Attention Span at Insterburg
As his Insterburg tour continued, Hitler appeared bored by the V-1 robot bomb, two anti-shipping missiles called the Hs 293 and Fritz-X, and film of the new panoramic radar sets and the “Korfu” receiver stations tracking British bombers by their radar emissions during a night attack on Berlin a few days earlier. Another aircraft displayed for Hitler was the Dornier Do 335, an odd pusher-puller aircraft with propellers at both ends of the fuselage.
A six-engined Junkers Ju 390V1 was also displayed, but was largely ignored. It was the largest German landplane of the war and might have made a superb transport or bomber, but Hans Baur saw it as too big and too uneconomical for executive duty with the Führer’s personal fleet. The big Ju 390 was cancelled the following spring after just two airframes had been built; most historians discount a wartime claim that one of the aircraft made a 32-hour reconnaissance flight that brought it within eyesight of Long Island, N.Y.
The big Ju 390 was cancelled the following spring after just two airframes had been built; most historians discount a wartime claim that one of the aircraft made a 32-hour reconnaissance flight that brought it within eyesight of Long Island, N.Y.
A four-engined Junkers Ju 290A-5, an early version of another big aircraft that could be used as a transport or a bomber, was also part of the display. Hitler paused in front of it. “I want one for my personal use,” he said. It would happen a year later when a similar Ju 290A-7 was assigned to his personal flight unit as a Führermaschine – although Hitler would never fly in it.
The tour continued.
The Ju 290 also caught Hitler’s attention at Insterburg, where he demanded one for personal use. Bundesarchive photo
Eager to increase Hitler’s interest and to upstage Milch, Göring attempted to take the Führer’s arm. Hitler shook off the gesture. Still, Göring acted as chief guide, speaking loudly, claiming credit for many of the technical achievements for his own staff. Göring talked while Milch looked on, infuriated. In “The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe,” historian David Irving wrote:
The Reichsmarschall “took the printed program out of Milch’s hands [Irving wrote] and began introducing each aircraft to Hitler, working his finger down the list. He was unaware that one of the fighter prototypes had had a mishap at Rechlin [the German flight test base on the south shore of the Müritzsee] and as a result one aircraft was missing; the remaining aircraft had each been moved along one place in the line. Milch saw what was going to happen and took his revenge: he stepped tactfully back into the second row. Where the missing fighter should have been, there was now a medium bomber. Göring announced it to Hitler as the single-seater; for several more exhibits this farce continued until the Führer decided that enough was enough, and pointed out Göring’s error.”
“Who was the pessimist who arranged this demonstration?”
One aircraft that aroused little interest on Hitler’s part was the Feiseler Fi 103 flying bomb, a manned version of the V-1 “buzz bomb.” The leader of the flying-bomb experimental unit at Peenemünde-West, Hermann Kröger, explained to the Führer how the weapon worked. An awkward conversation about when the Fi 103 could become available caused Hitler to stomp away in a huff while one of the Führer’s lackeys asked, “Who was the pessimist who arranged this demonstration?”
Hitler did not personally look at the small, bug-like Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, which was the world’s first rocket-propelled fighter. Göring did. Or at least, as Rudolf “Rudy” Opitz related later, Göring mistook the famous rocket pilot for an enlisted mechanic.
The small Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket plane appears to have aroused little interest on Hitler’s part at the Insterburg weapons display. This example was displayed at Wright Field, Ohio in 1945. Photo courtesy of Paul Schoemacher
Göring: “Young man, were you drafted to serve in the rocket fighter squadron or did you volunteer to fly this aircraft?”
Opitz: “I am in charge of it, sir.”
Hitler immediately gave the planemaker Arado carte blanche to obtain factory personnel, raw materials, and funds so that the company could build 200 Ar 234s by the end of 1944.
Of greater interest was the Arado Ar 234 twin-jet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, which was transported to the event with great difficulty. While the Me 262 was at the event to show its flying skills, the third airframe in the Arado jet series, the Ar 234V3, was dismantled and transported by road to Insterburg where technicians hurriedly pieced it back together for static display. The Arado was parked unceremoniously between a pair of Junkers Ju 88 twin-prop warplanes, one of which carried special equipment for laying smoke screens.
Hitler immediately gave the planemaker Arado carte blanche to obtain factory personnel, raw materials, and funds so that the company could build 200 Ar 234s by the end of 1944.
The Arado Ar 234, first seen at the Insterburg display, was a highly successful bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Robert F. Dorr Collection photo
Hitler’s “wonder weapon” show lasted just 90 minutes. At 1:30 p.m., the Führer entrained for his Rastenburg headquarters. Himmler followed him within the hour. Himmler was just a year away from snatching away from the Reich’s military staff the ownership and management of some of the Führer’s “wonder weapons.”
Himmler was just a year away from snatching away from the Reich’s military staff the ownership and management of some of the Führer’s “wonder weapons.”
Hitler’s Excellent Air Show is an excerpt from Robert F. Dorr’s new book, Fighting Hitler’s Jets: The Extraordinary Story of the American Airmen Who Beat the Luftwaffe and Defeated Nazi Germany.