Recognition: Field Manual, FM 30-35 - Identification of German Aircraft (1942) - Table of Contents
War Department Basic Field Manual, FM 30-35, Military Intelligence. Identification of German Aircraft, October 24, 1941. Prepared under direction of the Chief of Staff, Washington, March 11, 1942
As most 30 series recognition manuals, this is a general purpose pamphlet as well. Since this is a fairly early edition, all technical data - and in some cases even the designations - must be treated with great caution. Close inspection will reveal a number of errors.
Military recognition is based on the typical aspects of an object, not on the many small details, which may be present in "spotters guides" or similar. (see FM 21-80). Since this is a manual for all services, technical information on the types is kept to a minimum. The publication of technical information, including detailed performance data, used a different kind of pamphlet in the 40 series. (example: Intelligence Summary 43-33 German Aircraft and Armament., Office Of Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence, Washington (1943) ).
A chracteristic page of this manual looks like this:
Since most of the information in this manual is based on graphical representations of aircraft, it is published as a downloadable PDF file.
( A small comment on PDFs: The Manual is presented as is. Any errors are by the original print. The quality of text and pictures are below the general standard of this web site by purpose and design. The reason is simple. This site offers numerous documents free of charge. Some of the original documents are cheap - some incure several hundred $$. Of course there are other sites. And some sites will ask you, as the reader, for money to obtain a CD or the likes. To discourage copying of site content from airfronts, reproduction quality in PDFs is kept low. Each page has a "watermark" as unobtrusive as possible. These marks are put in place to discourage any "leeching" of your wallet. Apologies for any distractions caused by this. If you, as a reader need higher quality reproductions, feel free to e-mail the web-master)
Swastikas: All images have been edited to blurr the swastikas of the original graphics. This is not an expression of the web-authors views of political correctness with regard to the Nazi regime. This editing is required due to the practices in present day Germany, where almost any represenation of Nazi Symbols is liable to one sort of prosecution or the other. Therefore this action is not of the authors choosing. The author regards any actions like this as a form as a rather blatant case of falsification of history, which will bear its "fruits" in itself. Just to avoid any misinterpretation: The author has no sympathies with the Nazi - or any other totalitarian political system - at all. Be it Nazi or stalinistic or motivated by any form of extremism, includinging motivators like religion. All of them are not conducive to human rights, as we understand them today and stated conclusively for the first time in human history in the "Virginia Bill of Rights" in the view of the author. Well, neither does legally enforced falsification of history.
Aircraft Presented:
Fighters, single engine:
Arado AR-197
Focke-Wulf FW-159
Focke-Wulf FW-190
Focke-Wulf FW-198
Heinkel He-112_
Heinkel He-113
Messerschmitt Me-109E
Messerschmitt Me-109 Fl
Messerschmitt Me-115_
Fighters, twin engine:
Focke-Wulf FW-187
Focke-Wulf FW-189
Messerschmitt Me-110
Dive bombers:
Blohm and Voss-137A
Henschel Hs-123
Junkers Ju-87 (Stuka) Junkers
Ju-87K
Junkers Ju-88
Light bombardment:
Dornier Do-17
Dornier Do-215
Dornier Do-217
Henschel Hs-124
Junkers Ju-86K
Messerschmitt Jaguar _
Medium bombardment:
Heinkel He-111K Mk III
Heinkel He-111K Mk V
Heinkel He-111K Mk Va
Heinkel He-111 Series H
Heavy bombardment:
Dornier Do-19
Focke-Wulf FW-200
Focke-Wulf Kurier
Heinkel He-177_
Junkers Ju-89
Junkers Ju-89 and Ju-90
Observation:
Fieseler Fi-156 "Storch"
Henschel Hs-126
Transports :
AGO Ao-192 Kurier
Blohm and Voss Bv-142
Dornier Do-23
Junkers Ju-52
Junkers Ju-52/3m W
Trainers:
Arado Ar-68G
Arado Ar-77--- -
Arado Ar-79
Arado Ar-96
Arado Ar-96B
Bucker Bu-131B Jungmann
Bucker Bu-133C Jungmeister (in line)
Bucker Bii-133C Jungmeister (radial)
Bucker Bu-180 Student
Bucker Bu-181 Bestmann
Focke-Wulf FW-58W, Weihe
Gotha Go-145B
Navy aircraft:
Patrol :
Blohm and Voss Ha-138
Dornier Do-18K
Dornier Do-26
Torpedo-bomber :
Arado Ar-95
Blohm and Voss Ha-140
Fieseler Fi-167
Heinkel He-115
Patrol-bomber:
Arado Ar-196
Dornier Do-22
Dornier Do-24
Heinkel He-59
Heinkel He-114
Miscellaneous, transport seaplanes, multipurpose, etc.:
Blohm and Voss Ha-139
Dornier WAL 1933/34
Focke-Wulf FW-58W, Weihe
