First Quarter (Jan - Mar) 2011

Volume 24, Number 1

The Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

Editorial
any readers probably know the quote, History is written by the victors, attributed variously to Niccol Machiavelli, Winston Churchill or other learned sages of the distant past. Those of us interested in historic aircraft and the roles they played in the wars of the 20th century might put a different twist on the adage: Interesting hardware is preserved by the victors. This could be one reason why very few of the most fascinating aircraft ever designedthose developed by Germany in World War IIare displayed in museums anywhere in the world. The list of aeronautical firsts that German aircraft designers came up with in their feverish attempts to turn the tide of the War is longthe first jet fighter (Messerschmitt Me.262), first rocket fighter (Me.163B), first variable-sweep-wing aircraft (Messerschmitt P.1101), first forward-sweptwing aircraft (Junkers Ju.287), first operational cruise missile (V-1), first practical ballistic missile (V-2), first jet-powered flying wing (Horten Ho.229), and more. With some notable exceptions, however, these machines have faded into relative obscurity, not on display to public view, unknown and unloved except by geeky aviation enthusiasts. This issues Featured Aircraft is a good example. Although 1,000 Heinkel He.177 Greifs were produced during the War, none of them exist today. But even though youll never see one for real, we hope you find this hard-luck story of Hitlers strategic bomber interesting and informative. Enjoy.

Featured Aircraft
here is little doubt World War II could have ended very differently if a few key events had played out in other ways than they did. For example, what might have happened if Hitler had deployed his V-1 and V-2 vengeance weapons earlier and used them more effectively? Certainly, the War in Europe would have been prolonged, even though the outcome probably would not have changed. For another example, consider what if Hitler had invaded and occupied the British Isles. This would have changed the course of the War draFeatured Aircraft (Continued on Page 2)

Nazi Germanys fast, innovative Heinkel He.177 Greif strategic bomber came too late to have much effect on World War II. In this painting by artist Mark Postlthwaite (used without permission), He.177s of KG40 bomb England during Operation Steinbock, the Mini-Blitz, in early 1944.

Inside This Issue

Editorial......................................1 Featured Aircraft........................1 From the Director.......................2 Historical Perspectives ..............6 Membership Application ............7 New Exhibit................................8

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Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

First Quarter 2011

From the Director

ast spring in this column, I mentioned that War Eagles Air Museums displays of aircraft, automobiles and artifacts are not static, and I listed several new aircraft, automobiles and other items that weve acquired over the last five years or so. Im happy to say that this trend continues. If you havent visited the Museum in a while, you should come out to see our latest exhibit: a Vietnam-era Hughes 500 light helicopter. Its so light, in fact, and were so short of floor space, that weve hung it from the ceiling. Theres no signage for it yetwere still working to upgrade all of our signsbut you can still get a good look at it. Sometime later this year, we hope to finish our display of four air-dropped nuclear weapons, which we are in the process of refurbishing. The display will include six four-by-eight-foot information panels that tell the entire story of nuclear weapons. It will be very educational. Also, were working with Franklin Mountains State Park, the El Paso County Historical Society and the El Paso Community Foundation (among others) to commemorate local military airplane crashes. Well soon have a display of plaques that honor the crews of three aircrafttwo B-24s and a B-36that crashed in the Franklin Mountains decades ago. Theres always something new at the War Eagles Air Museum. Pay us a visit soon and take a look around! Skip Trammell

Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 1)

matically, and maybe even changed its outcome, since Allied forces would have lost the air bases from which they later launched thousand-plane raids against the Third Reich. For several reasons, Hitler did not undertake Operation Sea Lion, his planned invasion, including the fact that he felt a deep kinship with the British. But another factor played into his decision to cancel the operation. A successful invasion would have required the Luftwaffe to have air superiority over the English Channel, and the only way to assure that would have been for it to neutralize the Royal Air Force (RAF). In the Battle of Britain, the few valiant RAF fighter pilots, flying Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires, soundly defeated hoards of Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf.109s and Bf-110s, Dornier Do.17s, Junkers Ju.87s and Ju.88s, and Heinkel He.111s that attacked relentlessly from their bases in occupied Northern France. In doing so, they saved England, denied Hitler the air superiority he needed and changed the course of the War.

Great numbers of Heinkel He.111 twinengine medium bombers attacked London in the Battle of Britain, but their small bombload limited their effectiveness.

Plane Talk
Published quarterly by: War Eagles Air Museum 8012 Airport Road Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008 (575) 589-2000 Author/Executive Editor: Terry Sunday Senior Associate Editor: Frank Harrison Associate Editor: Kathy Sunday
mail@war-eagles-air-museum.com

Despite the many types of German fighters and bombers used in the Battle of Britain, one thing was missing from the lineup. The largest Luftwaffe bomber at the time was the relatively slow and vulnerable Heinkel He.111, a twin-engine medium bomber designed in the early 1930s. He.111s were too small to carry decisive quantities of bombs to targets in England. What Germany needed was a heavy, four-engine, long-range bomber,

such as the British Avro Lancaster or the American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator. The Allies later used such aircraft with devastating effect, bringing Germany to its knees and incontrovertibly proving the military utility of strategic bombing. Hitler did not have such an aircraft for the Battle of Britain, and that may have cost him the Battle and the War. But it wasnt for lack of trying Ironically, Germanys lack of a big bomber stemmed largely from its military successes in the Spanish Civil War and in the first months of World War II. As early as 1933, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff General Walther Wever realized the important role that strategic bombing would play in a war with the Soviet Uniona war then seen as inevitable. He commissioned two of Germanys leading aircraft manufacturers, Dornier and Junkers, to design a new strategic bombardment airplane dubbed the Ural Bomber. In 1935, the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, or Reich Aviation Ministry) ordered prototypes of the resulting aircraft, the Dornier Do.19 and Junkers Ju.89. But after Wevers death in an airplane crash in June 1936, interest in a Luftwaffe strategic bomber force waned. Wevers successor, Albert Kesselring, saw no need for such a force, so he canceled the Ural Bomber on April 29, 1937. He thought the Luftwaffe needed more small, tactical aircraft. The successes of the Condor Legion in tactical support and dive-bombing roles in the Spanish Civil War, from November 1936 through May 1939, appeared to confirm Kesselrings opinion. Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief Hermann Gring agreed; The Fhrer does not ask me how big my bombers are, but how many I have. This style of warfare had a nameBlitzkrieg (Lightning War). Even as the Luftwaffe armed up with fighters and medium bombers, however, a new strategic bomber project simmered on the back burner. Apparently Kesselring and Gring feared completely giving up on the idea of big airplanes, in case the Fhrer ever changed his mind. On June 3, 1936, the RLM had issued specifications for Projekt 1041 Bomber A, a more-advanced aircraft than the Do.19

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First Quarter 2011

Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

and Ju.89, solely to Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke at Rostock-Marienehe on Germanys Baltic Coast. Bomber A was to be capable of carrying a 2,200 pound bomb load over a range of 4,160 miles at not less than 335 miles per hour. It would be able to outrun all contemporary fighters and outperform all bombers then in service. A year later, on June 2, 1937, the RLM directed Heinkel to build a fullscale mockup of the aircraft it had designed to meet the specification. On November 5, the RLM approved the mockup and assigned Heinkels big bomber the type number 8-177, while at the same time demanding that the company beef up the design so it could withstand the stresses of dive-bombing attacks.1 Heinkel knew his heavy bomber had to have four engines in order to meet its performance requirements. From the pictures and drawings here, you may think; Four? That cant be right. I see only two engines. Thats because Siegfried Gnter, Heinkels chief designer, came up with an unusual design solution. Each of the He.177s two propellers was driven by two engines. That was one factor that gave the He.177 exceptional performance. It also led to a couple of disparaging nicknames that aircrews applied later in the Warthe Flaming Coffin and the Luftwaffe Lighter. Each of the He.177s complex Daimler-Benz DB.606 powerplants consisted of two 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled DB.601 inverted-V enginesthe type used in the Heinkel He.177A-1 Greif (Griffin) General Characteristics
Powerplants Two 2,700-horsepower Daimler-Benz DB.606 24-cylinder liquid-cooled (paired DB.601) engines 317 miles per hour 267 miles per hour 22,966 feet 66 feet 11 inches 103 feet 2 inches 1,988 miles 35,494 pounds 66,139 pounds

Maximum speed Cruise speed Service Ceiling Length Wingspan Range Weight (empty) Weight (max.)

Bf.109mounted side-by-side in one nacelle, driving a transmission that transmitted power from the two engines to a single propeller. The inner cylinder banks of the DB.601s were very close together, and the designers had to shoehorn 12 exhaust pipes into that confined space. Its not hard to imagine how hot that area became. With the inevitable grease, oil and fuel that would drip down and build up inside the lower cowling, its also easy to understand why engine fires plagued the He.177 throughout most of the program. Gnter took equally innovative approaches to other aspects of the Greifs design. Rather than conventional engine coolant radiators, which had big weight and drag penalties, he proposed a highpressure evaporative cooling system that used airflow over the wings to control the coolant temperature. Such a system had worked well on an He.100 fighter test1 Whether this demand came directly from Hitler or not is unclear, but it could have been a result of the Fhrers obsession with dive-bombing. Later in the War, the twin-jet Messerschmitt Me.262 Schwalbe (Swallow)then the best fighter in the airfailed to live up to its potential because Hitler ordered it to be adapted for dive-bombing, which utterly wasted the aircrafts state-of-the-art performance capabilities.

bed. But it soon became clear that evaporative cooling could not handle the enormous amounts of heat generated by the DB.606s, so Gnter had to switch to conventional annular radiators fitted behind the propellers. The Greifs wing featured Fowler flaps spanning the entire trailing edge, including the ailerons, which were split into upper and lower parts to provide lateral control when the flaps were extended. The main landing gear had to be very strong and quite long to provide ground clearance for the huge four-bladed propellers, but there was not enough room in the nacelles or the wing to retract gear of traditional design. Gnter solved this problem by mounting each of the two main wheels on each side of the aircraft on a separate strut. One strut retracted inward and the other outward, nestling the gear into shallow wells in the wing. On November 12, 1938, the RLM ordered six prototype-series aircraft, then doubled the order on February 24, 1939. By that summer, it was becoming increasingly clear even to the most myopic Nazi leaders that Britain and France would
Featured Aircraft (Continued on page 4)

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Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

First Quarter 2011

One of the Greifs most troublesome features was its complex coupled powerplants. This photograph shows a 3,100-horsepower DB.610, consisting of two DB.605s, as fitted in He.177V15 and later versions. Featured Aircraft (Continued from page 3)

honor their commitments to Poland in the event of a German attack. With the future uncertain, the RLM figured that a strategic bomber just might be a good thing for the Luftwaffe to have, so it put pressure on Heinkel to hurry up building the prototypes. It also ordered 20 pre-production He.177A-0 versions on July 6, and another 10 on October 3. By then, World War II had been underway for over a month. The first prototype, He.177V12, flew on November 19, 1939, at the Rechlin Erprobungstelle (Testing Center) about 60 miles northwest of Berlin, with Leutnant Carl Franke at the controls. Franke had to land after 12 minutes because the engine temperatures began to rise alarminglya harbinger of problems to come. Still, he was impressed with the aircrafts general handling qualities, although he reported some engine vibrations and he thought the vertical tail surfaces were too small. But Heinkel still obviously had a lot of work to do, as flights of other prototypes soon showed. He.177V2 disintegrated in the air on June 27, 1940, following the loss of V3 on April 24. V4 crashed into the Baltic during a stability test. In early 1941, V5 crashed after both powerplants caught fire, the first case of a problem that became increasingly serious as the test program progressed. V6 and V7 went to a Luftwaffe squadron in France for operational suitability tests in
2 German aircraft prototypes were identified with the letter V followed by a sequential number. The V stood for Versuchs, or experimental. The 12 prototypes in the initial RLM order were thus designated He.177V1 through He.177V12.

the fall of 1941, and the results were not good, with the Luftwaffe telling Heinkel that the He.177 was totally unsuited for operational use. In the interim, as weve seen, the Battle of Britain had ended with the Luftwaffe failing to gain air superiority over England, and In-flight photos of the He.177 are quite rare. This one shows the the time when a big seventh prototype (He.177V7), which was used for defensive armastrategic bomber might ment tests. This aircraft ground-looped on landing after a demonhave been most useful stration flight for Reichsmarschall Gring in Paris on August 15, faded into the past. But 1941. There was no damage, and Gring reportedly exclaimed with the production program great delight, At last, an undercarriage that can take it! continued, with the first batch of 35 He.177A-0s allocated to permodel He.177s reasonably reliable and form more tests that should have been assomewhat less likely to burst into flames. signed to the prototypes (if most of them But the whole story is far too complicathad not crashed). Continuing the tradied to cover in these few pages. tion, the first and second aircraft of this The He.177A-3 was the first version batch both crashed with their powerto see significant operational service. The plants in flames. Even so, in April 1940, Greifs first combat missions took place the RLM demanded that the bomber enin January 1943 on the Russian Front, but ter service as soon as possible, at one not in a way its designers had ever inpoint insisting on a production rate of 70 tended. Twenty of them served as transaircraft per month. But the ongoing probports, ferrying ammunition and supplies lems required almost constant modificato the encircled German 6th Army at Staltions. Heinkel barely made five per ingrad. It was not an auspicious debut month through 1940, most of which went seven Greifs crashed while flying only 13 to training units. Clearly the Greif was missions, and none of the losses were due still not ready to fly in combat. Heinkel to enemy action. After a few weeks, the worked on the problems for a long time, Luftwaffe gave up and withdrew them even after the aircraft were in service from the Front. But another mission for with Luftwaffe units. This effort generatthe big bomber, in an equally unlikely ared a bewildering variety of modificaena, soon presented itself. tions, upgrades and model designations, By early 1943, Grand Admiral Karl and ultimately succeeded in making lateDnitz, Commander in Chief of the German Navy, had become increasingly concerned with Allied advances in anti-submarine warfare (ASW), which were making U-boat missions around the British coast practically suicidal as their crews tried with little success to stop the Allied convoys that continued to carry thousands of tons of supplies and equipment to the island nation. Dnitz insisted that the He.177 be outfitted as a torpedo bomber to attack Allied ships. Initial tests of this modification used an He.177A-3 with This photo shows well the He.177s unusual main landing gear. Note the open gear two Italian L5 torpedoes, but the definibay doors on each side of the nacelle. The tive operational configuration used the inner strut retracted inboard and the outer He.177A-5, the first of which left the
one retracted outboard.

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First Quarter 2011

Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

assembly line in February 1943. In addition to torpedoes, the A-5s could carry other external weapons such as the Ruhrstahl 1400 Fritz-X radio-controlled glide bomb3 and Henschel Hs.293 and Hs.294 air-to-surface guided missiles. Combat use of these guided weapons was unimpressivethe words total failure spring to mind. In the first operation against an Allied convoy in the Atlantic on November 21, 1943, Hs.293s dropped from 20 He.177s did not do any significant damage to the ships. Five days later, 14 aircraft attacked a convoy off Bougie, but four of the bombers were lost in action and three more written off in forced landings. A 50% loss ratio was clearly unsustainable, and showed that daylight attacks on shipping were impractical. In early 1944, Greifs had some success on the Eastern Front, bombing from about 20,000 feet, which was too high for the Soviet fighter aircraft and tactics that were optimized for low-level missions. At the same time, He.177s took part in a last-ditch reprisal attack on London, ordered by Hitler personally, called Operation Steinbock, which marked both the debut and the dnouement of Heinkels big bomber over Britain. The Luftwaffe raided combat units in Italy and Russia to get aircraft for Steinbock, coming up with 14 He.177s and 80 He.111s, Do.217s and Ju.88s. Raids began on January 21, 1944, and continued until early March. Steinbock was a dismal military failureBritish defenses decimated the attacking medium bombersbut, ironically, the oper-

To operate an Hs.293 rocket bomb, the bombardier had to lie in the glazed nose of the He.177 and steer the weapon with a twoaxis joystick. All the while, the bomber had to fly straight-and-level, which made it vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire or fighter attack.

So, when all is said and done, what are we to think about the only World War II German strategic bomber, an aircraft that came along too late and with too little combat effectiveness to influence the course or the outcome of the War? Inarguably, it was the Luftwaffes most technically advanced bomber. In many ways, the He.177 was comparable to the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress. That aircraft also endured more than its share of design, These poor-quality images show a Ruhrstahl 1400 Fritz-X ra- development and operdio-guided glide bomb mounted beneath an He.177 (top), and an ational problems, and He.177 in flight with a Henschel He.293A-1 rocket-propelled bomb also suffered from en(bottom). Neither of these weapons fit in the aircrafts bomb bay. gine fires. Significantly, it took Boeing and the U.S. Air Corps years to fix the probation brought Greifs their greatest suclems and transform the B-29 into one of cess. They carried maximum bomb loads the most successful, well-known bombto 23,000 feet while still over German ers in history. Heinkel and the Luftwaffe territory, then made shallow dives on never got a chance to put the effort into their targets at speeds of up to 435 miles the He.177 that might have made it reliaper hour, which was too fast for British ble and successful. Instead, Hitlers big fighters and anti-aircraft guns to follow. strategic bomber remains a little-known Only four succumbed to hostile action. and unappreciated aviation oddity. But they were still very unreliable. For example, 13 He.177s took off on February 13, but eight returned to base with overheating or burning engines. Of the ADDITIONAL READING five remaining, four reached London, and one of those was shot down. Again, the The story of the Heinkel He.177 is loss ratios were simply too high for viaconvoluted and complicated. This artble combat operations. Later in the War, icle barely scratches the surface. To continuing engine problems, terrible refind out more about the Greif, read: liability, fuel shortages and a lack of Brown, E., The Grievous Griffin, trained crews brought He.177 operations Air International, April 1975 to a virtual halt. Many of the aircraft sat Griehl, M. and J. Dressell, Heinkel desultorily on airfields all over Europe, He177, 277, 274, Airlife Publishunable to fly even for training missions. ing, Ltd. (UK), 1998 Green, W., Famous Bombers of the 3 The first combat use of Fritz-X was in a Luftwaffe Second World War, Doubleday & attack on Augusta Harbor, Sicily, on July 21, 1943, Co., Garden City, NY, 1969 where they were dropped from Dornier Do.217 me Green, W., Warplanes of the Third dium bombers (this issues Historical Perspectives column discusses the Sicily campaign). Other attacks Reich, Doubleday & Co., Garden on Augusta and Messina followed, but apparently City, NY, 1970 none of the bombs hit their targets and the Allies did
not even realize the bombs were radio-guided.

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Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

First Quarter 2011

Historical
Perspectives
by Robert Haynes

uly 10, 1943, was a very significant date in World War II. On that day, the Allies invaded Sicily, in an operation that marked the beginning of the end of the War in Europe. Also on that day, the Allies first experienced the perils and problems that would bedevil their efforts to liberate all of Europe from Fascism. One important lesson they learned from the Sicily campaign was this: its impossible to know who to trust once the shooting starts. U.S. planners knew this would be a problem long before the invasion force hit the Sicilian beaches. To its credit, the Government tried in advance to come up with ways soldiers could use to distinguish good guys from bad guys. U.S. intelligence officers turned to a source of information that, were they to do so in todays acrimonious political environment, would surely produce howls of outrage from one side or the other. They took the unlikely step of partnering with one of the most secretive, sinister organizations the world has ever knownthe criminal brotherhood known as Cosa Nostra, or, more commonly, the Mafia. As Mussolini and the Fascists had gained power in Italy in the 1920s, they forced many Sicilians, especially those with Cosa Nostra connections, to leave the Island. Mussolini installed a ruthless prefect named Cesare Mori in Sicily, and ordered him to break the Mafia, whatever it took. Mori set about his task by imprisoning 11,000 people and using the same brutal torture and blackmail tactics that the Mafia itself used. Driven out of Sicily, many Mafiosi emigrated to America, where they continued their criminal activities. Years later, when the invasion of Sicily was being planned, many were imprisoned or under surveillance. Thus it

was not a great leap for U.S. intelligence services to deduce that these readily available Mafiosi could be an excellent source of information about Sicily. As it turned out, the expatriate Mafiosi were very motivated to cooperate, and they eagerly took advantage of the opportunity. Many of them sought revenge on Mussolini for forcing them out of their livelihoods, and they also thought cooperation would look good on their rsums, and might get them plea bargains, reduced sentences or other deals. The first case of GovernmentMafia cooperation involved security at the New York harbor, which was a major embarkation port for troops and equipment headed for Europe. Sabotage was a constant worry, even more so after February 9, 1942, when the French liner Normandie caught fire and capsized in the harbor while being converted to a troop carrier. Although an investigation found that the fire was accidental, it showed how vulnerable the docks were. U.S. Naval Intelligence soon enlisted the Mafia to monitor the docks and maintain security on the New York waterfront. To do so, it contacted Charles Lucky Luciano, the

Capo di Tutti i Capi, or boss of bosses, of all the crime families in the New York area. Luciano was serving 30 to 50 at the Clinton Correctional Facility on prostitution and tax evasion charges at the time. The Government moved him to a prison nearer New York City, and even agreed to commute his sentence after the War ended. With the Mafia patrolling the docks, there was virtually no sabotage there for the rest of the war. Luciano also ordered his associates to give U.S. intelligence agencies information on landing sites, local officials, populations and anything else they wanted to know about the Mafias home territory of Sicily. These Mafiosi also offered to help restore order and stability after the invasion. The U.S. gladly accepted this arrangement, since it relieved them of having to deal with civilians in the combat zones. Thus, in one of the more poignant of the many ironies of World War II, the U.S. was largely responsible for restoring the power of the Mafia in Sicily. There has been renewed debate recently about whether the invasion of Sicily was a success or a failure. I consider it a modest success. It accomplished its objectives of opening a second European front (in addition to the Eastern Front) and knocking Italy out of the War. Two weeks after the invasion, Mussolini was deposed and the Italian government be-

U.S. M4 Sherman tanks of the 2nd Armored Division advance through Palermo, Sicily, as throngs of local citizens surrender (note numerous white flags) on July 19, 1943.

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Plane TalkThe Newsletter of the War Eagles Air Museum

Membership Application
War Eagles Air Museum
War Eagles Air Museum memberships are available in six categories. All memberships include the following privileges: Free admission to the Museum and all exhibits. Free admission to all special events. 10% general admission discounts for all guests of a current Member. 10% discount on all Member purchases in the Gift Shop. To become a Member of the War Eagles Air Museum, please fill in the information requested below and note the category of membership you desire. Mail this form, along with a check payable to War Eagles Air Museum for the annual fee shown, to: War Eagles Air Museum 8012 Airport Road Santa Teresa, NM 88008 NAME (Please print)___________________________________________________ STREET ____________________________________________________________ CITY ______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP _______________ TELEPHONE (Optional) ______________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS (Optional) ___________________________________________
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gan seeking an armistice. In response, Hitler transferred troops and equipment to Italy to prevent the Allies from walking right up to the German border, thus tying up resources that he might have sent to Russia or, later, to Normandy. The Sicilian campaign taught the Allies some useful lessons. For example, there was little coordination among air, naval and ground forces. Ground troops could not call in air strikes, and the lack of communication led to friendly-fire incidents, one of the worst of which occurred on the first day of the invasion, when Navy batteries fired on aircraft carrying 504th Parachute Infantry troops. A lack of fighter cover allowed Luftwaffe aircraft to attack troops on the beaches, sink supply ships and shoot down spotter planes that were directing naval gunfire against the German and Italian forces maneuvering to counterattack. The need for closer cooperation between Allies also became clear. Personality clashes, such as the well-known one between British General Bernard Mont-

Generals Bernard L. Montgomery (l.) and George S. Patton (r.) look over the situation during the Sicily campaign, July 1943.

gomery and American Lieutenant General George Patton, would have to be set aside, as would vendettas between units. Allied casualties, while relatively high in the campaign, could have been worse had Italian units been better supplied and motivated. For example, the 206th Coastal Defense Division had a great position high above the U.S. 45th Infantry Divi-

sions landing beaches near Scoglitti, and could have fired right down on the American troops. But their captured French artillery pieces could not fire their supplies of Italian ammunition! Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen, the colorful commander of the 1st Infantry Division, which landed near Gela on Sicilys south coast, may be of interest to local readers. General Allen was married to Mary Frances Robinson, daughter of a former El Paso mayor, and lived in El Paso after the War. The couple was very active in the local social, political and business communities. Terry Allen died in 1969, and is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery. Also, the Fieseler Fi.156 Storch in our Museum is the type of aircraft that German commandos used to rescue Mussolini from a fortress prison in the Italian Alps, where he was being held prisoner by partisans after he fell from powera fall initiated by the Allied invasion of Sicily, which has been understudied despite being one of the most important events of World War II.

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Doa Ana County Airport at Santa Teresa 8012 Airport Road Santa Teresa, New Mexico 88008 (575) 589-2000

New Exhibit
ar Eagles Air Museum is not just a place where you can see historic warbirds, classic automobiles and interesting artifacts of aviation and military history. Thanks to a new exhibit that we acquired in October, its now also a place where you can get a look at one of the most important and widely used American rotary-wing aircraft of Vietnam and laterthe Hughes Aircraft Company OH-6A. In 1960, the U.S. Army issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new fourseat, turbine-powered, extremely maneuverable helicopter capable of performing many roles, from transport to observation to medical support to armed attack missions. Hughes response to the RFP was their Model 369, the prototype of which first flew on February 27, 1963. Bell, Fairchild-Hiller and Hughes were finalists in the competition, and Hughes even-

tually won. In May 1965, the Army awarded Hughes a production contract for 714 OH-6A Light Observation Helicopters, later upping the order to 1,300 with an option for 114 more. Officially named Cayuse, the little egg-shaped machine soon became much better-known by the nickname its Army crews used. Loosely interpreting its military designation LOH, they called it the Loach. OH-6As first entered service in Vietnam as scout helicopters in early 1968, where they quickly earned their crews respect and affection for their small size, light weight, ruggedness and maneuverability. They could absorb tremendous amounts of small-arms fire and still keep on flying. They later operated very effectively with Bell AH-1G Cobra attack helicopters, coming in at low altitude to find targets, which they then marked with smoke for the higher-flying, armed-tothe-teeth Cobras. OH-6As armed with machine guns, grenade launchers and sixbarrel Miniguns took out their share of targets as well.

The Hughes OH-6A Cayuse or Loach Light Observation Helicopter saw extensive use in Vietnam, and remained popular after that war ended. War Eagles Air Museum has a nice example of the type on display.

An internationalized version of the OH-6A, the Hughes 500M Defender, was sold in 10 countries, and Italy and Japan built them under license. They saw combat in Granada and Panama in the 1980s, as well as in both Gulf wars, in Somalia and in the Balkans. Many of these popular, high-performance little flying eggs are still in service today, in both military and civilian guises.

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