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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0246.PDF
138 FLIGHT FEBRUARY 7TH, DISARMING AND POLICING shock, and all fragmentation bombs put at the bottom of the piles. This avoids a shower of shrapnel descending on the countryside a few minutes after the explosion. Further, it is almost impossible to destroy smoke bombs on their own and a proportion of these is always- put in with the high explosives. Necessary Precautions In the heap destroyed at Harth-Muna there were 871 bombs, of which 630 were of the high-explosive type and the remainder smoke and incendiary. Above ground a hundred tons is aboutthe limit for one explosion. Even so, the sirens are sounded in the neighbourhood, all windows have to be opened, the people must leave their houses, and observers must be under cover and some ij miles away. A special squad of military government labourers do nothing else but replace slates on the surrounding houses. Some- times, according to the state of the weather, the blast bubble can be clearly seen, while at other times, in clear, cold weather, it is absent. Below ground much bigger tonnages have been blown up. On one occasion eight hundred tons were blown and the earth shock was, of course, tremendous. The Harth-Muna follows a more or less standard pat- tern. All non-explosive (Below) A Tempest V ofNo. 33 Sqn. at Gatow, with its Sabre engine com-fortably wrapped up to keep out the extreme cold. equipment, such as tail fins, is stored in overground sheds, while all bombs, shells and so on are stored in tunnels cut into the hillsides to a depth of about a hundred metres. Each of these underground bunkers holds about four hun- dred tons of bombs. When the Germans retreated they left 21-day clock-timed bombs to destroy the store. Some of these blew up, and it is a long job making sure that a lot of dangerous material is not still underground. We have the plans and are carefully checking up. Of some 9,000-10,000 tons of bombs found here over half have already been destroyed. Altogether more than 100,000 tons of Luftwaffe explo- sives have been found in the British zone alone, and it is significant that 40,000 tons of these contained poison gas. The demobilisation of Luftwaffe personnel is a big task in itself. Nearly half a million men have been disposed of to date. Special precautions are taken to make sure that discharged German technicians are not allowed to leave the country to join other air forces or to seek em- ployment in any branch of the aircraft industry. Measures for controlling their activities are co-ordinated between the British, U.S. and French zones. About 20 per cent, have been absorbed into Service Groups (Dienst Gruppen) and are made to work as labourers on disarmament itself. Originally they worked under their old officers and wore their service uniforms, but, following a complaint by Russia, they now wear a plain outfit similar to the British battledress and of an entirely non-military character. The cost of maintaining the Service Groups is borne by the German nation and the Germans provide altogether about 80 per cent, of the total man power employed in disarming the Luftwaffe. . After watching the big explosions it was decided to visit Pushing in the Tempests afterthe day's flying. On the right Sqn. Ldr. Bower, who com-mands Np. ^33 Squadron, is talking to *S^gn." Ldr. JohnMumford, who < runs the very efficient Air Information Unit of aA.F.o.- To ensure an easy startunder cold conditions, hot air is pumped round theNapier Sabre engines to thin out the oil on the sleeves. Berlin, and the C.-in-C, Sir Sholto Douglas, kindly lent one of the Dakotas from his communication flight for the journey. On the frozen airfield at Buckeburg the Dakota was covered with frost and a thin layer of snow. To clear this, and to prevent any further building-up in the air, the whole machine was sprayed with alcohol. In operational days in high latitudes this was done regularly every three hours to aircraft which might meet icing conditions. From the air, on this still, wintry morning, the ground looked exquisite. A slight mist hung in the valleys and the tops of the wooded hills peeped through, appearing to be sitting on clouds. The air was absolutely bumpless and, judging by the little smoke from the few operating factory chimneys, a slight drift of air from the south-east was apparent. « Slow Recovery [ As we journeyed the 170 miles from Buckeburg to Berlin- in lovely sunshine one could not forget that this quiet trip had been paid for in lives by the aircrews of the operational commands. How hazardous would a similar flight have been less than a year ago. In comparison with the conditions last summer, Ger- many appears to be coming to life again—but very slowly Those factories away from the towns, the railways and the public utilities begin to show signs of operation. Every- thing is in the grip of a hard frost—most of the rivers and lakes are frozen—and, apart from industrial require- ments, the absence of fuel is almost equal as a hardship to the shortage of food. The Germans' inordinate love of
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