FlyPast 03.2018

84 FLYPAST March 2018

APPRENTICE

Eagles

HOW DID THE LUFTWAFFE MANAGE TO

TRAIN A FORCE OF MORE THAN ONE

MILLION IN LESS THAN A DECADE?

TOM DOCHERTY REVEALS THE STORY

BEHIND GERMANY’S RAPID MILITARY RISE

W

ith the peace treaties

that ended the Great

War, the defeated

Germany was stripped of the

potential to again become a military

power of substance. This was

particularly so in aviation where

combat aircraft construction and

operational aircrew training had

been outlawed.

By the beginning of the 1930s

there were ways and means for

ambitious young Germans to fly

and serve their nation, but it was

not a straightforward process.

Initially such men had to follow

a clandestine route, that included

using the secret training

establishment set up at

Lipetsk in Russia in the

previous decade. Within

Germany, a hopeful

youngster could join

one of the many private

organisations

promoted through the Deutsche

Luftsportverband (DLV – Air Sports

Association).

All this changed in January

1933 when Adolf Hitler became

chancellor. Two months later

the DLV was absorbed into the

Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule

(DVS – commercial pilots’ school).

Under this subterfuge, training was

mixed with paramilitary instruction

to pupils as young as ten.

DRAMATIC EXPANSION

By 1935 Hitler had taken the

cloak of secrecy away from the

previously covert Luftwaffe and

the need for aircrew expanded

dramatically. By then, DVS had

28 training centres and shortly

afterwards was organised into

seven schools, Jagdfliegerschulen,

providing basic

and advanced instruction.

These were supplemented by

other specialist organisations,

including the paramilitary

Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps

(NSFK – National Socialist Air

Corps) founded on April 15, 1937

as a successor to the DLV. The

NSFK conducted military training

in gliders and ostensibly civil

aircraft.

When the Luftwaffe emerged,

many NSFK trainees transferred

to it and as they were also Nazi

Party members this gave the new

air force a strong Nazi ideological

base. To disguise the true strength

of the Luftwaffe, many units were

given false designations purporting

to be sections of the DVS, DLV or

Lufthansa, the national airline.

The route to a seat in a Luftwaffe

combat aircraft began with young

men joining the Reichsarbeitsdienst

(The Reich Labour Service),

a paramilitary organisation

fostering manual labour. This

LUFTWAFFE TRAINING

Right

A Jungmann of FFS A/B 11

with ski landing gear at

Schunwalde in the winter

of 1942-1943.

Below

Junkers W 34s of FFS A/B

52 at Danzig-Langfuhr in

1942. E GROSSE