Luftwaffe losses to ground fire during Bodenplatte

[Jon]

I am reading "The RAF Regiment at War" at present, all about obviously the ground based regiment and their roles, mainly that of airfield defence against land and air attack.

Not only does the book mention several losses of ME262's to light AA fire at RAF airfields but also claims that on the day of Bodenplatte 355 Luftwaffe aircraft attacked 11 RAF airfields. The RAF regiment fired 7500 rounds of 40mm ( Bofors ) and 5000 rounds of .303 and brought down 46 Luftwaffe aircraft !

Can anyone confirm these losses ?

This to me sounds like superb shooting, i assume the 40mm Bofors shell by 1945 were all proximity but how close did the shell need to be and what sort of damage could a shell cause to an aircraft such as say the FW190 without actually a direct hit ?

Was the ME262 especially vulnerable to ground fire, i would imagine even a single rifle bullet in one of the engines would be a problem ?

[Juha]

Hello Jon
You can find the answer from John Manrho's Bodenplatte book. Highly recommended.

Juha

[George Hopp]

i assume the 40mm Bofors shell by 1945 were all proximity

While you might be correct on that, I always thought that the proximity unit needed a shell of at least 3 inch (75 mm) diameter.

[ArtieBob]

IIRC, having been a first loader on a quad 40 mount, we did have ammunition with VT fuses (which I believe was the U.S.Navy identification for proximity fuzes).

Best regards,

Artie Bob

[Jon]

How close did the shell need to be ArtieBob for it to detonate?

[George Hopp]

IIRC, having been a first loader on a quad 40 mount, we did have ammunition with VT fuses (which I believe was the U.S.Navy identification for proximity fuzes).

You were obviously part of a ground-breaking project, Artie, because the Dept. of the Navy said that up to 1950, the smallest shell in which it installed a production proximity fuse unit was the 3"/50; and for the Army, the 75mm gun.

I may be wrong, but I thought that by the end of 1944 (Bodenplatt), the Allies, especially the US, had gyro gunsights on their smaller AA guns. These would make those weapons very effective against low-flying aircraft.