Was the Me 410 Hornisse a good aircraft?

[Bombphoon]

Was the Me 410 Hornisse a good aircraft?

I have seen several different sources saying completely different things - some say it was a good multi-role aircraft, the Luftwaffe's answer to the Mosquito, through to the opposite, it was a poor rushed design that did not live up to expectations.

What's your thoughts?

[Chris Goss]

Surely it depends on role? As a night intruder inferior to Mosquito and such in small numbers not that good. Likewise night bomber. Day fighter and bomber destroyer wrong for role when up against American fighters despite armament. Adequate as recce and not really used as night fighter. My personal view

[VtwinVince]

The 210 can be viewed as a total failure IMHO, its' successor not so much. I only knew one pilot who flew these operationally, and he had a similar view, although he did train the Hungarians on the 210 with some success.

[Graham Boak]

The early 210 was a total failure, less so the developed version as used by the Hungarians. The 410 was a further improvement, not significantly worse than the Mosquito but competent as a multi-role fighter, if a bit short-ranged: unfortunately this was not what the Luftwaffe required by then. Comparing any twin heavy fighter with American (or any other) single-engined fighter is an unfair comparison.

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello

Unfortunately I never was able to find a I./NJG 1 pilot who flew with the Me410 during March-June 1944, when some Me410's were tested in the nightfighter role. In the papers of Lt. Oskar Schreckenberger, commander of the unofficial Erprobungskommando 410, no personal recollections have been documented.

But... after a not acknowledged claim over a Mosquito by Schreckenberger in the night of 12/13th February 1944 he was ordered to try the Me410, simply because of the growing Mosquito threat. The I./NJG 1 had up to six Me410's but never achieved nocturnal victories. How should they ? So far I never saw/heard about Me410's with Lichtenstein-radar (B/C nor SN-2).

It is an educated guess that since the I./NJG 1 was able to shoot down a Mosquito in the night of 5/6th May 1944 (Oblt. W.Baake), the Me410's were exchanged rapidly for more He219's.

Best regards, Marcel

[Graham Boak]

The Me410 had been early judged unsuitable for night fighting, on what grounds I don't recall ever seeing properly explained, but have a feeling (helpful or not!) that it was to do with the cockpit vision. Despite this there are accounts of them being reported by RAF gunners, with small number of comments from the German side. Which tends to suggest that the early comment was correct.

[Chris Goss]

An Me 410B-6 fitted with FuG 200 was captured at the end of the war so it appears that there was an intention to use it on anti-shipping missions. A few Me 410s from ZG 1 did operate very briefly from Brest in the Summer of 1943 with no claims or losses before moving back to Germany