Arado Ar.96, German users, part two

 

The Arado Ar.96 was a German low-wing monoplane trainer aircraft made entirely out of metal which was the standard Luftwaffe's trainer during World War 2.

The prototype, named V1, flew for the first time in 1937 and later that same year it underwent Reichluftfahrtministerium's (Reich's Aviation Ministry - RLM) trials at Rechlin. This was followed by three more prototypes in 1938 while it wasn't until September 1940 that the V6 (the sixth prototype) was tested. 

The first batch of aircraft, named A-0 was produced in 1939 and was powered by the Argus As 10c inline engine. Those aircraft were either sold or gave very little use as the pilots felt it was underpowered. The main production version, the B series, which was powered by the more powerful Argus As 410 A-1 inline engine, was way more successful as a total of 2.744 airplanes of this variant only, were built. 

Production numbers show that Arado only made 146 machines from 1940 to June 1941 because Arado undertook production of the Junkers Ju.88 bomber and, due to capacity reasons, they had to cease on the Ar.96. AGO Flugzeugwerke, also produced the type, with 223 machines being built from 1940 until April 1941. During the second half of 1940, the decision of producing the type in Czechoslovakia was taken and, therefore, Avia, undertook the bulk of the production with 1.825 machines built from 1940 until April 1945. Another Czechoslovak firm that also produced was Letov which, between January 1944 and March 1945 produced a total of 550 machines. 

The Ar.96 was widely used by Luftwaffe's A/B schools (basic flying training ones) and by thirteen Jagdgeschwaders (fighter wings) to train their pilots. It was also employed by the fighter replacement units and the officer schools. A single Ar.96B/2 was made famous when, during the last stages of the Battle of Berlin on 28th April 1945, took-off with Hannah Reitsch at the commands and the Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim as a passenger, from an improvised airstrip set in the park of Tiergarten under Soviet fire. It was, reportedly, the last German airplane to take off from Berlin before the end of the War. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_96

2. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_96 (translated)

3. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_arado_ar_96.html

4. https://www.valka.cz/Arado-Ar-96-t54856 (translated)