The German Aviation Industry in World War II
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Arming the Luftwaffe This page intentionally left blank Arming the Luftwaffe The German Aviation Industry in World War II DANIEL UZIEL McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Uziel, Daniel, 1967– Arming the Luftwaffe : the German aviation industry in World War II / Daniel Uziel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-6521-7 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Aeronautics, Military—Germany—History—20th century. 2. Germany. Luftwaffe—Equipment and supplies—History—20th cenuty. 3. Germany. Luftwaffe—History—World War, 1939–1945. I. Title. II. Title: German aviation industry in World War II. UG635.G3U95 2012 338.4'7623746094309044—dc23 2011038151 BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2012 Daniel Uziel. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover image: Production of Me 109 fuselages inside a cramped wooden hut at the Gauting Forest factory (courtesy of NARA); cover design by David K. Landis (Shake It Loose Graphics) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Acknowledgments This research was made possible through the support of several organizations and indi- viduals. Foremost among them are the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. National Air and Space Museum. The core of this research came into being during a twelve-month fel- lowship at that magnificent museum. Besides providing access to a large amount of resources, the museum, as well as other researchers’ forums of the Smithsonian Institution, was an intellectually stimulating and supportive environment and I fully commend them for that. A special thanks to Michael Neufeld and Dik Dasso—two historians and curators that agreed to be my advisors and supported this research in various ways. The staff of the museum’s archives and library was also extremely helpful in locating material and providing me photos for this book. During my term at the National Air and Space Museum, I spent long hours and days at the U.S. National Archives’ College Park facility. Researching in this impressive modern archive was particularly pleasant and fruitful. Mr. Larry McDonald of the reference room was particularly friendly and helpful. Thanks to his efforts I located some materials I would have never found on my own. The German Museum in Munich and the head of its research department Professor Helmut Trischler, were kind enough to host me for a couple of weeks in 2006 and allow me to work at their archives. I would like to thank in particular Mr. Wolfgang Schinhan, an archive worker who not only served me in an exemplary way, but also was extremely pleasant to me and to other visitors researching there at that time. As it was during my past researches, the German Federal Archives proved again to be a bottomless pit of information and knowledge. As usual, its staff was also very helpful. Several researchers and scholars shared with me their thoughts and offered me docu- ments from their own collections. Richard Egger and Manfred Boehme were particularly helpful in this regard. Frank Bajohr, Russell Lee and Florian Schmalz also kindly provided me copies of some important documents. Two distinguished scholars supported this research from the beginning: Professor Moshe Zimmermann, my mentor and teacher in the field of German history, and Professor Martin van Creveld, both of the Hebrew University. Professor Bernd Wegner of the Bundeswehr University in Hamburg allowed me to try some of the main ideas of this research on his colleagues and students and get their feed- back. A big “thank you” also to several friends and colleagues who supported me along the v vi Acknowledgments way: Tobias Bütow, my sister Yeal Goshen and my brother-in-law Gil, Beate Meyer, Miriam Moschytz, Christine Schmidt, Joe White and Kim Wünschmann. I would also like to mention Neil Maher, Shai Kalansky and Teasel Muir-Harmony, who provided me some fascinating and enjoyable glimpses into the American way of life. Stephan Zellmeyer, a great Swiss, provided me much-needed spiritual support both in Wash- ington and in Munich. I guess the best part of this research was the opportunity to get some hands-on aviation experience. While flying with fellow aviation researcher Allen Meyer in the little Citabria aerobatic plane I learned anew the real meaning of an adrenaline rush. These flights also gave me some insight into the way some World War II aircraft were flown. Table of Contents Acknowledgments v Introduction 1 1. The Aviation Industry at War 7 2. The Aviation Industry and the Air War 51 3. Reorganization of Aircraft Production 71 4. From Technological Expertise to Slave Labor 144 5. On the Production Lines—Daily Life in the Factories 194 6. The “People’s Fighter” as Case Study of a Late-War Program 236 Conclusion 263 Chapter Notes 269 Bibliography 293 Index 299 vii This page intentionally left blank Introduction In 2002 a private association in the city of Rostock in former East Germany opened a new exhibition dedicated to famous aircraft designer and producer Ernst Heinkel. The exhibition intended to present Heinkel’s technical innovation and competence to the younger generations. It also sought to present the social and economical benefits his firm brought to Rostock. Heinkel’s association with the Nazi regime was mentioned, but not in the fore- front of the exhibition. This negligence caused a public outcry and debate, which eventually resulted in the temporary closure of the exhibition. A special scientific committee was estab- lished and was asked to advise on how to reorganize the exhibition in order to make it his- torically balanced. The entire debate had practically nothing to do with Heinkel’s skills as an aircraft designer and as a trailblazer of new aviation technologies. The organizers of the exhibition wanted to pay tribute to the man whose technological enterprise deeply influenced Rostock in many respects. He was simply viewed as a great German engineer and entrepreneur, who cooperated only mildly with the Nazi regime. The critics of the exhibition argued that Heinkel not only provided the Nazi regime with important and sophisticated aerial weapon systems, but that he was willingly involved in some of its darkest war crimes.1 The debate around the Heinkel exhibition dully demonstrated the fact that aircraft development and production, particularly in the Nazi German context, has broader signifi- cance, far beyond the purely technical and organizational aspects. The city of Rostock, for instance, grew almost threefold as a result of Heinkel’s expansion during the twelve years of the Third Reich. The debate highlighted some moral issues: Heinkel’s cooperation with the Nazi war machine, the early employment of forced labor in his factories, and finally his “whitewashed” postwar biography, which largely served as the basis for the historical narrative of the exhi- bition. Heinkel was not the only aeronautics professional who came under fire in recent years. Even Hans von Ohain, the inventor of the German jet turbine, and coincidently Heinkel’s pro tégé, came into public crossfire when it was intended to name a new terminal at the Ros - tock-Laage airport after him. His opportunism was cited as the main reason behind the protest.2 These and other debates underscored the crucial role of the aviation industry in the history of Nazi Germany. During World War II the aviation industry became the largest branch of the German armaments industry. American intelligence officers and scholars 1 2 Introduction pointed in a postwar report to the sheer magnitude of the German aviation industry: “The story of the German aircraft industry is inseparable from that of the German Air Force. During the war years, aircraft, together with air force equipment, represented approximately 40 percent of total German war production, and their manufacture, in all its phases involved the employment of 2,000,000 men.”3 In terms of net product value, the aviation industry even surpassed the traditionally dominant munitions industry. The annual value of its prod- ucts went well over 10 billion reichsmarks,4 and as German records show, in September 1944 over 3 million people were involved in one way or another in its production programs.5 At the time of Germany’s surrender the Junkers firm alone employed approximately 147,000 workers; around 67,000 of them, or 46 percent, were concentration camp inmates, prisoners of war (POW) and foreign workers.6 All these people worked in a network of at least 96 Junkers-owned main and sub-locations, mostly in central Germany.7 Therefore, the aviation industry was not only the leading branch of the German war industry; its factories became the place where millions experienced World War II. The num- ber of people employed in production programs of the Luftwaffe* is staggering when com- pared with the numbers of those producing for the army and the navy. On 20 July 1944, Armaments Minister Albert Speer reported to Hitler that “1,940,000 [workers] are engaged in production for the army; 2,330,000 are engaged in production for the air force; 530,000 are engaged in production for the navy.” Furthermore, “3,180,000 are engaged in trade, banks, insurance and catering, 1,450,000 are engaged in domestic work.”8 These figures suggest that in 1944 the aviation industry was not only the largest branch of the armaments industry, but was also one of the largest German employers. Therefore the sheer size of this industry and its central role within the contemporary German economy makes it an important research topic.