Theodor Rowehl Theodor Rowehl ( 9 February 1894 – 6 June 1978 ) was a German pilot who founded the Luftwaffe ' s strategic air reconnaissance programme , and headed what became known as the Rowehl Squadron and became Kampfgeschwader 200 after his resignation in December 1943 . Early life and service in World War I . Rowehl was from Göttingen . In World War I he served in the Imperial German Navy and made reconnaissance flights over England . Interwar surveillance . After the war , concerned over both the strategic influence of the alliance between the newly reconstituted Poland and France and rumours of Polish construction of border fortifications , Rowehl began flying a hired private plane in his free time and photographing from to evade detection . He showed the photographs to the Abwehr and in 1930 was placed on the payroll , sometimes flying along the border with Poland and sometimes penetrating Polish airspace . He flew in the Junkers W 34 that had set the world altitude record at 12 , 739 metres on 26 May 1929 . From this one - man restart of German strategic aerial reconnaissance , by 1934 , Rowehl ' s operation had expanded to five aircraft and a small group of hand - picked pilots based at Kiel , and he had re - enlisted in the military as an officer . After the signing of the German – Polish Non - Aggression Pact in 1934 the unit went underground as the Experimental Post for High - Altitude Flights , purportedly investigating weather , and moved to Berlin , flying out of the Staaken airfield . They expanded operations to aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet Union , France , and Czechoslovakia , where they made the first use in Germany of stereophotography . In 1936 , at Göring ' s invitation , Rowehl ' s unit was transferred to the Luftwaffe , where it became the Squadron for Special Purposes , under the General Staff of the 5th Branch ( intelligence ) . The greater financial resources of the Luftwaffe enabled Rowehl to recruit more pilots — he sought out men with experience with aerial photography companies , international airlines and aircraft manufacturers , and two had been aviation adventurers in the 1920s and earlier in the 1930s , Count Hoensbroech and Count Soerma . He also advised on the development of specialised aircraft . The unit used converted bombers , beginning with the Heinkel He 111 , later also the Dornier Do 215 , Junkers Ju 86 and Junkers Ju 88 , Dornier Do 217 , Henschel Hs 130 , and Messerschmitt Me 410 . These were equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks and with an oxygen - nitrogen fuel mix that would supercharge the engine for 20 – 25 minutes to facilitate escape . Some had pressurised cabins . They were disguised as civilian planes or had minimal markings . Rowehl also advised Zeiss on the development of special automatic cameras which used infra - red film . The unit , often called the Rowehl Group , provided strategic reconnaissance for both the army and the Luftwaffe . Its base moved to Oranienburg , near the Luftwaffe General Staff , and Rowehl was for a while head of the Luftwaffe ' s Main Photo Centre . World War II . After the war began , the squadron grew to three squadrons , each with 12 aeroplanes , and became the Reconnaissance Group of the Commander in Chief of the Air Force ( " Fernaufklärungsgruppe des Oberbefehlshabers der Luftwaffe " , abbreviated " AufklGrp OB der Lw " ) . A fourth squadron was created in January 1941 to spy on the Soviet Union . At its largest , the unit comprised 200 to 300 men and approximately 50 aircraft . Rowehl now only occasionally flew . In December 1943 , the Third Reich was on the defensive . Seeing a diminished need for strategic aerial reconnaissance — he is quoted as having said , " Our homeland we knew " — and needing to care for two small children after his wife was lost in an air raid , Rowehl resigned . His unit was renamed Kampfgeschwader 200 and used for broader purposes . Honours . Rowehl was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross on 27 September 1940 .