Chapter 42

Germany Liaison Plane: Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (Stork)

Bibliography with Notes plus Bonus Content

Bierman, John and Colin Smith. War Without Hate. New York: The Penguin Group, 2002, p. 69.

“As usual Rommel led from the front or, to be more precise, from above the front. Many of his daylight hours were sent in his single-engine Fieseler Storch spotter plane…Flying low to avoid RAF fighters, Rommel searched out his men and, when he saw that a column had stopped, landed as close as possible to demand why the sweating, dust-caked commander in question was resting.”

Captured Wings Wiki. Nr 5620 Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. https://captured-wings.fandom.com/wiki/Werk_Nr_5620

“Originally assigned to 1./Wüstennotstaffel 1 as NM+ZS,[2] the Storch was captured in 1942, and commandeered by the Air Officer Commanding, Western Desert, Air Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham, as his personal communications aircraft.”

Garland and Smith. Sicily and The Surrender Of Italy. U.S. Army in World War II, Mediterranean Theater Of Operations. https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-MTO-Sicily/USA-MTO-Sicily-28.html

“After a questioning glance at the little ship, Mussolini climbed into the Storch with Skorzeny and Gerlach. Paratroopers held the wings and tail of the plane as the pilot revved up the engine. Then, with much shaking and bouncing, the plane made its short run, barely cleared the rim of the escarpment, and leveled off only after a breath-taking drop below the mountain top.”

Judd, Brandon. The Desert Railway: The New Zealand Railway Group in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War. Auckland: Publishing Press, 2003. https://www.nzsappers.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/The-Desert-Railway.pdf

p. 14

“Two German airmen who landed beside the (rail) line headed out into the desert on foot when their mining operations were disturbed by the NZ railway boys. Our railway men promptly dragged the enemy plane back to the nearest station where it was handed over to the RAF. That night more tanks were unloaded at the railhead.”

Steenbrink, Marcel. COLLECTION. No. 9413. Fieseler Fi 156 C-3/Trop Storch Royal Air Force. http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/9413.htm

11/30/2009. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: “Serveral German and Italian aircraft were captured during the campaign in North Africa during WW II, one of them was this Storch (Stork) that became the personal aircraft of RAF Air Vice Marshal Harry “Broady” [sic] Broadhurst (Commanding Officer Western Desert Air Force, Allied Air Forces North Africa). In 1944 Broadhurst was assigned to command the 83 Group in 2nd Tactical Air Force in the UK in preparation for the oncoming invasion in France, and among other aircraft, this Storch was shipped to the UK.

It was in this aircraft that Broadhurst flew Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill as passenger to the RAF ‘B3 ALG’ (Advanced Landing Ground), just north of Sainte-Croix-sur-Mer, only 1.5 mls (2.5 km) from the beaches where some six weeks before the allied invasion of France was started on ‘D-Day’, June 6, 1944. Churchill addressed the troops gathered at ‘B3 ALG’ and later was visiting troops in the area by jeep. The ‘B3 ALG’ was operational from June 10 to September 4, 1944.

Taylor, Blaine. The Fieseler Storch Fi 156. Warfare History Network https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/the-fieseler-storch-fi-156/

“Early in the war, as many as 50 airworthy Storchs were captured in the Mediterranean Theater and employed by the British…”