RETRIBUTION AND RECOVERY - GERMAN AIRCRAFT 1919-22 . ABN240

With the end of the First World War in 1918 and the beginning of punitive reparations, the Inter-Allied Commission of Control began to roam its way far and wide across Europe; its mandate: to seek out and destroy all German aeronautical material and military aviation production facilities.

Airfields and factories were surveyed, technical advances made by aeronautical designers and engineers assessed. The Commission's inspectors targeted every aspect of aviation-related activity - from aircraft and airships to aero engines; instrumentation and wireless equipment through to armament - as part of the Allies' systematic demilitarisation of Germany.

Focussing specifically on the effect that the Armistice terms and the provisions of the Peace Treaty had on the German aviation industry, Retribution and Recovery details for the first time how many of the wartime military aircraft and post war civil designs found their way to other parts of the world, sometimes by surprising means.

CONTENTS :

Chapter One: Historical background and chronology of events 1

The first peace initiatives, events leading up to the Armistice, the Armistices with Germany and the other Central Powers, the responsibilities of the Control Commissions, the occupation of the Rhineland, the Paris Peace Conference and the implementation of the Peace Treaties, the IAACC completes its work, the Treaty of Locarno the League of Nations, and a chronology of events.

Chapter Two: Disarmament following the Armistice 9

Dispersal of war material and manufacturing facilities to other countries, collection and destruction of German war material by Allies in former German occupied areas and Allied zones of occupation, inspection of German naval aviation stations, the fate of German airships, inspections of airfields in former German occupied areas.

Chapter Three: Disarmament following the Peace Treaty 33

The aviation terms of the Treaty, the IAACC in Germany and the other Central Powers, interpretations of the Treaty and infractions, undeclared and lost material, the distribution and delivery of surrendered material, disposal of airships, airship stations and hydrogen factories, the destruction of aeronautical material, illegal export of material, implementation of the aviation clauses of the Peace Treaty, disbandment of the IAACC.

Chapter Four: Aircraft and airships used by the Entente Powers and the USA 47

Belgium, France, Great Britain and Dominions, Italy, Japan and the USA.

Chapter Five: German aviation industry 83

The work of the IAACC, history of manufacturers: wartime production, transfer of production abroad, modification of military aircraft for civil purposes, civil aircraft design restrictions, production and aircraft data, destruction and dispersal of aircraft, post war production.

Chapter Six: German military and paramilitary operations 131

Warfare in the East, the German air force and naval aviation, minesweeping, civil peace keeping and air police.

Chapter Seven: German airlines and civil aviation 141

Limitations imposed by the IAACC, airline fleets and operations, use of civil aircraft by government, public bodies and private operators, first and second series of civil aircraft registrations 1919-1922.

Chapter Eight: German and Austro-Hungarian aircraft used by the other Central Powers 171

IAACC activities, illicit and legal procurement of aircraft and military, police and civil operations in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey

Chapter Nine: German and Austro-Hungarian aircraft used in other countries 187

Argentina, Armenia, Chile, China, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and others.

Appendix: Documents relating to the Armistices and Peace Treaties

Summary of President Wilson's Fourteen Points , summaries of Armistice Terms with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, Air Clauses of Peace Treaties with Germany and other Central Powers. 259

Index 267

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Organisation of the British Armies of Occupation 10

Table 2.2 Source of German aircraft taken over by the Allies (German High Command, 23.12.18, and IAACC) 12

Table 2.3 Condition of German Aircraft Collected from the British Sector (Source IAACC Execution Report) 12

Table 2.4 Serial numbers of German aircraft despatched to 2 Salvage Section RAF at Fienvilliers 13

Table 2.5 Summary of Inspection of German Naval Air Stations by the Allied Naval Armistice Commission, December 1918 16

Table 2.6 Serials of aircraft found by the ANAC at seaplane bases, December 1918 (nomenclature as per ANAC report) 17

Table 2.7 Data on Surviving German Naval Airships 28

Table 2.8 Inspections of former German airship stations 29

Table 2.9 Summary of inspections of airfields with German-built installations 30

Table 4.1 Some of the German types captured by Belgian forces during the War 47

Table 4.2 Serviceable German aircraft at Evere airfield, 1919 48

Table 4.3 German Aircraft with 7 Groupement at Evere on 5 March 1920 48

Table 4.4 Identified Belgian Fokker D.VIIs 48

Table 4.5 Fokker D.VII aircraft on the Belgian Civil Register 48

Table 4.6 LVG aircraft on the Belgian Civil Register 52

Table 4.7 Rumpler aircraft on the Belgian Civil Register 53

Table 4.8 German aircraft known to have been captured by France during the war (serial numbers) 54

Table 4.9 RFC/RAF G serial numbers of German aircraft captured prior to the Armistice 61

Table 4.10 RFC/RAF Brigade serial numbers of German aircraft captured prior to the Armistice 62

Table 5.1 German aircraft firms with IAACC permissions for air traffic, June 1920 83

Table 5.2 IAACC list of aircraft sold by the German Government between the Armistice and the signing of the Peace Treaty 84

Table 5.4 The Technical Rules (Begriffsbestimmungen), May 1922 84

Table 6.1 German military aircraft, April 1920 135

Table 6.2 Composition and serial numbers of the 100 mine searching aircraft 136

Table 6.3 Complete list of German Navy aircraft (including the 100 used for mine searching), as declared to the IAACC on 10 January 1920 136

Table 6.4 Air Police aircraft, January 1920 138

Table 6.5 Inventory of all Polizeifliegerstaffeln, 21 January 1920 139

Table 6.6 Inventory of Boblingen Polizeifliegerstaffel, 15 January 1920 139

Table 6.7 German Air Police Units 140

Table 7.1 Luftfriko list of aircraft belonging to German air transport companies, January 1920 141

Table 7.2 Hangars and workshops exempted for airline use 9 July 1920 142

Table 7.3 DLR Fleet Numbers, 1919 144

Table 7.4 Aircraft authorised for the DLR, 5 July 1920 145

Table 7.5 Aircraft released for use by the DLR, 8 September 1921 145

Table 7.6 Statistics for German Airlines 1919-1922 154

Table 8.1 Aircraft stored at Aspern 176

Table 8.2 Hungarian aircraft register in 1919 183

Table 9.2 Aircraft offers to the Czechoslovak Government 189

Table 9.3 Aircraft captured or taken over by Poland in 1920 225

Table 9.4 Unsuccessful offers of aircraft to Poland 228

Table 9.5 Aircraft captured by Rumania in 1919 230

Table 9.6 Offers to the Swedish Navy 246

Table 9.7 Offers to the Swedish Army 246