Deutsche Kunstflugstaffel - Luftwaffe aerobatic display team July 1939

 

The Deutsche Kunstflugstaffel - which loosely translates as German aerobatic display team - had originally been established unofficially in I./ LG 2 with a 'Kette' of three Bücker 133 'Jungmeister' biplanes. According to Kommandeur Hptm. Hans Trübenbach: 

"It was initially a distraction. Several of my pilots liked aerobatics and and we started with a formation of three aircraft. I led the Kette and my wingmen were the Oberleutnante Gerhard Homuth and Georg Graner. Our first performance took place in Arlon, Belgium on 10 May 1938.." 

Belgian pilot Emile Witmeur participated in the air show and wrote the following account;

'..There is no airfield at Arlon. For the occasion, some meadows have been marked out (...) a grassy rectangle bordered by red flags marks the landing strip, barely three hundred metres long. It is a short runway. A Belgian fighter plane lands outside the marked out area and noses over. The primitive conditions [do not deter] the Germans in their Jungmeister biplanes. Here they come. They are landing in echelon, wingtip to wingtip. They land in about fifty metres. They have machines with brakes (...) Hans Trübenbach explains things to curious onlookers. He expresses himself quite well in our language. Then the display - lined up wingtip to wingtip, facing the crowd, about fifty metres away, they run up their engines without wheel chocks, standing on their brakes. Opening throttles wide, the fuselages rise up to the horizontal. Brakes are released and the Jungmeister power off towards the crowd, getting airborne in thirty metres, passing directly on their backs in a half roll in tight formation. This has never been seen before. They stay wheels up for most of their performance, flying all the classic figures - inverted. A specially adapted fuel supply is fitted to their aircraft to allow them to fly for long periods on their backs. After a very spectacular 'split', we witness a festival of acrobatics, tight crosses and thrills. Trübenbach finishes his act with a double barrel roll twenty metres above the ground before landing. After that, the rest of the display programme was very tame.." 

 According to Trübenbach the 'Kunstflug-Kette' was expanded to Staffel-size that summer, apparently on the suggestion of the Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe. The second Kette was led by the  Staffelkapitan 3./LG 2 Hptm. Wille. Future aces such  as Erwin Clausen, Herman Staege, Josef Heinzeller and Herbert Ihlefeld also flew in the Kunstflugstaffel.  

On July 7, 1939, the Belgian Aéronautique Militaire organised an air show at Evere (Brussels) to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary in style. The French and the British, among others, were present, but many in Belgium were counting on the presence of the Deutsche Kunstflugstaffel. In the event this would be the last peace-time international air show meet - it was a show marred by a fatal accident. According to Trübenbach;

"...We opened the show with a tight Staffelkeil formation  at a height of 50 metres right past the Royal Gallery while the middle Kette flew a slow formation roll. Then the Staffel climbed to 1,000 metres and dived in line astern to pull up into a loop near the ground, forming a 'wheel' with the no. 1 joining up behind the No. 9 ...[..]  it was then that Hauptmann Joachim Wille, who was leading the second Kette, split off to do a  spectacular 'special trick'  - eine Sondernummer- which he had planned and practised on his own. He was to do a barrel roll on the landing approach, cut the throttle and touch down directly on the runway. But the wind was quite blustery that day in Evere. Coming in on his approach and on his back at that stage, he was caught in a gust and pushed down between two hangars. In factions of a second he must have tried to 'pull up' instead of  'pushing down' . Wille's No. 7 crashed on its back on the edge of the runway. The pilot died from his injuries at the scene.." 

Despite the crash the show continued. The French aerobatic display were next up while the RAF flew its large (for the time)  and impressive Wellington bombers. Belgian Aé. Mi. pilot 1st Sergeant Denys Rolin, attending the show with his mother, turned to her and remarked how dreadful the accident was. To which his mother replied; " Ce n'est qu'un Boche!", a reaction perhaps to be expected from a Belgian woman who had not forgotten the German invasion and occupation of the Great War. Joachim Wille was to receive  posthumously the  Order of Leopold awarded by the Belgian King (Leopold III) that evening. His body was repatriated in a Ju 52 a few days later. Two months later the German invasion of Poland was launched while the Kunstflugstaffel was officially disbanded 'for the duration of the war'.

Also on this blog;

Fw 190 at Brussels Evere

Fw 190 in Brussels Evere

" ...On 4 November 1944, 416 Sqn RCAF moved to Base 56 at Evere, Belgium, an ex-German Luftwaffe airfield. When the RCAF pilots flew their Spitfires into the former Luftwaffe base [5 November 1944] they found one abandoned Fw 190 fighter aircraft. Many photos were taken on or beside this enemy fighter, including four images by pilot Gordon Hill...

This became the first German fighter aircraft seen up close by most of the Canadian Spitfire pilots and they climbed all over the enemy fighter... A month later, the British Army came to remove the fighter and it blew-up. It had been booby trapped by the retreating German troops. A lesson learned the hard way by all pilots in 416 Squadron..."

From the Clarence Simonson blog 'Preserving the Past' " The making of a WWII RCAF Spitfire pilot"

Fw 190 A-8. WNr. 680883
(Best image I’ve seen of this machine, my collection via James V. Crow- click on the image to view large. Note that in the last two photos most ‘detachable’ parts of the airframe have gone!)

Regia Aeronautica in the Battle of Britain Corpo Aereo Italiano - Operation Cinzano 11 November 1940,

" 11 November 1940 - today we have brought down more enemy aircraft than on any previous day. Among them for the first time were at least eight Italian machines. The PM chuckled with joy when I reported this information to him..."

 John Colville, Churchill's private secretary.

Hoping to participate in the 'invasion' of Britain the Italians dispatched a hastily assembled expeditionary force of some 200 aircraft to the Channel coast. The so-called Corpo Aereo Italiano transferred to Belgium (Ursel) between 27 September and 19 October 1940 and would 'participate' in the tail end of the Battle of Britain; the Cant. Z 1007 of 172 Squadriglia RST (Ricognizione Strategica Terrestre, above) was one of five sent to Belgium, while the Fiat CR.42 Falco fighters of 18 Gruppo seen setting out from Milan for Belgium on 6 October 1940 (below) were part of a contingent of some fifty of the type.  The transfer from Italy was something of a fiasco - as a result of poor weather, lack of fuel or technical faults no fewer than 19 Fiat BR.20 bombers had to make emergency landings while a further four bombers and three Fiat G.50s were posted missing! After stops in Munich and Brussels the Italian detachment finally reached Ursel on 19 October!

While a comparatively strong force on paper  it took a mere handful of familiarisation flights for the realisation to dawn that the Fiat fighters- the CR. 42 in particular - were totally unsuited to 'winter' conditions in north-west Europe. Many of the aircraft had no seat armour nor functioning radio equipment, pitot tube heating was insufficient to prevent them freezing and the Fiat CR. 42 Falco biplane fighters with their open cockpits were hardly suited to missions over the UK in winter.  Among other items the pilots had to procure lifebelts from the Luftwaffe. The Italians were operating from Belgium as the Luftwaffe leadership had refused to allow them to operate from their airfields in northern France, which considerably hampered their radius of action (the endurance of the CR.42 was 775 km and the Fiat G.50 445 km), allowing them barely ten minutes over southern England. In addition, of the 200+ Italian pilots only five had received instrument or blind flying training.

 Regia Aeronautica Fiat G. 50 seen in Belgium during the Battle of Britain. 

11 November 1940 was a hard day for the forces of the Regia Aeronautica stationed in Belgium on the North Sea coast. The Italians had planned a raid over the UK under the code name 'Cinzano' - a bombing raid on Harwich  by ten Fiat BR. 20s escorted by 40 Fiat CR.42s and G.50s and a diversionary attack on London by the five Canz Z. 1007 bombers in concert with the Luftwaffe. However everything that could go wrong, did go wrong...the G.50s turned for home unable to locate the bombers, the bombers, late for their rendezvous, arrived unescorted over Harwich and the RAF was able to claim eight Italian machines shot down - in reality three BR 20M bombers and three CR.42 biplanes were lost. Falco coded '95-13' flown by Sergente Pietro Salvadori  put down on the beach at Orford Ness in Suffolk with an over-heating engine as a result of a ruptured oil line - the aircraft today displayed at the RAF Museum, Hendon. The Italians claimed nine Hurricanes shot down in the engagement - the RAF reported three Hurricanes damaged..M.llo Giuseppe Ruzzin was credited with a Hurricane shot down for his fifth victory following his four confirmed in Spain. To compound the mission's lack of success and running short of fuel, no fewer than nineteen Falcos made emergency landings along the Belgian coast with ten of these machines subsequently written off.

The second and final confrontation with RAF fighters for the CAI took place on 23 November - 12 Spitfires of 603 Sqn intercepted 23 Fiat CR.42s on a 'free-hunt' over the south Kent coast in the vicinity of Folkestone. After attempting to chase some Hurricanes the twenty-four Fiat G.50s of 20 Gruppo flying the mission had already turned for home. According to Luigino Caliaro (in 'Avions' 227) the Fiat pilots threw their maneuverable biplanes into the combat with alacrity and claimed five Spitfires shot down in the space of just a few minutes - the Spitfires made claims for nine Fiats. In reality two Fiats were shot down and three made forced landings in Belgium for one Spitfire damaged. With winter setting in the Falcos and Freccias made just one more sortie over southern England (28 November) without encountering the RAF. During December the Fiat CR 42s were recalled from Belgium to be sent to Africa and departed a snow-bound Ursel on 10 January 1941...

Below; Fiat BR.20M 242-3/MM22267 lost on 11 November 1940.

Further reading;

Luigino Caliaro's multi-part series on the Fiat CR. 42 in 'Avions' magazine. The latest issue No. 228 discusses CR.42 operations in the Med, Greece and East Africa
PDF extracts for all Lela Presse publications on their web site 

Lehrgeschwader 2 - Dornier Do 17 P and Bf 110 of 7.(F)/ LG 2 1939 -1942 Staffelkapitän 7./ LG 2 Hptm Gerndt, Hptm Hans Schäfer

Above;  Bf 110 "L2+FR" of 7.(F)/LG 2 photgraphed under camo netting in the Brussels region - probably Grimbergen - during the Battle of Britain. This machine is probably Bf 110 C-5 WNr 2188, which was lost on 2 October 1940 in collision with WNr 2263. Below; a Bf 110 E on the Russian Front, summer 1941. While some of the lightly armed 'C' variants on the strength of 7./ LG 2 dispensed with forward firing armament, the E-sub-type claimed over thirty aerial victories with the recce Staffel up to March 1942.

By Neil Page

Lehrgeschwader 2 is a relatively unknown Luftwaffe unit. While its sister unit LG 1 is reasonably well known as a bomber unit - the only Luftwaffe bomber Geschwader to have flown combat sorties from 3 September 1939 (Poland) to May 1945 (Oder Bridges) - LG 2 was a bit of a hybrid, established during 1939 and disappearing at the end of 1942, its various Gruppen and Staffeln operating independently and in different theatres and eventually being absorbed into larger formations. I./ LG 2 operated as an independent fighter Gruppe during 1940 before being attached to JG 77 and becoming I./ JG 77 in January 1942. II./ LG 2 was a Hs 123-equipped ground attack formation, prior to converting to the Bf 109 E and being re-designated I./Schlachtgeschwader 1 during the winter of 1941/42. III./ LG 2 was mostly turned over to long-range reconnaissance (although 10./ LG 2 was a seaplane unit before re-equipping with the Hs 123 and 11./LG 2 a night fighter Staffel ). One of the component recce Staffeln of III./ LG 2 was 7.(F)/LG 2 which was established prior to the outbreak of WW II and flew the Do 17 P, standard equipment for a long-range recce Staffel ('F' for 'fern', lit. 'distant' or 'long-range' ). First Staffelkapitän was a Hptm Gerndt and as several personnel assigned to this unit had fought in Spain, the laughing devil's head - the emblem of the recce component of the Legion Condor - was quickly adopted as the Staffel emblem. The twelve Do 17 Ps of 7./ LG 2 were based in Deckenpfronn for the Polish campaign and flying at high altitude deep into Poland no losses to enemy fighters or anti-aircraft fire were recorded. Shifting westwards the Staffel appears to have been based in Muenster-Hansdorf for the Westfeldzug (campaign in the West) but already during this period elements of the Gruppe were being absorbed into other formations - the Stab/LG 2 becoming the Stab/StG 1 while 8./LG 2 was re-designated 3. Fern.Aufkl.Gr.Ob.d.L. 7./LG 2 reported one loss during the Phoney War, a Do 17 P lost following engine failure on 3 March 1940.

Above; Dornier Do 17 P "L2+BR" of 7/.(F)/LG 2, spring 1940.
Below; Dornier Do 17  "L2+JR" still on the strength of 7/.(F)/LG 2 during the summer of 1941 in Russia. While the Staffel had almost entirely re-equipped with the latest variants of the Bf 110 for Barbarossa this image appears to provide evidence that a few examples of the obsolescent 'P' model of the Dornier Do 17 were retained by the Staffel, most probably as liaison aircraft...

Three aircraft were lost over France during 'Fall Gelb' including a Do 17 P brought down by a Spitfire on 28 May 1940 almost certainly during the course of a sortie over the BEF evacuation beaches between Dunkerque and La Panne. The three crew were injured in the resulting belly-landing at Dixmude. A Spanish veteran, Uffz. Pinske, and his crew were shot down on 4 June, the pilot- who was injured - carrying out a successful emergency landing at Voyenne. At the conclusion of the campaign in France 7./ LG 2 moved back to Karlsruhe and re-equipped with the Bf 110 C-5, a more modern and much faster aircraft. One of the pilots arriving at the unit during this period was Leutnant Robert Kneifel, an Austrian born in 1913 in Bergerac (south-west France - his father, a French teacher, was on an exchange year abroad and married a local French girl, prior to being interned during WWI.. ). A selection of his photos - along with those of another 7./ LG 2 veteran ex-Ofw. Otto Stahleber - illustrate a two-part article on 7./ LG 2 published in 'Avions' magazine (September/October 2003, Lela Presse) compiled by Charles Aubusson.

Below; Staffelkapitän 7./ LG 2 Hptm Gerndt on the wing of this B 110 C under camo netting evidently overseeing pre-flight preparations.

The Bf 110 C-5s of 7./ LG 2 were lightly armed and fast, retaining only the rearward firing MG and carrying extra fuel and photographic equipment. The Staffel departed Germany for Belgium on 10 August 1940 being based principally at Grimbergen to the north of Brussels -sharing the facilities with the Do 17s of Wekusta 26 - and Evere/Melsbroeck with sorties being flown over the UK almost immediately; a Bf 110 C-5 of the Staffel was forced to carry out an emergency landing at Wissant on the Channel coast on 13 August while five days later the Bf 110 C-5 flown by Oblt. Werdin was shot down after being caught by five 54 Squadron Spitfires up from Manston, the aircraft going down in the Channel.

Below; filling the fuel tanks of a Bf 110 displaying the Teufelskopf 'devil's head' emblem of 7.(F)/ LG 2

Above; Oblt. Josef Peteani (left, note spelling) reporting to the Staffelkapitän 7./ LG 2 Hptm Gerndt (back to camera)  on his return from a sortie over England during the Battle of Britain.

On 25 September 1940 Bf 110 C-5 " L2+ER" flown by Oblt Weyergang was dispatched to photograph targets in London but ran into a 229 Sqn Hurricane and in the ensuing pursuit took a number of hits before crashing north of Hastings where the two crew were buried. On 2 October Ofw. Hermann Kroll was airborne from Grimbergen on  a test flight but collided with another 7. Staffel Bf 110 flown by the crew of Oblt. Eckert and his radio operator Uffz. August Haas. All three airmen were able to bail out but Eckert and Haas were too low for their chutes to deploy correctly. Kroll was not held to be responsible for the accident and would later be awarded the Ritterkreuz for his recce flying in Russia. Another notable and much photographed loss during the Battle of Britain was that of Oblt. Roland Simmerich (radio operator/gunner  Uffz. Rudolf Ebeling) brought down by RAF fighters on 20 October 1940 at the controls of Bf 110 C-5 "L2+MR" (WNr. 2228) at Bockingfold near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. 7./ LG 2 lost a fifth aircraft over Britain on 21 December 1940 - Lt. Helmut Fischer at the controls of 'L2+ER' was caught by fighters of 64 and 611 Squadrons over the Thames estuary. The rear gunner Uffz. Kurt Schäfer was killed early on in the encounter, but Fischer dove away steeply westwards and managed to crash-land his machine at Mardyck on the Channel coast. The hapless Schäfer bled to death in his compartment- his body riddled with 32 rounds.

Having lost nearly 50% of its complement of aircraft during the period of the Battle of Britain, the Staffel moved back to Austria to winter in Wiener Neustadt, where a number of brand-new E-2s, E-3s and E-6s were taken on charge. The Bf 110 'E' sub-type featured up-rated DB 601 N engines while the E-2 and E-6 sub-types could carry  bombs and were thus intended to fill a much more offensive role with the invasion of Russia then in the planning stages. It was at this point that Gerndt left the Staffel replaced by another Spanish veteran as Kapitän, Hptm Hans Schäfer. Prior to Barbarossa however, the Staffel was deployed to the Balkans..

Below; preparations for a sortie probably prior to the Balkans campaign, 7./ LG 2 being based at Vrazdebna, near Sofia, Bulgaria. On 10 April 1941 the Staffel lost two Bf 110s and three crew killed ( C-5 WNr. 2293 and an E-3 WNr. 2318) in poor weather conditions over Bulgaria.

Below; summer 1941 over Russia, "L2+BR" seen in flight over the Krimentschuk sector. To be continued.

 Above; Bf 110 E " L2+RR" of 7./ LG 2, mid-1941

Text by blog author Neil Page, based on " 7./ LG 2 - le diable en rit encore ..." by Charles Aubusson (September/October 2003, issues 126 and 127), reproduced here courtesy of Avions editor Michel Ledet. While many of the photos above feature in Aubusson's two-part feature a selection of them are also currently on offer from Michael Meyer here

Schnellkampfgeschwader 210 May 1941 - Johannes Kaufmann " Meine Flugberichte "

Me 110 E "S9+.L" of 3./SKG 210 over Cambrai, northern France, in April 1941



" ..on Saturday 10 May we arrived in Brussels after a long train journey and the following morning travelled on to Lille. From there we were bussed on to our new airfield at Merville driving through the bucolic countryside of northern France - of the war there was nothing to be seen.. Our group, freshly posted to SKG 210, comprised young Zerstörer crews just out of the 'destroyer' training school and included my radio operator Gefr. Schmidt and myself. Our Geschwader CO was Major Storp, Gruppenkommandeur Hptm. Stricker and our Staffelkapitän Oblt. Forgatsch. The principal mission of our Geschwader was all-weather precision bombing sorties by day and night with the Bf 110. The Me 210 - after which our unit was named- was not yet available. On Tuesday 13 May we flew our first orientation flights, followed by navigation and practise bombing training sorties - the latter were flown against shipwrecks off the Channel coast. These were the sort of sorties that we weren't taught at the Zerstörer training school at Schleissheim. Another deficiency in our training programme that we were to make good as quickly as we could was night flying in the Bf 110. On 18 May 1941 we took off at 23:15 from Merville heading out over the Channel coast. We climbed to 3,000 metres and once through the cloud deck visibility in the light of the moon was good. We had to maintain strict radio silence and had no ground navigation aids. Course, height and speed had to be scrupulously maintained in order to find our way safely back home.. While we had to keep a keen watch  out for English night fighters there were no untoward events on this flight. Shortly after crossing back over the coast we let down through the clouds and once in the vicinity of the airfield requested the very sparse airfield lighting be switched on, which was just of sufficient help to line up for an  approach and touch down. This was our first night sortie 'at the front' and as such was of particular significance for us. Our daytime navigation flights took us to Le Bourget, Calais, Chateaudun and Paderborn. In the view of our Staffelkapitän we quickly reached a point where we could be declared 'einsatzreif' - ready for combat - and awaited our first 'Feindflug' ...some combat sorties were planned but always cancelled, sometimes at the last moment, without us ever knowing why. It was around this period though that the Fuehrer's Deputy, Rudolf Hess, flew to Great Britain in his Bf 110 and there was much rumour and speculation in our personal conversations. Those wishing for a speedy end to the war and peace kept their own counsel though.."

extract from Johannes Kaufmann - 'Meine Flugberichte'









images of 3./SKG 210 Bf 110s from Michael Meyer's current Ebay sales

http://www.ebay.de/sch/macflly41/m.html?hash=item5894725e29&item=380447645225&pt=Militaria&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Johannes Kuhn Schlachtgeschwader 101 - defecting Luftwaffe pilots (1)

I came across this photo of a crash-landed Fw 190 in the RAF Manston Airfield history museum and was surprised to learn that this particular Fw 190, WNr. 171747, had landed close to RAF Manston in Kent during August 1944 and had been flown by a defecting Dutch ferry pilot called Kuhn. A quick look through the books turned up the following.

Johannes Kuhn was born in Amsterdam on 15 November 1908. He served in the Militaire Luchtvaart (Dutch air force) from 1932, and in 1937 volunteered for a six-year term with the Dutch Indies air force, which he joined on 14 August 1937. However, due to an illness, doctors pronounced him unfit for service in the tropics in 1938, and Kuhn had to return to the Netherlands. From April 1939 onwards he flew with 1-2 LvR (1st Reconnaissance Group of the 2nd Air Regiment/ Army Aviation). At the end of that year Kuhn was transferred to V-2 LvR (Army Aviation Fighter Group) and retrained as a fighter pilot. He was shot down over the Pijnacker area on the first day of the German western campaign, on 10 May 1940. Kuhn saved himself by parachute, but owing to a bad knee injury had to spend several months in hospital. His wound did not heal until 1942, and on 15 October of that year he was officially discharged from the Dutch military service. On the same day he volunteered for the German Luftwaffe. Kuhn was later to declare that his German wife had talked him into joining the Luftwaffe, probably a 'protective' statement given to veil his real motives. In any case, until April 1943, he underwent training with the Flieger-Ausbildungsregiment 63 (Pre-Flight Training Regiment) at Toul, and passed the Flugzeug­führerüberprüfungsschule (Pilot Re-Examination School) at Prenzlau, graduating in early July.


From 2 July 1943 Kuhn was with Schlachtgeschwader 101, a close-support training formation, flying the Hs 129 armoured assault aircraft from Paris-Orly. In February 1944 he was assigned to the Flugzeugführerüberprüfungsschule at Quedlinburg, and in May was posted to his last unit, 3./Uber­fiihrungsgruppe West (3rd Squadron of Ferry Group West). The pilots of this unit, consisting of four Staffeln and a Stab, were engaged in ferrying aircraft from industrial establishments and assembly plants to the various front-line units. After the Allied invasion of France the losses of Ferry Group West rose dramatically, the pilots having to fly in all weather conditions and their aircraft often being damaged while touching down on improvised airstrips.

By then Kuhn had realized that the war was lost for the Reich and decided to defect. A favourable opportunity came on 30 August, when 14 Fw 190s had to be ferried to JG 26 at Brussels­-Melsbroek. Kuhn took off from Wiesbaden, and, as the weather was poor, managed to disengage from the others without being noticed. His course now led over Ostend and the English Channel in low-Ievel flight straight to southern England. Kuhn avoided landing on an RAF airfield, where he would have risked being shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Instead he made a perfect belly landing in a field near Monkton road farm, close to Manston in Kent. His Fw 190A-8, WNr. 171747 was only slightly damaged and later put on display at the Farnborough exhibition of captured German equipment prior to being scrapped.

(Source: In The Skies Of Europe by Hans Werner Neulen)