Direct Communication Between German Troops and LW Aircraft?

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

FuG 17 radio was able to keep contact between ground forces and airplane. I think reconnaissance versions of Bf 109 did have this radio. Camera equipment was less important. At least in the Nahaufklärungsgruppen.

Cheers,
Kari

[kalender1973]

Hi,

IIRC Richard Muller in his "German air war in Russia" (1992) claims also
that no direct radio link existed between ground forces(flivo) and planes.

The "Luftwaffe stopped at Stalingrad" appears as not very reliable source for me.

Best regards

[Boomerang]

Kari, Igor:

Thanks for your replies. I must say that your responses set out different views on the issue of direct radio contact between German ground forces and LW aircraft.

Any further comments would be much appreciated.

Don W

[odybvig]

The contact between aircraft and ground army units was regulated by: Merkblatt OKL Lw. Führungsstab,Ausb.Abt. Nr 2880/44 geh.v. 2611.44 "Der Fliegerleitoffisier (Schlacht).
I am not sure if this was a Lw Officer or a Army officer, but it was stressed that the army unit should educate their own if the "Flugleitoffizier" was out of area or lost. And this was regulated by: Merkblatt OKL Lw. Führungsstab, Ausb.Abt. Nr 2600/44 geh.v. Ia/Ausb. 24.9.44 "über Einsatz und ausbildung der Fliegerleitoffisier (Heer)

The Fliegerleitoffizier unit was:
Himself
one NCO (radiooperator)
two privates (radiooperator)
one Driver

Aircraft that could use this comunication was
Jagdverbände with Fug 16z
Schlachtfliegerverbände with Fug 16z
Zerstörerverbande with Fug 10
Nahaufklärer with Fug 16z and Fug 17

That means that at least from 1944 the German army had a Forward Air Controllers in their organisation

Best from Norway
Olve Dybvig

[Graham Boak]

I find this very interesting, for I'm not clear on how the tactics worked in 1940 without radio contact between the ground forces, the Henschels, and the Stukas. Without some such contact, the delays in calling for air support would seem to be at odds with the fast movement of the advance.

[Boomerang]

Olve:

Thank you for such an informative reply, you definitely have identified the process for direct communication between the flivos and LW aircraft, including the technical aspects of the radio links.

I dug out one of my DVDs, which includes what appears to a segment from the Deutsche Wochenschau, the scene shows radio operators in a command half-track type vehicle - the narration states that the radio operators are LW personnel tasked with providing information to Stukas of SG 2 supporting a local counter attack in the late summer of 1944 on the Eastern Front.

Graham: I agree with your comments, but my understanding is that there was no direct ground/air communication during the early war blitzkrieg campaigns. It would be fascinating to determine whether this was due to technical limitations, lack of interservice cooperation, simply an issue that was never considered, etc. Unfortunately, I've found it pretty difficult to locate informaton about the flivos.

Cheers

Don W

[edwest]

Here is a good article on the subject:


http://www.fourays.org/features_2005.../closeair2.htm



HTH,
Ed