Projects of the German Secret Flight Test Center at Lipetsk, USSR 1924-1933

Thanks! I'll study this in detail, which I suspect will take a while.

I'm also trying to verify the job(s) Gerstenberg held while assigned to the school.

He'd started in a cavalry regiment (with MvR) pre- and early WW I, then became a Beobachter, serving as MvR's observer in Russia in 1916. Graduated from fighter pilot training in 1917 whereupon MvR invited him to join his famous Jasta 11 fighter squadron. Gerstenberg was an aggressive fighter pilot (MvR called him the most aggressive fighter pilot he'd ever known), but was shot through a lung before he could score any aerial victories. The injury kept him out of the remainder of the war, although he remained in the Luftstreitkräfte (through it's various renamings) postwar.

So, as a trained Beobachter and fighter pilot, he would have been qualified to instruct students at Lipetsk, but the only (questionable) reference I've found suggests he was possibly the "assistant" to the school's commander from 1926-32. Not at all clear what that actually meant, although one of his late 1930s officer evaluation reports noted he was conversant in Russian. He must have had an affinity for new languages, because he became fluent in Romanian from 1939, which greatly improved his ability to work with Antonescu and the Romanian General Staff during WW II.

Similar to the interwar US Army Air Corps, the Lipetsk school was small and insular, and everybody pretty well knew everybody else--so when WW II came around, the Lipetsk veterans all knew their former classmates and school staff members well. Part of the story I'm stitching together about Gerstenberg relates to these post-school relationships, which is why your partial list of graduates and staff above is so helpful.

One thing that has always amazed me is how seldom military historians focus on prewar relationships among the officer corps and enlisted ranks who served together during the lean times. Friendships and enmities were forged then that impacted later military activities in various and often important ways.
 
Thanks. I communicated extensively with Larry DeZeng several years ago--hope he's still with us and doing well. Always super helpful. What a treasure (largely unrecognized) to the Lw research community!

With his help I identified the Luftwaffenmission in Rumänien staff Flak officer who took over operational command of the Lw and Romanian anti-aircraft units during the TIDAL WAVE attack. As far as I can tell from very extensive research, it was previously unknown that the LwIR organization had a Flakfü on the same level as their Jagdfü (both of whom were on leave on 1 Aug 43 and missed the attack), and presumably a Nachtjagdfü, although I've never identified the position exsiting in Romania nor who may have held it.

Reading online accounts of unknown accuracy about the Lipetsk operation reveals some famous names claimed to have attended or related to the school:
  • Martin Fiebig, later commaner Luftwaffenkommando Südost, and therefore one of Gerstenberg's several "bosses" when he commanded LwiR
  • Carl-August (von?) Schoenebeck/Schönebeck, who held the same command as Gerstenberg, except in Bulgaria
  • Kurt Student, later Generaloberst and head of German parachute forces
  • Hans Jeschonnek, later chief of the OKL (a job he did poorly)
  • Werner von Blomberg, later minister of defense, visited once in 1928--would have met the entire staff, particularly the various leaders and senior staff members
  • Nicholas von Below, Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant/aide
  • Hugo Sperrle, later Generalfeldmarschall and commander of Luftflotte 3 during the D-Day invasion; later dismissed by Hitler
  • Wolfgang Falck, (possibly at the tail end of Lipetsk operations), later Oberst; made several trips to Romania soon after 1 Aug 43 to inspect and advise the night fighter forces there; became Jagdfliegerführer Balkan in mid-1944, so was in charge of German, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Yugoslavian fighters from then until the surrender of Romania at the end of Aug 44.
 

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