[Andy Fletcher]

Thanks Ob.d.L., I realise that 110s and 410s were lacking in the performance to fight with Allied fighters on equal terms but were they shot down in large numbers because they were (relatively) easy targets (as I contend) or because of inherent structural weakness. I was wandering how 110s and 410s compared to Mossies and Lightnings in terms of ability to sustain damage.

To my way of thinking it doesn't matter how strongly built/heavily armoured a plane (or any other target) is if it can be hit often enough it will fail eventually (obviously not an aircraft but just look at the Bismark as an example).

Wolfgang Falck in the foreword to John Vasco's & Peter Cornwell's "Zerstörer" seems to me to imply that the Bf 110s vunerability in combat was caused by its lack of performance compared to Hurricanes and in particular Spitfires as opposed to inability to sustain damage. I realise that the Bf 110C/D of the Battle of France/Britain period is a very different beast to the Bf 110G-2 but surely the Bf 110G-2 (and the Me 410) would be able to sustain much higher levels of damage due to increased armour etc.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher