In 1940, as German planes spearheaded the Blitzkreig attack in the West, a new game came out targeted at young boys called Flieger greifen an! (Airman Attack!). The game was aimed at encouraging Deutsche Jungvolk and Hitler Youth members to train as pilots in the Luftwaffe, then enjoying air supremacy in the skies over Holland, Belgium and France. To attract their attention Flieger greifen an! used eye-catching artwork on both the box cover and playing board showing what life was like in the Luftwaffe. Marketed on the front of the box as ‘Das unterhaltsame und belehrende Fligerspiel’ or ‘The entertaining and instructive flyer game’, it was designed to squarely appeal to every boy’s dream of flying.
The cover had a painting of two young Luftwaffe recruits watching as a pilot got out of a Bücker Bü133 Jungmeister biplane while three Heinkel He 111 bombers roared overhead, their distinctive glazed ‘greenhouse’ noses being clearly shown (the Bücker Bü133 Jungmeister was one of the main advanced training planes used by the Luftwaffe while the Heinkel He 111 was the medium bomber used extensively in the Blitzkreig). The playing board contained similarly inspiring pictures, showing young recruits admiring a trainee pilot and other Luftwaffe personnel loading bombs onto a plane.
The game of Flieger greifen an! involved moving red or blue counters across a diamond-shaped chequerboard to attack your opponent’s bahnhof or railway station. The counters represented bomber, fighter and spotter or reconnaissance groups, each player being allocated six counters. En route players had to avoid a line of barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns. The number of moves was determined by a roll of a die and the winner was the first person to destroy their opponent’s railway station and then safely get their counters back to the airfield.
In 1940, as German planes spearheaded the Blitzkreig attack in the West a new game came out targeted at young boys called Flieger greifen an! (Airman Attack!).
Games like Flieger greifen an! were mainly aimed at the 10 to 14 year-old members in the Deutsche Jungvolk who as well as playing war games were also taught model building and flying. From the age of 14 upwards boys joined the Hitler Youth which organised flying clubs where members built and flew gliders (planes originally being banned by the Treaty of Versailles). At the age of 18 those who wanted to become a pilot could then join the National Socialist Fliegerkorps or NSFK where they underwent further training on gliders and flew small aircraft.
At the start of the war any prospective pilot joining the Luftwaffe from the NSFK had to undergo an intensive training programme to earn his pilot’s licence. After rigorous aptitude tests (the Luftwaffe, like the RAF, only taking the highest achievers) the first step was six months at a Fliegerersatzabteilung or recruit training school where the main focus was on drill and physical training, flying lessons being confined to elementary lectures in subjects like wireless communication and map-reading.32
After completing initial training, the student pilot moved to a Fluganwärterkompanie or aircraft company where they spent up to two months studying general aeronautical subjects. From there they would attend an elementary flying school known as an A/B Schule (named after the different pilots’ licences which were designated A1, A2, B1 or B2, depending on the weight of the aircraft). Here recruits learnt to fly in training planes like the Bücker Bü 133 shown on the cover of Flieger greifen an!
For an A2 licence (covering planes up to 2,200 kilograms) a pupil would have to pass tests in flying, aerodynamics, aeronautical engineering, navigation, meteorology, emergency procedures and Morse code. For a B2 licence (covering planes up to 2,500 kilograms), in addition to the A2 tests, trainees had to fly higher-performance aircraft like the Arado 66/76, a fighter which doubled up as an advanced trainer, or the Gotha 145, an obsolete biplane. Pupils were expected to clock up between 100 and 150 hours’ flying time on different aircraft, after which the trainee, if he passed all the tests, received his Luftwaffenflugzeugfuehrerschein or pilot’s licence and his Flugzeugfuehrerabzeichen or pilot’s wings.
Pilots wanting to fly single-engine fighters or dive-bombers then progressed to specialist training schools while those flying twin-engine fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes went on to a ‘C Flying School’. Here they received an additional 50 to 60 hours’ flying time over a six-month period as well as ground training in advanced aeronautical subjects. To practise bombing runs pilots flew early versions of the Heinkel He 111, Germany’s most common bomber during the early years of the war and the plane featured on the cover of Flieger greifen an!
After passing through specialist or C Schools pilots received their Luftwaffenflugzeugführerscheines or advanced pilot’s licence. This enabled them to fly most operational aircraft, pilots specialising in twin-engine fighters, bombers and reconnaissance planes also being required to clock up an extra 50 to 60 hours’ ‘blind flying’ at night with their crews. Pilots were then sent to an operational training unit or Ergaenzungseinheiten attached to the various Geschwader or Gruppen, the squadrons fighting at the front.
In the early years of the war the time it took for a recruit to qualify as a fighter or dive-bomber pilot was typically about thirteen months’ training and 150 to 200 flying hours, and for a bomber or reconnaissance pilot about twenty months’ training and 220 to 270 flying hours. However, as the war started to turn against Germany, the pilot training system began to break down. The loss of pilots in the Battle of Britain was compensated for by reserves but following the attack on Russia in June 1941, the Luftwaffe lost about 4,500 aircrew in the first year of the invasion alone, losses which could not be replaced. As a result, the C and then B flying schools were disbanded and bomber crews were sent straight to the front. As the war progressed heavy casualties and lack of fuel further restricted training so that by the spring of 1944, German fighter pilots were being sent to join operational units with only about 100 hours’ flying training (in comparison RAF and US pilots received double the number of hours).
Flieger greifen an! encouraged Deutsche Jungvolk and Hitler Youth members to join the Luftwaffe, then enjoying air supremacy in the skies over Holland, Belgium and France.
By September 1944 the lack of fuel and widespread destruction caused by Allied bombing meant that the training schools, always the poor relation to the Luftwaffe’s front-line units, were being rapidly disbanded. By the end of the year, after the last of the trainees had passed through, all the schools were closed, and their instructors sent to the front. By February 1945 the aircrew training programme, once the pride of the Luftwaffe and every boy’s dream, had ceased to exist, like many of its recruits.