Ar 196s in postwar Soviet service

[Hans Mcilveen]

After the war ended in Europe the Soviets got their hands on about twenty Ar 196s in Dassow near Travemünde in what would soon become the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany (source: Avions No. 147). The aircraft may have been the ones that were captured first by British forces at Tarnewitz, also in the Soviet zone, and handed over later to the Soviets per the Yalta Treaty (source: link).
The Soviet Border Patrol expressed an interest in the seaplanes and received 37 machines in total, the original number augmented by aircraft repaired at the Walther Bachmann Flugzeugwerke in Ribnitz-Damgarten. At least one of them was later fitted with a Russian ASh-62IR engine and according to one source some of them even received replacement floats of Japanese manufacture (source: link). The Ar 196s were sent as far as the Pacific coast, and served until the early fifties.
In 2003 the remains of an Ar 196 wreck was found near Malki Springs on the Kamchatka peninsula by a group of Russian divers who salvaged part the wreckage and filmed the expedition (source: link link) . The film shows part of the wings and floats and reveals some kind of serial number ..6-0304 and a makers mark .HL (source: video). It would be nice to know if this serial number was an actual Werknummer of an Ar 196. Perhaps our (Russian) members are able to shed some more light on the service of this seaplane with the Soviet Border Patrol (СВПУ береговой охраны).