Werner Baumbach
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Werner Baumbach (December 27, 1916 - October 20, 1953) was a bomber pilot in the German Luftwaffe during World War II and commander of the secret bomber wing KG 200. Born on December 27, 1916, in Cloppenburg, Baumbach entered the Luftwaffe in 1936 and 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 KG 30. 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 KG 200 and was in charge of all Luftwaffe special missions. After the war, Baumbach spent three years as a prisoner of war before he moved to Argentina where he worked as a test pilot. He died in a plane crash on October 20, 1953. Baumbach released his memoirs, "Zu spät: Aufstieg und Untergang der deutschen Luftwaffe" (English title: "Broken Swastika"), in the late 1940s. The book demonstrates that even after Germany's defeat, Baumbach still believed to a very large extent in the National Socialist ideology. The fact that Baumbach's time as commander of KG 200 is not mentioned with a single word highlights the extreme secrecy of Germany's special missions program. |
