Fly Past

November 2018 FLYPAST 73

SPOT FACT Field Marshal Rommel used a

Storch to survey his battles in North Africa

Spotlight on

a Storch rescue

pre-production Fi 156-0s were built for service trials

1010

f the Gauli Glacier

men on the glacier during the

evening of November 23. It was too

late to contemplate a descent that

same day, so the rescue party

stayed overnight with the crew

and passengers.

All received a surprise the next

morning. A pair of Fieselers (one

of which was A-97) flown by

Capt Victor Hug and Maj Pista

Hitz circled over the wreck and

successfully landed nearby on the

ice. Both machines had a special

combination of skis and tyre-

landing gear, enabling them to

alight safely. Over the course of

eight flights the pilots evacuated

the crash survivors to Meiringen

airfield. All present – passengers,

crew and rescue party – survived

this dramatic event.

It was the first time an aircraft

had landed in the Alps to carry

out a rescue mission; the Swiss

military had developed the unusual

undercarriage for snow landings

in the winter of 1944/1945. The

dramatic Gauli operation won

worldwide acclaim and has been

described as the birth of modern

rescue by air, in alpine terrain.

Six years later, on April 27,

1952, the Swiss Air Rescue Guard

(Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht)

was founded. Inspired by the Gauli

rescue, its pilots first flew aircraft

fitted with ski landing gear, before

eventually switching to helicopters.

“The dramatic Gauli mission

won worldwide acclaim and has

been described as the birth of

modern rescue by air, in alpine

terrain”

Above

The ‘Hero of Gauli’ Storch

A-97 pictured during the

glacier rescue in 1946. VBA

Opposite top left

and left

Fieseler Storch A-99 is

being used to train pilots

to land and take off

from glaciers.

Below left

Taking off from a glacier

in Storch A-99.