Quote:
Originally Posted by tcolvin
Surely the 400mph Typhoon was vulnerable to the 452mph Bf109K, to the 472mph FwTa152C, to the 474 mph Ar335, and to the 541mph Me262. It was another myth, and RAF rationalisation, that the fighter-bomber could revert to being a fighter and defend itself. For a start the RP rails could not be jettisoned.
Pierre Clostermann flew the 440mph Tempest, and said this about the Typhoons' vulnerability in February 1945 in his book 'The Big Show'; "Typhoon formations frequently lost six or seven machines out of twelve in encounters with Fw190s and Bf109s. The Spitfire was powerless. It was to remedy this state of affairs that 122 Wing was sent to Volkel equipped with Tempests. It was a crack unit and on it depended the entire offensive and tactical system of the British front".
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Ar335????
Sure the 452mph Me109K-4s which only appeared in
VERY small numbers (less than 100 total, maybe) from mid March 1945? Have you even looked at where the 4 Gruppen were based?
The Ta152C has already been mentioned in another post but you have confused it with the 152H of which only a staffel could be kept operational.
Clostermann likes to embelish his writtings so best to not to read to much into them. Going through the Typhoon loss list in the Thomas/Shores book I find
6 Typhoons lost with an enemy fighter reference and not all confirmed as by fighters. You need better references. Oh yes, Typhoons made 5 enemy fighter claims out of 18 claims during Feb 45
The Typhoon made 54:8 and 94:16 (claims: probable) against the 109 and 190 respectively. Seems the Typhoon did not do to bad against German fighters, especially the 190. Oh, and they also made 3 claims of Me262s.