The Fedden Mission was a British scientific mission sent by the Ministry of Aircraft Production to Germany at the end of the Second World War in Europe, to gather technical intelligence about German aircraft and aeroengines. It was named for the Mission's leader, Roy Fedden.Christopher, John. The Race for Hitler's X-Planes (The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2013), pp.11-12. It visited Bad Oeynhausen, Bad Eilsen, Völkenrode, Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Oschersleben, Staßfurt, Dessau, Kothen, Nordhausen, Göttingen, Kassel, Eisenach, Frankfurt, Rüsselsheim, Darmstadt, Stuttgart, Esslingen, Reutlingen, Mengen, Lindau, Freising, Munich, Rosenheim, Kochel, Oberammergau, Kolbermoor, Salzburg, Spittal, Villach, and Klagenfurt.Christopher, map p.26. This is much less than the fifty-two locations they had intended to visit when the Mission began.Christopher, p.27
The Mission was inspired in part by the similar American scientific mission, Operation Lusty, as well as by the German advances in jet aircraft and engines, as well as ballistic missiles, toward the war's end.Christopher, pp.7 & 9. It was also, in part, inspired by the desire to disarm Germany and prevent another postwar rise, like the one following the end of the First World War.Christopher, pp.36-8. (Unspoken, but also doubtless a factor, was a desire to keep Britain from becoming a second-rate nation.) In any event, the capture of German technology by both the United States and Soviet Union contributed to an acceleration of the postwar arms race.Christopher, pp.39 and 189.
Organized at the instruction of Stafford Cripps, then Minister of Aircraft Production,Christopher, p.11. the Mission consisted of Fedden; Dr W J Duncan, Professor of Aeronautics from University College of Hull, then seconded to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE); J C King of RAE's Structural and Mechanical Engineering Department; Flight Lieutenant A B P Beeton, RAF, of RAE's Engine Department; Bert Newport of Rotol, Ltd. They were assisted by W J Stern of the Allied Control Commission and Wing Commander V Cross, RAF, the Mission's Liaison Officer to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (as well as its translator); their two RAF Dakotas were flown by F/L Reid, RAF, and F/L Cheany, RAFVR.Christopher, p.12. These aircraft each carried one of the Mission's Jeeps, which they soon learned to unload and have on the road in only ten minutes.Christopher, p.25
Everywhere the Mission went, it encountered looting by Allied troops and German civilians, and sabotage by German factory workers and the Heer (on Hitler's orders)Christopher, p.36-7. The German scientists and technicians were, in general, very co-operative with the British interviewers, with Fedden mentioning "considerable apprehension" about their fate and some wishing to emigrate to the U.S. or Canada.Christopher, p.54: Fedden quoted ibid. (They had genuine concern about forced emigration to the Soviet Union, as many of the V-2 program scientists suffered.)
The Mission particularly criticized the RLM for its starting and stopping of engine production programs.Christopher, p.85
In Germany
First week - June 12-16 The Mission left RAF Northolt on Tuesday, 12 June 1945 at 14.15, bound for Bückeburg, Germany, southwest of Hannover.Christopher, pp. 11 & 24. They reached Bückeburg at 16.30 and were immediately sent on to another airfield; they eventually reached Bad Eilsen, headquarters of Second Tactical Air Force, at 21.30. From there, they were driven to 21st Army Group.Christopher, pp.24 and 209, identifies them mistakenly as Second Army Group, a formation which appears not to exist. headquarters at Bad Oeynhausen, where they spent their first night.Christopher, p.24. Wing Commander Cross, by proposing one aircraft fly ahead to arrange accommodations, permits for interviews, travel permits for interview subjects, and so on, made an important contribution to the timely operation, and ultimate success, of the Mission. The Mission's access to German civilians was strictly limited by an Allied policy discouraging contact beyond what was strictly necessary.Christopher, p.30.
The Mission based their initial forays out of Braunschweig, in the British Occupation Zone, where they spent their first six days, moving later to Kassel, in the American Zone. For their more southerly objecties, they worked out of Freising, headquarters of Third U.S. Army Intelligence, some from Hamburg, for another six days.Christopher, p.28 Their third base of operations was SHAEF Headquarters, Frankfurt.
On their second full day in Germany, Thursday 14 June, they visited the most secret German aeronautical research establishment, the Hermann Göring Institute (or Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt, LFA), at Völkenrode; they remained there through 15 June.Christopher, pp.24-5, 27, 42, and 209. Völkenrode, today a western district of the nearby city of Braunschweig, was at the top of Fedden's list — despite its eventual presence on the west side of the Inner German border, with Völkenrode being within West German borders — because it was initially within the designated Russian Zone of Occupation, due to be handed over from British control (in which it was when he departed) in a matter of days.Christopher, pp.35-36. When the Mission arrived, the LFA had already been stripped by Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS) teams, and was (despite being in the British Zone) effectively in U.S. hands.Christopher, p.40.
At Völkenrode, the Mission examined the wind tunnels. These had been used to develop the swept wing, the forward-swept wing, the Messerschmitt Me 262, the BMW-designed cowlings used for all versions of the BMW 801 radial (used in the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and a number of other important German military aircraft designs, especially in unitized engine formats), the Argus-designed pulsejet engine of the V-1 cruise missile, and other items. The members also viewed examples of the Rheinmetall-Börsig F25 Feuerlilie surface-to-air missile, named for the Fire Lily flower (though the Mission Report shows photographs of the F55), and examples of documentation concerning the competing designs for the Amerikabomber design competition (which is suspected to not have included any mention, nor discovered any evidence of Heinkel's entry in the program), as well as the Engine Department.Christopher, pp.42-53.
While the team found evidence of trials of photoelastic lacquers for stress tests, it proved impossible to interview any of the laboratory staff to learn more.Christopher, p.52. (Fedden considered the LFA Engine Department lacking in modern equipment, but the LFA complex possessed a better altitude test bed installation than any in Britain; a better example still would be seen at BMW's Munich facility.)Christophefr, p.53 The turbojet engine research artifacts found included examples of turbine and stator blade forms, blade cooling, blade construction (including hollow and ceramic types), piston cooling, and other matters. While at Völkenrode, the Americans stole equipment from under the noses of the British (including an interferometer),Christopher, p.54. only to have the thefts denied when confronted by Britain at Potsdam.Christopher, pp.50-1. The Fedden Mission spent two days at Völkenrode, its sub-team returning ten days later.
The Mission left Braunschweig airfield 19.15 on Friday, 15 June for Kassel, away (where the Henschel firm's aviation division was based); next morning, one group went to Göttingen to interrogate Dr. Ludwig Prandtl and his team;Christopher, pp.54-5 and 210. Fedden called them "a first class team of experimental research workers".quoted Christopher, p.55. While in Göttingen, Mission members examined more than ten wind tunnels on the campus, plus several used for fluid dynamics studies. They spent 17 June in Göttingen, also.Christopher, p.210
The same day, the second Mission group flew to Oschersleben (the home of AGO, a major Fw 190A subcontractor) then drove by Jeep to the Junkers jet engine plant at Magdeburg. They had little time before it, and all the surrounding territory, was handed over to the Soviets. The Junkers works, used for manufacturing and overhaul of Jumo 004 jet engines, had been heavily bombed; while there were a number of engine test-beds, there was no sign of jet engine research having been done there.Christopher, p.69 Otto Hartkopf, then acting works manager, conducted the Junkers factory tour, explaining all the jet engine drawings had already been removed. Hartkopf reported over 5,000 jet engines had been produced there in all;Christopher, p.69 production, including several other plants, was expected to reach 5,000 per month.Christopher, p.70 (At war's end, deliveries of 004s had reached 1,500 a month.) The Mission observed the construction methods of the 004; Fedden criticized the attachment of the 004's compressor casing, which was in two halves, bolted to the half-sections of the stator assemblies.
Second week (17-23 June 1945) The Mission also examined production of the BMW 003 jet engine, at facilities in Eisenach and Staßfurt. On Monday, 18 June, it split in two teams again, one driving the Eisenach works. Fedden met with Dr. Bruno Bruckmann, head of BMW's jet engine research program in Berlin and strong supporter of jet engine production and use, as well as to drive propellers (turboprop engines); in 1942, Bruckman was made head of BMW piston engine programs. At Eisenach, the Mission spoke to the facility's managing director, Dr. Schaaf, and Drs. Fattler and Stoffergen, learning BMW employed 11,000 there in all, 4,500 in a camouflaged factory in the side of the hill, the rest in the town.Christopher, p.71 Despite adding plants at Spandau, Nordhausen, and Prague, BMW never reached the production target of 5,000 to 6,000 109-003 engines a month, with only some 500 examples of the 003 built before V-E Day.
At Eisenach, the Mission discovered the BMW 003R had incorporated a reusable liquid fueled rocket engine in the rear of the nacelle, the BMW 109-718, to act as an assisted take-off unit, or to provide acceleration in climb or flight (akin to what the Americans postwar called "mixed power").Christopher, p.73 Fedden called the production quality at Eisenach "excellent". The next day, the Mission examined a BMW facility near Staßfurt, set up in a former salt mine underground, which was to have used for machining jet engine parts, and possibly for assembly, also; Stoffergen said 1,700 machine tools had been installed, and some 2,000 workers had been employed.Christopher, p. 74 The Mission also found some information on the high-thrust (designed for a 34.3 kN (7,700 lbf) top output level) BMW 018 jet engine project, which was begun in 1940, but remained unfinished by war's end; Fedden himself examined compressor blade forgings and a turbine blade.
By Monday, June 18, the Mission drove from Kothen to Dessau, home of Junkers Flugzeug-und-Motorenwerke. Speaking to the technical director in charge of the inverted V12, liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 213's development, the Mission learned there were many experimental variants, but only three [definitive] models: the 213A (the major production version), the 213E (a high-altitude model), and the projected 213J (improved still more).Christopher, p.79