Fly Past

66 FLYPAST November 2018

SPOT FACT The  rst prototype made

its debut  ight in May 1936

factory at Choceň, Czechoslovakia.

In all, 2,867 Storch airframes were

believed to have been built, although

the war’s end failed to curtail this

activity. The French Armée de l’Air

was so impressed by the Storch

that production continued, the

aircraft being designated the MS

500 Criquet (Cricket) series. More

than 920 aircraft were built before

production ceased in 1965; even

then the Criquet served for another

five years.

In action

Not being a combat machine in the

traditional sense meant the Storch

was overshadowed by fighter and

bomber aircraft. However, there

was one audacious operation early

in the war that has generally been

forgotten. On May 10, 1940, 400

men of III. Bataillon Infanterie-

Regiment Grossdeutschland used

approximately 98 Storchs of the

composite unit Aufklärungsgruppe

156 to land in the vicinity of

Nives and Witry in Belgium, the

operation being known by the

portmanteau NiWi. The first wave

of this massive formation took off at

0520hrs, crossed the Luxembourg

border north of Wallendorf and

then headed for the Belgian town of

Martelange. At 0600hrs the Storch

carrying Oberstlt Eugen Garski, CO

of III. Bataillon, landed at Witry

but other aircraft were scattered due

to navigational errors and enemy

gunfire. Meanwhile, the Nives group

led by Hauptmann Krüger got badly

lost and landed at scattered locations

around the countryside. A second

wave led by Lt Obermeier landed

just over two hours later. Though

failing to find the first wave, they

formed defensive positions blocking

the Neufchâteau to Bastogne road,

repulsing French and Belgian

counter-attacks and then being

relieved by tanks of the 1st Panzer

Division later that day. The Nives

force held out until the following

morning when they were relieved by

tanks from the 2nd Panzer Division.

Sixteen Storchs were destroyed or

abandoned, with two crew killed,

two wounded and one missing. The

only Storch aircrew names recorded

were Fw Albert Faulhaber and Uffz

Richard Will (both captured) and

Uffz Leonard Brodka wounded.

For his leadership, Garski would be

awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knight’s

Cross) on July 19, 1940.

“As the war continued, new sub-

variants introduced changes to

the cockpit, seating and canopy

layout, defensive weapons and

adaption for desert operations”

Above

An Fi 156 C

coded 4E+NL of

3 Staffel (Heer)/

Aufklärungsgruppe

13, seen at Lemnos,

Greece.

Right

A Storch wearing

the codes WL-IQJC.

This style of coding

was used by training

aircraft from

January to October

1939.

Below right

The codes 5F+XH

identify this aircraft

as being from

1 Staffel (Fern).

Aufklärungsgruppe

14. Its rudder is
    yellow, meaning it
    was photographed
    in Greece, this unit
    being in Larissa from
    April-May 1941.