In this virtual lecture Chris Rogers will explore the RAF air disarmament wings in Germany between 1945–1948

This free lecture is part of the RAF Museum's Research Lecture Programme. If you would like to support the RAF Museum, you can make a donation at: https://support.rafmuseum.org/Donate-Now

In the closing months of the Second World, anticipating the inevitable Allied victory, the RAF formed ten Air Disarmament Wings to dismantle the Luftwaffe’s aircraft, ordnance and equipment. Nearly 3,000 airmen travelled to Germany in over 400 vehicles to accomplish this, embedding themselves in a country under occupation yet still fatally unsafe and carrying out their tasks in the face of passive and active resistance.

The breadth and complexity of this effort is illustrated by focussing on one of these units, No.8401 Wing, which covered Hamburg and the Baltic coast and thus the classified Erprobungsstelle  or proving ground at Travemünde-Priwall, a district of Lübeck.  A thriving international civil aviation hub before militarisation, the coastal base hosted the competitive evaluation of the new Me 109 and developed all of the Kriegsmarine’s flying boats and seaplanes throughout the conflict amongst other work. It was seized by a British reconnaissance platoon a day before the first surrender of the European theatre.

Oral testimony, historical and personal images and official reports build a picture of the challenges facing the men of No.8401 in the immediate post-hostility period and beyond. They discovered rare and experimental airframes, seized advanced technology, facilitated the interrogation of scientists and military personnel and managed thousands of refugees and displaced persons. Wider geo-political significance comes from their position just a few dozen miles from the agreed line of Soviet control, at the northern tip of what would become the Iron Curtain; the RAF was thus making peace with one enemy just as another began to emerge. Understanding the experience of the air disarmament wings illuminates this little-known role within the service and connects yesterday’s war of global certainty with today’s peace of occasional ambiguity.

Taming Eagles: Disarming the Luftwaffe, 1945-1948