Wings of the Luftwaffe

274 Pages·54.621 MB·English

by  Brown Eric.

Wings of the
L u f t w a f f e
HIKOKI
PVULICATIONS
First published in Great Britain in 1977 by
Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Limited
Revised and updated in 2010 by Blacker Design
and Hikoki Publications
Copyright© text Eric Brown
ISBN 9 781902 1091 52
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing
for the purpose of private study, research,
criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988, no part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitled in any form or
by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical,
mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or
othervvise, without prior written permission. All
enquiries should be directed to the publisher.
Publisher's note: First published in 1977 it
A CIP record for this book is available from included 17 aircraft. This is a new and greatly
the British Library revised and expanded work that now covers 35
of the major German World War II aircraft.
Printed in China
This book would not have been possible without
Crecy Publishing Limited the generous assistance of the following people
1a Ringway Trading Estate, Shadowmoss Rd, who supplied artwork and photographs: Richard
Manchester M22 SLH Caruana, Philip Jarrett, Bundesarchiv, Barry
www.crecy.co.uk Ketley, The Aeroplane.
Foreword .................................................... 6 Heinkel .................................................... 117
He 111 117
Arado ................................................... .... 10 He 162 129
Ar232B 10 He 177 139
Ar234B 13 He 219 153
Ar240 25
Henschel ................................................ 163
Blohm & Voss ...........................................2 8 Hs 129B 163
Bv 138 28
Bv 141 31 Junkers .................................................... 165
Bv222 34 Ju 52/3M 165
Ju 87D 173
Bucker ................... ................................ .39 Ju 88 183
Jungmeister 39 Ju 188 196
Ju 290 199
Dornier ...................................................... 42
Do 18 42 Messerschmitt ........................................2 02
Do 24 45 Bf 109G 202
Do 217 48 Bf 110 214
Do 335 58 Me 163B 224
Me 262 240
Fieseler ...................................................... 69 Me 410 254
Storch 69
Siebel ...................................................... 257
Focke-Wulf ................................................ 72 Si 2040 257
Fw 189 72
Fw 190 82 Appendices ........................................... 259
Fw 200C 95 Comparative ranks 260
Ta 152 109 Luftwaffe chain of command 261
Ta 154 114 Aircraft flown by Eric Brown 262
Glossary of German terms 266
Index 268
Index of engines 271
5
HAVE SPENt almost ten years of my life in Germany and I count them
amongst the most exciting in a life which has, for me, been crammed full of
excitement. As a boy addicted to aviation, I had the extraordinary good
fortune to be introduced to the exhilaration of aerobatics by that great
German ace Ernst Udet and I recall with absolute clarity witnessing that
famous demonstration of helicopter potential by Hanna Reitsch in Berlin's
Deutschlandhalle; two events that left indelible impressions on my youthful
mind and the determination to make myself thoroughly conversant with the
language of this remarkably aviation-minded nation.
Subsequently, I was to return to Germany to continue my studies in the
environment of the Third Reich and had already acquired my pilot's wings.
Much has been written of the evils of this era in Germany, but to a young and
impressionable foreigner the atmosphere was one of vibrant excitement and
military pageantry. I was too inexperienced to sense the underlying tensions
and I was bewitched by the tremendous aviation activity throughout the
country. There seemed to be so many more powered aircraft and gliders than I
had ever seen in England, and the youth of Germany was being encouraged
to participate in the sport of aviation at no personal expense. To me it seemed
truly an aviator's Utopia.
I haunted gliding sites at weekends, meeting many Luftwaffe officers who
were helping to organise the feverish aviation activity that was to be seen
everywhere. They took no exception to my presence and while they never
offered me a flight, they seemed to gain some pleasure from trying out their
English on me. For my part, watching the flying and getting aviation magazines
from the clubhouses were sufficient reward. I read much of Germany's aircraft,
little realising that the magazines of the day revealed no more than the tip of
Germany's technological iceberg. I developed an avid desire to fly the aircraft
depicted in the pages of Der Flieger and other German aviation publications of
that time, having, of course, no concept of how completely my desire would
be fulfilled or in what fashion.
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World War II broke upon my life like a thunderbolt. I was bundled
unceremoniously out of Germany, called up by the Royal Air Force and found
myself in the Fleet Air Arm all within a couple of months. It all seemed a
glorious adventure and, despite my many German friends, I entertained no
misgivings about fighting Germans as long as they were in the air. My first
operational posting was as a fighter pilot and while I regretted that I had had
no opportunity to fly German aircraft, I consoled myself with the thought that
I would soon have an opportunity to find out if they were as good as they
appeared to be.
I was to be doubly fortunate - both to have the experience of aerial combat
and to survive it. Fate was to be even kinder to me when I moved into the
world of test flying, eventually, in January 1944, to become the Royal Navy's
Chief Test Pilot at the famous Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough.
There I was to serve for six years and command the elite Aerodynamics Flight,
always regarded as the top job in experimental test flying in Britain. During my
first year at Farnborough I built up a considerable amount of experience in
flying different types of aircraft, including a half-dozen captured German
types. The RAE then decided to make use of my knowledge of the German
language in preparing teams of scientists that would move in to take over
German research installations and interrogate German technical personnel once
the war was won.
However, events moved swiftly and I found myself launched into the most
fascinating period of my life. I visited virtually every major aeronautical
installation in Germany, interrogated some of the aircraft designers whose
names had become household words in Britain and the USA as well as in
Germany-Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Tank. I marvelled at some of the results of
their incredible ingenuity, such as the V-1 and V-2 missiles, the Natter
expendable rocket-driven interceptor, the similarly-powered Me 163 Komet,
the all-wing Horten Ho IX, and many others.
During those first chaotic months after the fall of the Third Reich, the RAE
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Wit H.:>S OF THE Lllf rvvAFF-
sent its test pilots hither and thither throughout the British Zone of
Occupation to collect examples of the Luftwaffe's standard aircraft. These
were flown to a central collecting point set up at Schleswig airfield, checked
and then ferried to Farnborough. The pilots of the RAE's Aerodynamics Flight
had the most jet experience and were used to collect and ferry the more
sophisticated types of captured aircraft. The fact that I was a part of the Flight
and German-speaking led to my being heavily employed in this task, finally
being designated as Officer in Charge of German Aircraft Reception at
Farnborough. It was thus that I flight-tested every German aircraft that arrived
at the RAE and selected those that I considered best retained for further test
work. I also wrote the handling notes for the other RAE pilots who were to fly
some of these aircraft and helped ferry those not required at Farnborough to
RAF Brize Norton for storage.
Altogether. I was to fly 55 different types of German aircraft, mostly at
Farnborough, but quite a number of them in Norway, Denmark, France,
Holland, Belgium, Austria and Germany itself. The very fact that these aircraft
had belonged to the enemy endowed them with an aura of utter fascination
and consequently I took copious notes of my impressions. It is the distillation
of these notes relating to the principal ex-Luftwaffe aircraft that I flew that
provides the content matter of the pages that follow.
It is thirty years since this book was first published and it could do with a
facelift, because the interest in German aircraft of World War II has had a
resurgence with the generations that have followed that cataclysmic event in
history. The fascination with wartime German aviation stems from the
advanced technology that was revealed after the fall of the Third Reich. It was
my task as a test pilot at RAE, Farnborough, to probe this technology. At first
this was done by flying enemy aircraft which had inadvertently landed at
British airfields or been forced to crash on British soil during operations against
this country. The former were usually intact, while a proportion of the latter
could be repaired to flying condition again.
During this first phase of flying enemy aircraft I was impressed with the Focke
Wulf 190 fighter and the Junkers 88 medium bomber, but little did I know what
was to come. The second phase began in January 1945 when the RAE started
to organise the team of pilots and scientists who would move into Germany at
8
fORE:WORD
the end of hostilities to seek out and acquire as much of its advanced aviation
technology as possible. I was given a key role in that operation, as l have
explained, and a fantastic experience it turned out to be.
When I reflect on the shambles that existed in Germany after the collapse of
the Third Reich, I cannot but help maNel that so many of these captured aircraft
were flown with comparatively few accidents. Yet virtually no records of their
service histories were available and maintenance was often undertaken by British
personnel totally unfamilfar with German systems. I did at least succeed in
enlisting the seNices of two skilled Luftwaffe technicians whom I found in
Norway with an Ar 2348 squadron and gave the option of an interesting tour of
duty with my unit at Farnborough or an indeterminate spell as prisoners-of-war.
They accepted my offer and proved completely trustworthy, industrious and
highly intelligent. They flew all over the Continent with me in a Siebel Si 2040,
which I used as a flying workshop, inspecting ex-Luftwaffe aircraft before
ferrying them to England. We worked well together.
After the capitulation on 8 May 1945 our former allies suddenly became our
competitors in the scramble to gain the spoils of war. In many respects we
fared better than the Americans, Russians and French, for our occupation zone
was rich in airfields to which many Luftwaffe pilots flew their exotic new
aircraft to keep them, and themselves, out of the hands of the Russians. In
addition we had many key aeronautical research establishments with their
scientists in our zone, which was an Aladdin's cave of aviation riches.
Our team was quite startled by what we discovered, particularly with regard
to the advanced development of the German wind tunnels, which supplied the
information on which their novel aircraft designs were based. Indeed these
were the aerodynamic shapes which were to influence the aviation world to
the present day. The original edition of Wings of the Luftwaffe covered
seventeen of these in considerable detail. A further fifteen have been added to
this new edition, but are described in slightly less detail because circumstances
restricted the amount of flight testing we were able to carry out. However all
will contribute to your sharing of a unique experience.
9
1 ARADO AR 2328
Main Works: Warnemunde near Rostock on 'A STRANGE BEAST WITH A SOUND
the Baltic coast, Brandenburg - FUNCTIONAL PURPOSE.'
Neuendorf, SW of Berlin
ERIC BROWN, 1945
Chief Engineer: W Blume
Chief Test Pilot: Joachim Carl
Established: 192 5
The Arado company was very much a dark horse The Ar 232 was originally designed as a re
placement for the Ju 52/3m which was the
when it produced the design for the world's first
backbone of the massive German Luftwaffe
operational jet aircraft, although the Arado 232 had
air transport force throughout World War II. Design
given forewarning that the firm was showing it could work on the Arado project started in early 1940
and featured an unusual layout with a large
come up with some unusual ideas.
unobstructed cabin from whose spine protruded
a single boom supporting twin tail fins. The wing
was mounted on top of the fuselage and had full
span Fowler-type flaps with slotted ailerons inset.
Under the centre line of the cab.in was a multi
wheel static undercarriage comprising eleven pairs
of idler wheels mounted in a row, with low pres
sure tyres on independently sprung legs for ease of
loading. At the rear of the cabin was an hydrauli
cally operated cargo loading door. The whole
aeroplane was supported on a massive tricycle
undercarriage, which normally raised the idler
wheels clear of the ground. But all the main oleo
legs had knee joints, and when at rest the aircraft
could be lowered on to the secondary wheels,
thus distributing the load and enabling the 232
to be taxied on uneven or soft ground.
The TausendfUssler (millipede) as the Germans
called the Ar 232B was no beauty to look at, but it
certainly looked functional, and this impression
was enhanced on entering the aircraft through
the rear ramp which had central steps built into
it. The cabin had 31 cubic metres (1, 100 cubic
feet) of space forward of the ramp, and 10 cubic
metres (350 cubic feet) above the ramp when
the latter was closed.
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