Goal presentation chain 33

Target display chain 33 (ZDK-33)
active	February 1959 to December 31, 1990
Country	GDR
Armed forces	NVA
Armed forces	LSK / LV
Branch of service	Aviation forces
Type	Target actor
Strength	41 (13 officers, 28 NCOs and men)
Insinuation	3. LVD
Squadron location	Peenemünde Airport
Web presence	Squadron Chronicle
Last commander
Lieutenant colonel	Hans-Jürgen Eser
Aircraft
education	Jak-11 , IL-28 , IL-28U , IL-28R , L-39ZO , L-39V

Peenemünde Airport

Location of the stationing place

The target display chain 33 (ZDK-33) was a flying unit of the NVA air forces . Operationally, it was subordinate to the 9th Fighter Wing and stationed with it at the Peenemünde airfield .

history

The unit was formed in February 1959 on the orders of the Ministry of National Defense from the 3rd squadron of the FG-1 , whose aircraft inventory included two chains MiG-17 and some Jak-11 , at Cottbus airfield . In June of the same year it was the first and only unit of the NVA to receive the first two copies of the Soviet IL-28 front bomber . The aircraft came from the 11th Independent Reconnaissance Regiment of the 16th Air Army stationed in Neu-Welzow , which also carried out the retraining of German crews on this type. Since the squadron was first assigned the name Zieldarstellungsstaffel 21 (ZDS-21) in 1966 , the command team was also referred to internally because it received its operational orders directly from the LSK / LV command . Initially, only target display flights for the fighter pilot units were carried out in the "cold shot". From the spring of 1960, the IL-28 were equipped with a cable drum in the bomb shaft, with the help of which an eight-meter-long airbag could be deployed on a 2000-meter steel cable, on which sharp shooting exercises were now possible. In addition to fighter pilots, air defense units and the People's Navy also used this type of combat training. The association was initially not permanently stationed in one place, but was assigned to the respective flying unit for which the target display flights were carried out as the 4th squadron and based on that.

In the fall of 1960, the command staff received another Jak-11 chain, which was given back in the summer of 1961. During this period, operations were mainly carried out from the Trollenhagen and Tutow locations . The squadron then moved to Peenemünde for the first time, where they received a school machine IL-28U, also from Soviet stocks, with which other crews were trained. From the beginning of the 1960s, the command staff also took on a number of special tasks. These included the testing of new types of parachutes that had been developed at VEB Seifhennersdorf. The tests were carried out on dolls and sand-filled containers. The AGITAB 250-85 and AGIT 500-300 “agitation bombs” filled with leaflets were also tested by the unit.

The delivery of two IL-28R reconnaissance aircraft on November 1, 1961 represented a special case. The two aircraft had previously been used by the Dresden aircraft yard as test vehicles for the Pirna 014 engines for jet transport aircraft 152 and were now being used After the end of the GDR aircraft development program and the removal of the experimental fixtures, added to the squadron as a target actor. In the same month it was relocated to Drewitz , where, after another delivery of five IL-28s and an increase in staff by crews assigned by the Dessau Transport Aviation School, the unit had the highest number in its history, with a total of ten IL-28s. However, on October 12, 1963, the 204 crashed while approaching Preschen airfield . The command staff was there for a while because of construction work in Drewitz. The pilot had lost his orientation in a cloud cover over Poland. The three-man crew was able to save themselves with the parachute. When the aircraft crashed, the high-explosive shells carried by the NR-23 rear- mounted automatic cannon caused a large explosion, so that after this incident the IL-28 were only flown without defensive ammunition. Finally, the rear armament was completely expanded.

On December 1, 1964, a stationing in Drewitz that lasted until 1971 began. With a change of subordination of the association to the 1st LVD in 1966, the name was also changed to Target Depiction Season 21 . From April 1971 to November 1972 it was stationed in Trollenhagen, where the unit was subordinated to the 3rd LVD and was given the designation Zieldarstellungsstaffel 33 (ZDS-33). It was given its final home location after the last move to Peenemünde on November 14, 1972 and the operational subordination to JG-9 one day later. The target display flights took place consistently for the flak troops over the flak firing ranges Zingst and Ückermünde . For the exercises of the fighter pilots, in which Czechoslovak and Soviet pilots also participated, the air rifle zone II (LSZ II) east of the Greifswalder Oie above the Baltic Sea was available.

In the late 1970s, the IL-28 began gradually being phased out and replaced by the L-39 . In September / October 1979 the first crews at Fliegerausbildungsgeschwader 25 in Bautzen were instructed on the new type. On March 13, 1980, two L-39ZO were handed over to the ZDS-33 by the FAG-25. In November, ten members of the squadron, including three pilots, were instructed in Košice in the handling of the target tow version L-39V and two of the aircraft - the only one of this version in the NVA - were flown over from Bautzen to Peenemünde on May 30, 1980. After the last IL-28 was retired (the last flight took place on October 13, 1982), the chain had four L-39s. The unit, reduced in this way to half the aircraft's strength, was renamed on December 1, 1981 as target display chain 33 (ZDK-33). An interim relocation, which had become necessary due to construction work on the home site, took place from January 17 to December 1, 1985 together with the 1st squadron of the JG-9 to Garz / Heringsdorf airfield. 1987 the L-39ZO "222" was added as a feeder . The L-39 ZO were used as carrier aircraft for the LZA-07 airbag containers. Two of these containers were purchased as original products from Sweden. Two more were procured as replicas from the Dresden aircraft yard. With the reunification , the ZDK-33 ceased its work on October 3, 1990, was transferred to the Bundeswehr and dissolved by the end of the year. The aircraft were parked in Rothenburg and were given Bundeswehr license plates. Two L-39ZOs, the 200 and the 222 , were given as a gift to the Hungarian Air Force in November 1993 , where they flew as the 133 and 136 . The two L-39V were given to museums.

Commanders

Rank	Surname	period of service	Remarks
Captain	Heinz Funk	1959-1962
major	Dietrich Hellwig	1962 - September 30, 1963
Lieutenant colonel	Gerhard Oswald	October 1, 1963 - October 30, 1981	Honored military aviator
Lieutenant colonel	Hans-Jürgen Eser	November 1, 1981 - December 31, 1990

The aircraft of the ZDK-33

IL-28R ( 208 ) of the ZDK-33 in Berlin – Gatow

L-39V ( 170 ) of the ZDK-33 in Berlin-Gatow

Type	number of pieces	Tactical numbers	period of service	Remarks
Jak-11	a chain	not known	Fall 1960 - Summer 1961
IL-28	7th	190 , 196 , 204 , 205 , 208 , 224 , 226	February 1959 - October 1982	the 208 is now in the Museum Berlin-Gatow
IL-28U	1	193	Fall 1960 - March 1979	after decommissioning decoy in Peenemünde; the wreck is now in the Peenemünde Museum
IL-28R	2	180 , 184	November 1961 - June 1979	1961 used as DM – ZZI and DM – ZZK in Dresden for engine testing of the 152
L-39IN	3	187 ( 28 + 50 ), 200 ( 28 + 51 ), 222 ( 28 + 52 )	April 1978 - October 1990	Takeover of the JAG-25 , use from 1984 with air target device 07 (LZA-07) in the wing container
L-39V	2	170 ( 28 + 48 ), 171 ( 28 + 49 )	May 1980 - October 1990	Use with air target KT-04 ; the 170 is now in the Museum Berlin-Gatow, the 171 in Rothenburg

literature

• Manfred Kanetzki: MiGs over Peenemünde. The history of the NVA air force units on Usedom . Jagdfliegergeschwader-9 "Heinrich Rau", Aviation Technical Battalion-9 "Käthe Niederkirchner", target display chain-33, radio technical battalion-33. 2nd, revised edition. MediaScript, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-9814822-1-8 .
• Wilfried Copenhagen : The Air Force of the NVA . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02235-4 .

Remarks

1. ↑ According to Copenhagen: The Air Force of the NVA was named in Target Depiction Season 21 in autumn 1959 (p. 64). Since the number "1" refers to the subordination to the 1st LVD (hence the designation ZDK-33 after the subordination to the 3rd LVD), this date is doubtful.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Detlef Billig, Manfred Meyer: Airplanes of the GDR. Type book military and civil aviation. Volume I until 1962. Friedland 2002, ISBN 3-613-02197-8 , p. 189
2. ^ Detlef Billig, Manfred Meyer: Airplanes of the GDR. Type book military and civil aviation. Volume III until 1990. Friedland 2003, ISBN 3-613-02285-0 , p. 175

Coordinates: 54 ° 9 ′ 30.28 ″  N , 13 ° 46 ′ 16.9 ″  E