Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Scheduled for 23 May.

https://www.amazon.com/Jabo-Units-We...194357&sr=1-18

Usual disclaimer,
Ed

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

From the blurb: '...At first ad hoc conversions were made 'in the field' to allow the aircraft to carry a bomb...'

Don't think so...

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Precisely John- ErprGr 210, II.(S)/LG 2 and one Staffel per Bf 109 Gruppe were certainly not ad hoc!

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

One wonders who vets manuscripts regarding subjects like this for historical accuracy. Osprey is certainly not new to all this.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

The cover was beautifully done, in spite of what you wrote.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Good or not, never judge a book by its cover! Frank Liesendahls Bf 109 F-2/B Blue 1-lots of photos of this plane in my big book on such attacks

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

I am almost certain that the first information that the under-wing bomb racks were installed in the field at the Lw. fighter bases in NE France came from P/W interrogation report(s) and, IMO, were probably never vetted.

L. deZ.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

From ULTRA (TNA HW 5/2):

17 June 1940

CX/JQ/57

T20 4. It was reported on 17/6 that various NCO’s and men from fighter units of Luftflotte 2 were to undergo courses of instruction in the Messerschmitt factories at Augsburg and Rechlin. Courses would be from 20/6 to 26/6. Object of course is to instruct personnel in the new employment of Me 109 and Me 110 with bombing equipment. Units from which personnel are to be drawn are ZG 76, ZG 26, I./ZG 1. (A)

T9 6. It appears to be the intention of the Germans to use Me 109 and Me 110 aircraft for bombing purposes. Some at any rate, have been fitted with bomb-carrying apparatus. (B)

NOTE: T20 and T9 are the numbers of the teleprints in which this info was issued by Bletchley Park. 4 and 6 are the paragraph numbers within CX/JQ 57. (A) and (B) are categories of reliability of the interpretation with (A) being definite.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Nick -

IIRC, P/W interrogations from September and/or October 1940 corroborate the ULTRA intelligence you provided but go on to say that the selected factory-trained Jagdstaffel maintenance personnel were then doing at least some of the installation work in the field as previously stated.

L. deZ.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Chris, indeed books are like wine...you do not judge the cover you taste what is inside.

What I meant is that the cove is really wonderful...and yes, the images of Liesendahl's machine are well known on several books, including some old ones of Heimdal (France).

NICK: Nice INTEL material as usual.

This is a nice subject indeed and am happy for the writer. One more on the wish list for Xmas...

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Bit of artistic license as well-highly unlikely that Liesendahl would have flown this attack profile as it goes against what he devised and taught!

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2014/1...blt-frank.html

Fritz Schröter recalled the training sorties flown by 6. Staffel - the so-called Jagdbomber Staffel;

" ..Some distance to the north of Beaumont-le-Roger- in the Seine estuary to be exact- lay a ship wreck which made an ideal target for our training exercises. We approached it at wave-top height or from the direction of the shore at low altitude. At a precise distance from the target we would pull up three hundred metres before diving back down towards the wreck, throwing the throttle wide open in order to make ourselves as difficult a target as possible for potential anti-aircraft gunners. The bomb would be jettisoned just before the target disappeared beneath the nose of the aircraft, followed by a sharp pull-up which took us virtually through the masts and superstructure of the vessel. If we had judged the distance and speed correctly, the bomb struck the ship at the waterline. A 250 kg bomb could tear a breech large enough to sink a ship. Otherwise a near miss would detonate with the force of a sea mine. However during training we only employed 50 kg bombs -which had far less explosive force- in order not to totally destroy our practice target..."

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Precisely-the Liesendahl Method as it was known

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

I do take my hat to the artist Jim Laurier on that cover and other works he did for Osprey.
What made me comment about this cover is justly, this different angle (or approach) where he (artist) managed to show us the ship below, the markings of the Staffelkapitän's machine, the bomb, etc.; on a same frame or painting. I particularly appreciated his work and view...
Maybe it would be difficult to paint the machine on the sharp pull-out, just after releasing the bomb...so one or more second on the run, for our benefit (customers) can, maybe, be disconsidered here.
Since the full book has not appeared yet, I can not judge the inside contents, but the cover, on my humble opinion do capture the difficult tasks required by Higher Authorities and on the shoulders of those flyers...to hit (and run) moving and defended targets (ships), over water (or ports) without guided bombs or missiles.
I am unfamiliar, if the Luftwaffe later used the "skip-bombing" technique well used by some B-25 (and other twins) on the SWP Theater of Operations.
Maybe more tittles and beautiful covers keep appearing, both related to the LW, RAF and USAAC in WW2.
Semper Fi.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

If you get a copy of my Luftwaffe Fighter Bombers over Britain, such techniques are related, including one quite spectacular attack on Bournemouth on 23 May 1943 when the bomb bounced over a house, missing a girl reading in the garden, and then exploded on the railway embankment. Meanwhile the bomb tail which had broken off rolled to a stop alongside her

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Thanks Larry. Conversions carried out "in the field" certainly, but "ad hoc" not so much, I'd say.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

There are several recorded incidents of Fw 190s and Do 217s skip bombing in England.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

To clarify/add to my earlier post on page 1.

3. Staffel of Erprobungsgruppe 210 received factory-fresh Bf 109 E fighter-bombers with a single bomb rack under the fuselage. Nothing was done 'in the field'.

3. Staffel's first fighter-bomber mission was on 13th July 1940. They were the first Bf 109 fighter-bomber Staffel in the BoB.

(Sources: interviews with (Oberleutnant) Otto Hintze, Staffelkapitän of 3. Staffel; Otto Hintz Flugbuch; letter from Peter Emmerich, pilot of 3. Staffel.

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Is it possible that the blurb, provided as part of the advertising, is a short synopsis paraphrasing the content and written by an editor, rather than an extract of the author's work?
Were not the first "Luftwaffe" jabos, repurposed He51 fighters in Spain, when the Condor Legion pilots strapped incendiaries onto the centreline drop tanks for greater effect as dropped ordnance?

Might prove an interesting read, despite possible first appearances.


...geoff

Re: Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)
 

Yes, Geoff. My recollection was from a P/W interrogation and it referred to the September-October 1940 time frame. The P/W, almost certainly a pilot, said a designated Staffel from each Bf 109 Jagdgruppe in the Pas de Calais area had been ordered retrofitted with bomb racks in the field. I have also seen reference to this in several published works among the bazillions of books and articles written about the BofB since the early 1960's. Maybe since I read this it's been discounted by more recent research, but I know what I saw.

L. deZ.