Freiherr Mullenheim. In December 1939 II./Trägergruppe 186 (Carrier Air Group 186; TrGr 186) which was officially attached to ZG 1 but placed under Stab./JG 1 for defensive duties under Major Heinrich Seeliger. JGr 101 was attached to ZG 1 and eventually became II./ZG 1. It was commanded by Major Hellmuth Reichardt. JGr. 101 fought in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. Only a rotte from 3. Staffel made contact with the bombers and claimed two. Dietrich Robitzsch wrote off a Bf 109. Two more pilots were wounded. In April 1940 ZG 1 was subordinated to Fliegerkorps X for Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norwegian Campaign on 6 April, three days before the invasion began. I. Gruppe was commanded by Wolfgang Falck, a pioneer of night fighter operations. 3./ZG 1 escorted 28 Heinkel He 111 bombers from KG 4 on a demonstration flight over Copenhagen. Falck led I./ZG 1 to attack the Royal Danish Air Force base at Vaerlose where four Fokker D.XXI were taking off. Falck shot one down. 13 other Danish fighters, including Fokker C.Vs, were strafed and destroyed. I./ZG 1 at Aalborg experienced repeated air attacks by RAF Bomber Command. Falck arranged interception procedures with the local commanding officer to enable interceptions in dusk hours. He led three Bf 110s in an interception on 30 April, and although these did not yield a victory, Falck was invited to Berlin to discuss his ideas with Ernst Udet, Erhard Milch, and Albert Kesselring, though the senior command was preoccupied with Fall Gelb, the coming Battle of Belgium and Battle of France. Falck was sure that a Bf 110 unit could defend the airspace at night with assistance from radar operators. Falck convinced Kesselring, Milch and Udet at the RLM. Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered Falck to created a Nachtjagdgeschwader at Düsseldorf on 22 June 1940. He formed Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. In the first week of May 1940, I./ZG 1 was seconded to Fall Gelb, and was replaced at Aalborg by I(J)./LG 2. Battle of the Low Countries and France, operations over Switzerland ZG 1 was assigned to Luftflotte 2. I./ZG 1 was based at Kirchhellen with 22 of the 35 Bf 110s operational. II./ZG 1 had 26 of its 36 Bf 110s operational at Gelsenkirchen. Of the 145 Bf 110s in the air fleet, just 82 were combat ready on 10 May 1940. ZG 26 supported