Helicopters operating from Kriegsmarine ships

[José M. Rico]

I found this vid amazing!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64fgG2CnHn0&NR=1[/youtube]

Real pre-war and WW2 German combat helicopters, technically superior to the Bell Helicopter in the Where eagles dare film.
The first seen is PKZ 1918 WW1 observation chopper. Next is FL 185 with gyro stabilised yaw control. Then female test pilot and iron cross winner FlugKapitan Hanna Reitsch flying the FW-61 in 1937, setting many distance, endurance and height records. Then her flying it indoors at the Deutschland Halle in 1938 at the Berlin Motor Show.
Then the the first craft to pioneer "Air-mobile" and evacuation operations, bomb carrying, machine gun equipped medi-vac, artillery transporting Fa-223 "Drache".
The Drache flew in 1940.
The Fa 223 carried a nose mounted MG 15 machine gun plus an array of other weapons onboard for crew use and two quarter ton bombs, optional auxiliary droptanks and winch system.
With a ceiling of over 22,000ft it was suitable for high altitude mountain missions.
In one demonstration example the Drache flew 85 missions in 29 consecutive days to 15,000 ft high altitude, carrying men, 75mm artillery and all their ammunition.
Able to carry up to 12 combat troops on external benches and 4 crew inside, it could also carry up to 2.2 tons by cable externally.
The Draches used in one of the Helicopter units stationed in Münster flew rescue and recover missions and could retrieve and transport whole airframes of other craft suspended below on cable. In one case a Fa223 carried the 1.3 ton engine of a FW-190 fighter over 32kms . The Drache was also used to perform civilian rescues, in one case airlifting climbers trapped on the steep face of a mountain.
The Drache was planned to be used in the rescue of Mussolini but at the last moment the assigned craft suffered a mechanical breakdown and a Fieseler Storch stol plane was used instead.
The Drache was also the first helicopter to cross the English Channel.
British testers ignored German engineers advice to tighten engine mounts and so a craft that had survived years of combat was destroyed on its third flight by the British.
Also featured is the Flettner synchropter Hubschrauber FL 265, five of which saw combat action from cruisers in the Baltic performing rescue, convoy protection and submarine detection between 1939 and 1940 before Sikorsky had even flown his primitive vs-300.
The Fl-265 had demonstrated its ability to rescue downed airmen in the water in 1939 and was able to perform air-sea rescues with its built in winch.
The video shows its ability to lift a full barrel of water and tow a motor car at the same time.
Next seen is the production version of the FL-282 "Kolibri" which was also used for submarine spotting in the Mediterranean, Baltic Aegean and Adriatic, and observation on the eastern front.
The first prototype versions had a fully enclosed cockpit and streamlined fuselage but this was discarded in favour of the improved visibility of an open cockpit and lighter boxy fuselage that improved its ability to carry two extra crew and carry submarine marking flares, winch and small bombs.

The German Navy was impressed with the Kolibri and wanted to evaluate it for submarine spotting duties, ordering an initial 15 examples to be followed by 30 production models. Flight testing of the first two prototypes was carried out through 1941, including repeated takeoffs and landings from a pad mounted on the German cruiser Köln.

Amongst many combat operations, the Fl282s spotted the attack of the 1st and 2nd White Russian in far Pomerania but german defenses were too weak to thwart the attack. They were used for artillery fall spotting and 3 Fl 282s stationed at Berlin- Rangsdorf did artillery spotting in defence of berlin in 1945.
1944 saw the formation of a specific artillery observation unit consisting of three Fl 282s and three Fa-223s which was resoundingly successful in combat in their specified role. Many other German helicopters were used singly in support of combat ground units.
The flettner was easier to fly than a typical modern helicopter and could be flown hands off with no hands on the controls.
To demonstrate this ease of control, a housewife with no flying experience was able to fly the Fl-282 solo with only 3 hours of instruction.
It was highly aerobatic, stable and fast and because of the intermeshing rotors, could carry a greater load than a conventional heli of the same size.
Noteworthy was its amazing lifting efficiency: it was capable of lifting 16 lbs per horsepower - a figure not attained to this day by any of the modern helicopters.
By varying the collective pitch and cyclic pitch relative to either set or rotors, yaw is effected in the same way a tail rotor controls yaw in a conventional chopper. The flettner's yaw control was much more steady than a conventional chopper. The large rudder on the flettner was mainly an aid in forward high speed stability and made the craft almost effortless to fly for novice pilots, particularly in a time period when experienced pilots were at a premium.
Because it had no tail rotor, is was less prone to mechanical failure and loss of control.

The Germans also used Autogyros extensively, and operated the fold-up Fa330 from submarines

[Karl Heidenreich]

From Wikipeida:

Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 – 24 August 1979) was a German aviatrix who was once Adolf Hitler's personal pilot, and was the only woman awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Luftwaffe Combined Pilots-Observation Badge in Gold with Diamonds during World War II. She is perhaps best remembered for her desperate flight to reach Hitler in his bunker during the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II. Reitsch was the first female to fly a helicopter, fly a rocket plane, fly a jet fighter and fly a glider across the Alps. She set over forty aviation altitude and endurance records during her career, both before and after World War II, and several of her international gliding records are still standing to this day.

Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia. Her father was an ophthalmologist who wanted her to become a doctor. She was interested in aviation, and thought she might become a flying doctor in North Africa and even studied medicine for a time. Reitsch began flying in 1932 with flights in gliders. She left medical school in 1933 at the invitation of Wolf Hirth to become a full-time glider pilot and instructor at Hornberg in Baden-Württemberg. She was soon breaking records, earning a Silver C Badge No 25 in 1934. She flew from Salzburg across the Alps in 1938 in a Sperber Junior.

In 1937 Reitsch was posted to the Luftwaffe testing centre at Rechlin-Lärz Airfield by Ernst Udet. She was a test pilot on the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Dornier Do 17 projects. Reitsch was the first female helicopter pilot and one of the few pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the first fully controllable helicopter. Her flying skill, desire for publicity and photogenic qualities made her a star of Nazi party propaganda. In 1938 she made nightly flights of the Fa 61 helicopter inside the "Deutschlandhalle" at the Berlin Motor Show.

With the outbreak of war in 1939 Reitsch was asked to fly many of Germany's latest (and by some accounts, increasingly desperate) designs. Among these were the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and several larger bombers on which she tested various mechanisms for cutting barrage balloon cables. After crashing on her fifth Me 163 flight Reitsch was badly injured but reportedly insisted on writing her post-flight report before falling unconscious and spending five months in hospital. Reitsch became Adolf Hitler's favourite pilot and was one of only two women awarded the Iron Cross First Class during World War II. Reitsch became close to former fighter pilot and high ranking Luftwaffe officer Robert Ritter von Greim who became her life partner. In 1944 Reitsch learned of the atrocities in concentration camps through Peter Riedel

The film Operation Crossbow began a popular myth that early guidance and stabilization problems with the V-1 Flying Bomb were solved during a daring test flight by Reitsch in a V-1 modified for manned operation. However, in her autobiography Fliegen, Meine Liebe Reitsch recalled other test pilots had been killed or gravely injured while trying to land the piloted version of the V1 (known as the Reichenberg), so she made test flights late in the war to learn why and found the craft's extremely high stall speed was thwarting test pilots, who had no experience landing at extremely high speeds. Reitsch's background with the very fast Me163 along with simulated landings at a safe high altitude led her to a successful landing of the Reichenberg, but only at over 200 km/h.

During the last days of the war, in light of Herman Goering's dismissal as head of the Luftwaffe in what Hitler saw as an act to treason, he appointed Colonel-General Robert Ritter von Greim as head of the Luftwaffe. To enable him to meet Hitler, von Greim asked Reitsch to fly him into embattled Berlin to meet with Hitler.

Red Army troops were already in the downtown area when Reitsch and von Greim arrived on 26 April in a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. With her long experience at low altitude flying over Berlin, and with Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur had already surveyed the road as an escape route, Reitsch landed on an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate (Greim was wounded in the leg when Red Army soldiers fired at the light aircraft during its approach). They made their way to the Führerbunker where Hitler promoted von Greim to Hermann Göring's former command of a now wholly defunct Luftwaffe. During the intense Russian bombardment, Hitler gave Reitsch a vial of poison for herself and another for von Greim. She accepted the vial willingly, fully prepared to die alongside her Führer.[3] On Hitler's orders, she escaped Berlin with von Greim during the evening of 28 April, flying the last German plane out of Berlin, shortly before the fall of the city, by flying out through heavy Soviet anti-aircraft fire. Hitler ordered them to rendezvous with Karl Dönitz, who Hitler was convinced was rallying troops for a counter-attack.

Reitsch was soon captured along with von Greim and the two were interviewed together by American military intelligence officers.[4] When asked about being ordered to leave the Fuhrerbunker on 28 April 1945 Reitsch and von Greim reportedly repeated the same answer, "It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Führer's side." Reitsch also said, "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the altar of the Fatherland." When the interviewers asked what she meant by "Altar of the Fatherland" she answered, "Why, the Führer's bunker in Berlin..." She was held and interrogated for eighteen months. Her companion, von Greim, committed suicide on 24 May. Her father killed her mother, her sister, and her sister's children, before killing himself during the last days of the war after expulsion by the Polish from their hometown of Hirschberg.

After her release Reitsch settled in Frankfurt am Main. Following the war German citizens were forbidden from flying but within a few years gliding was allowed, which she took up. In 1952 Reitsch won third place in the World Gliding Championships in Spain (and was the only woman to compete). She continued to break records including the women's altitude record (6,848 m). She became German champion in 1955.

During the mid-1950s Reitsch was interviewed on film and talked about her wartime flight tests of the Fa 61, Me 262 and Me 163. In 1959 she was invited to India by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to begin a gliding centre. In 1961 Reitsch was invited to the White House by US president John F. Kennedy. From 1962 to 1966 she lived in Ghana where she founded the first black African national gliding school.

She gained the Diamond Badge in 1970. Throughout the 1970s Reitsch broke gliding records in many categories, including the "Women's Out and Return World Record" twice, once in 1976 (715 km) and again in 1979 (802 km) flying along the Appalachian Ridges in the United States. During this time, she also finished first in the women’s section of the first world helicopter championships.

Reitsch died in Frankfurt at the age of 67 on 24 August 1979 following a heart attack. She had never married

Several thoughts came to my mind with this German helicopter issue and Hanna Reitsch. First is about about the role of women in Nazi Germany. It is very interesting to see how women like Leni Reifenstalh or Hannia Reitsch ocuppied man-only positions and were, also, incredibled awarded and given the proper recognition. The western democratic world have not produced, yet, a female filmaker as Leni, even with all the Hollywood support. And Rietsch makes Amelia Earkhardt look like an "amateur" that finaly crashed.

This helicopter business is quite amazing, considering how much it took for the US to have an operational one, let´s say the 40ies with the developments that Igor Sikorsky (russian born) with his R-4. But it was not until the 50ies and with the Korea challenge that finally they were set for proper operations.

Nevertheless it seems to me that the role of helicopters in warfare was darkened by the final result of the Vietnam war in which these devices were prominent tools and weapons on an inovative kind to the extent that new tactics were developed for them. As far as I know the operations conducted by infantry carried by helicopters always ended with a US field victory which is why I found odd that the US 1st Cavalry returned to the land operated armored units and abandoned the "air cav" operations. I say "darkened" because the general perception of the helicopter tactics is that they failed when the US was defeated. But we know that the battlefield was never lost by the US forces and that, in part, was owed to the helicopters.

Helicopter carried ATW seemed to me an exceptional weapon that makes, in many ways, the tank obsolete and got the deserved title of "king of the battlefield" to the aerial raider. From what I read of the climatic moments of the Cold War theories of a European shooting war the helicopters will play a major role for both sides, Russia and US, at the Fulda Gap in Germany (if it´s important then it happens in Germany) expected combat. The russians were planning an offensive with swarms of helicopters crossing the inter german border to assault the NATO (US) defenses. On the other side the US developed the Huey Cobra and the UH 1H gunships to counter this attack. The Cobra, and then the Apache, were to fly in pairs at very low altitute to surprise advancing russian armoured units or high level russian choppers and blow them with their sophisticated weapon systems.

I ignore if there are still helicopter-only or emphazised units in the US Army or Air Force with this kind of role: battlefield superiority. It seems to me that the choppers have been scattered all along the field units to serve as tactical support to the main land drive. I will try to research on this later.

Best regards,

[Karl Heidenreich]

Following the war German citizens were forbidden from flying but within a few years gliding was allowed,

Interesting. Maybe the toll that the super German aces as Hartman, Rall or Hans-Joachim Marseille took over the allied pilots induced them to thwart any attempt of a resurection of the Luftwaffe. Let´s remember that more than the first hundred air aces of WWII were all German. Marseille alone downed 158 western allied planes (four times the amount of the greatest US air ace, Richard Bong).

Please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wo ... I_air_aces

Best regards,

[RF]

I have a query regarding the combat role of early helicopters.

These aircraft were I understand developed as very light weight machines. Was the lack of armoured protection for the crew a major restriction on their development and use in WW2?

I ask this because helicopters would have been a useful piece of equipment for KM ships operating in distant waters, particulary for hilfskreuzer and the Monsun U-Boats.