World War 2 In Review

Gotha Go 145: German Biplane Trainer and Night Harassment Bomber

Gotha Go 145 RP+NR Werk.Nr. 2866.

The Gotha Go 145 is a German World War II-era biplane of wood and fabric construction used by Luftwaffe training units. Although obsolete by the start of World War II, the Go 145 remained in operational service until the end of the War in Europe as a night harassment bomber.

On 2 October 1933 the Gotha aircraft company was re-established. The first aircraft manufactured was the Gotha Go 145, a two-seat biplane designed by Dipl-Ing Albert Kalkert made out of wood with a fabric covering. The Go 145 featured fixed landing gear and was powered by an Argus As 10C inverted V8 air-cooled engine fitted with a two-blade fixed-pitch propeller. The first prototype took to the air in February 1934, and was followed by a production model, the Gotha Go 145A, with controls in both cockpits for trainee and instructor.

In 1935, the Go 145 started service with Luftwaffe training units. The aircraft proved a successful design and production of the Go 145 was taken up by other companies, including AGO, Focke-Wulf and BFW. Licensed versions were also manufactured in Spain and Turkey. The Spanish version, called the CASA 1145-L actually remained in service until long after World War II.

Ignoring prototypes, 1,182 Go 145s were built in Germany for Luftwaffe service. An unknown number of license-produced Go 145s were also built. Further development of the aircraft was done. The Gotha Go 145B was fitted with an enclosed cockpit and wheel spats (an aerodynamic wheel housing on fixed-gear). The Go 145C was developed for gunnery training and was fitted with a single 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun in the rear cockpit, requiring removal of that cockpit's flight controls. The Go 145D was fitted with a 240 hp (180 kW) Argus As 410 engine.

By 1942, the Soviet Union began using obsolete aircraft such as the Polikarpov Po-2 to conduct night harassment missions against the Germans. Noting the success of the raids, the Germans began conducting their own night harassment missions with obsolete aircraft on the Eastern Front. In December 1942, the first Störkampfstaffel (harassment squadron) was established and equipped with Gotha Go 145 and Arado Ar 66 training biplanes. The night harassment units were successful and by October 1943 there were six night harassment squadrons equipped with Gotha Go 145s.

Also in October 1943, the Störkampfstaffeln were brought together into larger Nachtschlachtgruppe (NSGr) (night ground attack group, literally night battle group) units of either three or four squadrons each. In March 1945 Nachtschlachtgruppe 5 had 69 Gotha Go 145's on strength of which 52 were serviceable while Nachtschlachtgruppe 3 in the Courland Pocket had 18 Gotha Go 145's on strength of which 16 were serviceable. When the war in Europe ended on 8–9 May 1945 the Gotha Go 145 equipped the majority of the Nachtschlachtgruppen.

Surviving Aircraft

Gotha Go 145A – Museum für Verkehr und Technik. Berlin, Germany.

Gotha Go 145A – Norsk Luftfartssenter. Bodø, Norway.

Both examples are badly damaged and are in storage.

Bibliography

Bishop, C. Luftwaffe Squadrons, 1939–1945. Amber Books, 2006.

Donald, D. (ed.) Warplanes of the Luftwaffe: Combat aircraft of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, 1933–1945. Aerospace Publishing, 2001.

Gerdessen, Frederik. "Estonian Air Power 1918 – 1945". Air Enthusiast, No. 18, April – July 1982. pp. 61–76.

Green, William. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1970 (fourth impression 1979).

Metzmacher, Andreas (2021). Gotha Aircraft 1913-1954: From the London Bomber to the Flying Wing Jet Fighter. Brimscombe, Stroud: Fonthill.

Munson, Kenneth (1978). German Aircraft Of World War 2 in colour. Poole, Dorsett, UK: Blandford Press.

Nowarra, Heinz J. Die Deutsche Luftrüstung 1933–1945 (in German). Koblenz, Germany: Bernard & Graeffe Verlag, 1993.

Wood, Tony and Gunston, Bill. Hitler's Luftwaffe: A pictorial history and technical encyclopedia of Hitler's air power in World War II. London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1977.

Gotha Go 145A, KE+WF, tandem two-seat training biplane.

British troops inspecting abandoned German Gotha Go 145, and a solitary Arado Ar 96, training aircraft at Celle airport, 13 April 1945.

Gotha Go 145A Spanish Nationalist air force (1936-1939).

Gotha Go 145 (CA + UU) of an unknown FFS A/B, ca. 1939-40.

Gotha Go 145 (?? + XX), FFS A/B 121 Straubing (Mitterharthausen), probably at an outside work station of the school, 2 May 1941. Note in the background on the right a work barrack of the school at the edge of the forest.

Gotha Go 145, Fl.Ausb.Reg. 13 Pilsen, photo taken around summer 1940 in Pilsen. A presumably civilian car had been driven into the background on the left. The aircraft hangar on the right at the back was covered with camouflage-patterned tarpaulins, and the bow of a shiny silver Fw 44 D 'Stieglitz' can also be seen. The company logos of the manufacturer Propellerwerk Gustav Schwarz KG, Berlin-Waidmannslust, can be seen on the two wooden propeller blades of the Go 145.

Gotha Go 145, 1 August 1937.

British troops inspecting abandoned German Gotha Go 145 training aircraft at Celle airport, 13 April 1945. Imperial War Museum BU3432.

Gotha Go 145.

Horten H.III: German Flying Wing Sailplane

The Ho IIIb glider.

The Horten H.III is a flying wing sailplane built by Walter and Reimar Horten in Germany from 1937 to 1944.

The H.III series was an incremental development of the Horten H.II with reduced sweepback of 23°, span increased to 20 m (65 ft 7 in) and modified lateral controls. The wing trailing edges had three movable surfaces; the innermost was a landing flap, but the outer pair were geared differential elevons with the outer elevon having a large upward deflection and only slight downward movement, conversely, the inner elevon had large downward movement and slight upward movement.

This arrangement reduced unfavorable yawing moments due to aileron by making use of differential aileron movement but avoided the change in longitudinal trim by the opposing differential of the inner flap pair. In high-speed flight, the nose down trim was provided mainly by the inner elevon section moving downwards, the outer flap deflecting only slightly; this had the advantage of relieving the tips of torsional loads at high speed. Drag rudders, similar to airbrakes fitted in modern gliders, were fitted near the wingtips, providing yaw control similar to those used in the H.II.

The first two H IIIs, an IIIa, and an IIIc (w/n 10 & 11) were built in workshops at Cologne in 1938. Subsequent H.IIIs were built at various locations including Peschke Flugzeugban in Berlin, Fürth, Giebelstadt, Minden, Bonn and Göttingen. Built specifically for the 1938 Rhön competitions the H.IIIa was found to have unsatisfactory turning performance, so the H.IIIc, to be flown by Werner Blech, was modified with a canard surface mounted above and in front of the cockpit to assist with pitch control at low speeds.

Aerodynamic balance for control surfaces was by a geared tab on the IIIa and b, but on IIId, f, and g the outer flap had a 20% Frise nose which also countered adverse yaw: out-of-balance aerodynamic loads on the elevators were trimmed by a rubber bungee trimmer with the trim datum set by the pilot.

The H.III was designed to compete at the 1938 Rhön Gliding Competitions at the Wasserkuppe and two aircraft were available at the start of the competition, to be flown by Heinz Scheidhauer and Werner Blech. As the competition progressed the two H.IIIs were achieving reasonable results with Blech leading over Scheidhauer. Near the end of the competition the weather deteriorated with cumulonimbus clouds and rain showers. Blech recognized that he could win the competition outright with a high-altitude flight in one of the clouds.

Blech warned the other pilots not to follow him into the same cloud and took an aero-tow from Walter Horten in their Focke-Wulf Fw 56 glider tug. After entering the cloud, several other pilots ignored Blechs warning, including Scheidhauer, and followed him into the large thundercloud. Several less adventurous pilots left the cloud almost immediately, but Scheidhauer's H.IIIa was severely damaged by hail and was seen fluttering to the ground closely followed by Scheidhauer hanging unconscious from his parachute, suffering from severe frostbite.

Blech was not so fortunate; his glider was later seen fluttering to the ground without its canopy and trailing a parachute bag, but a search of the wreckage found no trace of Blech, whose ice-coated body was soon found on the Wasserkuppe. When the barometer carried by the H.IIIc was checked the needle had left the trace area at 8,000 meters (26,250 ft), the limit of the barometer's range, meaning the aircraft had exceeded this altitude. Examination of Blech's body revealed a broken nose and neck, pointing to a collision with either his own aircraft, or another, after he had abandoned the H.IIIc. Scheidhauer recovered in hospital over the next six months losing two fingers of his right hand to frostbite.

Sponsored by the Luftwaffe, Walter and Reimar had four H.III gliders ready to fly in the 1939 Rhön competition, piloted by Heinz Scheidhauer, Geitner and Flakowsky representing the Luftwaffe and Gotthold Peter representing the DVL. For various reasons the H.IIIs had a lackluster showing, with a best placing of twenty-second by Scheidhauer, (partly due to his retrieve crew having been detained by customs for four days at the Czechoslovak border, on return from a competition flight). Geitner came last due to his persistent partying at the local hostelries and subsequent lack of fitness for competition flying. All four pilots understandably bemoaned the lack of practice in flying the H.III before the competition.

At least one H.IIIb was converted as an ammunition carrier, with bays in the wings designed to house pallets loaded with ammunition, for supplying outlying army posts, but it is unclear if this aircraft carried out operational flights. Training for flying wing pilots was also carried out using two-seater H.IIIg's. Other H.IIIs carried out research into control systems.

The H.III was allocated the RLM ID number 8-250 and by inference Horten Ho 250 though this was little used in practice.

The center section of the H.IIIh (werknummer 31) built at Göttingen in 1944, is preserved at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The glider was captured by the British Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee in 1945 at Rottweil, moved to Freeman Field in America, by 1946 and transferred to Northrop Corporation at Hawthorne, California along with a Horten H.IIIf and the Horten VI V2 in 1947.

Variants

Horten H.IIIa: Original version, flown by Heinz Scheidhauer in the 1938 Rhön Gliding Competition. Scheidhauer entered a cumulonimbus cloud during a competition altitude flight and was next seen descending by parachute, presently followed by the hail shattered remains of his H.IIIa. Scheidhauer was suffering from frostbite and lost several fingers.

Horten H.IIIb: Similar to the H.IIIa, but with outer elevon not extending to the wing tip. Selected for production, nine were completed by 1941.

Horten H.IIIc: Identical to the H.IIIa, but with a canard surface mounted above and in front of the cockpit. One H.IIIc was built, to be flown by Werner Blech at the 1938 Rhön contest. The intention of the canard surface was to improve CLmax, but actual results were inconclusive. Blech flew the H.IIIc well and was leading Scheidhauer in the competition. On the same day as Scheidhauer's disastrous flight, Blech entered the same cloud as Scheidhauer after telling other pilots not to enter it after him. Blech's H.IIIc was next seen fluttering slowly to the ground without a canopy and trailing Blech's parachute bag. Blech's ice-covered body was discovered later on a rocky outcrop of the Wasserkuppe.

Horten H.IIId: A motorglider version of the H.III was produced by attaching standard H.IIIb wings to a special centre section housing the cockpit and a 32hp Volkswagen engine driving a folding propeller.

Horten H.IIIe: H III glider with variable sweep and dihedral of the outer wing panels for research into control systems.

Horten H.IIIf: A H.IIIb built with a prone-position cockpit and modified control systems. Three built, one is being displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Horten H.IIIg: Special two-seater centre section with tandem seats for training purposes. Four aircraft were built with one being converted to the sole H.IIIh.

Horten H.IIIh: A single H.IIIg modified with the a second cockpit filled with test equipment, survived the war with the remains held by the Smithsonian Institution, displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

References

"History of the Flying Wing". Century of Flight. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019.

Myhra, David (1998). The Horten brothers and their all-wing aircraft. Atglen, Pa: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Parsch, Andreas. "German Military Aircraft Designations (1933-1945)". www.designation-systems.net.

"Horten H III h". National Air and Space Museum. 22 April 2016.

Harold A. Skaarup. Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. Warbird Survivors 2003: A Handbook.

"Major Objects on Display". NASM. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Horten, Reimar; Peter F. Selinger (1985). Nürflugel (in German) (1st ed.). Graz: H. Wieshaupt Verlag. pp. 59–93.

Further Reading

Simons, Martin (2006). Sailplanes 1920–1945 (2nd revised ed.). Königswinter: EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.

Horten H.IIIc with added wing foil. The man sitting on the aircraft is identified as Pilot Blech.

Horten H.IIIf at a presentation on 21 February 2004 after restoration by the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.

Horten craftsmen built this Horten H.IIIh, Werk Nr. 31, in 1944 at Göttingen. Uncertainty surrounds the subtype designation 'h' but the glider probably first flew as a two-place Horten III g, and then Reimar modified it into a single-seat glider, installed special test apparatus, and changed the designation to 'III h. During September 1944, Josef Eggert of Zimmer Unter den Burg, a small town near Rottweil, Germany, flew the unmodified III g twenty times and amassed 14 hours and 17 minutes of total flight time. Eggert reported excellent handling qualities but he apparently chose not to grapple with adverse yaw because he commented specifically on the very tight, but flat turns that were possible using only the drag rudders. Eggert warned that stall recovery was good but only when the aircraft was properly trimmed.

Preserved Horten H.IIIh at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia.

A Horten H.IIIf on display at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Horten H.IIIf at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Washington, D.C.

Horten H.III variants.

Horten H.IIIb.

Horten H.IIIe.

Horten H.XIII: German Experimental Flying Wing Aircraft

Horten XIII Tailless Aircraft in flight. The crew is in the crew cab at the rear of the aircraft.

The Horten H.XIII was an experimental flying wing aircraft designed by the Horten brothers during World War II.

The H.XIIIa was an unpowered glider with wings swept backwards at 60°. It was a technology demonstrator to examine the low speed handling of highly swept wings, for the development of a jet fighter which was expected to exceed Mach 1, the H.XIIIb.

The single H XIII was destroyed by liberated Russian prisoners at the end of WWII.

References

Horten, Reimar; Peter F. Selinger (1985). Nurflügel (in German) (1st ed.). Graz: H. Wieshaupt Verlag. pp. 158–162.

Further Reading

Rose, Bill (2010). Flying wings and tailless aircraft. Hinckley: Midland. pp. 50–51.