Secret flying school and proving ground for the Reichswehr

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Fokker D.XIII in Lipetsk

The Secret Aviation School and testing facility of the Reichswehr was a secret training facility of the Reichswehr located in the Soviet Union .

On April 15, 1925, a contract was signed between representatives of the German Reichswehr and the Air Force of the Red Army , which regulated the establishment of a German flying school and test site in the Russian city ​​of Lipetsk , about 400 km southeast of Moscow. In internal German correspondence and linguistic usage, this facility operated under the name Schule Stahr after the head of captain a. D. Walter Stahr (1882–1948) or under the abbreviation WIVUPAL (Scientific experimental and personal training station) . Flight operations began in June 1925, flight training for organizational reasons not until the beginning of 1926. Both continued until the flying school was closed in September 1933.

prehistory

After the military defeat of the German Reich in World War I , Germany was prohibited from owning and building air forces under the provisions of the Versailles Treaty . According to the contract, Germany was only allowed to train five pilots per year. Nevertheless, the Reichswehr leadership was not prepared to do without this military instrument for a long time. Existing concerns about the deliberate violation of these armaments requirements, which had the character of a law in Germany, were dropped in January 1923 at the latest with the Belgian-French occupation of the Ruhr . The Army Command then ordered 100 aircraft from the Dutch company Fokker , half of which were the newly developed Fokker D.XIII . When it was time to deliver the aircraft, the problem arose of accommodating them in Germany. In this situation, the Soviet Union offered itself as a partner, which had been with Germany since the Treaty of Rapallo of April 16, 1922 a. a. contractually fixed military cooperation.

In June 1924 the German side in Moscow by Colonel a. D. Hermann Thomsen set up a branch of the troop office called Central Moscow . At the same time, seven German consultants and engineers (Fiebig Group) worked with the Red Air Force. On April 15, 1925, the establishment of an aviation school and test site in Lipetsk was contractually regulated by the head of the Red Air Fleet Pyotr Ionowitsch Baranow (1892-1933) and Thomsen. Like Germany, the Soviet Union played an outsider role in the international community in the interwar period .

Kurt Students travel report

The officer responsible for the inspection of weapons and equipment for aircraft development, Hauptmann a. D. Kurt Student was commissioned to find out about the possibilities and necessities in Lipetsk and to make himself knowledgeable. In a five-page typewritten “travel report” from September 1926 he presented his views on the “preparations for carrying out special tests” and the “existing test possibilities” in Russia. An initially prevailing skepticism of Students regarding the carrying out of flight tests on Russian territory changed, when he saw the positive possibilities. However, he linked this to the prerequisites that a bomb drop area of ​​at least 4 × 4 km could be found within a radius of no more than 50 km from Lipetsk and that the traffic connections between Germany and Lipetsk would be significantly improved in order to ensure a quick exchange of the test results. The base must also be structurally changed according to German standards and needs.

Contractual bases

In order to make the German government appear uninvolved in the drafting of the contract, the "Lipetsk contract" for the establishment of the base was signed on April 15, 1925 by Hermann Thomsen as a private person and on the Russian side by Pyotr Baranow. Following this, Thomsen concluded another usage contract with Walter Stahr, who was to be the head of the school . Stahr again concluded individual contracts with the intended employees, which regulated the service and employment relationship as well as the salary. In the interests of secrecy and camouflage, this practice of private law contracts was retained. Nevertheless, the maintenance and personnel costs for the Lipetsk school were covered by the budget of the Reichswehr Ministry; at its peak in 1929 the annual cost was nearly four million Reichsmarks. In order to maintain the civilian appearance of the school, no uniforms were worn and the planes had no German national emblems.

Flight and training operations

The structural condition of the base was only partially suitable for flight and training operations in the beginning. The existing buildings were modernized and new ones built. By 1929, five aircraft hangars, several houses and barracks, a casino and additional workshop and functional buildings were built. After all, the test site was modernized as it was understood at the time and, in addition to warehouses for weapons, ammunition and aviation fuel, also included a weapons master's shop as well as test stands, classrooms, common rooms and a medical department with its own operating theater. Nevertheless, additional living space had to be rented in the city of Lipetsk to accommodate the staff.

Actual flight operations began in June 1925, and training operations began in early 1926. By the time the training facility was closed in September 1933, around 120 airmen, around 100 aerial observers and numerous ground personnel had been trained. In addition, Soviet aviators and technicians were trained by German teachers. In addition to the testing of new equipment, formation flight and various bomb-dropping methods were tested in particular. The fleet used consisted mainly of the models Fokker D.XIII , Heinkel HD 17 and the Albatros types L 76 , L 77 and L 78 .

The flight and training operations took place mainly in the summer months, although flights were also carried out in the winter months. The workforce, including trainee pilots, was around 140 in the main season and was reduced to around 40 in the winter months.

The loss rate during flight operations was relatively low compared to similar facilities during the World War. In the years 1930-1933 three flight students and a flight instructor were killed in accidents.

Soviet demands

The Soviet leadership hoped for significantly greater success in testing modern aircraft and advanced flight technology. Although Soviet pilots and Soviet ground personnel were also trained in Lipetsk, the Soviet leadership had the impression that the aircraft types used were no longer state-of-the-art. From the minutes of a meeting between Baranov and Stahr on September 27, 1929, the Soviet dissatisfaction with the results of the previous cooperation is clearly evident. Baranov's demands, quoted in extracts, illustrate the Russian position:

"In detail, Mr. Baranow said the following:

  1. The school has the ru. Page so far only caused expenses and certain inconveniences. One now also expects advantages for the ru. Page from the existence of the school.
  2. ...
  3. … The school still trains on Fokker D XIII, HD 17, Albatros 76, types that are behind the modern ru. and foreign stand back. (...) The situation is analogous with armament, photo and radio.
  4. The ru. Page has great interest in the development of German engines, including a. of the Junkers heavy oil engine. Since the Russian side is aware that other countries, e.g. B. in America, tests with heavy oil engines take place, it is the ru. It is very important to gain experience in this area as soon as possible so that you are not outperformed by other countries. "

Dissolution of the base

When the Soviet Union began to open politically to the West in 1931 and subsequently concluded a non-aggression pact with France and Poland , the value of the Rapallo Treaty and the military cooperation between the contracting parties began to decline significantly. This was reinforced on the German side by a Franco-German rapprochement beginning in 1932 and the fact that Germany's military equality was recognized at the Geneva Disarmament Conference of December 1932. After the seizure of power by the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler 's ideological rejection came from further cooperation with the Soviet Union added so that the flight school was dissolved in Lipetsk in September 1,933th Previously, the German aviators were arrested as hostages in Lipetsk. That was the response of the Soviet government to the Reichstag arson trial that was carried out in Leipzig against the alleged arsonists. Among them were the three Bulgarian communists Georgi Dimitrov , Blagoi Popow and Wassil Tanew . Secret German-Soviet negotiations followed. As a result, the process against the Bulgarians was dropped. They were released, deported and flew to Moscow, where a festive reception was organized for them as the “Heroes of Leipzig”. Only then were the German airmen released and allowed to leave.

Other German-Soviet military cooperation

According to the Rapallo contract, three German aircraft plants were built in the Soviet Union with the participation of the Junkers company: in Fili near Moscow, Charkow and Samara . Joint aircraft plants were also set up in Yaroslavl and Rybinsk .

The secret German-Russian tank school Kama was operated in Kazan . In Germany there were courses for listeners from the General Staff of the Red Army . The majority of these course participants were later accused of espionage for the Germans and punished.

The key roles in organizing German-Soviet military cooperation were played by Hans von Seeckt and Michail Tukhachevsky .

Graduates

Many of the graduates who completed their pilot training here later formed the basis of the newly founded air force of the Wehrmacht from 1935 . Some of them were later involved in building up the Bundeswehr's air force .

Head of the Aviation School

Head of the Aviation School
1925-1929 Major a. D. Walter Stahr
1929-1932 Major a. D. Max Mohr

Used aircraft

Type number Working time Known identifiers (serial numbers)
Albatros L 68 1 1926
Albatros L 69 2 1925-1927 D-679 (10042), D-684
Albatros L 74 2 1928-1930 D-1100 (10095), D-1110 (10096)
Albatros L 75d 1 1929 D-1646 (10147)
Albatros L 76a 6th 1927-1933 1 to 6, D – 1127 / L7 (10101)
Albatros L 77v 6th 1929-1931 D – 1546 to D1549, D – 1573, D – 1574 (10136 to 10139, 303, 304)
Albatros L 78 8th 1929-1932 D – 1524 / L15 (10121), D – 1791 / L17 (10157), D – 2093, D – 2094, D – 2098, D – 2099, D – 2467, D – 2487 (10151–10156)
Albatros L 81 1 1932 D-2198 (10164)
Albatros L 84 1 1931 D – 1899 / L18 (10187)
Arado SD I. 1 (2) 1927 (49)
Arado SD II 1 1930 (52)
Arado SD III 1 1930 D – 1973 (54)
Arado Ar 64a
Arado Ar 64d		 1
1		 1931
1931		 D – 2470 / L103 (65)
D – 2238 / L104 (104)
Arado Ar 65a
Arado Ar 65b		 1
1		 1931-1933
1931-1933		 D – 2218 (71)
D – IGIL (77)
Dornier B Mercury 1 1929-1931 D – 970 / L97 (96)
Dornier Do F 1 1932 D – 2270 (230)
Dornier Do P Sil 1 1931-1933 CH – 302 / D – 1982 (180)
Focke-Wulf Fw 40 k. A. 1932
Focke-Wulf S 39 B 1 1932 D – 1708/24 (98)
Focke-Wulf W 7 1 1932 D-2216 (112)
Fokker D.VII 2 1926-1933
Fokker D.XIII 50 1925-1933 1 to 50, D – 2252 (4599 to 4628, 4687 to 4706)
Heinkel HD 21 1 1926-1930
Heinkel HD 17 7th 1926-1933 I, II, III, IV, V, G (239-244)
Heinkel HD 21 1 1926-1930
Heinkel HD 37 k. A. 1928
Heinkel HD 38 2 k. A. D-2272 (369)
Heinkel HD 40 II 1 1928-1931 D – 1180 (274)
Heinkel HD 41a 2 1930 D – 1694 / D – IDYM (321), D – 2064 / L64 (364)
Heinkel HD 45 2 1931-1933 D – 2064 / L64 (364, former HD 41), D – 2238 (391)
Heinkel He 46a 2 1931 D-1702 (376)
Heinkel He 59b 1 1931-1932 D – 2215 / D – ABIF / I22 (379)
Junkers A 20 2 1925-1931 D-750 (0878)
Junkers A 21 1 1925
Junkers A 35 1 1928-1929 D-987 / L9 (1059)
Junkers A 48 (K 47) 3 1930-1933 (3361, crash on August 20, 1930), D – 1057 / J / D – INUT (3362), D – 2532 / D – IPOS (3363)
Junkers F 13 1 1929-1933 D – 252 / RR – ECD (572)
Junkers G 24 2 1928-1929 S – AAAM / H – NADA / D – 878 / L78 (0874)
Junkers K 47 4th 1930 (3361), D – 1057 (3662), D – 2012 (3365), D – 2532 / D – IPOS (3363)
Junkers W 33b 2 1929-1933 D – 1459 (2522), D – OCIP (2523)
Junkers W 34fi (K 43) 2 1930-1933 D – 1844 (2589), D – 1845 / K (2590)
Messerschmitt M23c 1 (2) 1931-1933 D – 1884 (519)
Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland 2 1928, 1929-1932 D – 991 / M – CAAC / L91 (18), D – 999 (19)

See also

literature

  • Dimitri Alexejewitsch Sobolew: German traces in Soviet aviation history: The participation of German companies and experts in aviation development in the USSR . Mittler, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0675-0 .
  • Dieter Stammer: The cradle of the German Air Force in the Soviet Union . In: FLiEGERREVUE X . No. 47 . PPVMedien, 2014, ISSN  2195-1233 .
  • Heinrich Beauvais, Karl Kössler , Max Mayer: Flight test sites until 1945: Johannisthal, Lipezk, Rechlin, Travemünde, Tarnewitz, Peenemünde-West . Bernard & Graefe, 1998, ISBN 3-7637-6117-9 .
  • Robert Craig Johnson: Planting the Dragon's Teeth: the German Air Combat School at Lipetsk (USSR) 1925–1930 . Chandelle Aviation Magazine, 1998.
  • Secret Luftwaffe, German Military Aviation Build-up Between the Wars. In: AIR Enthusiast. Vol. 41, 1990, pp. 38-48.
  • Talkback to Secret Air Force… In: AIR Enthusiast. Vol. 42, 1990. p. 79.

Web links

Supporting documents and comments

  1. ↑ He took the name von der Lieth-Thomsen much later.
  2. ↑ Stammer, p. 49.
  3. ↑ Marton Szigeti: Junkers J 48 / K47 / A 48. Two-seater hunting vehicle . In: Aviation Classics . No. 08/2018 , p. 24 (production list J 48).

Coordinates: 52 ° 38 ′ 30 ″  N , 39 ° 27 ′ 0 ″  E