Heinkel He 219 V-4, Ju 88 P-1 and Ju 290 A-2 at Rechlin exhibition September 1943 (1)

On 3 September 1943 an important Leistungsschau or exhibition was held at the Luftwaffe Erprobungs or test centre, E Stelle Rechlin (Mecklenburg). A crowd of  of high-ranking members of the Generalstab and the Rüstungsstab - Milch, Galland and Speer all attended - hosted by Oberst Petersen, Kommandeur of the E Stelle, enjoyed a demonstration of the latest German types and weaponry. Both Beuteflugzeuge captured types (including a Short Stirling and DH Mosquito in the picture above) and the latest Luftwaffe aeronautical achievements were on show in a "display of the strength of the Luftwaffe" according to press reports. 

At this stage of the war the Luftwaffe hierarchy must have been confident in the apparent superiority of their aircraft and weapons systems - according to at least one source, it was while attending this exhibtion that Speer was handed a telegram by Milch effectively cancelling full scale production of the Me 262 on Hitler's orders - the new jet was surplus to requirements for winning the war!  Other pictures taken at the same event show GfM Milch and armaments minister Speer in discussion in front of the Ju 88 V-45, a prototype which had a jet engine slung under its port wing for testing. The top secret He 219 nightfighter and other types then in development such as the Ju 88 P with its enormous 7.5 cm anti-tank cannon were also on view and the flying display included such types as the huge four-engine Ju 290. A small circle of selected reporters and journalists were present at the exhibition including Hans Hubmann, whose archive is now part of the collection of the BPK (Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz) covered in an earlier post on this blog. Jet and Prop magazine published a report on the exhibition in an issue dated 01/ 2001. In a second post we'll look at some of the Beute aircraft on show which included, in addition to the Mosquito and Stirling, a B-17 and Il-2.




According to Peter Petrick this is 'DH+PT' the He 219 V-4 WNr.  19004. The aerial array of the FuG 202 Lichtenstein airborne radar is noteworthy. Click on the images for a slightly bigger view.

Ju 88 P with its enormous 7.5 cm anti-tank cannon housed in a ventral gondola.  

Pictures below show the Ju 290 preparing to get airborne at the show and performing a fly past.  This was Ju 290 A-2 'SB+QG'  WNr. 0157 

 .

First flight of the DFS 331 cargo glider

The DFS 331 was a cargo glider developed in collaboration between DFS and Gotha. The glider was designed by Dr Hans Jacobs who had worked on the earlier DFS 230 and the design addressed many of the flaws present in the earlier DFS 230 design. The visibility from the cockpit was good, with the entire nose being glazed, and the body was very wide, allowing it to carry light Flak guns and light military vehicles. Contrary to what can be read elsewhere only a single example was constructed which flew for the first time on 30 September 1940.  Although the aircraft was flown and tested ahead of the Go 242, development on the type was halted by the RLM in March 1941. 

Ju-52 pilot for the first towed flights was Oblt. Karl-Heinz Blendermann, Staffelführer of 2./LLG 2 who recalled;

" ...On 27 September 1940 I was ordered to fly Ju 52 H$+BH fitted with glider towing equipment to Gotha where flight testing of a new type was to take place under the authority of a Flugkapitän whose name I no longer recall. There were two airfields at Gotha, one used by the Luftwaffe and the other belonging to the Gothaer Waggonfabrik. It turned out that the Flugkapitän in question had not towed a glider before and when told of my experience (Eben Emael, Drontheim/Norway) put a phone call through to the RLM to suggest that myself and my crew be retained for the flight trials. A telex order confirming this came through and my crew and I were sworn to secrecy and put up in a Gothaer hotel for the duration. On the following day we were taken to view the DFS 331 for the first time in its hangar where it was being prepared for flight testing . The type had been designed and built by a twenty-strong team of DFS Flugingenieure under Hans Jacobs (sic) and was designed to carry up to thirty men. I was then introduced to Flugkapitän Hanna Reitsch who would be at the controls of the new glider. Both Reitsch and the test engineers again questioned me closely on my experiences as a glider tow pilot. My responses seem to satisfy them as did those of my unit. Fine weather the following day, 30 September, saw us make the first test runs with the glider in tow. However the glider remained on the ground at that stage  - Reitsch ordered us to release the tow-rope as we got airborne. We completed a circuit and after landing prepared for the first flight of the glider itself which took place late that afternoon and lasted twenty two minutes. Everything ran without a hitch. The glider made over one hundred test flights and had very pleasant handling qualities which were confirmed by Flugkapitän Franke from Rechlin. In the meantime the Go242 had made its first flight ( 9 November 1940)  from the Gothaer Waggonfabrik works strip - I was at the controls of the Ju-52 tow plane and made two further flights on 9 and 10 November 1940.  While development of the Go 242 proceded - as far as I'm aware because loading and unloading operations proved easier - work on the DFS 331 was brought to an end on the orders of the RLM on 24 March 1941..."

Bf 110 G with 37mm Flak 18 cannon - Zerstörer (1)

This heavily armed Bf 110 variant was trialed both for gound attack duties on the Eastern Front and in daylight battles against USAAF bombing raids without enjoying any major success in either role! Evaluation involving several aircraft was carried by the Versuchskommando für Panzerkämpfung (anti-tank trials unit) at Rechlin and moving to Russia for field evaluation in April 1943. The evaluation was apparently not favourable for this version and it was then turned over to Erprobungskommando 25 for evaluation against USAAF bombers. The top speed was found to be only slightly higher than that of the B-17s and B-24s and lateral stability was poor which impared the aiming. A total of 43 G-3 and 107 G-2 airframes were scheduled for modification but only a handful have been confirmed as being accepted by ZG 76 early in 1944. ("Messerschmitt Bf 110", Ron Mackay, Crowood, Page 121) With the advent of the USAAF long-range fighter escort in 1944 this weapons combination became obsolete over night as the Bf 110s now became the hunted rather than the hunter. A number of Bf 110s were equipped as here with a Flak 18 gun and W.Gr. mortars under the wings!

Other references maintain that the Bf 110 with 37mm cannon was tested at the E-Stelle Tarnevitz;

".....This weapon was derived from the old Rheinmetall-Borsig Flak 18 gun and was relatively simple to install beneath the Ju 87 wings. The test-bed aircraft was correspondingly modified in Tarnewitz and successfully tested under operational conditions. The weapon showed such good results that it lead to the first Bf 110 equipped with a single 37mm cannon being made ready in autumn 1942 and it was reckoned that this large-calibre weapon could also be employed against enemy bomber formations."

Ref. source: German Secret Flight Test Centres to 1945, H.Beauvais et al, Midland, page 174