Wanderzirkus Rosarius

This was the unofficial name of a German Luftwaffe unit that flew captured American and British aircraft, evaluated them, and then flew them around and let German fighter pilots fly them and see their weak points. It was named after its commander, Theodore Rosarius. I've read several general references about the unit but nothing really substantive. I have to wonder, did this unit give the Germans any advantage? Flying planes that had been crash landed and restored, trying to duplicate fuel and figuring out how to maintain these "alien" craft could have resulted in the Germans flying planes that weren't giving max performance could have given the German pilots a false sense of confidence. Likewise, flying a P-51 that WAS performing close to spec might have been very discouraging for a pilot who was flying an ME 109G6! I would like to see what you air war buffs think of, or perhaps know of, this unit and its contribution to the Luftwaffe war effort.

What brought this on was a picture I just saw of a bizarre hybrid put together by this unit. They grafted a Me 110 engine cowling and DB 650 engine onto a Spitfire. Strangely, it seemed to have worked reasonably well. Seems like a waste of time and effort though.

 

These captured aircrafts were called Beutefluzeugen. The allies had similar units, for instance the U.S has a facility in Dayton Ohio, where they had a captured Me-109 handed to the British by the French in 1939 and sent from the UK to the U.S.

 

I know for the USA a captured Japanese zero was a godsend. I also know that the Brits had a similar unit. What I was asking was whether the German unit produced any significant benefits for them.

 

I guess if any pilot knows the strengths and possible weaknesses of the enemy planes that is a good thing for him in trying to bring more enemy planes down. I think that is the reason these circuses were flown around and pilots were able to test them.

 

on the surface,you'd think so, but the only real example of the concept working is our capture of a zero in the Alutiens. I really haven't seen any other possible benefits of these units or programs because combat experience would have yielded the same results quicker. For instance, by the time the British wrung out the secrets to its captured ME 109E and disseminated the results, the Germans would have been fielding the F model.

 

The Germans actually enjoyed flying captured aircrafts. They used Dewoitines and Moranes for their Lehrschule and even gave some of their captured aircrafts to thier allies, for examples the Romanian airforce. It was not so much a strategical benefit to get enemy aircrafts, but more a economical benefit. Having one P-51 or one Zero would not change the cours eof the war, having many dozens flyworthy aircrafts, may they be outdated, could make a difference. For example using old aircrafts for the Lehrschule would save the new fighters for combat units and losing a beuteflugzeug would not be a s bad as brand new FW-190.

 

I can see using aircraft of the occupied countries as auxillary units or even trainers since they could be maintained and serviced at the occupied countries airfields and factories. However, what I'm concerned with here is downed enemy warbirds being refurbished for intelligence reasons. So, Skipper, I take it from your last post, you don't think these programs were worth much either.

 

In fact the Luftwaffe used whatever they could catch. I'm not saying intelligence didn't matter. It was just extremely hard to get intact latest versions of enemy aircrafts, so they analysed what they could .

French :

http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/beute/frankreich/



USA including a B-17!
http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/beute/frankreich/





Brtiain including a Lancaster

http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/beute/frankreich/

as to refurbishing they did that too. What a about a Spitfire V with a German DB605 engine?




http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/aircraft/faacapturedaircrafthomepage.html

More info

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=136508

 

your premise seems to be supported by this comment from a young pilot posted to II.(Sturm) /JG 4 during the summer of 1944 quoted in Mombeek's history of Jagdgeschwader 4

" ..The day was rounded off with a demonstration of captured American aircraft, in particular a P-51 Mustang – it was stressed that our Bf 109s and Fw 190s were generally superior to this type. We soon realised on our first combat sortie that this statement was not entirely accurate....”

 

If that "young pilot" was flying an up-armored, up-gunned FW 190 or ME 109 in a sturmgruppen, then we would have to nominate him as a past-master of understatement! Do you know if he lived through the war?

 

After Dunkirk I came under fire from a Blenheim bomber. It was flying up, the valley in the Purbeck area, we waved to it as it came in low only to be machine gunned. No one was injured..