When, on 13 december 1939, the first salvo from Commodore Henry Harwood's cruiser squadron the Exeter, the Achilles and the Ajax struck the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, commanded by Kapitän Hans Langsdorff. it fortuitously wrecked the catapult on which was mounted a very new twin-float monoplane, the Arado Ar 196. Langsdorff, confident that his heavy weaponry would blow the lighter British vessels out of the water, had made what was to prove a fatal mistake. Instead of launching the floatplane to direct the fire of the GraJ Spee and then standing off and deslroying his opponents with his hcavy battery which outranged the armament of Harwood’s cruisers by some five-and-a-half miles he elected to close with the British squadron. As a result, the Graf Spee suffered damage necessitating breaking off combat and seeking sanctuary in the port of Montevideo in neutral Uruguay.
Thus, the Ar 196 destined to be the last in a long and noteworthy line of floatplanes created by the German aircraft industry during WW I and between the wars was to play no role in the final action of the vessel from which it had been first deployed operationally, but its début had not been inauspicious for it had fulfilled its task as the long-ranging eye of the Graf Spee with distinction during the months in which the pocket battleship had preyed on the Allied commerce routes.
When the Graf Spee had steamed out of Wilhelmshaven during the previous August, it had been the first German vessel equipped with the new Arado floatplane to put to sea. During its subsequent cruising in the South Atlantic, between Pernambuco, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, with the occasional foray into the Indian Ocean, the Graf Spee had captured and sunk 11 British merchantmen and the Ar 196 had been largely responsible for locating the victims.With the approaching obsolescence of the Heinkel He 60 float biplanes serving with the Bordfliegerstajfeln which deployed catapult aircraft aboard Kriegsmarine surface vessels, it had been a foregone conclusion that its successor would be provided by the Heinkel concern, whose association with waterborne aircraft dated back to the highly efficient Hansa-Brandenburg floatplanes of WW I. Indeed, the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke had been awarded a development contract by the Technische Amt of the Reichsluftfahrt-ministerium in the summer of 1935, but the aerodynamically rather advanced and rakish-looking He 114 that had materialised in the following year had proved to possess extremely poor hydrodynamic characteristics and only marginally better flying characteristics, with the result that, in the autumn of 1936, the Technische Amt had prepared a revised specification for a catapult floatplane. The specification called for a two-seat aircraft with alternative single- and twin-float arrangements. The desired performance was to be achieved on a total of 800-900 hp and a preference for a single-engined configuration was expressed, but in other respects the contending design teams were allowed complete freedom. Heinkel, still struggling to mollify the more serious shortcomings of the He 114 sesquiplane, did not submit proposals, but Arado, Dornier, Focke-Wulf and the Gothaer Waggonfabrik all made submissions, the last- mentioned concern, despite the expressed predilection of the Technische Amt, submitting a twin-engined proposal and Focke-Wulf offering a biplane whereas all other contenders were monoplanes.
The Arado project was favoured by the Technische Amt from the outset and four prototypes were promptly ordered as the Ar 196, but in view of the relatively advanced concept of the design and the predilection of some members of the department for biplanes for shipboard use, a contract was simultaneously awarded Focke-Wulf for two prototypes of the company’s more conventional approach to fulfilling the requirement, these being assigned the designation Fw 62. Every effort was made to ready prototypes of both floatplanes for trialsat Travemiinde in the summer of 1937, and the contending companies each succeeded in completing two prototypes of its respective design for participation in the scheduled test programme. The prototypes of the Arado contender, the Ar 196 VI (D-IEHK) and the V2 (D-IHQI) were both of twin-float configuration, whereas the two prototypes of the Focke-Wulf aircraft, the Fw 62 VI (D- OFWF) and the V2 (D-OHGF), were respectively of twin-float and single-main-float configuration. All four aircraft were powered by a similar BMW 132Dc nine-cylinder’air- cooled radial affording 880 hp for take-off and driving a two-bladed two-pitch Schwarz propeller, but the markedly superior performance of the monoplane was obvious from the outset and the Focke-Wulf contender was quickly eliminated from the contest.
The first two prototypes of the Ar 196, by now referred to as A-series machines, were rapidly joined by the third and fourth prototypes, the Ar 196 V3 (D-ILRE) and the V4 (D-OVMB), which were referred to as B-series aircraft in that they featured a single central float with outrigger stabilising floats. Apart from the float arrangement, they were identical to the preceding prototypes and whereas the A-series floatplanes had a 66 Imp gal (3001) fuel tank in each float, the B-series carried a single 132 Imp gal (6001) tank in the central main float. There was very little difference in performance between the single-and twin-float models, the V4 differing from the V3 in having redesigned stabilising floats with lower drag characteristics, revised lighter float bracing and the inclined vee-struts from the outrigger floats to one-third span eliminated. The Ar 196 V4 was also the first example of the floatplane to mount armament, this consisted of two wing-mounted 20-mm MG FF cannon with 60 rpg, a 7,9-mm MG 17 machine gun with 500 rounds in the starboard side of the forward fuselage and two underwing containers each intended to house a single 110-lb (50-kg) SC 50 bomb.
The hydrodynamic characteristics of the alternative float arrangements had been evaluated during August 1937 by the Aerodynamischen Versuchsanstalt Göttingen, but neither these nor subsequent trials at Travemiinde resulted in a definitive choice between the configurations, both offering some advantages. Weight and drag were similar for both arrangements, but while the single central float was found be preferable for alighting on choppy water, transmitting all shocks directly to the fuselage structure, the outboard stabilising floats evinced a tendency to “dip” at high speeds, producing an erratic take-off run under some circumstances. Although no definite conclusion had been reached, it was decided to proceed with a pre-series of 10 twin-float Ar 196A-0 aircraft and, at the same time, build a third B-series prototype. the Ar 196 V5 (D-IPDB). The V5, which was completed in the auturhn of 1938, was fitted with the uprated BMW 132K engine and three-bladed variable-pitch propeller intended for production models. Simultaneously, the Ar 196 VI was fitted with a similar power plant-propeller combination and various aerodynamic refinements were upplied with a view to establishing a series of international floatplane records. In the event, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium ruled that the record preparations should be discontinued on the grounds of security.
Production commences
By November 1938, when the first of the 10 pre-series Ar 196A-0 floatplanes left the Warnemunde assembly line, the twin-float arrangement had been finally adopted as standard by concensus. The structure of the floatplane was strictly conventional, the wing being a two-spar all-metal structure with metal skinning and the fuselage being a rectangular-section steel-tube structure faired to an oval by former ribs and covered forward by stressed metal skinning and aft by fabric. The wings were arranged to hinge at the trailing-edge root and the inclined inverted vee struts bracing the wings to the floats at one-third span were also hinged at their wing attachment points, the struts being detached at the floats and hinged inwards prior to wing folding. When folded the wings lay alongside the aft fuselage at an angle of 45 deg to the vertical. All movable control surfaces were metal-framed and fabric- covered, the elevator being of typical Arado one-piece design mounted aft of the vertical surfaces, and the entire wing trailing edge was occupied by ailerons and flaps, the former incorporating Flettner tabs.
The single-step hydronaluminium floats were each divided into seven water-tight compartments and. in addition to a 66 Imp gal (3001) fuel tank, each float accommodated a smoke canister and a stowage bin for flares, emergency rations, etc.
The two crew members were seated under a continuous canopy, an aft-sliding section enclosing the pilot and a forward-sliding section partially enclosing the aft-facing observer-gunner, and defensive armament was restricted to a single 7,9-mm MG 15 machine gun on an Arado-designed flexible mounting in the rear cockpit. OfTensive armament consisting of two 110-1 b (50-kg) SC 50 bombs on underwing racks immediately outboard of the float bracing. Power was provided by a BMW 132K affording 950 hp at 2,350 rpm for take-ofT and 970 hp at 1,475 ft (450 m). normal cruise power being 690 hp at 2,100 rpm at 4,920 ft (1 500 m).
Intensive trials were conducted with the Ar 196A-0 floatplanes throughout the winter of 1938-39, by which timework had begun on a series of 20 Ar 196A-ls. these incorporating minor changes (eg. some local structural strengthening and the repositioning of some items of equipment) dictated by preliminary trials with the pre-series aircraft and incorporating catapult pick-up points in their floats. Deliveriesof the Ar 196A-1 began to Bordfliegerstaffeln 1./196 and 5./196, the two shipboard units under Kriegsmarine control, which, based at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel-Holtenau respectively, supplied aircraft for the catapults of the principal German warships and, as previously related, one of the first of these vessels to take onboard the Ar 196A-1 and the first to set to sea with the new aircraft type was the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. Other warships replacing their aged He 60s with the Ar 196A-1 during the weeks immediately prior to and following the outbreak of hostilities were the Deutschland (later to be renamed Liitzow), the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Admiral Scheer and the Prinze Eugen.
All 20 Ar 196A-ls had left the Warnemunde assembly line by the end of 1939, although inclement weather had delayed flight trials and only six had. in fact, been taken on charge by the Kriegsmarine, and production had continued with a version intended specifically for use by the Kustenflieger-staffeln of the Luftwaffe, the Ar 196A-2. The Ar 196A-2 was intended for a more offensive röle than the A-l, its tasks including anti-shipping, the harassment of RAF Coastal Command aircraft and the protection of German shipping. It was thus intended to assume the mantle of its ancestors, the Brandenburg floatplanes of WW I which were used to attack Allied patrols in the Heligoland Bight. For its new missions, the Ar 196A-2 mounted a fixed forward-firing armament, this comprisinga pair of wing-mounted 20-mm MG FF (Oerlikon) cannon with 60 rpg and a single 7.9-mm MG 17 machine gun. which, mounted in the starboard side of the forward fuselage, was provided with 500 rounds. Empty and loaded weights were increased by comparison with the 4,506 and 6,514 lb (2 044 and 2955 kg) of the Ar 196A-1 to 4,574 and 7.000 lb (2 075 and 3 175 kg) respectively.
The Ar 196A-2 began to enter the Luftwaffe inventory early in 1940, the first recipient of this more heavily armed model being the 1 .Staffel of Kustenfliegergruppe 706, this unit being formed with a mix of the new Arado floatplane and the twin-engined Heinkel He 115 floatplane. Part of the Staffel was promptly deployed to Aalborg with the occupation of Denmark and it was from here that the Ar 196A-2 distinguished itself when, on 5 May 1940, a pair of aircraft of this type from 1 ./Ku.Fl.Gr.706 were responsible for the capture of the British submarine Seat. Commanded by Lt Cdr R Lonsdale, Seal had been engaged on a mine-laying mission in the Kattegat when it had, itself, suffered damage from a mine. No longer able to submerge. Seal had been spotted by an Ar 196A-2 flown by one Lt Gunther Mehrens who attacked the submarine with bombs and cannonfire. After a second Ar 196A-2 joined the attack, the disabled submarine had been surrendered, Mehrens had alighted alongside and taken the vessefs commander prisoner, flying him to Aalborg, and Seal itself had been towed to the nearby Danish port of Frederikshaven.
Early operational experience had meanwhile dictated some further structural strengthening, which together with the provision of additional radio equipment (FuG 16Z) and the replacement of the Schwarz propeller with one of VDM type, plus standardisation of a propeller spinner, resulted in the Ar 196A-3 sub-type, its equivalent for use from the catapults of Kriegsmarine vessels being the Ar 196A-4. the latter actually preceding the former on the Warnemiinde assembly line. Production of the Ar 196A-2 had meanwhile continued at a relatively low tempo, a total of only 98 machines being delivered during the course of 1940, this total including the first few of 24 Ar 196A-4s that had been ordered and which began to leave the line late in the year. Deliveries of the Ar 196A-3 began during the spring of 1941, and the majori ty of the 97 floatplanes delivered from Warnemiinde during the course of the year were to be of this sub-type. Wider deplovment
By 1941, the Arado floatplane was being encountered in increasing numbers, and in the spring, Ar 196A-4s were launched by Bismarck in an attempt to drive away the RAF Catalina flying boats shadowing the battleship after it had broken out into the Atlantic for what was to prove its one and only sortie from Bergenfjord, this vessel, the most powerful warship in the world at the time, being sunk on 28 May. By mid-year, Bordfliegerstaffel 5./196 with 26 aircraft mostly Ar 196A-3s but including a few He 114As was operating from the French Biscay coast under the Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik with the task of hunting RAF Coastal Command's Whitleys which patrolled the routes taken by U-boats entering and leaving their pens. On 25 August, with the return to Germany from Norway of l./Ku.Fl.Gr.706, half of Bordfliegerstaffel 1-/196 was redeployed from Wilhelmshaven to Stavanger, under Luftflotte 5, with 15 Arado floatplanes, a further three aircraft operating autonomously from Norwegian bases as the Kette Arado. Two See Aufklärungsgruppen, or maritime reconnaissance wings, also by now included Ar 196As in their inventories, 2./SAGr 125 operating the floatplanes as part of Luftflotte 1 under the Fliegerfiihrer Ostsee (Baltic), and 2./SAGr 131 operating a mix of Ar 196A-3s and Blohm und Voss BV 138 flying boats in Norway.
During the course of 1942, the parent company delivered 94 Ar 196A-3s from Warnemiinde and the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques plant at St Nazaire completed tooling for the floatplane, delivering its first aircraft in July and completing a further dozen before the end of the year. In the event, however, only an additional 10 Ar 196A-3s were to be built at St Nazaire before, in March 1943, the French facility was to be phased out of the programme and replaced by the Fokker plant in Amsterdam. Early in 1943, production at Warnemiinde ga ve place to the Ar 196A-5 sub-type which was destined to be the definitive model of the floatplane. Although essentially similar to the A-3, the Ar 196A-5 offered improved defensive armament, the MG 15 in the rear cockpit giving place to an MG 81Z installation (twin 7,9-mm MG 81s) provided with 2,000 rounds, and improved radio equipment, including FuG 167 and FuG 25a, later to be supplanted by FuG 141. It was this model that entered production in the Fokker facility during the summer of 1943, 11 being delivered from the Dutch line by the end of the year. The parent company was now in process of phasing out its floatplane assembly line, delivering a total of 83, during the course of the year, all production being concentrated at Fokker.
Meanwhile, Bordfliegerstaffel 5./196 had been redesignated l./SAGr 128, continuing its maritime reconnaissance röle in the Channel and Bay of Biscay areas, and during the course of the summer of 1943, a second Staffel, 2./SAGr 128 was formed. The Bordfliegerstaffel 1./196, which, during the course of 1941, had briefly employed a small batch of single-float Ar 196B-0 aircraft built as a result of lingering doubts concerning the twin-float arrangement for the catapult röle, remained in northern waters in the meantime, and was to continue to operate from Norwegian bases until 1944, when it was to return to Germany and expand as the three-Staffel Bord- fiiegergruppe 196.
By the beginning of 1944, the days of the Ar 196A, arguably the most successful German naval aeroplane of WW II, were obviously numbered. Its heyday, when the cannon-armed and relatively nimble floatplane was the hunter and the slow, unwieldy Whitleys of RAF Coastal Command its prey, had long past; it was now the Arado that was the prey of Coastal Command’s Beaufighters and its activities had become progressively restricted. In consequence, the last Ar 196A-5 left the Warnemiinde line in March 1944, the parent company having completed only 22 of the floatplanes during the first three months of the year, and during the following August, the Fokker line, too, was terminated, the Dutch company having contributed 58 Ar 196A-5s during the course of 1944 to the grand total of 526 of the Arado floatplanes built, this total excluding the prototypes and pre-series aircraft.
Development had been initiated, during 1941, of an aerodynamically refined and more extensively equipped variant of the floatplane, the Ar 196C. This, a dedicated short- range Coastal patrol version, was to have featured larger floats of new design to cater for higher loaded weights, and design development of these floats was completed during the course of the year by the Institut fur Seeflugwesen in Hamburg, but appreciation of the fact that the Ar 196C was likely to be obsolescent before it could achieve service led to cancellation of the development programme by the Reichsluftfahrt- ministerium.
Despite its production phase-out, the Ar 196A continued to be widely deployed, and in addition to Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine-controlled units operating the type, the Arado floatplane was also operating in Rumanian and Bulgarian colours. The Ar 196A-3 had been employed by the Bulgarian 161st Coastal Squadron from Varna from the autumn of 1942, this unit continuing to operate until the summer of 1944, and Ar 196A-3s also equipped the Rumanian 101st and 102nd Coastal Reconnaissance Squadrons from late 1943, these operating under the control of the Aufklärungsfuhrer-Schwarzes Meer West fReconnaissance Leader Black Sea West). The Black Sea was also the operational area of 2./SAGr 125, after its transfer from the Baltic to Constanza, Rumania, the Staffel later operating its Ar 196-3s in the Aegean and, subsequently, the Eastern Mediterranean, before being redesignated as 4.Staffel of SAGr 126 in September 1943. The See Aufklärungsgruppe 126 already possessed two Staffeln mounted on the Ar 196A floatplane, as was also the Stab, while 3.Staffel was equipped with the BV 138, and this four-Staffel Gruppe was to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Europé until well into 1944, but by the end of the year, the Ar 196As of the Stab and 1. and 2.Staffel were deployed under Luftflotte 6 on the northern-central sector of the Eastern Front. Retaining its mix of Ar 196As and BV 138s, 2./SAGr 131 had added an Ar 196A-equipped Stab by the beginning of 1944, and continued to operate from Norwegian bases under Fliegerfuhrer Nordmeer control until disbanded before the year’s end, but the Bordfliegergruppe 196, albeit down once more to Staffel strength, continued to operate until the end of hostilities in Europé when it was still under Kriegsmarine control at Grossenbrode as a part of Luftwaffe-Division See.
The phase-out of the Ar 196A assembly lines in Germany and the Netherlands in 1944 was not to mark merely the beginning of the end of an obsolescing combat aircraft; it signified the end of an era for this was destined to be the last fighting floatplane built in Europe. But as such it had acquitted itself honourably. It had served, often with distinction, under some of the most arduous conditions that could ever be the lot of a combat aircraft, operating in the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Sea, and throughout had displayed exceptional sturdiness and reliability. The Ar 196A had assuredly been the “eye of the Kriegsmarine”, as intended, but it had equallyproved itself one of the most perceptive eyes available to the Luftwaffe for much of WW II. □
Thus, the Ar 196 destined to be the last in a long and noteworthy line of floatplanes created by the German aircraft industry during WW I and between the wars was to play no role in the final action of the vessel from which it had been first deployed operationally, but its début had not been inauspicious for it had fulfilled its task as the long-ranging eye of the Graf Spee with distinction during the months in which the pocket battleship had preyed on the Allied commerce routes.
When the Graf Spee had steamed out of Wilhelmshaven during the previous August, it had been the first German vessel equipped with the new Arado floatplane to put to sea. During its subsequent cruising in the South Atlantic, between Pernambuco, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, with the occasional foray into the Indian Ocean, the Graf Spee had captured and sunk 11 British merchantmen and the Ar 196 had been largely responsible for locating the victims.With the approaching obsolescence of the Heinkel He 60 float biplanes serving with the Bordfliegerstajfeln which deployed catapult aircraft aboard Kriegsmarine surface vessels, it had been a foregone conclusion that its successor would be provided by the Heinkel concern, whose association with waterborne aircraft dated back to the highly efficient Hansa-Brandenburg floatplanes of WW I. Indeed, the Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke had been awarded a development contract by the Technische Amt of the Reichsluftfahrt-ministerium in the summer of 1935, but the aerodynamically rather advanced and rakish-looking He 114 that had materialised in the following year had proved to possess extremely poor hydrodynamic characteristics and only marginally better flying characteristics, with the result that, in the autumn of 1936, the Technische Amt had prepared a revised specification for a catapult floatplane. The specification called for a two-seat aircraft with alternative single- and twin-float arrangements. The desired performance was to be achieved on a total of 800-900 hp and a preference for a single-engined configuration was expressed, but in other respects the contending design teams were allowed complete freedom. Heinkel, still struggling to mollify the more serious shortcomings of the He 114 sesquiplane, did not submit proposals, but Arado, Dornier, Focke-Wulf and the Gothaer Waggonfabrik all made submissions, the last- mentioned concern, despite the expressed predilection of the Technische Amt, submitting a twin-engined proposal and Focke-Wulf offering a biplane whereas all other contenders were monoplanes.
The Arado project was favoured by the Technische Amt from the outset and four prototypes were promptly ordered as the Ar 196, but in view of the relatively advanced concept of the design and the predilection of some members of the department for biplanes for shipboard use, a contract was simultaneously awarded Focke-Wulf for two prototypes of the company’s more conventional approach to fulfilling the requirement, these being assigned the designation Fw 62. Every effort was made to ready prototypes of both floatplanes for trialsat Travemiinde in the summer of 1937, and the contending companies each succeeded in completing two prototypes of its respective design for participation in the scheduled test programme. The prototypes of the Arado contender, the Ar 196 VI (D-IEHK) and the V2 (D-IHQI) were both of twin-float configuration, whereas the two prototypes of the Focke-Wulf aircraft, the Fw 62 VI (D- OFWF) and the V2 (D-OHGF), were respectively of twin-float and single-main-float configuration. All four aircraft were powered by a similar BMW 132Dc nine-cylinder’air- cooled radial affording 880 hp for take-off and driving a two-bladed two-pitch Schwarz propeller, but the markedly superior performance of the monoplane was obvious from the outset and the Focke-Wulf contender was quickly eliminated from the contest.
The first two prototypes of the Ar 196, by now referred to as A-series machines, were rapidly joined by the third and fourth prototypes, the Ar 196 V3 (D-ILRE) and the V4 (D-OVMB), which were referred to as B-series aircraft in that they featured a single central float with outrigger stabilising floats. Apart from the float arrangement, they were identical to the preceding prototypes and whereas the A-series floatplanes had a 66 Imp gal (3001) fuel tank in each float, the B-series carried a single 132 Imp gal (6001) tank in the central main float. There was very little difference in performance between the single-and twin-float models, the V4 differing from the V3 in having redesigned stabilising floats with lower drag characteristics, revised lighter float bracing and the inclined vee-struts from the outrigger floats to one-third span eliminated. The Ar 196 V4 was also the first example of the floatplane to mount armament, this consisted of two wing-mounted 20-mm MG FF cannon with 60 rpg, a 7,9-mm MG 17 machine gun with 500 rounds in the starboard side of the forward fuselage and two underwing containers each intended to house a single 110-lb (50-kg) SC 50 bomb.
The hydrodynamic characteristics of the alternative float arrangements had been evaluated during August 1937 by the Aerodynamischen Versuchsanstalt Göttingen, but neither these nor subsequent trials at Travemiinde resulted in a definitive choice between the configurations, both offering some advantages. Weight and drag were similar for both arrangements, but while the single central float was found be preferable for alighting on choppy water, transmitting all shocks directly to the fuselage structure, the outboard stabilising floats evinced a tendency to “dip” at high speeds, producing an erratic take-off run under some circumstances. Although no definite conclusion had been reached, it was decided to proceed with a pre-series of 10 twin-float Ar 196A-0 aircraft and, at the same time, build a third B-series prototype. the Ar 196 V5 (D-IPDB). The V5, which was completed in the auturhn of 1938, was fitted with the uprated BMW 132K engine and three-bladed variable-pitch propeller intended for production models. Simultaneously, the Ar 196 VI was fitted with a similar power plant-propeller combination and various aerodynamic refinements were upplied with a view to establishing a series of international floatplane records. In the event, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium ruled that the record preparations should be discontinued on the grounds of security.
Production commences
By November 1938, when the first of the 10 pre-series Ar 196A-0 floatplanes left the Warnemunde assembly line, the twin-float arrangement had been finally adopted as standard by concensus. The structure of the floatplane was strictly conventional, the wing being a two-spar all-metal structure with metal skinning and the fuselage being a rectangular-section steel-tube structure faired to an oval by former ribs and covered forward by stressed metal skinning and aft by fabric. The wings were arranged to hinge at the trailing-edge root and the inclined inverted vee struts bracing the wings to the floats at one-third span were also hinged at their wing attachment points, the struts being detached at the floats and hinged inwards prior to wing folding. When folded the wings lay alongside the aft fuselage at an angle of 45 deg to the vertical. All movable control surfaces were metal-framed and fabric- covered, the elevator being of typical Arado one-piece design mounted aft of the vertical surfaces, and the entire wing trailing edge was occupied by ailerons and flaps, the former incorporating Flettner tabs.
The single-step hydronaluminium floats were each divided into seven water-tight compartments and. in addition to a 66 Imp gal (3001) fuel tank, each float accommodated a smoke canister and a stowage bin for flares, emergency rations, etc.
The two crew members were seated under a continuous canopy, an aft-sliding section enclosing the pilot and a forward-sliding section partially enclosing the aft-facing observer-gunner, and defensive armament was restricted to a single 7,9-mm MG 15 machine gun on an Arado-designed flexible mounting in the rear cockpit. OfTensive armament consisting of two 110-1 b (50-kg) SC 50 bombs on underwing racks immediately outboard of the float bracing. Power was provided by a BMW 132K affording 950 hp at 2,350 rpm for take-ofT and 970 hp at 1,475 ft (450 m). normal cruise power being 690 hp at 2,100 rpm at 4,920 ft (1 500 m).
Intensive trials were conducted with the Ar 196A-0 floatplanes throughout the winter of 1938-39, by which timework had begun on a series of 20 Ar 196A-ls. these incorporating minor changes (eg. some local structural strengthening and the repositioning of some items of equipment) dictated by preliminary trials with the pre-series aircraft and incorporating catapult pick-up points in their floats. Deliveriesof the Ar 196A-1 began to Bordfliegerstaffeln 1./196 and 5./196, the two shipboard units under Kriegsmarine control, which, based at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel-Holtenau respectively, supplied aircraft for the catapults of the principal German warships and, as previously related, one of the first of these vessels to take onboard the Ar 196A-1 and the first to set to sea with the new aircraft type was the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. Other warships replacing their aged He 60s with the Ar 196A-1 during the weeks immediately prior to and following the outbreak of hostilities were the Deutschland (later to be renamed Liitzow), the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Admiral Scheer and the Prinze Eugen.
All 20 Ar 196A-ls had left the Warnemunde assembly line by the end of 1939, although inclement weather had delayed flight trials and only six had. in fact, been taken on charge by the Kriegsmarine, and production had continued with a version intended specifically for use by the Kustenflieger-staffeln of the Luftwaffe, the Ar 196A-2. The Ar 196A-2 was intended for a more offensive röle than the A-l, its tasks including anti-shipping, the harassment of RAF Coastal Command aircraft and the protection of German shipping. It was thus intended to assume the mantle of its ancestors, the Brandenburg floatplanes of WW I which were used to attack Allied patrols in the Heligoland Bight. For its new missions, the Ar 196A-2 mounted a fixed forward-firing armament, this comprisinga pair of wing-mounted 20-mm MG FF (Oerlikon) cannon with 60 rpg and a single 7.9-mm MG 17 machine gun. which, mounted in the starboard side of the forward fuselage, was provided with 500 rounds. Empty and loaded weights were increased by comparison with the 4,506 and 6,514 lb (2 044 and 2955 kg) of the Ar 196A-1 to 4,574 and 7.000 lb (2 075 and 3 175 kg) respectively.
The Ar 196A-2 began to enter the Luftwaffe inventory early in 1940, the first recipient of this more heavily armed model being the 1 .Staffel of Kustenfliegergruppe 706, this unit being formed with a mix of the new Arado floatplane and the twin-engined Heinkel He 115 floatplane. Part of the Staffel was promptly deployed to Aalborg with the occupation of Denmark and it was from here that the Ar 196A-2 distinguished itself when, on 5 May 1940, a pair of aircraft of this type from 1 ./Ku.Fl.Gr.706 were responsible for the capture of the British submarine Seat. Commanded by Lt Cdr R Lonsdale, Seal had been engaged on a mine-laying mission in the Kattegat when it had, itself, suffered damage from a mine. No longer able to submerge. Seal had been spotted by an Ar 196A-2 flown by one Lt Gunther Mehrens who attacked the submarine with bombs and cannonfire. After a second Ar 196A-2 joined the attack, the disabled submarine had been surrendered, Mehrens had alighted alongside and taken the vessefs commander prisoner, flying him to Aalborg, and Seal itself had been towed to the nearby Danish port of Frederikshaven.
Early operational experience had meanwhile dictated some further structural strengthening, which together with the provision of additional radio equipment (FuG 16Z) and the replacement of the Schwarz propeller with one of VDM type, plus standardisation of a propeller spinner, resulted in the Ar 196A-3 sub-type, its equivalent for use from the catapults of Kriegsmarine vessels being the Ar 196A-4. the latter actually preceding the former on the Warnemiinde assembly line. Production of the Ar 196A-2 had meanwhile continued at a relatively low tempo, a total of only 98 machines being delivered during the course of 1940, this total including the first few of 24 Ar 196A-4s that had been ordered and which began to leave the line late in the year. Deliveries of the Ar 196A-3 began during the spring of 1941, and the majori ty of the 97 floatplanes delivered from Warnemiinde during the course of the year were to be of this sub-type. Wider deplovment
By 1941, the Arado floatplane was being encountered in increasing numbers, and in the spring, Ar 196A-4s were launched by Bismarck in an attempt to drive away the RAF Catalina flying boats shadowing the battleship after it had broken out into the Atlantic for what was to prove its one and only sortie from Bergenfjord, this vessel, the most powerful warship in the world at the time, being sunk on 28 May. By mid-year, Bordfliegerstaffel 5./196 with 26 aircraft mostly Ar 196A-3s but including a few He 114As was operating from the French Biscay coast under the Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik with the task of hunting RAF Coastal Command's Whitleys which patrolled the routes taken by U-boats entering and leaving their pens. On 25 August, with the return to Germany from Norway of l./Ku.Fl.Gr.706, half of Bordfliegerstaffel 1-/196 was redeployed from Wilhelmshaven to Stavanger, under Luftflotte 5, with 15 Arado floatplanes, a further three aircraft operating autonomously from Norwegian bases as the Kette Arado. Two See Aufklärungsgruppen, or maritime reconnaissance wings, also by now included Ar 196As in their inventories, 2./SAGr 125 operating the floatplanes as part of Luftflotte 1 under the Fliegerfiihrer Ostsee (Baltic), and 2./SAGr 131 operating a mix of Ar 196A-3s and Blohm und Voss BV 138 flying boats in Norway.
During the course of 1942, the parent company delivered 94 Ar 196A-3s from Warnemiinde and the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques plant at St Nazaire completed tooling for the floatplane, delivering its first aircraft in July and completing a further dozen before the end of the year. In the event, however, only an additional 10 Ar 196A-3s were to be built at St Nazaire before, in March 1943, the French facility was to be phased out of the programme and replaced by the Fokker plant in Amsterdam. Early in 1943, production at Warnemiinde ga ve place to the Ar 196A-5 sub-type which was destined to be the definitive model of the floatplane. Although essentially similar to the A-3, the Ar 196A-5 offered improved defensive armament, the MG 15 in the rear cockpit giving place to an MG 81Z installation (twin 7,9-mm MG 81s) provided with 2,000 rounds, and improved radio equipment, including FuG 167 and FuG 25a, later to be supplanted by FuG 141. It was this model that entered production in the Fokker facility during the summer of 1943, 11 being delivered from the Dutch line by the end of the year. The parent company was now in process of phasing out its floatplane assembly line, delivering a total of 83, during the course of the year, all production being concentrated at Fokker.
Meanwhile, Bordfliegerstaffel 5./196 had been redesignated l./SAGr 128, continuing its maritime reconnaissance röle in the Channel and Bay of Biscay areas, and during the course of the summer of 1943, a second Staffel, 2./SAGr 128 was formed. The Bordfliegerstaffel 1./196, which, during the course of 1941, had briefly employed a small batch of single-float Ar 196B-0 aircraft built as a result of lingering doubts concerning the twin-float arrangement for the catapult röle, remained in northern waters in the meantime, and was to continue to operate from Norwegian bases until 1944, when it was to return to Germany and expand as the three-Staffel Bord- fiiegergruppe 196.
By the beginning of 1944, the days of the Ar 196A, arguably the most successful German naval aeroplane of WW II, were obviously numbered. Its heyday, when the cannon-armed and relatively nimble floatplane was the hunter and the slow, unwieldy Whitleys of RAF Coastal Command its prey, had long past; it was now the Arado that was the prey of Coastal Command’s Beaufighters and its activities had become progressively restricted. In consequence, the last Ar 196A-5 left the Warnemiinde line in March 1944, the parent company having completed only 22 of the floatplanes during the first three months of the year, and during the following August, the Fokker line, too, was terminated, the Dutch company having contributed 58 Ar 196A-5s during the course of 1944 to the grand total of 526 of the Arado floatplanes built, this total excluding the prototypes and pre-series aircraft.
Development had been initiated, during 1941, of an aerodynamically refined and more extensively equipped variant of the floatplane, the Ar 196C. This, a dedicated short- range Coastal patrol version, was to have featured larger floats of new design to cater for higher loaded weights, and design development of these floats was completed during the course of the year by the Institut fur Seeflugwesen in Hamburg, but appreciation of the fact that the Ar 196C was likely to be obsolescent before it could achieve service led to cancellation of the development programme by the Reichsluftfahrt- ministerium.
Despite its production phase-out, the Ar 196A continued to be widely deployed, and in addition to Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine-controlled units operating the type, the Arado floatplane was also operating in Rumanian and Bulgarian colours. The Ar 196A-3 had been employed by the Bulgarian 161st Coastal Squadron from Varna from the autumn of 1942, this unit continuing to operate until the summer of 1944, and Ar 196A-3s also equipped the Rumanian 101st and 102nd Coastal Reconnaissance Squadrons from late 1943, these operating under the control of the Aufklärungsfuhrer-Schwarzes Meer West fReconnaissance Leader Black Sea West). The Black Sea was also the operational area of 2./SAGr 125, after its transfer from the Baltic to Constanza, Rumania, the Staffel later operating its Ar 196-3s in the Aegean and, subsequently, the Eastern Mediterranean, before being redesignated as 4.Staffel of SAGr 126 in September 1943. The See Aufklärungsgruppe 126 already possessed two Staffeln mounted on the Ar 196A floatplane, as was also the Stab, while 3.Staffel was equipped with the BV 138, and this four-Staffel Gruppe was to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Europé until well into 1944, but by the end of the year, the Ar 196As of the Stab and 1. and 2.Staffel were deployed under Luftflotte 6 on the northern-central sector of the Eastern Front. Retaining its mix of Ar 196As and BV 138s, 2./SAGr 131 had added an Ar 196A-equipped Stab by the beginning of 1944, and continued to operate from Norwegian bases under Fliegerfuhrer Nordmeer control until disbanded before the year’s end, but the Bordfliegergruppe 196, albeit down once more to Staffel strength, continued to operate until the end of hostilities in Europé when it was still under Kriegsmarine control at Grossenbrode as a part of Luftwaffe-Division See.
The phase-out of the Ar 196A assembly lines in Germany and the Netherlands in 1944 was not to mark merely the beginning of the end of an obsolescing combat aircraft; it signified the end of an era for this was destined to be the last fighting floatplane built in Europe. But as such it had acquitted itself honourably. It had served, often with distinction, under some of the most arduous conditions that could ever be the lot of a combat aircraft, operating in the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Sea, and throughout had displayed exceptional sturdiness and reliability. The Ar 196A had assuredly been the “eye of the Kriegsmarine”, as intended, but it had equallyproved itself one of the most perceptive eyes available to the Luftwaffe for much of WW II. □
