Why did 10./JG 2 bomb a school in Catford?

[John Vasco]

Tony,
This matter of I./LG 1 in the Polish campaign being a driver for future fighter-bombers. You see, as the Polish campaign developed, other Bf 110 units went over to the ground attack role also. It was something that developed naturally as the campaign evolved (Schenck, Victor Mölders, interviews). So it wasn't a purely I./LG 1 thing. Also, the same thing happened in the Western campaign in the Spring of 1940 (Schenck, Victor Mölders & Richard Marchfelder interviews, to name but some). Towards the end of the Western campaign, in early June, Victor Mölders and a couple of others in 1./ZG 1 were taking up Bf 110 C-6s with the specific mission orders to attack ground targets. The introduction of fighter-bombers was simply the evolution of what had been going on before. What we see, I think, is an evolutionary process. Whereas the thinking of turning the fighters of the day into fighter-bombers had been some months in preparation, no doubt, the actuality was that the factories were a little unprepared for the change. What happened was that several of the D-0 'Dackelbauch' machines had the Dackelbauch whipped off and a pair of bomb racks fitted within a small fairing under the fuselage, these becoming the first batch of fighter-bombers issued to Erprobungsgruppe 210 upon its formation.

As for what may be termed 'terror attacks', Erprobungsgruppe 210 moved to dusk raids in late 1940/early 1941 on land targets (check 'success' claims by Forgatsch & Boxhammer, for example), no doubt hitting civilian as well as military targets. These kind of raids obviously pre-date the mid-war efforts the subject of this thread.

Whereas I can follow what you said about Eric Brady, and his conviction that the Luftwaffe were out to get him, I cannot possibly comment on what his medical condition might be classified as, and cannot therefore make the leap of faith to calling Fw 190 Jabo attacks 'V0'. Erpr. Gr 210 and SKG 210 were making those kind of attacks (albeit it possibly on a reduced scale) in early 1941 in the lead-up to their transfer from the Western front to the east in preparation for the start of the Russian campaign.

I think we may be moving closer in our views as the posts progress...

John V.