Issue No 22 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 27
modern parlance) referred to the same type,
the full picture began to materialise like a
photograph in a developing tray.
The requirement for the Ar 232 had been
issued in 1939, but it was only in mid-1943
and once in service with the Luftwaffe that the
RAF identified the type. This may be because
it was used mainly on the Eastern Front, where
its peculiarities made it ideal for frontline
operations. One interrogation report, ADI(K)
226/45, from March 1945, added to this by
stating that the type “had been used for picking
up agents behind the Russian lines” and that
the aircraft was known as the “Tatzelwurm”,
a mythical beast from the Bavarian Alps. The
twin-engined Rechlin 104 was subsequently
identified as the BMW 801-powered Ar 232A
while the later four-engined Brandenburg 110
was the BMW-Bramo 323 Fafnir-engined Ar
232B, produced in greater numbers.
The Allies described the Ar 232 as a “peculiar-
looking cargo ’plane”, but with its high flotation
undercarriage, blown flaps, end-loading at
truckbed height and tail ramp, it was very much
the modern military transport aircraft. These
features were intended to minimise landing-
ground requirements while increasing loading/
unloading efficiency; as such the type provided
the blueprint for future transport aircraft.
During the preparation of this article the
author sought the opinion of the late Capt Eric
M. “Winkle” Brown, who not only test-flew the
Ar 232B but also operated it as a transport as
part of the Farren Mission to uncover Germany’s
secret aviation projects after VE-Day. Eric
advised that the blown flap, while not unknown
in the UK, had been experimented with by
Fieseler, Junkers and Dornier in Germany, but
that he “saw no practical evidence” of this.
The flap-blowing system used the decom-
position of High-test Peroxide (HTP) to drive the
compressor, but supplies had been requisitioned
for the Me 163 and V2 rocket programmes, so
the system’s use had been forbidden. Eric’s
view of this shortage was that the Germans
had been “mesmerised by the brute power”
of HTP and had not foreseen the difficulties in
producing enough to fill the needs of the many
applications that had arisen for it. The Polish
engineer who wrote the original description of
the flap-blowing system considered it difficult
to use, although Eric said that his German flight
engineer had no problems using the system.
Summing up the Ar 232B in 1945, Eric reported
that it was “a strange beast with a sound
functional purpose”. Strange it may have been,
but the Arado blazed the trail for the modern
tactical transport, whose everyday features
started off as the Ar 232’s peculiarities.TOP The Ar 232 V1 prototype, which was powered by a pair of BMW 801 engines, first flew in the summer of 1941,
and was fitted with 11 idler wheels with low-pressure tyres on independently-sprung legs beneath the fuselage.
ABOVE The later Ar 232B was fitted with four BMW Bramo engines instead, requiring a small increase in wingspan.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to
acknowledge the help of the late Capt Eric M. “Winkle”
Brown and thank the staff at The National Archives at
Kew for their help with the preparation of this articleTAHEN ARCHIVEx 2