Arado Ar 196 seaplane

Role: Reconnaissance aircraft

Manufacturer: Arado Flugzeugwerke

Manufactured: Warnemünde factory, Germany

Designer: Walter Blume

First flight: May 1937

Introduction: November, 1938

Primary user: Kriegsmarine

Foreign users: Bulgarian Air Force, Finnish Air Force, Romanian Air Force

Produced: 1938–44

Number built: 541

Arado Ar 196

The Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance aircraft built by the German firm Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as the winner of a design contest, and became the standard aircraft of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) throughout World War II.

Design and development

In 1933, the Kriegsmarine looked for a standardized shipboard reconnaissance aircraft. After a brief selection period, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry, RLM) decided on the Heinkel He 60 biplane. This was one of a line of developments of a basic biplane airframe that appeared as a number of floatplanes, trainers, and fighters. Deliveries started in a matter of months.

By 1935, it was clear that the He 60's performance was lacking, and the RLM asked Heinkel to design its replacement. The result was the He 114. The first prototype was powered by the Daimler-Benz DB 600 inline engine, but it was clear that supplies of this engine would be limited, and the production versions turned to the BMW 132 radial engine instead.

The plane proved to have only slightly better performance than the He 60, and its sea-handling was poor. Rushed modifications resulted in a series of nine prototypes in an attempt to solve some of the problems, but they didn't help much. The Navy gave up, and the planes were eventually sold off to Romania, Spain and Sweden.

In October 1936, the RLM asked for a He 114 replacement. The only stipulations were that it would use the BMW 132, and they wanted prototypes in both twin-float and single-float configurations. Designs were received from Dornier, Gotha, Arado and Focke-Wulf. Heinkel declined to tender, thinking that the 114 could still be made to work.

With the exception of the Arado design, they were all conventional biplanes. That gave the Arado better performance than any of the others, and the RLM ordered four prototypes. The RLM was also rather conservative by nature, so they also ordered two of the Focke-Wulf Fw 62 design as a backup. It quickly became clear that the Arado would work effectively, and only four prototypes of the Fw 62 were built.

The Ar 196 prototypes were all delivered in summer 1937, V1 (which flew in May) and V2 with twin floats as A models, and V3 and V4 on a single float as B models. Both versions demonstrated excellent water handling, and there seemed to be little to decide one over the other. Since there was a possibility of the smaller outrigger floats on the B models 'digging in', the twin-float A model was ordered into production. A single additional prototype, V5, was produced in November 1938 to test final changes.

Ten A-0s were delivered in November and December 1938, with a single 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun at the rear seat for defence. Five similarly equipped B-0s were also delivered to land-based squadrons. This was followed by 20 A-1 production models starting in June 1939, enough to equip the surface fleet.

Starting in November, production switched to the heavier land-based A-2 model. It added shackles for two 50 kg (110 lb) bombs, two 20 mm MG FF cannon in the wings, and a 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine gun in the cowling. The A-4 replaced it in December 1940, strengthening the airframe, adding another radio, and switching propellers to a VDM model. The apparently misnumbered A-3, which had additional strengthening of the airframe, replaced the A-4. The final production version was the A-5 from 1943, which changed radios and cockpit instruments, switched the rear gun to the much-improved MG 81Z with 2000 rounds of ammunition, retrofitted the existing cannon to the MG FF/M with extended 90 round magazines, added armour protection for the pilot and observer and strengthened the airframe. The A-5 also upgraded engine type to BMW 132W.^[1] Overall, 541 Ar 196s (15 prototypes and 526 production models) were built before production ended in August 1944, about 100 of these from SNCA and Fokker plants.

The Ar 196C was a proposed aerodynamically-refined version. The Ar 196C project was cancelled in 1941.

Operational history

The airplane was loved by its pilots, who found that it handled well both in the air and on the water. With the loss of the German surface fleet, the A-1s were added to coastal squadrons and continued to fly reconnaissance missions and submarine hunts into late 1944. Two notable operations were the capture of HMS Seal, and the repeated interception of Royal Air Force Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley bombers. Although it was no match for a fighter, it was considerably better than its Allied counterparts, and generally considered the best of its class. Owing to its good handling on water, the Finnish Air Force utilized Ar 196 A-3s which were later upgraded to A-5s in mid-1944 for reconnaissance duties as well as supply runs, several troops could fit inside its fuselage. The Fins also fitted their Arados with extra bomb shackles to increase it's carrying load to up to four 100 kg bombs.^[2]

Two Arado Ar 196s were brought to Penang in Japanese-occupied Malaya aboard the auxiliary cruisers Thor and Michel in the early 1940s. In March of 1944, along with a Japanese Aichi E13A, these seaplanes formed the newly-created East Asia Naval Special Service to assist both the German Monsun Gruppe and Japanese naval forces in the area. The aircraft were painted in Japanese livery and were operated by Luftwaffe pilots under the command of Oberleutnant Ulrich Horn. ^[3]

Arado in Allied hands

The first Arado Ar 196 to fall into allied hands was an example belonging to the German cruiser Admiral Hipper captured in Lyngstad by a Norwegian Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 seaplane of the Trøndelag naval district on 8 April 1940, at the dawn of the Norwegian Campaign. After being towed to Kristiansund by the torpedo boat HNoMS Sild, it was used against its former owners, flying with Norwegian markings^[2]. At 0330 on April 18, the Arado was evacuated to the UK by a Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service pilot. The plane was shortly thereafter crashed by a British pilot while on transit to the Helensburgh naval air base for testing^[3]. At the end of the war, at least another Arado Ar 196 was left at a Norwegian airfield and kept in use as a liaison aircraft by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for a year on the West coast.

Another Arado was captured by the Hellenic Navy during the German invasion of Greece when in ealy April 1941 an Bordfliegergruppe Arado 196 had been forced to land alongside the coastal town of Peraia due to a ruptured fuel line. The Arado was captured, evaluated and ultimately painted with Hellenic markings of the Πολεμική Αεροπορία (Royal Hellenic Air Force) and flown against the Luftwaffe due to its relative modernity compared to types that Greece was operating at the time.^[6]

During 1944-45, Soviet forces captured numerous Arados along the Baltic coast of Poland and Germany. At Dassow a spare parts depot was recovered also. After repairs, thirty-seven Arado Ar 96 aircraft fitted with Soviet radio equipment were integrated into the aviation element of the Soviet Border Guard. They were sent to Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific coastal areas, serving until 1955.^[7]

Operators

Bulgaria - Bulgarian Air Force

Finland - Finnish Air Force

Germany - Kriegsmarine/Luftwaffe

Greece - Royal Hellenic Air Force^[6]

Norway - (war booty) Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service Royal Norwegian Air Force

Romania - Romanian Air Force^[8]

Survivors

Ar 196 A-3
Aircraft operated by Bulgarian Air Force is displayed at the Museum of Aviation and the Air Force, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Ar 196 A-5, Werknummer of 623 167
Aircraft formerly equipped the German cruiser Prinz Eugen is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum, USA.^[9]

Ar 196 A-5, Werknummer of 623 183
Another aircraft from the Prinz Eugen was displayed from 1949 to 1995 at the Naval Air Station Willow Grove, Pennsylvania and subsequently transferred to the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. The upper fuselage and canopy were damaged during transit, and it remained in storage awaiting restoration. In December 2012, it was packed into containers and shipped to Nordholz, Germany. Restoration began in August 2013, in time for that city's celebration for 100 years of German naval aviation. The plane, on long term loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum, will eventually be displayed at the Naval Air Wing 3 (Marinefliegergeschwader 3) headquarters at Nordholz Naval Airbase.^[10][11]

The Aircraft Historical Museum, Sola, Norway, has on display an Ar 196 A-2 fuselage frame raised from the wreck of the German cruiser Blücher in Oslofjord

Another aircraft is known to lie in the Jonsvatnet, a lake near Trondheim in Norway. A number of wartime German aircraft have been recovered from the lake, but the Ar 196 remains undisturbed as its crew were killed when it crashed there in 1940 and it has the status of a War Grave.

A wrecked Arado Ar 196 A-3, believed to be D1 + EH, was snagged by a fishing trawler off the island of Irakleia in 1982 at a depth of 91 meters. It was towed out of the fishing lanes to shallower waters (about 11 meters). The upside-down plane, with fuselage and wings mostly intact, has become a popular spot for Scuba diving.^[12]

Additional Research:

Bismarck carried: T3+AK, T3+DL, T3+IH and T3+MJ
Tirpitz carried: BB+YF, T3+BL, T3+DL, T3+GK, T3+HK, T3+LH and T3+LK
Scharnhorst: T3+DH, T3+EH, and T3+FM
Gniesenau:?
Admiral Sheer: T3+BH, T3+EL
Admiral Graf Spee:?
Deutschland/Lützow:?
Prinz Eugen: T3+KH, T3+MH, T3+CH, T3+LH
Admiral Hipper: 6W+AN, T3+DH, T3+HK and T3+MH who was sunk when damaged
Blücher:?

Auxiliary cruisers, also called armed merchant HSK 1 to 10

HSK1 Orion:?
HSK4 Thor:?
HSK5 Pinguin:?
HSK6 Stier:?
HSK7 Komet:?
HSK8 Kormoran:?
HSK9 Michel:?

Prototypes:

V1 - A series, flew summer 1937
V2 - A series, flew summer 1937
V3 - B series, single float
V4 - B series, single float
V5 - B series, single float, flew autumn 1938

Models:

Ar 196A-0 - 10 delivered 11.38 - 12.38
Ar 196A-1 - 20 delivered from 6.39
Ar 196A-2 - delivered from 11.39, first production model with the fixed forward firing armament of 2 20-mm and 1 7.9-mm
Ar 196A-4 - delivered from 12.40, strengthened structure, additional radio (FuG 16Z), air-screw spinner
Ar 196A-3 - delivered from 3.41, strengthened structure
Ar 196A-5 - delivered from 3.43, improved radio equipment (FuG 16Z and FuG 25a, later supplanted by FuG 141), the flexibly-mounted MG 15 in the rear cockpit giving place to an MG 81Z (twin 7.9-mm MG 81s) with 2000 rounds.
Ar 196B-0 - 10 delivered 1940-41, single floats
Ar 196C - project

Production:

1938: Arado (Warnemünde), 10
1939: Arado (Warnemünde), 40
1940: Arado (Warnemünde), 98
1941: Arado (Warnemünde), 97
1942: Arado (Warnemünde), 94; S.N.C.A. (St. Nazaire), 13
1943: Arado (Warnemünde), 83; S.N.C.A. (St. Nazaire), 10; Fokker (Amsterdam), 11
1944: Arado (Warnemünde), 22; Fokker (Amsterdam), 58

Units:

   Bordfliegergruppe 196

     Küstenfliegergruppe 706

  Seeaufklärungsgruppe 125

2./Seeaufklärungsgruppe 125 had 9 Arado 196s in autumn 1943 the unit was renamed to 4./SAGr.126; Suda were still in a sea-detachment with a Do 24 and three Cannot 506s of the Italian Seefliegerstaffel 288 who used the codes (7R + BK), (7R + CK), (7R + IK), (7R + GK), (7R + HK), (7R + MK)

Seeaufklärungsgruppe 126

Seeaufklärungsgruppe 130

Seeaufklärungsgruppe 131

III./KG100 - Kampfgeschwader 100

  1. and 3./KG200 - Kampfgeschwader 200