Liesel Bach

Liesel Bach (1932)

Elisabeth Bach , better known as Liesel Bach (born June 14, 1905 in Bonn ; † January 21, 1992 in Bandol , Département Var ), was probably the most successful German aerobatic pilot between 1930 and 1970.

The beginning time

Liesel Bach, a sports enthusiast from an early age, lost her mother at an early age. She was enthusiastic about hockey and tennis, horse riding and athletics, but especially about water sports. In diving she won several victories and was even shortlisted for participating in the Olympic Games in 1928. She refused to accept the wish of her father, who owned a machine factory, to learn the trade of a seamstress, as it was too much against her inclinations. So she achieved that she was allowed to train as a gymnastics and sports teacher. She later practiced this profession in Berlin. She had her first contact with aviation in Hangelar near Bonn, when she was allowed to fly with a friend. She spontaneously joined the DLV local club and the glider pilot group there as the only female member . With the latter she even went to the 10th Rhön competition on the Wasserkuppe . Soon afterwards she began her flight training at the Cologne Aviation Club with the flight instructor Jakob Möltgen , which was completed with the examination for the A2 license in November. Liesel Bach was thus the first female pilot in Cologne. In April 1930 the aerobatics license followed. A little later she registered with a Klemm L 26a (D-1798) borrowed from the club for the first German women's aerobatics championship, which was held on May 29, 1930 in Hangelar and which she as a newcomer against her eight z. T. much more experienced colleagues won. The judge was Dipl.-Ing. Joachim von Koeppen from the DVL . She was then able to successfully defend this title for the first time in 1931 and several times in the following years.

Sporting successes

If she flew with a borrowed machine in her first competitions, she could soon compete with her own L 26a, which had an Argus As 8 engine (D-1916). So she took part in many flight days in Germany and other European countries.

At the end of 1931 she made the first long-distance flight with her machine, which took her to Sardinia. Since she could not land there due to bad weather, she flew back to Italy, where she had to make an outland landing near Rome due to lack of fuel. Since she was already busy with plans for a world flight, this flight may have been a small test. As a patriot, she turned to National Socialism even then , which she then defended and tried to justify on all her trips abroad.

After Liesel Bach had won and defended the still unofficial title of International Aerobatic Master in Milan in 1930 and 1931, she succeeded on April 28, 1934 with a new design by Klemm, the Kl 28 XIV (D-2495), in Vincennes near Paris Victory at the International Women's Aerobatic Championship (Coupe Féminine), which at that time corresponded to the World Championship. However, she only had one competitor, the French Hélène Boucher , because Vera von Bissing was unable to participate in her aircraft due to illness and the second French participant, Adrienne Bollard, due to technical problems. A year later she was able to defend this title in Rouen. In the same year she took part in the German Aerobatic Championship and was the only woman among the participants to achieve a very good 3rd place. Since their terminal was completely burned on a conducted by Jacob Möltgen ferry flight after an emergency landing, it had Gerhard Fieseler whose Raka RK 26a (D-1616) Tiger swallow can buy from, with which it is now denied several airplane days and competitions.

In 1936, on the occasion of the Berlin Olympics , two aerobatic events were held. Once the women's aerobatics competition at the opening of the airfield in Rangsdorf in July, where, at first in duty, she had to give the victory to Vera von Bissing. On the other hand, the major flight day in Tempelhof a few days later, where the audience as judges judged the two pilots in exactly the opposite order, making Liesel Bach the winner.

At the IV International Flight Meeting in Zurich in 1937, the two pilots only appeared in the show program, Liesel Bach now with a Bü 133 Jungmeister . Again she saw herself in the sporting competition in the reliability flight of the sport pilots in 1938, in which she and the twelve other participants, all on Klemm Kl 25 , but Melitta Schiller snatched the victory away. She was able to compensate for this in the same competition the following year, which she clearly won , this time on a Bü 180 student , together with her local Deppermann.

The wartime

Little information is available about their activities during World War II . She is said to have worked as an aerobatics instructor for the Air Force , but later transferred aircraft from the manufacturing plants to the air parks as a member of the transfer wing 1. According to their own information, the aircraft were up to the Junkers Ju 87 , for which their B2 license was sufficient.

post war period

After the war she was invited to spend three years in India , where she was able to do what the Germans were forbidden at home, namely flying. After she had the opportunity to train on a de Havilland Tiger Moth and a DHC-1 Chipmunk , she entered the Asian aerobatic competition in February 1951, again with a Tiger Moth , at Kanpur airfield in front of 100,000 spectators, in which she took part Title also won. The trophy was presented to her by the then President of the Indian Republic, Rajendra Prasad . So that she could fulfill a dream, the Chief Minister of the United Provinces , Sir Govind Ballabh Pant , gave her his plane, a twin-engine Beech 18 . She took off from Halvani airport on the border with Nepal at the end of March 1951 to cross the Himalayan range , which she was the first woman to fly over. After 2½ hours it landed back at the starting point. The Indian Air Force even allowed her, relying on her skills, to do a few traffic laps in a Spitfire , if only in a two-seater with a safety pilot who never had to intervene. A year later she was able to defend her aerobatics title in Ceylon . There she had to compete in the men's class, as no women's competition was flown. She came in second overall. In 1953, before she returned to Germany, she was received by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru .

When she got home, she received an offer from Divina-Film GmbH to fly stars over Colombo for their film and even to appear in a small role herself.

The Klemm Kl 35 B in the German Museum of Technology

After Germany regained control of the air in 1955, it was able to buy a new aircraft, a Klemm Kl 35 B with the more powerful Hirth HM 506 engine with 160 hp. So she took part in various competitions, such as Germany flights , as well as the 10th German aerobatic championship and in 1963 the European championship in aerobatics for women, which she also won. This aircraft is now in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. She flew to tennis until she was 70 when she returned to her beginnings. To do this, she moved to a corresponding facility in the south of France, to Bandol, where she died in 1992.

Works

• Log D 2495 , 1937
• To the old gods. A German aviator in India , 1954

Web links

• Literature by and about Liesel Bach in the catalog of the German National Library