Rowehl command
The Rowehl Command was a unit of the German Air Force during the National Socialist era for aerial photography - long-range reconnaissance with a focus on the Soviet Union . The wing recognition was T5.
history
Since 1937, the Rowehl Command systematically took aerial photographs of the territory of the Soviet Union . In the event of a war against the Soviet Union, long-range aerial reconnaissance was of the utmost importance because the Soviet Union hermetically sealed off its borders, maintained strict secrecy and it was therefore hardly possible to obtain information about the armed forces of the USSR by conventional means . In particular, material was collected on industry and the Red Army . From October 1939 to June 1941, the airspace of the Soviet Union was violated about 500 times by German reconnaissance aircraft . The Soviet side, anxious to fulfill the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of August 1939, did not take any military countermeasures, but only protested against these airspace violations.
The reconnaissance results of the Rowehl command made it possible to gain control of the air on the first day of Operation Barbarossa , June 22, 1941, by means of a targeted air strike against the airfields of the Soviet air forces , in which 1200 aircraft were destroyed .
The unit was named after its head, Theodor Rowehl . She was directly subordinate to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force Hermann Göring . It consisted of up to 4 scales of 40 to 60 with special aircraft for very large heights, the types Do 215 B-2 , He 111 , Ju 88 and Ju 86 P . The planes had pressurized cabins and special altitude engines. They flew at altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000 m, which was an extraordinary height at the time.
On February 13, 1940, Alfred Jodl noted in his diary:
“Learned from Admiral Canaris that Rowehl squadron is to be deployed with masses from Bulgaria against the Caucasus. The Air Force has to clarify from whom this absurd thought comes from. "
When asked about this note, Hermann Göring testified at the Nuremberg Trials that, with the Rowehl command , he had observed the gathering of French and English aircraft squadrons for Operation Pike in Syria .
See also
literature
- Olaf Groehler : Fight for air supremacy. Contributions to the air war history of the Second World War . 2nd Edition. Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-327-00488-9 .
- Norbert Rohde : Historical military objects of the Oberhavel region, volume 4. The flying eyes of Colonel Rowehl. The secret German aerial reconnaissance . VV Veltener Verlagsgesellschaft, Velten 2010. ISBN 978-3-9813649-3-4 .