new Luftwaffe books (3), DFS 230 combat glider - Eagles of the Luftwaffe 3 (Mortons)

 

" When it came to daring raids, Germany’s airborne troops had a secret weapon during the Second World War: the DFS 230 combat and assault glider. Successful German attacks at Eben Emael, Corinth, Crete and the raid at Gran Sasso are synonymous with the type – which could carry nine fully-equipped troops, dive towards its target at an angle of 80 degrees and land within 20m of it...".

Arriving on the shelves in WH Smiths in the UK now, the latest title in Mortons' "Eagles of the Luftwaffe" series. A comprehensive history of the DFS 230 and its pilots in action, including Eben Emael, Crete and special ops in North Africa, France, Italy and on the Eastern Front. 

Although it was flown by some of the Third Reich's best aviators, there are few accounts in English that have told the story of the DFS 230 or related something of what it was to fly, fight and die in the first combat glider put into service by the Luftwaffe - until now. The text describes the development of gliding in pre-war Germany and the genesis of the DFS 230 and looks at some of the type's major combat deployments, with chapters devoted to Eben Emael, Corinth, Crete and less well-known theatres such as North Africa. The DFS 230's role in the freeing of Mussolini (Gran Sasso) and the hunt for Tito (Drvar) is also covered in detail, as is its deployment against the French resistance in southern France. The last chapter details DFS 230 missions into Budapest, Breslau and Berlin during April 1945 - one way flights to Hell. The text features newly translated first person accounts and many 'new' photos from private collections. Note that the book is considerably larger than indicated in amazon's blurb - page count is 183 and format size is B5 (19cm x 25cm).

More, including free UK postage from the publisher here

Hs 126 and DFS 230 Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive

 

Del has been trawling through the footage made available via the Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive (AKH) and has come across some DFS 230 colour footage;

 " ...from the Agentur Karl Höffkes film archive - home movie taken by a Luftwaffe officer while training on the DFS 230.." 

This footage almost certainly looks to have been filmed in the south of France presumably during the summer of 1943, prior to Gran Sasso. Either Valence Chabeuil or Lézignan-Corbières. It features a Staffel of Luftlandegeschwader 1 equipped with DFS 230 gliders and Henschel Hs 126 and Avia B.534 tugs training for a new mission... Hauptmann Joseph Karl, Gruppenkommandeur of III./LLG.1 is seen in the footage. 

On 19 August 1943, 12./LLG1 was transferred to Ottana (Sardinia), then on 11 September 1943 to Pratica di Mare (south of Rome). Its mission in Italy was the transport of 1./FJR.7 (Fallschirmjäger-Regiment) to Gran Sasso for the ‘liberation’ of Mussolini. I have extracted a couple of time codes which correspond to the stills below... 

 10:40:11  arrival by train at a town in France, possibly Valence. Does anyone recognise it? 

 10:43:00  engine start Hs 126 tugs of LLG 1 on the airfield.

 10:43:27  pilot in cockpit of DFS 230. Note MG 34 with muzzle flash guard  attached to the fuselage and MG 15 mounted above the cockpit

 10:42:47  a group of officers chatting. In the white cap the Kommandeur of III./LLG 1  (I think..). Another officer in white cap shows off his "Kreta" cuff band for the camera.

 10:48:13  colour section - a DFS 230 with nose-mounted braking rockets, also shown in close-up

 10:49:10   DFS 230 comes into land and the glider's braking rockets are fired. This section concludes with a few shots of the DFS 230 passengers disembarking...  

 At this point I would provide a link to view reel M349 ..but since preparing this post I can no longer find the film... 

 As always these stills are reproduced here with the kind permission of Karl Höffkes. 

LLG 1 DFS 230

 

 An ECPA-D image from the FALLAOK files depicting an LLG 1 DFS 230 coming in to land on an airfield in the south of France during training for the Gran Sasso 'raid' (Mussolini rescue, September 1943)). Photo by Bildberichter Wolfgang Stocker  via the imagesdefense.gouv.fr website. Stocker died in Italy in 1944. 

Flugzeug Classic Jahrbuch 2024 -DFS 230 Gran Sasso

 

I finally got around to ordering the Flugzeug Classic Jahrbuch 2024 (Geramond, Heft 12). One hundred pages for 13 euros and packed with interesting features; the history of on-board toilets ( seriously..), Peter Cronauer on JG 54 in 1944 (a stalwart of 'Flugzeug Classic', Peter sadly passed away in 2024), stories of the He 59 and the Ju 34, Jagdflieger navigation techniques, the Luftwaffe in Tunisia, the British Me 163 (DH 108) and more..

Two articles caught my eye in particular. The first is an investigation into the circumstances of the crash of a Lufthansa Boeing 720 airliner in the summer of 1964. I've previously mentioned this accident in a post entitled 'The strange post-war deaths of the Luftwaffe aces'.. 

Werner Baake survived the war as Kommandeur of I./NJG 1 and leading ace on the He 219 with around 40 claims. His last three Halifax 'Viermots' were downed on the night of January 5/6, 1945. Post-war he was a blind flying instructor and and had been flying airliners for Lufthansa since 1954 - like a number of other nightfighter aces. His co-pilot on July 15, 1964 was Flugkapitän Hans Zimmermann, also a former Nachtjagd pilot. What the two pilots had planned for their training flight that day though simply beggars belief   - they were going to recreate 'Tex' Johnston's 'famous' barrel-roll' in the B707 prototype in Lufthansa Boeing 720 'D-ABOP'. However the B720 with its MTOW of over 100 tonnes was not quite the same aircraft. Attempting aerobatic manoeuvres ('Kunstflug Figuren') over Ansbach the pilots overstressed the airframe which broke up in mid-air. Transformed into a burning cascading waterfall of fire, Baake plunged to his death with the two crew - he had been on board the airliner as the check-captain!

The second feature of interest "Den 'Duce' im Schlepptau" covers the activities of III./LLG 1 in the lead up to the operation ('Eiche') to 'liberate' Mussolini, then in detention at the Campo Imperatore hotel in the Abruzzo mountains, Gran Sasso, Italy in September 1943. The Gruppe flew Dornier Do-17s, Henschel Hs-126s and Avia B.534s, adapted to tow DFS 230 gliders. This airborne Gruppe was based at Lézignan-Corbières, then at Pratica di Mare (south of Rome). III./LLG 1 (Luftlandegeschwader 1) had been reinforced in April 1943 by four Staffeln and a Stab. The four Staffeln were: 7./LLG1, 8./LLG1, 9./LLG1 and 12./LLG1. On 19 August 1943, 12./LLG1 was transferred to Ottana (Sardinia), then on 11 September 1943 to Pratica di Mare (south of Rome). It was this unit that transported 1./FJR.7 (Fallschirmjäger-Regiment) to Gran Sasso for the ‘liberation’ of Mussolini. This would also have been the same unit that transported German parachutists to Vassieux in the Vercors post D-Day. The article features a neat selection of PK images - although the photo of the Massey-Ferguson tractor seen towing the DFS 230 (below) was taken at an 8./LLG 1 training detachment in Norway (Banak) at around the time of the Mussolini rescue.