[1] This unit was initially based at Jüterbog-Damm until it was moved to Mackfitz, present-day Makowice in north-western Poland, on 24 August 1939.

The group operated the Bf 110 C.[4] The division and air fleet supported the 4th army on most northern part of the line as it advanced to capture Danzig and Bydgoszcz.

[8] 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.

Falck led I./ZG 1 to attack the Royal Danish Air Force base at Vaerlose where four Fokker D.XXI were taking off.

[16] 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.

The Swiss Air Force intercepted on one occasion, and with some units equipped with German-built Bf 109s, shot down six He 111s.

The Nazi leaderships obsession with saving face, resulted in II./ZG 1 being ordered to fly missions over Swiss air space.

[37] In June 1941 the Wehrmacht and its Allies began Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, initiating the war on the Eastern Front.

The failure of Barbarossa and the requirement for heavy fighter groups which could act with versatility in a variety of support roles was realised.

The combat units were to support the German defence on the Mius River after their defeat in the Battle of Rostov in December 1941.

The type was a success in the night fighter role, neccessating the withdrawal of the Bf 110 from the Eastern Front in late 1941.

The need to counter Red Army advances in early 1942 saw a number of night fighter units reconverted back to ground attack units—I.

[40] II./ZG 1 was transferred to Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen's Fliegerkorps VIII to support Army Group Centre and help it defend against the enormous Soviet counter-offensive following the Battle of Moscow.

German pilots described the appalling effects; Oberleutnant Johannes Kiel remarked they "saw the snow becoming stained red by all the blood.

II./ZG 1's commanding officer, Hauptmann Rolf Kaldrick killed on 3 February 1942 along with another crew when Soviet MiG-3 fighters intercepted them.

[44] I. and II./ZG 1 returned to the Eastern Front under Luftflotte 4 to support Army Group South in Operation Blue, Hitler's offensive towards the Soviet Caucasus oilfields near Baku on the Caspian Sea.

Staffel of Zerstörergeschwader 2 (ZG 2—2nd Destroyer Wing) attached, was also assigned to the air fleet by 27 July 1942.

[48] For the battles on the Don bend, ZG 1 was assigned to Kurt Pflugbeil's IV Fliegerkorps in support of Army Group A.

[51] During the advance southward, ZG 1 set up a night fighter unit in September 1942, named 10(Nacht) Staffel which produced the successful Josef Kociok.

ZG 1 was ordered to perform escort fighter roles from their base in Tatsinskaya, for Junkers Ju 52 transports supplied the encircled Axis armies but were not successful.

[58] I. and II./ZG 1 made efforts to support the defence of air transport bases at Novocherkassk and Zverevo, thereby keeping open the bottleneck through to Rostov.

The unit regrouped, rested and began defensive patrols over convoys, escorting transports between Greece and Sicily.

The Allied powers sought to use large numbers of fighters to cut the air bridge from Tunisia to Sicily and prevent the Axis forces supplying their divisions in Africa.

[75] On 10 April ZG 1 lost one Bf 110 in a collision with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning form the US 82nd Fighter Group over Cape Bon while escorting Ju 52s.

The purpose of their transfer was to provide air cover for German U-boats as RAF Coastal Command intensified its anti-submarine warfare operations in the Bay of Biscay.

[79] The Luftwaffe's bid to protect U-boats over the Bay of Biscay in 1943 cost it 122 aircraft; 79 to enemy action including 48 Zerstörer.

On 10 March 1944, for example, while escorting an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine it lost half its aircraft plus commanding officer Oberstleutnant Janson.

The resurrection of the Zerstörergeschwader was ordered because the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe still believed the destructive power of the Bf 110 and Me 410 would prove decisive against unescorted American heavy bombers.

The German units destroyed 30 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, one P-47 Thunderbolt, losing 25 fighters and 12 airmen.

On 7 January II./ZG 1 attempted to intercept the US Fifteenth's attack on Wiener Neustadt and lost one aircraft to the US 14th Fighter Group without success.