Luftwaffe in Colour: The Victory Years: 1939–1942 Read online

  Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2016 by

  CASEMATE PUBLISHERS

  1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083, USA

  and

  10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW, UK

  © Léla Presse

  English translation and layout © Casemate Publishers 2016

  Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-408-2

  Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-410-5

  A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher in writing.

  Printed and bound by Replika Press Pvt Ltd, India

  For a complete list of Casemate titles, please contact:

  CASEMATE PUBLISHERS (US)

  Telephone (610) 853-9131

  Fax (610) 853-9146

  Email: [email protected]

  www.casematepublishers.com

  CASEMATE PUBLISHERS (UK)

  Telephone (01865) 241249

  Fax (01865) 794449

  Email: [email protected]

  www.casematepublishers.co.uk

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  PART I The Pre-War Period

  PART II From Poland to Sitzkrieg

  PART III Blitzkrieg in the West

  PART IV The Battle of Britain and the Blitz

  PART V Marita and Merkur: Blitz in the Balkans

  PART VI Operation Barbarossa

  PART VII African Adventure and the Mediterranean Front

  PART VIII In the West

  PART IX The Second Line: Schools, Factories and Training

  INTRODUCTION

  Eighty years after its creation, the Luftwaffe still holds a fascination that probably has no equal in the history of aviation. From almost nothing in 1935, this aerial force would prove entirely formidable by the outbreak of the Second World War. An offensive weapon par excellence, it would be the Third Reich’s principal instrument of conquest during the Blitzkreig with such famous aircraft as the Ju 87 “Stuka” and the Messerschmitt Bf 109. When pressure intensified on all fronts from the end of 1942, it would continue to enjoy success, despite increasing reverses, thanks to the development of new combat tactics and revolutionary new technologies such as jet propulsion. Even in the spring of 1945 an Allied pilot flying over Germany still dreaded the prospect of an encounter with an Me 262.

  Despite its immense prestige, there are relatively few colour shots of Luftwaffe aircraft and for one simple reason: the propaganda machine of the Third Reich reserved Germany’s Agfachrome film process for its own official use unlike the US counterpart film process, Kodachrome, which was widely available during the war to both soldiers and civilians.

  War correspondent Richter filming the pilot of a Fieseler “Storch” preparing to take off in May or June of 1940. The Fi 156 carries the factory code GA+WN.

  As a result, the German soldier who loved photography had to be creative. A former pilot of JG 53 told us that when he was stationed in France in late 1940, he “raided” all the local photography shops in search of rare colour films. By including photographs from both magazines and newspapers of the time and also several private collectors, we have managed to assemble in this first volume over 300 colour photographs, many of which are previously unpublished, that trace the history of the Luftwaffe during the period of its greatest triumphs.

  The first efforts at colour photography date back to 1840 but the technology really developed in the 1930s. Leading early practitioners were the Lumière brothers with their Autochrome but their technique was complicated and used heavy glass plates which were fragile and very expensive. In 1935, the American company, Kodak, introduced Kodachrome, the first modern colour film. The following year, the German Agfa company launched Agfacolor whose integrated colour-sensitized emulsion layers greatly simplified the processing of films.

  A box of Agfacolor Neu film.

  Colour photography was now available to the general public for the first time. However, the price of a colour film was significantly higher than that of black and white film and for this reason, as well as the difficulty of taking good colour photographs indoors, most photographs were still taken in black and white until the beginning of the 1950s. Thus the images in this book are extremely rare.

  Christophe Cony & Jean-Louis Roba

  A Swiss advertising poster from 1937 for Agfa’s Isochrom and Isopan black and white films.

  Part I

  The Pre-War Period

  Gliding was a well-established national sport in Germany by the time the Nazi Party took power in 1933. Taking advantage of this enthusiasm for flight, the Third Reich did all it could to interest its young men in aviation by organizing huge glider competitions. This photo shows the famous Wasserkuppe peak in the Rhön mountains, which since 1920 had been the site of an annual gliding competition. This photograph of the 1939 competition which took place between July 23rd and August 6th is from Signal magazine. Various single-seater performance gliders can be seen including D-4-866, D-2-385, D-9,575, D7, 2193, D-12-454, D-7-331 and D-13-429 as well as the Akaflieg München Mü 13D. (Signal)

  FVA-13 “Olympia Jolle” D-12-411 at the Rhön Glider Competition in 1939. This glider was developed by Flugwissenchaftliche Vereiningung Aachen (Flight Research Association Aachen) for the 1940 Olympic Games in Finland, which for the first time would have included a gliding event, but the design was passed over by the Olympic Commission in favour of the DFS “Olympia Meise”. (Signal)

  Assembling a Göppingen Gö 3 “Minimoa”. The cockpit is encased in moulded Plexiglas, a new innovation at the time. (Signal)

  Seen here gliding silently above the Rhön mountains, Gö 3 Minimoa D-10-921 was used in 1939 by the NSFK-Gr. 10 in Dortmund. (Signal)

  A DFS 108-68 “Weihe” just launched from the Wasserkuppe, displaying the markings of the NSFK-Gr. 14. The NSFK (Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps) was an organization formed by the Nazi Party in October 1937 which brought together all civil aviation activities in Germany. This new paramilitary training organisation was much more politicized than its predecessor, the DLV (Deutscher Luftsportverband), created in March 1933. (Signal)

  Martin Schempp and Wolf Hirth under the wing of the 100th Minimoa built in their Göppingen workshop on June 30th, 1939. This model is the Gö 3 D-14-295, a glider from NSFK-Gr. 14 which operated in southern Bavaria. Note the metal airbrake installed behind the wing shaft.

  From January 1939, “D” (for Deutschland) was replaced by “WL” (for Wehrmacht Luftwaffe) on civil machines used in military aviation, such as this glider – Grunau “Baby” IIb – from the Münster Luftgaukommando, registration WL-VI-105.

  A symbol of the rebirth of German aviation, the three-engined Junkers 52 was built before the war in many civil and military variants. This Ju 52/3m (W.Nr. 5797) was registered D-ATYZ in August 1937 to Lufthansa; it was named Hans Hackmack in honour of the chief pilot of the company, who was killed on February 26th, 1928 while testing the prototype of the single-engine Messerschmitt M20 transporter.

  The Nazis put on huge displays of powered flight to attract the population to aviation. This two-seater Klemm L25e Vii R (W.Nr.836) D-EGUX of the NSFK participated in one such demonstration, the Tour of Germany (Deutschlandflug), in 1938, bearing the race number Z5b.

  Also participating in Deutschlandflug 1938, th
is Ju W 34 hi, registration D-OMDO, is surrounded by many curious spectators who have come to see it take off from a small field in Marburg, a little over 70km north of Frankfurt.

  The first production version of the famous “Stuka” dive bomber Ju 87 A-1 was still limited by its Junkers Jumo 210 Da engine, which only produced 680 hp. It could only carry a 250 kg bomb, or a 500 kg bomb if the pilot flew alone (without the rear gunner/observer).

  Amongst the new generation of modern machines developed by German engineers was this magnificent Bf 108 B-1 D-IOIO, built by Willy Messerschmitt, photographed above the Alps in about 1936. It was the direct precursor to the famous Bf 109, of which more were built than any other fighter aircraft in the history of aviation.

  Despite its outdated look, the Heinkel He 51 was the spearhead of the German fighters when the Luftwaffe was officially established on March 1st, 1935. By the time this photograph was taken in the late 1930s, this type of aircraft had been relegated to a training role only. This He 51B-1, W.Nr. 110 “Yellow 36”, retained the blue engine cowling it had had in 1937 in I./JG 135, the future I./JG 51.

  This advertisement appeared in a pre-war German magazine. The image at the top of the page shows the Hs 126 before its final assembly outside the manufacturer, Henschel Flugzeugwerke A.G., based in Berlin-Schönefeld; the aircraft shown are the Hs 126 W.Nr. 3109 to the left, and the Ju W 34 at the rear. The following two images were taken at Arado Flugzeugwerke G.m.b.H. at Güterfelde near Potsdam: left, the V-2a prototype of the Ar 79, D-EHCR (W.Nr. 2); below, the V-1a prototype, registration D-EKCX (W.Nr. 1).

  In peacetime the “Auntie Ju” was used to transport a little of everything, even geese and pigs. This is a Ju 52/3m G4e, as indicated by the wide cargo door to the right. The five-character code (in use from June 1936) does not appear in full, but it is possible to deduce that this is the “I” aircraft of 2. Staffel of 2. Gruppe.

  A row of Dornier Do 17 E-1s of 5./KG 255 in a field in Leipheim, Bavaria, during the winter of 1938–1939. The twin-engine aircraft in the foreground was named Drossel (thrush). When II./KG 255 was redesignated III./KG 77 in May 1939, its insignia of a gentian flower was adopted by another bombing group, II./KG 51.

  A publicity poster for the Junkers Ju 86, a twin-engined aircraft used from 1936 as an airliner as well as a bomber. (DR)

  Advert for the Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine, here used on the Do 17 S (predecessor of the Do 215) but better known for its use on the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E.

  A Dornier Do 17 Z prototype, D-ASBE, taxiing down a grassy track in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic).

  The era of the fighter biplane ended in the mid-1930s when Messerschmitt released a new single-seat low-wing model: the Bf 109. The first unit of the Luftwaffe to consider this revolutionary aircraft was, in February 1937, II./JG 132 “Richthofen”, which took ownership of these two Bf 109s one year later following an official ceremony at Jüterbog-Damm.

  From July 1936, the Third Reich supported the military coup that attempted to overthrow the Republic in Spain; engaging in this civil war was, for the Reich, a good way of testing out its new army. Also supported by Fascist Italy, the Spanish Nationalists ultimately triumphed over the Republicans on April 1st, 1939. This flagbearer from the Condor Legion poses – following the victory – in front of a Heinkel He 111 E, with a Ju 52/3m in the background.

  The Third Reich gave its victorious “volunteers” a triumphant return with a parade in Berlin on June 6th, 1939, in the presence of Adolf Hitler and the head of the Luftwaffe Herman Göring. Pictured here is the commander of the Condor Legion, Generalmajor Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of the famous “Red Baron”, who himself scored eight certified victories during the First World War. Germany was now ready for war.

  Part II

  From Poland to Sitzkrieg

  This shark-faced Ju 87 B-1 was reputed to be the S2+AC of the commander of II./StG 77; if that was true, this Stuka bearing the code “White 10” on its landing gear fairings belonged to Hptm Clemens Graf von Schönborn-Wiesentheid. It was not, in any case, flown by the officer to whom it was originally allocated, Hptm Alfons Orthofer, assigned at that time to the headquarters of the 3rd Air Division – the group that he would take command of in August 1940. (Signal)

  II./StG 77 prepare for war on the Breslau-Schöngarten base, now Wrocław Strachowice airport, Poland, in the summer of 1939. Many of the Stuka aircraft still bear their factory-issued codes, for example VK+FS for the “White 8”. (Signal)

  Hptm von Schönborn-Wiesentheid describes a manoeuvre to his pilots. Promoted to Kommandeur of III./StG 2 on April 16th, 1940, then to Kommodore of the StG 77 the following May, von Schönborn-Wiesentheid was killed in a Fieseler Storch accident on August 30th, 1944, while serving in Sofia, Bulgaria. (Signal)

  The Dornier Do 17 E-1 3Z+GP of the 6./KG 77 – with its two convertible BMW VI 7.3 engines – during testing in 1939. It was with this already outdated model (it had entered into service two years earlier) that Kampfgeschwader 77 performed its entire campaign in Poland.

  Even before the end of the Polish campaign, this Ju 52/3m picked up a family of German nationals for transport to the Reich. Of the 35 million inhabitants of Poland in the summer of 1939, only 23 million (less than 70%) were Poles. The remainder comprised various ethnic minorities, mainly Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews; but among them 750,000 people, or 2%, were Volksdeutsche.

  The opposing air forces initially saw little action on the Western Front—hence the name Sitzkrieg (“sitting war”) that the Germans gave to this so-called “phoney war”. Only reconnaissance flights, such as the one this Do 17 P-1 7A+FM of 4.(F)/121 is about to make, forced the French and British to launch their fighters to intercept them. (PK)

  A Do 17 P-1 in flight. Its code has been censored, but we can see clearly why this aircraft was nicknamed “the flying pencil”. (Signal)

  It was “all quiet on the Western Front” (to quote Remarque) for the Luftwaffe too. Still, this game of cat-and-mouse allowed some fighter units to get themselves noticed, particularly JG 53 “Pik As” unit, to which this Bf 1909 E-1, seen here undergoing maintenance, belonged. (PK)

  Reconnaissance flights continued through the winter, despite bad weather. Here, a Do 17 P-1 from Aufklärungsgruppe 123 is being refuelled; the beginning of the unit code 4U is visible on the fuselage. (PK)

  This fighter pilot, here joking with a fellow falconry enthusiast, is often wrongly identified as Lt Richard Leppla of 3./JG 51. He is actually Lt Herbert Kunze of 2./JG 77, seen here at the beginning of 1940 in Odendorf in the cockpit of the Bf 109 E-1 “Red 11” named Sepp. (Signal)

  The Bf 109 E “Red 13” takes off from Bönninghardt in February or March 1940. The aircraft carries the laughing devil insignia of 2./JG 26. (PK)

  A four-engine Ju 90 V-10 (W.Nr. 0006) transporter, registered D-ASND Mecklenburg on behalf of Lufthansa in June 1939, received the code BG+GX on its incorporation into the Luftwaffe. Seen here in the winter of 1939–1940, it was destroyed on the ground in November 1943. At the time, it was J4+HH of LTS 290.

  Two Heinkel He 60 leave their base in northern Germany in early 1940. Retired from the front line at that time, this single-engine resumed service in 1941 due to a shortage of modern seaplanes. (Signal)

  The He 111 P 9K+KH of 1./KG 51 in snowy Memmingen during the winter of 1939–1940. Note the nationality markings and oversized codes on the fuselage, added in an attempt to avoid any possible misidentification.

  An “Emil” landing at a German aerodrome at the beginning of 1940. The aircraft still bears the dark camouflage used at the beginning of the war; this was composed of two shades of dark-green paint, which covered the aircraft’s top and sides.

  Mechanics fill the wing reservoirs of a Heinkel He 111 P of II./KG 26 (5. Staffel, as indicated by the red nose cone). This unit was very active in April–May 1940 during Operation Weserübung – the occupation of Denmark and Norway. (PK)

  The dorsal machine gunner of Ju 52/3m G3E CF+IZ (W.Nr. 6885)
poses for the camera. This aircraft belonged to the KGrzbV 106, which participated in the invasion of Denmark and Norway.

  Photographed in the cockpit of a He 111, a navigator verifies his aircraft’s flight plan before a flight. (Die Wehrmacht)

  A Scandinavian fjord seen from the cockpit of a three-engined Ju 52/3m. (PK)

  For the first time in Denmark and Norway, “Auntie Jus” were used in large numbers to transport German parachutists charged with capturing strategic points such as enemy airfields. As can be seen in these pictures, the Fallschirmjäger were also deployed as reinforcements for the mountain troops of General Eduard Dietl, who had just taken the port of Narvik. (PK)

  Having already proved itself efficient in Poland, the Zerstörer (“destroyer”) Messerschmitt Bf 110 once more got itself noticed during Weserübung thanks to its range, which was far superior to that of the Bf 109. (Jacques Moulin collection)

  A long-range Ju 87 R-1 of 2./StG 1 above a Norwegian fjord. Though southern and central Norway were occupied by German troops even before the invasion began, combat in the northern sector, concentrated around Narvik, which was retaken by the Allies on May 28th, only reached its conclusion on June 10th, 1940.

  The elegant transoceanic Dornier Do 26 seaplane was developed before the war by Lufthansa for a Lisbon-New York route. Brought together in October 1939 within the Trans-Ozean Staffel, the Do 26 V-1 to V-5 seaplanes – including this one with an insignia under its cockpit – participated in the Norway campaign alongside KGrzbV 108; the four-engined aircraft were responsible for transporting vital men and materials over rugged Norwegian terrain. Clearly seen in this photograph are the MG 151 20mm cannon mounted on the front turret, and the ends of the propellers, which curiously are painted in blue, yellow and red.

  A beautiful view of the top of the successor to the He 59 within the Luftwaffe’s Küstenfliegergruppen: the Heinkel He 115, a seaplane used for reconnaissance, anti-shipping and minelaying missions. This multipurpose twin-engined seaplane successfully took part in Operation Weserübung.