German vs American procedures
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German vs American procedures
I was reading The Mighty Eighth by Roger A Freeman, and came across a part which said how American fighter pilots, after having climbed out of their cockpits, would be handed a "Form 1" by their Crew Chief. This would be filled out and would include any details about any mechanical problems the pilot had experienced. Did German fighter pilots have a similar procedure or was everything left to the ground crews?
Re: German vs American procedures
In bombers, the flight engineer would deal with the ground crews and the pilots would add their snag list, aside from obvious combat damage. If a supercharger was acting up, then the mechs would ask the FE, as he would have been trying to sort it out in flight. it would be a combination of verbal and written.
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Re: German vs American procedures
Was this the case for fighters as well? I need to know what the procedure was for fighters.
Re: German vs American procedures
It didn't matter what type of aircraft it was. The pilot would dismount and list any snags verbally and the mechs would set to work to repair them and list the snags for the Senior Sergeant or senior crew chief. Each aircraft was allocated three or four mechanics and armourers and the crew chief dealt with the pilot directly and the supply system, via the senior sergeant, who would be responsible for all the aircraft of his flight or flights.Somebody had to engage the supply system and this would not happen unless the repairs were detailed and signed off by the crew chief as the responsible NCO. Before the pilot (or any pilot) flew the aircraft again, he would read the snag list and sign it off, to accept the aircraft for flight. In the German system, new pilots were not assigned a permanent aircraft and quite often ended up with the oldest hull or aircraft back from the repair depot. Pilot numbers did not often match actual aircraft available so new pilots or resting pilots would simply wait their turn. The snag and repair system is pretty much the same in all militaries.
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Re: German vs American procedures
Thank you so much for this, this is more than helpful! Where did you get all this information anyway?
Re: German vs American procedures
a lot of what I know is from reading combined with previous military service in an air arm. most countries do the same thing, with local variations.
Re: German vs American procedures
Seeing as you are in NZ, your air arm probably followed RAF type procedures in WW2 so they filled out a Form 700 or equivalent and their modern equivalent does the same; ie, what's the problem, Sir? Item x is doing action Y.,etc,etc.
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Re: German vs American procedures
Thanks again for this, this is a huge help. Do you happen to know if Luftwaffe fighter squadrons were organised into coloured sections like the RAF e.g. Red Section, Green Section etc? The reason why I'm asking is because Franz Stigler's aircraft was "White 12", but I don't know if this is how he would've been addressed over the RT during combat, or if he would've been referred to as "Blue Leader" or "Green 2" depending on which section he was in.
Re: German vs American procedures
I don't think they did. I think they used basic idents like "Kurfurst" or such from the phonetic alphabet or historic people or placenames, ie, using "Hindenburg" for a squadron for the duration of one operation. In the air, the wingmen were trained to stick tightly to the leader of each Rotte and they in turn to each Schwarm. The flight leader would brief the squadron on radio settings, emergency procedures, evasion procedures, intel on expected flax or fighters, location of friendly forces and so on. I also believe that they depended on visual identity more than the Allies, so that a flight leader's chevrons or nose or wingtip colours were expected to be known by all of the flight. There was an intense emphasis on radio silence and pilots were expected to communicate with hand signals or flares unless they absolutely had to use R/T. Certainly, Allied pilots reported that if they hit the leaders, then the enemy formations often dove for home rather than stay and fight or appeared confused. Oscar Boesch told of being bounced by Mustangs and the flight leader immediately dived away into cloud and the rest followed. Oscar was a bit too slow and was shot down and baled out. When he made it back to his unit, he found that he had been reported missing, believed killed.
Re: German vs American procedures
There is a book based on the post war interviews/ interrogations of Luftwaffe staff. This has a quite a bit of procedural detail about Luftwaffe flying operations.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Luftwaffe-Figh ... 1853673277
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Luftwaffe-Figh ... 1853673277