Operation LUSTY

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Operation LUSTY was an enterprise of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War with the aim of capturing and evaluating military aviation technologies from Germany . The operation name is an acronym of LU ftwaffe S ecret T echnolog Y . The English adjective lusty means healthy .

introduction

During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) intelligence service sent teams to Europe to gain access to enemy aircraft, technical and scientific reports, research facilities, and weapons and investigate them in the United States. In May 1945, the Director of Technical Services defined the operational objective as follows:

“The chief objective of Air Technical Intelligence activities in Germany, at the present day of the war, is to obtain any and all information which may be applied to the prosecution of the war, against Japan. There is good foundation to the believe that the Germans have many, if not all, of their developments available to the Japanese. "

“The primary objective of the activities of Air Technical Intelligence in Germany, at the present time of the war, is to obtain any and all information that can be used to continue the war against Japan. There are good reasons to assume that Germany has made many, if not all, of its developments accessible to the Japanese. "

- Director of Technical Services : Category One List - Enemy Equipment desired by Wright Field

The Air Technical Intelligence (ATI) groups , trained at the Technical Intelligence School at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio , gathered enemy equipment to learn more about German technological developments. The ATI teams competed with 32 other allied technical reconnaissance groups who also collected information and equipment from crash sites.

As the war drew to a close, the mission of the various intelligence organizations changed from tactical reconnaissance to post-war reconnaissance , and the evaluation of intelligence information was given priority.

On April 22, 1945, the USAAF combined the technical and post-war intelligence activities under the code name LUSTY to form an evaluation division. Operation Lusty began with the intention of locating and evaluating scientific documents, research facilities and aircraft in Germany. The operation was divided into two teams:

  • Team One, led by Colonel Harold E. Watson, a former test pilot at Wright Field, gathered enemy aircraft and weapons for further investigation in the United States.
  • Team Two recruited scientists, collected documents, and examined facilities.

Watson's Whizzers

In 1944, intelligence experts at Wright Field drew up a list of advanced aeronautical equipment they wanted to investigate further. Watson and his team, nicknamed "Watson's Whizzers", consisted of pilots, engineers and maintenance personnel who collected aircraft according to this "blacklist". Watson divided his Whizzers into two departments: one acquired jet -powered aircraft and the other piston-powered aircraft, flightless prototypes and missile equipment.

After the fighting ended, air force test pilots joined the Whizzers, including Captain Heinz Braur. On May 8, 1945, he flew 70 women, children and wounded troops to Munich-Riem Airport . After landing, he was arrested by Watson's men and given the choice of either being barracked in a POW camp or cooperating with the Whizzers. Three employees of the aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt GmbH also joined the Whizzers: the chief test pilot for experimental aircraft Karl Baur , the test pilot Ludwig Hofmann and the chief engineer Gerhard Coulis, later also the test pilot Herman Kersting. After the Whizers had located nine Messerschmitt Me 262s at Lechfeld Air Base, it was these German pilots who had the expertise to fly them. Even several months after VE Day , aircraft from the British, French and Soviet occupation zones were flown off the "black list", hidden or otherwise transported to areas controlled by the United States Army. Watson employees traveled across Europe in search of blacklisted aircraft.

Operation Seahorse

After they were found, the planes were shipped to the United States. To this end, gave Royal Navy to escort carrier of the Bogue-class HMS Reaper (D82) , originally from the United States Navy as USS Winjah (CVE-54) was operated. The most useful seaport for mooring the aircraft carrier and loading the aircraft with a crane was the port city of Cherbourg-Octeville in northern France. The Whizzers flew the Me 262 fighter-bombers, the Arado Ar 234 and other aircraft from Lechfeld via St. Dizier and Melun to Cherbourg to the Querqueville airfield . All aircraft were packed for protection from salty air (salt aerosol) and weather, loaded onto the carrier and shipped to the United States, where they were unloaded at Newark Army Air Field . The technical investigations and flight tests were carried out by both the USAAF and the US Navy.

One of the Messerschmitt Me 262s was christened "Marge" by the mechanics; Pilots later renamed her "Lady Jess IV".

Distribution of foreign equipment

In 1945, planes shipped to the United States were split between the Navy and Army Air Force. Army General Henry H. Arnold ordered the preservation of at least one aircraft of each type. The Air Force took its planes to Wright Field, and when its parking spaces were full, many were relocated to Freeman Field in Seymour, Indiana. The US armed forces collected a total of 16,280 items with a total weight of 6,200 tons during Operation LUSTY, of which 2,398 items were selected for further technical analysis by the secret service. 47 employees were busy identifying, inspecting and storing the hijacked equipment. When Freeman Field closed in 1946, the Air Technical Service Command (ATSC) had to relocate the aircraft again. The larger planes were transferred to Davis-Monthan Field in Arizona and the fighter planes were transferred to a special depot, Park Ridge, Ill. (Now Chicago O'Hare International Airport ), which was under the control of the ATSC intelligence service. The Special Depot managed buildings of the Douglas Aircraft Company , in which the Douglas C-54 Skymaster military transport aircraft had previously been manufactured.

With the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, the US Air Force again needed storage space, so the aircraft had to be relocated to the outside areas. In 1953, some aircraft were transferred to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland and later exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum . The remaining planes were scrapped.

The result of Operation LUSTY was the preservation of some German aircraft types such as the Arado Ar 234 reconnaissance jet (WkNr. 140 312), the heavy twin-engine Dornier Do 335 fighter aircraft (WkNr. 240 102) and the only restored model of the Heinkel He 219 night fighter aircraft (WkNr. 290 202).

literature

  • Dik Alan Daso: Focus: The Shaft of the Spear - Operation LUSTY: The US Army Air Forces' Exploitation of the Luftwaffe's Secret Aeronautical Technology, 1944–45 . 2002. In: Airpower Journal . 16, No. 1: 28. (English)
  • Dik Alan Daso: Operation LUSTY: The US Army Air Forces' Exploitation of the Luftwaffe's Secret Aeronautical Technology, 1944–45 . In: Aerospace Power Journal . 2002. 16: 28-40. (English)
  • Colin D. Heaton: The ME 262 Stormbird: From the Pilots Who Flew, Fought, and Survived It. Minneapolis: MBI Pub. Co, 2012. (English)
  • M. Hunt: La rafle des savants allemands ou l'opération "Lusty" . Imprimeries Réunies SA, 1953. (French)
  • Wolfgang WE Samuel: American Raiders The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
  • RL Young: Operation Lusty Harold Watson's "Whizzers" Went Hunting for German Jets-and Came Back with Several Jewels . In: Air Force Magazine . 2005. 88: 62-67. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graham M. Simons: Operation LUSTY: The Race for Hitler's Secret Technology . Pen and Sword, July 31, 2016. 272 ​​pages. ISBN 978-1-4738-4740-8 .
  2. ^ Charles R. Christensen: A History of the Development of Technical Intelligence in the Air Force, 1917-1947: Operation Lusty . Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press , 2002.
  3. ^ Wolfgang WE Samuel: Watson's Whizzers: Operation Lusty and the Race for Nazi Aviation Technology . Atglen, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7643-3517-4 . (English)
  4. ^ Phil Scott: Watson's Whizzers . In: Air & Space Magazine (Smithsonian) . October / November 1997. page 69.