Kriegsmarine Legend

Christian Koenig provides insight into the unique restoration of a German Arado Ar 196 floatplane

!"#$ A sad sight: The Arado Ar 196A-5 after being delivered to Nordholz, , in December 2012 ALL IMAGES CHRISTIAN KOENIG UNLESS STATED n the late 1920s, while still under the limitations of the IVersailles Treaty, Germany planned a modernisation of its navy. Since radar was not !"#$ yet operational for military Front view use, catapults to launch scout of the nine-cylinder aircraft were foreseen BMW 132 K still attached to the aboard . fuselage. The machine gun extending from inside the engine cowling is In response, Ernst not original Flugzeugwerke designed the Heinkel He 60 floatplane, which %$&' The pilot’s main instrument panel became common as a shipborne was missing, but the lower section was reconnaissance aircraft in the still present 1930s. The type flew well, but the Focke-Wulf Fw 62 failed to looking beyond the horizon. 0191, DH+IK), but never mass lacked engine power, service make the grade, Arado’s Ar 196 Small batches of A-1, A-2 and produced. Just 23 out of 272 ceiling and range. As a remedy, immediately satisfied the A-4 followed, being planned A-3s were built by the Heinkel envisioned its He 114 demanding test pilots. succeeded by major tranches of French Société Nationale de as a successor, whereas Arado Pleased with this success, the A-3 and A-5. Constructions Aéronautiques Flugzeugwerke presented its the decided to order Several Ar 196Bs were built du Sud-Ouest, of Saint-Nazaire, powerful Ar 95. more than 700 Ar 196s, mainly with a single ventral float while the Netherlands’ , However, neither aircraft met of the A-series sub-type. purely for comparison and in Amsterdam, delivered 69; the high expectations of the The initial A-0 batch lacked testing reasons. One A-3 was total production was around Luftwaffe, which consequently forward-firing weapons; it upgraded to C-standard (Ar 196 530 airframes. asked Focke-Wulf and Arado was simply not anticipated V6, aircraft Werknummern – Fully operational via catapult for better alternatives. While to meet any opponents while Wk Nr/work numbers – 196 launch, the Arado 196 served

16 FlyPast December 2020 %&'() The starboard mainplane prior to removing the original sheet aluminium attached by workers at Arado’s Anklam factory UWE GIESECKE

!"#$ The port mainplane with its skin largely removed. It had been treated with anti-corrosion coating while in the US

all manner of roles Hipper, Deutschland, Prinz them with 20mm cannon. during World War Eugen or Koeln, Koenigsberg Shipborne sorties declined Two: the type was a and Karlsruhe. when the wartime tide turned, shipborne aircraft aboard Shore-based operations and most capital warships such as Bismarck included anti- were destroyed or harboured. and Tirpitz , but also attached reconnaissance, rescue or taxi After the end of World War to cruisers, including the services, target towing, raiding Two, the Royal Navy (RN) Admiral Graf Spee, Admiral ships with bombs or strafing impounded the sole remaining

%&'() This Arado Ar 196 A-3 of 2. Staff el AuE lärungsgruppe 125 (See), coded 7R+BK, is very similar to the aircraft being restored at Nordholz

December 2020 FlyPast 17 Timeline — Arado Ar 196A-5 Werknummer 196 0293

Summer 1942 Built by Arado Flugzeugwerke at Warnemuende, registered TW+SH, then taken on charge by 2. Staffel/ Seeaufklaerungsgruppe 128 and registered 6W+LK

Early 1944 After a crash, the fuselage was repaired using parts from Wk Nr 196 0282 and 196 0222

Aug 20, 1944 2./SAGr 128 was withdrawn from Berre to regroup at Friedrichshafen, where the unit was disbanded on Aug 28, 1944

Sept 1944 Wk Nr 196 0293 taken on charge by Luftzeuggruppe (See) at Kiel . #/! Hans Bruchmüller (left) and Peter Discher dismantling fuel shut-off valves to Jan 21, 1945 Aircraft used to replace Ar 196A-5 (Wk Nr 196 0527, remove the fi rewall UWE GIESECKE T3+CH) aboard ‘Prinz Eugen’. Taken on charge by Bordfliegergruppe 196 and registered T3+CH !"#$ The replica main instrument panel of an Arado Ar 196A- May 1945 Following unconditional surrender of Germany, Royal 0/A-1 without a gun sight Navy impounds ‘Prinz Eugen’, which became an American war prize and finally sank on Dec 1946 after Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb tests

1949-95 Wk Nr 106 0293 misbelieved to be Wk Nr 623 183 and on display at US Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove in Pennsylvania

1995 Ar 196A-5 transferred to US National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola the vessel’s propeller shafts to Virginia, until Washington Dec 2012 transported to Nordholz, Germany leak; it then capsized and finally DC’s National Air and Space sank after December 16, 1946. Museum received the airframe June 23, 2016 Arado 196 support association was formed and Two Fokker-built A-5s in 1960. Stored for decades restoration work began seemed to have survived in the at the Paul E Garber Facility US: Wk Nr 623 167 and 623 183. in Silver Hill, Maryland, this 2017 BMW 132 K engine and VDM prop restoration completed The first had been delivered Ar 196 was finally moved from Fokker’s plant at to the Mary Baker Engen 2018 Fuselage stripped and aircraft’s identity confirmed Papaverweg for flight testing, Restoration Hangar (within the carried out at Schellingwoude Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center) 2020 Wings stripped, metalwork in progress around July 2, 1944, before at Chantilly, Virginia, in 2010, acceptance by the Luftwaffe. where it remains in storage. 2022 Planned wing re-assembly and fuselage fabric work After being examined in the The second A-5, allegedly, was US, the airframe was on display Wk Nr 623 183, which was first 2023 Floats to be overhauled and final assembly to take place at Naval Air Station Norfolk, noted at Fokker‘s flight test

!"#$ Prinz Eugen Big surprise: The airframe displayed the Werknummer 196 0293 beneath heavy cruiser in were studied thoroughly in the cockpit’s fl oor panel, indicating it wasn’t licence-built by Fokker, but Arado Copenhagen and sailed it to Philadelphia, and Ar 196s itself UWE GIESECKE Wilhelmshaven. catapult-launched before all Ultimately, and although aircraft were finally removed. commissioned less than five years earlier, the RN Nuclear shockwaves lost interest in the vessel. In the summer of 1946, IX-300 By December 1945, the US became a target during Navy took command over Operation Crossroads at the what became the USS Prinz infamous Bikini Atoll. Eugen (IX-300). All technical The shockwaves of the nuclear installations of the ship bombs Able and Baker caused

18 FlyPast December 2020 !"#$ Photographed from its port “...the machine side, the Ar 196A-5 sits at Nordholz in spring 2016. Years had passed, but literally the restoration still hadn’t started due to cuts in German defence spending became a ‘sitting duck’ target, looted extensively by souvenir hunters and raked by gunfire”

whether this A-5 could be put on display at , Lower Saxony. More than a decade passed before the US Navy agreed to loan the floatplane to the !"#$ After being exposed to harsh winters and fi erce sunlight, US Navy German navy, providing it personnel had to reinforce the fl oats be restored. With just three and wings with aluminium sheet, of these aircraft known to which had to be removed at Nordholz have survived in one piece UWE GIESECKE worldwide, refurbishing this A-5 was viewed as highly facility at Schellingwoude by target, looted extensively by and loaded onto a flatbed desirable. Most parts were August 22, 1944. After the end souvenir hunters and raked trailer. Unfortunately, the labelled correctly during the of the testing programme in by gunfire. Military personnel hapless driver misjudged his transport preparations, but Philadelphia the aircraft was repeatedly reinforced the cargo’s height and collided some were forgotten and left displayed at Joint Reserve Base aircraft, covering its entire with a bridge, shearing off in an aircraft shelter. Instead Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, framework with aluminium the canopy assembly and (bizarrely) components from from 1949. While exhibited sheet. In 1995, the National rupturing the empennage. a Mitsubishi A6M ‘Zero’ there it was painted in various Museum of Naval Aviation The NMNA postponed its were delivered to Nordholz, schemes, representing T3+CH, (NMNA), in Pensacola, restoration plans and locked overtly covered with Japanese T3+HK, TW+SH and GA+DX. Florida, asked for the A-5 to away the airframe. stencils! But cuts in the But the machine literally be transferred to its facility By the late 1990s, an enquiry German defence budget became a ‘sitting duck’ and it was duly disassembled by German navy officers asked prevented restoration.

December 2020 FlyPast 19 IN DETAIL...

In 1995, during road-based transportation in the US, the airframe collided with a bridge, shearing off the canopy assembly and rupturing the empennage. Above is the windscreen in 2016…

!"#$ Immaculate after restoration: the powerful BMW 132 K nine-cylinder

The CO of the German on German shipborne aviation looted in the US. It had to be Naval Aviation Command, of the 1930s and 1940s, and I stripped to assess structural Capt Hans-Jörg Detlefsen, have published several books damage that needed to be consequently developed the on aircraft such as Heinkel’s He repaired. While some spares … and after the major damage was idea to form a civil support 60 and He 114, and Arado’s Ar 95 have already been donated repaired by 2018 UWE GIESECKE association by the end of 2015, and Ar 196. by collectors, it is expected recruiting former soldiers As such, I assist the Nordholz that the interior will need a and aviation enthusiasts, project groups – among others complete rebuild. including the engineer Uwe – with the global procurement According to a secret decree Giesecke and Dr Harald Wilms, of documents and spares. by the commander-in-chief a former manager of business of the Luftwaffe, aircraft development at Zeppelin By the numbers Werknummern were to be Power Systems. Eventually, The structures of German created according to a system 18 enthusiasts – male and World War Two aircraft can that sought to fool the Allies Another data plate from one of the female – founded the support be divided into so-called regarding the number of units wings. The mix of A-3 and A-5 parts association Förderverein Arado Baugruppen, or modules, built. Aircraft were assigned illustrates that the Luftwaff e had to Ar 196 e.V. by June 23, 2016, each sporting sequential very high serial number cannibalise crashed aircraft to keep with Uwe Giesecke being its numbers as a key: Baugruppe blocks, and Fokker’s Wk Nr 623 others fl ying chairman ever since. 1 fuselage, 2 landing gear/ 183 is an excellent example. As The German Naval Aviation floats, 3 tail unit, 4 control a total curve ball though, while Command’s liaison officer, Lt units, 5 wings, 6 engine mount, examining the fuselage in the Berre, and registered 6W+KK. Cdr Alexander von Schledorn, 7 engine, 8 containers for summer of 2018, two different By September 11 that year, the provides unbureaucratic coolant, oil etc, 9 emergency/ serial numbers appeared… but machine was 80% destroyed support wherever necessary, operational equipment none stemmed from Fokker! at Saint Raphael. But instead which includes possible use and 12 armament. Oddly, One data plate indicated an of scrapping the remains, a of base storage and technical categories 10 and 11 were not A-3, Wk Nr 196 0282, which recovery party transported repair facilities. The association assigned. Before starting the was accepted on June 8, them to Beutepark der itself is divided into three restoration, all parts were laid 1942. According to technical Luftwaffe 5 at Paris-Nanterre. project groups, namely out in a shelter for an initial instructions this airframe was Essentially a salvage yard for research, documentation and inventory. This helped to ordered as an A-3, modified captured aviation hardware, workshop/operations. group loose parts according to to A-3/A-5-standard and Beutepark 5 supplied a field Its final goal is the restoration the Baugruppen numericals. afterwards regarded as an A-5. workshop with parts of the of the airframe and its During the restoration process, Registered DN+IL (196 0282), fuselage structure to keep educational presentation to all Baugruppen will be the aircraft was attached to flying Wk Nr 196 0293 (whose the broader public, while refurbished individually and 1./Seeaufklaerungsgruppe serial was detected beneath undergoing refurbishment and assembled afterwards. 128, based at Brest. By August the cockpit’s floor panel). This onwards. I myself, Christian As mentioned, the A-5’s 16, 1943 the machine was particular Arado was built Koenig, am an acclaimed expert fuselage was almost completely operated by 2./SAGr 128, at at the Warnemuende plant

20 FlyPast December 2020 The wireless operator’s radios and small instrument panel had all been removed Left to right are Hans Bruchmüller, Peter Discher, Walter Vooth and Rudi Meister by the airframe’s previous custodians, but luckily their mounts survived with the restored three-bladed VDM propeller and hub UWE GIESECKE

May 10, 1942 in Drontheim. What helped above all was The damage sustained was the selection of original enormous, and the operating documents, such as spare unit 2./KuFlGr 406 returned parts lists, descriptions and the remains to Walther- overhaul instructions for the Bachmann-Flugzeugbau of 132 K, as well as the relevant Ribnitz, Germany. It was operating and maintenance rebuilt completely, receiving manuals; allowing restoration new wings, and by March 1, of this nine-cylinder radial 1943 the aircraft reported to delivery state. The work back to Hommelvik; it was included dismantling both transferred to 1. Staffel of engine and carburettors Seeaufklaerungsgruppe 131 at and de-rusting, preserving !"#$ A close-up of the ignition switch Alesund, by August 19, 1943. and replacing incorrect and However, it crashed on missing parts with original and registered TW+SH, which peppered with gun shots and October 10 that year, killing spares where possible. Items changed to 6W+LK while it the aluminium skin must be its pilot Lt Werner Geilert. no longer available were became part of 2./SAGr 128. removed before the floats can After its impact, the ensuing freshly manufactured, before After SAGr 128 was begin to be overhauled. fire was extinguished and adding fuel hoses, ignition disbanded in 1944, just one wing was suitable for cables, all wiring harnesses Luftzeuggruppe (See) at Kiel Mainplanes spares and put into storage. and other ancillaries. took over the aircraft. Cruiser Disassembling the wings Later, this mainplane was After completing the cowling Prinz Eugen’s campaign included removal of control used to repair Wk Nr 196 0293. parts, everything was painted diaries reveal an A-5 (Wk surfaces, flaps and aileron Currently, both wings of the according to the Luftwaffe Nr 196 0527, T3+CH) was taps, as well as the wingtips. airframe under restoration specifications. The aircraft’s lost on January 21, 1945. The second skin attached by are being prepared for three-bladed VDM adjustable Consequently, Luftzeuggruppe US Navy personnel to protect re-covering, starting in the pitch propeller was completely (See) delivered Wk Nr 196 the original wings was also new year. overhauled and finally spray 0293 to Bordfliegergruppe 196 removed. According to data Parallel to the work on the painted, too. FP where it became T3+CH. plates of Arado’s Anklam airframe, diligent hands were The floats had already been works, the starboard wing and restoring the engine frame, The support association refurbished in the US, but wingtips were built in 1942, along with the coolant and Foerderverein Arado Ar 196 still lack most of the hatches, while a plate found in the lubricant containers. The e.V. is still seeking spare parts original smoke canisters and port wing indicated it once mighty BMW 132 K powerplant for this project. If you might water rudders; fortunately belonged to an A-5 (Wk Nr 196 itself was completed by have components suitable for though, the fuel tanks and 0222, SB+MG). This aircraft the autumn of 2017, with an Arado 196, please contact emergency stowage bins are in was based at Hommelvik in unbureaucratic support from the organisation via email: place. However, the floats are when it crashed on the BMW Group archives. [email protected]

December 2020 FlyPast 21