Peenemünde-West
Peenemünde-West , later a test center for the Air Force Karlshagen , was a test center for the Air Force of the Wehrmacht in Peenemünde in the north-west of the island of Usedom , which began operations in 1938. As early as 1936, the Peenemünde Army Test Center had been set up in the immediate vicinity for the development and testing of ballistic missiles . The "East Plant" was under the Army, the "West Plant" was under the Air Force.
history
Under the supervision of the Schlempp construction group, the construction of missile test stations, port facilities, rail connections and the airfield and the Peenemünde-West test site began. The Luftwaffe's test site was opened on April 1, 1938 and by that time was essentially completed. A wide variety of models and prototypes were tested by the Air Force on the airfield with its concrete runway, slingshots and rocket launch sites until the beginning of 1945.
The most famous of the weapons tested here is the Fieseler Fi 103 glide bomb ("V1"), the forerunner of the modern cruise missile . Trials started from Peenemünde in the direction of the Baltic Sea.
Other significant technical inventions started in “Peenemünde-West”: the He 176 (the world's first rocket aircraft with a liquid rocket engine ), the Me 163 , anti-aircraft missiles such as the gentian and waterfall , guidance and homing systems, glide bombs ( Hs 293 ) and much more .
Major Stahms, commander of Peenemünde-West, made the suggestion at a service meeting in April 1943 - as the 3,000 forced laborers deployed in Peenemünde-West endangered secrecy, but were indispensable - to pull them off and set up a concentration camp for them. SS guards were to be requested along with the concentration camp prisoners through Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler . The General Inspector of the Air Force, Erhard Milch , said he was ready to get the matter off the ground. In May 1943, a barrack camp was built that was under the control of the Luftwaffe test site. On May 22nd and 26th, a transport with initially 250 male prisoners arrived. The guard was carried out by SS and members of the Luftwaffe. The barracks camp was on the way to the Peenemünde-West airfield and plant and consisted of three to four accommodations and various functional barracks. It was fenced in with barbed wire and provided with watchtowers. The camp management was in two barracks outside the prison area. On average, the Karlshagen I and II camps were occupied by around 1200 men, most of whom came from the Soviet Union, Poland, France and the Netherlands. Most of them did not come directly from the Ravensbrück concentration camp , but had previously been imprisoned in the Buchenwald , Natzweiler or Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Divided into at least 24 work units, they had to work in the following areas, among others: carrying out the launch tests of the V1 (Fi 103), extending the runway (for the Me 163), building rocket launch ramps, all earthworks, building protective walls, covering aircraft, Defusing bombs, repairing bomb damage, isolating the district heating and loading work at the boat harbor in Peenemünde.
With increasing bombing of the facilities in 1944, the prisoners also had to build an air raid shelter made of reinforced concrete. The "Bunker Construction" command consisted of 400 prisoners. The use of this command is described by contemporary witnesses as the most brutal. A total of 295 deaths are documented. The production of the V1, the aircraft equipment and the other developments were organized underground and relocated to the Mittelwerkstollen in the Kohnstein ; Prisoners from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp were forced to erect the facilities and do the final assembly work. From February 1945 the SS began to clear the prisoner camps and organized transports to the Mittelbau-Dora , Barth and Ellrich-Juliushütte satellite camps . From April onwards the SS forced the remaining men on death marches .
General evacuation of the site began on February 17, 1945 and the evacuation could be completed by early March. Peenemünde was occupied by Soviet troops on May 4, 1945. They dismantled the largely preserved systems by 1946 and transported them to the USSR . Non-dismantled plants were blown up by a German company in accordance with a resolution of the Allied Control Council . The Soviet military administration for Mecklenburg stipulated that the building materials should be made available to the new farmers free of charge.
From 1945 to 1956, the entire site of the former Peenemünde Army Research Center was used as a Soviet naval and air force base for the GSSD . In 1956 both bases were handed over to the East German NVA . From then on Peenemünde served, among other things, as a naval base for the 1st Flotilla of the People's Navy . Until 1990, the entire northern area of the island of Usedom down to Karlshagen was a restricted area of the NVA, which operated an important military airfield there . The airfield, which was already part of the Luftwaffe test site, was expanded in 1961 so that it could also be used by jet-powered aircraft belonging to the 9th Fighter Wing of the NVA . After the reunification of Germany, the military base was dissolved in 1993.
Today, sightseeing flights with small planes take place from the Peenemünde airfield . Bus tours are also carried out, during which the former bunkers of the NVA and the remains of the launching ramps of the V1 can be viewed. Because of its oversized runway for small aircraft, the Peenemünde airfield is also a location for flight schools .
Buildings and plant
The separately organized concentration camp Karlshagen I of the Peenemünde-West air force existed on the northern tip of the island of Usedom until the end of the war. At the northeastern end of the airfield, some remains of launch sites for cruise missiles, the so-called retaliatory weapon V1 of the Fieseler Fi 103 type , have been preserved. The launch systems were also referred to as "Walter slingshots" (successors to the "Borsig slingshots"). To the southeast of the airfield, a large bunker was built with four 3.7 cm anti-aircraft cannons . Although it was blown up after the end of the Second World War as part of the demilitarization of Germany on the orders of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), it is still partially standing today.
Of the many during the time of the test site of the Air Force "Peenemunde-West" on the grounds of concentration camp inmates of the satellite camp of Buchenwald concentration camp constructed buildings today is no longer intact. In 1956, the airfield received a new 2465 meter long concrete runway, which is oriented in a north-westerly direction and also allows the launch of modern jet fighters . A special feature are the radio beacons at the northwestern end , which were built on artificial islands in the sea.
The Usedomer Bäderbahn (UBB) now runs on the former Zinnowitz – Peenemünde industrial railway line operated by the Heeresversuchsanstalt . Today, however, this no longer runs in electrical overhead line operation with a direct voltage of 1200 volts , as it did from 1941 to April 1946 , but with internal combustion engine vehicles of the 646 series . Most of the former Peenemünder Schnellbahn trains came to the Berlin S-Bahn and were integrated into the existing series there by 1953. Even today, the old platforms of the factory railway made of prefabricated concrete elements can still be seen in some places, such as at the former Karlshagen stop (settlement) next to the route. Some of them had to be tipped to allow the new, wider railcars to pass through. Until the beginning of the 1990s, the siding of the airfield was still accessible for rail vehicles, but the connecting switch has now been expanded.
Impact and Importance
In contrast to the Heeresversuchsanstalt / Peenemünde-East, the test center of the Air Force Karlshagen / Peenemünde-West was usually not directly involved in the development and manufacture of the weapon systems. Her task was to test the industrial drafts before the order was placed and to ensure quality during production, as well as to prepare and accompany the deployment of troops. However, findings and suggestions for improvement from the testing flowed into the drafts and prototypes and thus also into the series production. In-house developments were also carried out to a small extent.
Most of the so-called special weapons were tested in the test site. Developing industrial companies were often closely involved in the testing, and in some cases the manufacturing companies also used the technical possibilities and resources in the testing facility for their own tests.
In Peenemünde-West, the following were tested:
- remote-controlled bombs with wire, radio and television controls ( Fritz X and Hs 293 )
- remote control of aircraft
- rocket-propelled aircraft ( Heinkel He 176 , Messerschmitt Me 163 )
- the first cruise missile ( Fieseler Fi 103 )
- Solid and liquid powered jump start kits for overloaded aircraft
- Teams of aircraft ( mistletoe tow )
- missile-based air defense systems ( surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles )
As early as 1943, the Nazi propaganda had announced the bombing of England with " weapons of retaliation " as revenge for Allied air raids on German cities , in order to strengthen the perseverance of the German population and the fighting spirit of the soldiers at the front. With constant invocations of the effectiveness of the new " miracle weapons ", the Nazi regime propagated the belief that the Wehrmacht had a technological means in hand with new, superior weapon systems in order to be able to bring about a turning point in the war. However, the euphoric mood of the population that arose briefly after the war effort of the "V1" turned into skepticism again in the summer of 1944, when they could not achieve the desired noticeable successes. Nonetheless, on January 30, 1945, the “Führer” Adolf Hitler promised in his last radio speech, against the background of the looming defeat, through an increased use of so-called “miracle weapons”, which in addition to the “V1” also included other weapon developments from Peenemünde-West , still the final victory .
The importance of the tests in Peenemünde-West on post-war technology is not as obvious as that of the HVA Peenemünde on space travel. Often technical details were tested and improved or developed to the point where they were ready for the front, which are still the basis of technical developments today. A direct effect of the work in Peenemünde-West on today's cruise missiles is most likely to be seen.
What is less well known is that the foundations for today's unmanned drones were also laid here by providing evidence that an aircraft can safely take off and land remotely. The piggyback aircraft tested in Peenemünde-West (mistletoe project) are strongly reminiscent of NASA's later idea of transporting the space shuttle on the back of a Boeing 747 .
The foundations for today's so-called “intelligent” bombs were also laid in Peenemünde-West with the testing of remote-controlled and self-controlled glide and drop bombs ( precision-guided ammunition ) until the troops were introduced . The self-control and target search was no longer ready for use. Also important are the jump start kits developed together with industry, with which (especially military) aircraft can take off even if they have exceeded their maximum take-off weight. Similar projects were carried out by other countries during World War II. The German start-up packages were technically leading. Anti-aircraft missiles were also tested . These are the forerunners of all of today's missile-based air defense systems. Attempts have been made with remote controlled radar and infrared guided systems using both surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles.
See also
literature
- Botho Stüwe: Peenemünde-West - The Air Force's test site for secret remote controlled weapons and their development history. , Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0294-4 .
- Botho Stüwe: Peenemünde-West - The Air Force's test site for secret weapons - An illustrated book by Botho Stüwe. aero-verlag, Petershausen 2003, ISBN 3-934596-31-2 .
- Max Mayer: Trial and testing facility of the Peenemünde-West / Usedom air force. In: Theodor Benecke (Hrsg.): Die deutsche Luftfahrt. Volume 27: Heinrich Beauvais, Karl Kössler , Max Mayer, Christoph Regel: Flight test sites until 1945. Johannisthal, Lipezk, Rechlin, Travemünde, Tarnewitz, Peenemünde-West. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-7637-6117-9 , pages 214-275.
- Volkhard Bode, Gerhard Kaiser: Missile tracks. Peenemünde 1936–1996. A historical report with current photos. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-86153-112-7 , various new editions (most recently 2004) also with other ISBNs.
- Thomas Köhler: Air armor in the shadow of the rocket. The Peenemünde-West air force test site and the Karlshagen flak test site. In: Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde (Hrsg.): Miracles with calculation: the Peenemünde long-range weapons projects as part of the German armaments system. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 3-86153-926-8 , pages 104-163.
- Manfred Kanetzki: Operation Crossbow: Bombs on Peenemünde. Edited by the Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 3-86153-805-9 .
- Ernst Klee, Otto Merk: Back then in Peenemünde. At the birthplace of space travel. Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1963.
- Joachim Engelmann: Secret armory Peenemünde. V2 - "Waterfall" - "Butterfly". Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg, ISBN 3-7909-0118-0 .
- Martin Kaule: Peenemünde. From the missile center to the monument landscape. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86153-764-9 .
- Harald Tresp, Sven Grempler: Rubble from a bygone era in Zempin - an almost neglected site for testing German secret weapons. Heimatverein Zempin eV, Zempin, 2001.
- Jürgen Michels with the collaboration of Olaf Przybilski: Peenemünde and his heirs in East and West. Development and way of German secret weapons. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-7637-5960-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volkhard Bode, Gerhard Kaiser: Rocket tracks: Armory and military base Peenemünde. Ch.links Verlag, 2011, p. 54.
- ↑ Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 4: Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, Ravensbrück. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52964-X , pp. 560-561.
- ↑ Volkhard Bode, Gerhard Kaiser: Rocket tracks: Armory and military base Peenemünde. Ch.links Verlag, 2011, p. 62.
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin, http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/wk2/kriegsgeschichte/wunderwaffen/index.html
Coordinates: 54 ° 8 ′ 53.5 ″ N , 13 ° 47 ′ 38.5 ″ E