germany. Baumbach received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for the destruction of over of Allied shipping.
Career
Baumbach entered the Luftwaffe in 1936 and, after initial training at the 2nd Air Warfare School (Fliegerhorst Gatow), was trained as a bomber pilot. He was one of the first pilots to fly the Junkers Ju 88 bomber and flew various bombing missions with Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30). Based in Norway, on 19 April 1940, he bombed and damaged the French cruiser Émile Bertin off Åndalsnes, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class.
In 1942, Baumbach was removed from active pilot duty and started working on new bomber designs; among others, he helped design the composite bomber system, Mistel. In 1944, he was placed in command of the newly formed Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200) and was in charge of all Luftwaffe special missions. Baumbach was promoted to Oberstleutnant on 15 November 1944 and was the acting General der Kampfflieger for two months.
In the last stages of the war, during the days of the Flensburg Government, Baumbach was placed in charge of the government air squadron.
After the war, Baumbach spent 6 months as a prisoner of war in British custody on charges of being a war criminal. It was decided that neither he nor any unit under his command had committed any violation of the Hague Convention, and he was released. He then assisted the Harvard University historian Bruce C. Hopper for a year with studies on the course of World War II, and Hopper suggested that Baumbach should write a book based on his experiences.
With Allied permission he moved with his family in spring 1948 to Argentina where he worked as a technical adviser for industrial firms. In 1949 he published Zu spät? Aufstieg und Untergang der deutschen Luftwaffe, which was translated into English as Broken Swastika: The Defeat of the Luftwaffe in 1960. He died in a plane crash on 20 October 1953 near Berazategui, while evaluating a British Lancaster bomber for the Argentine Air Force. He was interred in his hometown, Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. The street "Werner-Baumbach-Straße" in Cloppenburg was named after him.
Awards
- Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe for Bomber Pilots in Gold with Pennant "200"
- in Silver (22 March 1941)
- in Gold (1942)
- Pilot/Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds (14 July 1941)
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class (28 September 1939)
- 1st Class (4 May 1940)
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
- Knight's Cross on 8 May 1940 as Leutnant and pilot in the 5./Kampfgeschwader 30
- 20th Oak Leaves on 14 July 1941 as Oberleutnant and Staffelkapitän of the 1./Kampfgeschwader 30
- 16th Swords on 17 August 1942 as Hauptmann and Gruppenkommandeur of the I./Kampfgeschwader 30
- Order of Military Merit - Bulgaria
References
;Notes ;Citations
Bibliography
|last=Baumbach |first=Werner |author-link=Werner Baumbach |title=Broken Swastika: The Defeat of the Luftwaffe |series=[Originally published in 1949 as Zu spät? Aufstieg und Untergang der deutschen Luftwaffe] |others=Translated by Frederick Holt |orig-date=1960 |date=1992 |publisher=Dorset Press |isbn=0-88029-824-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/brokenswastikade0000wern
- {{Cite book |last=Berger |first=Florian |year=1999 |title=Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges |trans-title=With Oak Leaves and Swords. The Highest Decorated Soldiers of the Second World War |language=German |location=Vienna, Austria |publisher=Selbstverlag Florian Berger |isbn=978-3-9501307-0-6
- {{Cite book |last=Fellgiebel |first=Walther-Peer |author-link=:de:Walther-Peer Fellgiebel |year=2000 |orig-year=1986 |title=Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile |trans-title=The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 – The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches |language=de |location=Friedberg, Germany |publisher=Podzun-Pallas |isbn=978-3-7909-0284-6
- {{Cite book |last=Scherzer |first=Veit |year=2007 |title=Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives |trans-title=The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives |language=German |location=Jena, Germany |publisher=Scherzers Militaer-Verlag |isbn=978-3-938845-17-2
- {{Cite book |last=Schumann |first=Ralf |year=2007 |title=Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 des LG 1 |trans-title=The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 of LG 1 |language=de |location=Zweibrücken, Germany |publisher=VDM Heinz Nickel |isbn=978-3-86619-013-9
- Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Simon and Schuster Inc., 1970.
- {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Franz |year=1997 |title=Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 1: A–K |trans-title=The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 1: A–K |language=German |location=Osnabrück, Germany |publisher=Biblio-Verlag |isbn=978-3-7648-2299-6
- {{Cite book |last=Von Seemen |first=Gerhard |year=1976 |title=Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 : die Ritterkreuzträger sämtlicher Wehrmachtteile, Brillanten-, Schwerter- und Eichenlaubträger in der Reihenfolge der Verleihung : Anhang mit Verleihungsbestimmungen und weiteren Angaben |trans-title=The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 : The Knight's Cross Bearers of All the Armed Services, Diamonds, Swords and Oak Leaves Bearers in the Order of Presentation: Appendix with Further Information and Presentation Requirements |language=German |location=Friedberg, Germany |publisher=Podzun-Verlag |isbn=978-3-7909-0051-4
| before = Oberst Heinz Heigl | after = Major Adolf von Hernier | title = Commander of Kampfgeschwader 200 | years = 15 November 1944 – 6 March 1945
| portal1=Aviation | portal2=Biography | commons=y
References
- Speer 1970, p. 496.
- "Werner-Baumbach-Straße in Cloppenburg". strassenkatalog.de.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::