Helicopter Squadron 16
|
Helicopter Squadron 16 |
|
|---|---|
| active | April 1971 to September 1990 |
| Country |
 GDR
|
| Armed forces |
 Border troops of the GDR
|
| Insinuation | Ministry of National Defense |
| Relay location | Nordhausen Airfield |
| Web presence | Squadron Chronicle |
| insignia | |
| Season | I. |
| Aircraft | |
| patrol | SM-1 , Mi-2 , Mi-4A , Mi-8PS , Mi-8T |
The helicopter squadron 16 (HS-16) was a flying unit of the border troops of the GDR . Their tasks included reconnaissance flights at the inner-German border , general observation of the border area with the Federal Republic of Germany , control of the border installations from the air as well as the transport of border security forces and liaison and inspection flights from members of the command of the border troops located in Pätz to the individual Border units.
prehistory
The GDR border aviation forces were formed in 1964 with the separation of personnel and technology from helicopter squadron 31 and the installation of three helicopter chains at the Brandenburg-Briest airfield , which were named Grenzkette Nord , Grenzkette Süd and Berlin -kette . Each chain was equipped with one Mi-4A and two SM-1s. While the latter was subordinated to the city command of East Berlin and used to monitor the border with West Berlin , the border troops used the other two to secure the border with the Federal Republic. The Berlin chain remained in Brandenburg-Briest and was dissolved in 1968 and reintegrated into HG-31; the north and south chain moved to other locations at the beginning of 1965. The Salzwedel airfield , which was built as early as 1935 for training units of the air force and whose barracks dating from this time was used by the border police and then by the border troops from 1952 , took up the northern border chain. The Südkette was at its Meiningen on the local former Transportation Airfield stationed "Rohrer mountain" and later airfield of the Air Force. In 1969 the border chains received additional Mi-4 helicopters. As a result, the retirement of the SM-1 began, whose last flights took place in 1970. By 1973, all SM-1s were decommissioned, preserved and later most likely scrapped.
history
Due to structural changes within the border troops, helicopter squadron 16 emerged from the north and south border chains in April 1971, and its staff was based in Salzwedel. In 1973 the HS-16 was converted to the Mi-2, eight of which were taken over from June to August by the Polish manufacturer WSK in Świdnik . The relay staff had previously completed a retraining course for this type in Poland. With the introduction of the new model, the HS-16 returned all the Mi-4A that were still in existence to the former HG-31, which had been renamed Helicopter Wing 34 in 1971. This made the Mi-2 the only type flown in the helicopter squadron until the Mi-8 was introduced. Three more Mi-2s arrived in July 1974.
When the border troops were spun off from the NVA in 1976, the emblem of the Mi-2 border fliers was framed in green. From 1977 the HS-16 received two Mi-8PS helicopters, introduced in November 1977 and January 1978. In October 1982, another Mi-8T followed. In addition to the usual transport and control tasks, these helicopters were also used for u. a. Oblique aerial photography of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany used. For example, pictures of the Gorleben interim storage facility were taken over the northwest air corridor at an altitude of 3500 to 4000 meters . For this purpose, the helicopters were equipped with AFA-42/100, AFA-BAF 40R and AFA-39 aerial cameras.
Due to the inadequate inventory of combat helicopters in the NVA, the HS-16 had to be briefly integrated in 1981 together with the KHG-57 in the air defense system on duty . Since they only had unarmed helicopters, they exchanged four of their Mi-2s with the HG-34 for the same number of machines of the same type armed with 7.62 mm PKT machine guns. When enough Mi-8TB and Mi-24D were available, DHS service ended for the season.
On May 29, 1980, at a meeting of representatives of the LSK / LV command and the border troops, it was decided to relocate Helicopter Squadron 16 from Salzwedel to the new Nordhausen location due to the increased number of personnel and technology . In the following years, this air force air base , built in the mid-1930s, was expanded and provided with concreted helicopter parking areas, taxiways and a maintenance hangar. On October 14, 1986, the relay and staff relocated. At this time there were 15 Mi-2 and three Mi-8 in stock. The old locations in Salzwedel and Meiningen were still used over the next few years. On December 1, 1986, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the border troops of the GDR, the honorary name " Albert Kuntz " was given to the helicopter unit.
With the political change, the border security tasks of the squadron became obsolete and flights planned for December 1989 were for the most part no longer carried out. Instead, the association was used for traffic monitoring and air rescue services. On September 14, 1990, the HS-16 flew over all Mi-2s except one non-airworthy machine to Berlin-Schönefeld and handed them over to the Central Police Air Force. The Mi-8s were flown to Brandenburg-Briest on September 26th and handed over to the Federal Border Police.
literature
- Thomas Girke, Georg Bader: Wed-2 . In: DHS. The planes of the National People's Army . No. 2 . Mercury, 1998, ISSN 1435-831X .
- Thomas Girke, Georg Bader, Thomas Bußmann: Mil Mi-8T / TB . In: DHS. The planes of the National People's Army . No. 4 . Merkur, 2001, ISSN 1430-0117 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Bussmann: Reinforced concrete, grass and railway lighting. The military airfields of the GDR. MediaScript, Cottbus, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814822-0-1 , p. 132/133 (on Meiningen) and p. 155/156 (on Salzwedel)
- ^ Detlef Billig: Airplanes of the GDR. Volume I to 1962. TOM Modellbau, Friedland 2002, ISBN 3-613-02197-6 , p. 158.
- ↑ Bussmann, pp. 136/137.
- ↑ Timeline of the military history of the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1988 . 2nd, expanded and reviewed edition, Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin (GDR) 1989, ISBN 3-327-00720-9 , p. 577.
- ^ Detlef Billig: Airplanes of the GDR. Volume III to 1990. TOM Modellbau, Friedland 2003, ISBN 3-613-02285-0 , p. 181.