Kampfflieger – Robert F Stedman

Advance units of pioneers, maintenance crews, supply, administration and command personnel would be dispatched by road to prepare the infrastructure of each airbase. Wherever possible, existing military and civil airports were simply taken over, and extended to cater for the numerous support and storage facilities vital for operations. As soon as the airstrip was ready to accept traffic, aircraft would begin to arrive, bringing with them the leading mechanics and essential stores that would enable the Staffel to function, and even execute missions, prior to the rest of the unit arriving by road.

Each Staffel required access to equipment stores, machine shops, parachute drying and packing sheds, and secure but isolated ammunition-, bomb- and fuel-dumps. Several units could share some of these facilities wherever their respective fields were close enough, and any tree-shielded minor roads within the area served as convenient pre-camouflaged bomb- dumps.

The initially open airfields naturally had to be secured against sabotage, and so brick walls and fencing would be erected around the entire perimeter, with the addition of regularly spaced machine-gun towers and sometimes pillboxes. Concealed dispersal pens and hard standing also had to be constructed. Overly tall trees surrounding the airstrip (which were extremely hazardous in poor visibility) were felled in the interests of safety, and warning lights fitted to the tops of high buildings.

Civilian construction companies were frequently employed to assist Luftwaffe pioneer units in such tasks. One Belgian contractor, employed to extend the runway for II./KG3 at Antwerp=Deurne, also obligingly removed the spire of a church, which was unfortunately in direct line of take-off. Sheep were often allowed to roam the flattened grass airstrips, as a simple lawn-mowing expedient.

In addition to all these demands was the need to accommodate 2,500 men. The owners of nearby houses might be ordered to vacate their homes with only 48 hours’ notice, to be replaced by squadron personnel. Where sufficient buildings could not be found, barrack huts had to be hastily constructed by Luftwaffen-Bau-Battalionen (construction battalions), again often assisted by locally drafted craftsmen and labour. Any available personnel, including aircrews, were employed in the construction of slit trenches – a chore made instantly worthwhile by the first air raid.

A frontline Kampfgeschwader consumed around ½tons of bread, ½ton of meat, ton of sausage and ½ton of peas every day. The administrative section, therefore, purchased a great deal of agricultural produce from local farmers at government expense, easing a sizeable part of the logistics train.

Kampfflieger: Bomber Crewman of the Luftwaffe 1939 – 45 Robert Stedman • Illustrated by Adam Hook OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Kampfflieger CHRONOLOGY RECRUITMENT AND ENLISTMENT Conscription CONDITIONS OF SERVICE Accommodation and food • Time off and discipline • Pay • Leave • Women • Promotion TRAINING Pilot selection • Pilot specialization • Aircrew selection • Aircrew specialization APPEARANCE AND EQUIPMENT Service dress and insignia • Aircrew badges • Awards • Flight gear • Organization BELIEF AND BELONGING Comrades • Estrangement and resentment • Coping strategies ON CAMPAIGN Logistics • Western Europe • Africa • The Russian Front • Mediterranean Theatre BATTLE Preparation • Take-off • Flight and navigation • Flak and fighter defences Bomb-run and observation • Heading home • Damage • Landing Evasion and capture • Casualties BIBLIOGRAPHY COLOUR PLATE COMMENTARY OceanofPDF.com T KAMPFFLIEGER: BOMBER CREWMAN OF THE LUFTWAFFE 1939–45 INTRODUCTION he death of Generalleutnant Walter Wever in June 1936 effectively sealed the fate of the Luftwaffe bomber arm.

As Chief-of-Staff, Wever foresaw the need for a long-range Luft-operationsarmee (strategic air army) capable of destroying an enemy’s industrial heart. His successor, Albert Kesselring, instead evolved a vast fleet of general-purpose medium bombers, functioning primarily in the operational role. This was a kind of ‘tactically strategic’ force, intended only to cripple enemy communications, supply lines and industry just long enough to influence the outcome of a specific offensive.

The purely tactical operations would be covered by the Sturzkampfflugzeug (dive-bomber), in which the high command invested near total faith. High-altitude bombing was considered costly and imprecise, with much, if not all, of the bomb load falling wide of its intended target (as later evidenced by the comparatively messy Allied bombing patterns). The Stuka offered far greater accuracy in return for a modest outlay in aircraft, ordnance, fuel and personnel, and almost eliminated the risk of damaging non-military areas.

Convinced of its war- winning properties by operational trials in Spain, the Reichs Luftfahrt Ministerium (air ministry) cancelled all long-range bomber developments in favour of the Stuka. Dive capability became a prerequisite of all future bomber designs, and was eagerly applied to anything that might be capable of withstanding such extreme manoeuvres; even existing heavy-bombers were modified and tested, often with predictably tragic results. Consequently, the Kampfgeschwadern (bomber squadrons) were only ever equipped for rapid, but ultimately unsustainable, victory.

‘If I were to depict the face of a Hun airman …

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: ecf13f0ce287c1ea
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 15,816,558 bytes (15.084 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781780966403, 9781780966823, 9781780966533, 9781780966946, 9781782001331, 9781782001621, 9781782000518, 9781782000570, 9781780967578, 9781780968155, 9781782000044, 9781782000365, 9781782000051, 9781782000372, 9781782001317, 9781782001607, 9781780967585, 9781780968162, 9781782001409, 9781782001683, 9781782001355, 9781782001638, 9781780966496, 9781780966908, 9781780966502, 9781780966915, 9781780965338, 9781780965321, 9781780966335, 9781780966762, 9781780966359, 9781780966786, 9781780963624, 9781780963617, 9781780963686, 9781780963679, 9781780963709, 9781780963693, 9781780966342, 9781780966779, 9781780960845, 9781846038600, 9781780966397, 9781846037740, 9781780960821, 9781849080958, 9781780963334, 9781846039522, 9781780965406, 9781846039508, 9781849081948, 9781849088336, 9781849085007, 9781849089401, 9781849084239, 9781849089418, 9781849084987, 9781849089425, 9781849085144, 9781849089050, 9781849085021, 9781841769073, 9781782007258, 9781782006633
• Pages: 115
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 127.61 minutes
• Total Words: 25,521
• Total Characters: 171,532
• Average Words per Page: 221.92
• Average Characters per Page: 1491.58

Most Frequent Words

aircraft (101), flight (79), crews (66), pilot (58), training (52), air (52), even (52), one (47), luftwaffe (45), time (45), men (45), many (44), service (44), often (43), crew (42), ground (40), pilots (37), although (36), first (35), crewmen (35), upon (34), aircrew (33), per (33), german (31), bomber (31), personnel (30), made (29), two (28), around (28), several (27), plate (26), against (26), landing (25), military (25), hours (25), units (25), kampfflieger (24), leave (24), operational (24), sometimes (24), beobachter (24), target (23), flying (23), engine (23), fuel (22), generally (22), cent (22), also (22), airmen (22), course (21), every (21), three (21), home (20), war (20), great (20), throughout (20), months (20), frequently (20), mission (20), com (19), army (19), enemy (19), high (19), little (19), usually (19), officers (19), british (19), machine (19), night (19), pay (18), later (18), return (18), new (18), between (18), aircrews (18), possible (18), take-off (17), simply (17), however (17), basic (17), years (17), fire (17), man (17), frontline (17), four (17), wireless (17), formation (17), available (16), navigation (16), soon (16), took (16), quickly (16), still (16), reduced (16), carried (16), system (16), gunners (16), back (16), now (15), oceanofpdf (15).

PDF Download