Rafwaffe, The

Flight Journal, Feb 2003 by Gosling, Peter

Unlocking the secrets of WW II German aircraft

It was 1943 and, like all schoolboys, I was fascinated by the aircraft that filled the skies over England. One day, I saw an unusual trio cruising in broad daylight at 3,000 feet: a Messerschmitt 109, a Junkers Ju 88 and a Messerschmitt 110. My first reaction was to dive for cover, but then I noticed that the undersides of these aircraft were painted bright yellow and bore RAF red, white and blue roundels. This was my first encounter with the 1426 Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight nicknamed the "Rafwaffe," which occupied a small airfield just outside the village of Collyweston in Northamptonshire, not many miles from where I lived.

The airfield was a satellite for RAF Wittering, now the home of No. 1 Harrier Squadron, but from April 12, 1943, to January 31, 1945, it housed a collection of ex-Luftwaffe aircraft. The Flight began operations in December 1941 at Duxford airbase as part of the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU); it eventually moved to Collyweston, where the aircraft's flight characteristics and equipment (such as its bombsight) were evaluated before the planes were put to use.

One of the Flight's main functions was to tour RAF and USAAF fields so base personnel could have the chance to view enemy aircraft at close range, for there were many unfortunate cases of aircraft being shot down by friendly fire. These visits gave the fliers an important chance to improve their often poor airplane-recognition skills and try their hands at the controls of enemy aircraft.

The Flight had another purpose that bordered on the glamorous: the aircraft were used in filmmaking. Much of this was at the behest of the USAAF, which made good use of Hollywood stars who were in the military. Capt. Clark Gable used his cinematic knowledge to make gunnery training films that used captured aircraft from Collyweston in attack roles. One of these was a color film called "Combat America"-still available on video (produced by Clark Gable, who also provided the commentary).

The first German aircraft to reach the RAF's hands in Britain was a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3; it was captured by the French in late 1939 and brought to Farnborough for testing in May 1940. During the rest of the War, a significant number of German frontline aircraft were captured and brought to Britain.

The RAF acquired examples of Luftwaffe aircraft through various and sometimes quite bizarre means. Some were merely captured by advancing troops, in the Middle East campaign particularly, and these trophies of war were often adopted by their new owners and flown about as squadron hacks. One of these "trophies," a Henschel Hs 129B ground-attack machine, was brought home from Libya and sent straight to England, where it was rebuilt and flown in RAF markings.

German pilot navigational miscalculations also provided the RAF with a wide selection from the Luftwaffe's inventory for examination. The first to arrive on British soil by this means was a Gotha Go 145 communications ship that, on August 28, 1940, somehow ended up on a racecourse in southern England while flying on a trip from its base in Cherbourg en route for Strasbourg.

Another early arrival to British, or rather Scottish, shores was a Heinkel He 111H-1, which force-landed undamaged in February 1940 after an encounter with a Spitfire from 602 Squadron over the Firth of Forth.

The Flight almost collected a second example of the famous Heinkel bomber, but it got away. On the night of February 14, 1941, an He 111 landed at an RAF station in eastern England, taxied to the control tower and then hurriedly took off, only to try the same thing at two other RAF stations later that same night. That plane must have had one very disoriented pilot!

During the Battle of Britain, the Italian Regia Aeronautica sent a squadron of Fiat CR 42s on a single sortie. One was shot down and, after being made airworthy, was sent to the RAE at Farnborough. This aircraft survived and is now in the RAF Museum at Hendon.

Several Luftwaffe aircraft, however, came to England in rather more spectacular ways. On June 23, 1942, Oberleutnant Armin Faber was flying his Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 and was feeling pleased with himself after completing a successful sortie over England that had disposed of two Spitfires. He was returning home to his squadron, III./JG2, stationed on the Channel coast at Maupertus-sur-Mer. As he flew across the narrow stretch of water, he must have felt full of satisfaction at a job well done and was probably looking forward to an evening's celebration in nearby Cherbourg. On sighting the airfield, he executed a victory roll and landed. Unfortunately, to his dismay, he was not confronted by his crew chief full of congratulations but by a large RAF sergeant brandishing a pistol. Faber had landed at the RAF station of Pembrey, situated on the south coast of Wales. It was a mistake anyone could have made. His navigation was 180 degrees off, and he had crossed the Bristol Channel instead of the English Channel. His mistake gave the RAF a present of the fighter that was then wreaking havoc among the Spitfires.