A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Battle of Britain "Wings of Victory"
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Ian P
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A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Post by Ian P »

Hi folks.

I have a question which the internet seems unable to answer, so I'm hoping that people with far more resources than me will see this and be able to comment!

Does anyone know what ground-to-air non-radio communications were used at WW2 Luftwaffe airfields - particularly those of a more temporary measure such as during the occupation of France?

A windsock seems fairly obvious and, given the fact that most airfields were just grass fields, would probably be sufficient, but was there an equivalent of the RAF's signals squares or Runway Control vehicles with their flag and lamp signals? I've done hundreds of searches (I even tried using Bing!) and not come up with anything of real use on the issue. I have found some nice drawings of a Luftwaffe GPU, though, so just finished modelling one of those to use as a 'clutter object'.

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks.

Ian P.

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33lima3
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Re: A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Post by 33lima3 »

Looking at this online and from the vehicles angle - my Arms & Armour copy of German Military Transport of WW2 is in the loft somewhere - turned up this pic from this site: http://www.kfzderwehrmacht.de/Homepage_ ... -6-36.html

Image

The airfield is presumably the Tatsinskaya of Stalingrad fame, August-September '42. The fact the antennae are tethered is significant ie it's intended to function where it is, on the airfield.

Given WW2 Germany's tendency to have specialised soft-skinned variants of vehicles for all sorts of purposes, searching for these might turn up something.
SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4481941/1
CombatAce Mission Reports: https://combatace.com/forums/forum/307-mission-reports/

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33lima3
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Re: A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Post by 33lima3 »

Sorry, re-reading your post, I see you were looking for NON-radio comms. But still, if the Luftwaffe had a specialised vehicle for such use, it would likely be listed in reference sources, online or hardcopy, which covered German or Luftwaffe WW2 vehicles, so that line of enquiry might still be worth pursuing.
SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4481941/1
CombatAce Mission Reports: https://combatace.com/forums/forum/307-mission-reports/

Ian P
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Re: A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Post by Ian P »

Hi 33lima3, thanks for the reply. :)

Since I posted this, I've got a copy of Dressel/Griehl's "Luftwaffe Airfield Equipment", translated into English, but it doesn't help much, either.

Kfz.301 and 302 were the designations of the radio trucks - the former being a "heavy" variant (on a medium truck chassis - the one you have pictured) and the latter a "light" variant. They seem to be equivalents of the RAF's Bedford QLR and Morris/Guy/Humber light trucks, which were also used as forward airfield "Fitted for Wireless" radio vehicles. As far as I can tell, though, both sides used them more for Command and Control than actual flying operations. It looks like that in many cases, the operators couldn't see outside the vehicles, which is a minor snag when it comes to controlling aircraft movements! :D

It could just be that they had air superiority, so used radios - or maybe they operated as uncontrolled airfields?

Thanks again. I shall keep looking.

All the best,

Ian P.

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PV
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Re: A Luftwaffe Airfield Question for the Knowledgable Types...

Post by PV »

This french language website might have some information; it's pretty big, I've only skimmed the surface.
The link is for a google-translate version:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u ... l=fr&tl=en

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